It’s damn well about time.
I had begun to worry that the current Warner Bros. regime didn’t have the faintest idea how to properly handle Big Blue.
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| Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo, center) and Clark Kent (David Corenswet) are disturbed by the misleading spin that media talking heads have put on Superman's recent activities. |
(Yes, it used to be “...and the American way,” but there’s nothing wrong with making Superman’s pledge more universal.)
Writer/director James Gunn has swooped to the rescue, granting this adventure the same blend of world-threatening thrills and snarky character dynamics that made his first two Guardians of the Galaxy entries so much fun. (We’ll pretend the third one never happened.)
Gunn also pays affectionate tribute to many key elements from the Christopher Reeve series, starting right out of the gate, when this film’s rousing David Fleming/John Murphy score hits us with a few bars of John Williams’ iconic Superman theme.
Sharp-eyed viewers also will spot several members of Gunn’s repertory actors, albeit in very fleeting roles.
All that said, this definitely is a “darkest before the dawn” story, and “dark” dominates the entire first hour. Gunn kicks things off as a defeated Superman (David Corenswet), punched halfway around the world, crashes hard into Antarctic snow near his Fortress of Solitude. He’s in agony, suffering from broken ribs, a ruptured bladder and — given his labored breathing — fluid in his lungs.
(What? I hear you cry. Superman can be damaged? Goodness, yes; he’s tough, but not wholly invulnerable.)
The situation then becomes almost farcical — not in a good way — when he desperately whistles to Krypto. The clearly insufficiently trained super-pooch arrives quickly ... but only wants to play, completely oblivious to Supe’s distress.
This is a cheeky way to start: a totally James Gunn maneuver.
Once Superman recovers — thanks to a sustained blast of our yellow sun’s healing rays (Gunn knows his Superman lore) — and returns to Metropolis, we discover how dire things have become.
He’s outmatched by a helmeted, metal-garbed opponent dubbed the “Hammer of Boravia.” He’s every bit as strong as Superman, with uncanny combat skills ... because, as is revealed, his moves are guided by a team of quick-thinking strategists, who anticipate Superman’s every move, and counter like expert computer gamers controlling an avatar.
They’re all in the employ of the malevolent Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, bald, of course), who’s an even nastier master tactician, calling out moves like bingo numbers.
Luthor then halts the second assault, satisfied with the result, and with darker plans in mind.
Superman’s rep has been damaged by his recent interference in foreign affairs, by stopping war-mongering Boravia from invading its peaceful neighbor, Jarhanpur. Boravia’s enraged president, Vasil Ghurkos (Zlatko Vuric), responded by sending the Hammer, prompting the aforementioned two battles, which leveled a lot of Metropolis’ landscape.
This doesn’t go over well with many of the city’s residents; others — including high-level folks in Washington, D.C. — aren’t wild about Superman taking international matters into his own hands. And because this is a story planted firmly in the social media age, Superman also is enduring the wrath of an exponentially mounting echo chamber of online trolls who question his very presence on Earth.
“I was saving lives,” he defensively snaps, at one point.
Sadly, it isn’t that simple these days.
One could argue that ignoring the social media frenzy makes Superman quite naïve — a point raised by intrepid Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) — but, as this unfolding story reminds us, Superman was raised by isolated Kansas farmers. Very little social media to worry about, as he grew up.
Happily, this is a Superman story where Lois Lane is totally aware of his civilian identity as fellow Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. In fact, they’re much more than colleagues. Nor is Clark the clumsy, shy and accident-prone Clark of 1950s and ’60s comics (and Reeve’s films); this guy is totally cool.
The dynamic between Corenswet and Brosnahan is the heart of this story, and let it be said: She’s the Best. Lois Lane. Ever. All the characteristics that made her so much fun in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are in play here, attached to a stronger, hard-charging temperament. Lois serves as Superman’s conscience; he doesn’t always listen — right away — but eventually gets there.
(That said, she really should have read sci-fi author Larry Niven’s marvelous 1969 essay — “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex,” easily found online — before entering this relationship.)
Luthor’s machinations are totally insidious, and Hoult — creepily condescending and arrogant — radiates Machiavellian evil. His eyes blaze, and his insincere smile is shuddery. He’s always accompanied by Instagram babe Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio), forever preening cluelessly in the background, taking sexy selfies while ignoring the increasingly catastrophic events.
Superman has allies, albeit of a questionable sort: the so-called Justice Gang, financed by billionaire Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), comprised of Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). They try to do the right thing, but they’re messy, caring little for collateral damage resulting from their intervention.
This isn’t Hal Jordan’s noble Green Lantern, by the way; this is Guy Gardner, the impatient, preening, insufferably macho Green Lantern, played hilariously by Fillion ... who also consented to his character’s worst-in-the-world bowl haircut. Merced’s Hawkgirl is a tough little fighter; Gathegi has fun being his group’s sole serious member, blessed with intelligence on par with Luthor’s, and armed with an impressive array of defensive tech.
Other key players include Luthor’s pet warrior/assassin, Angela Spica (Mar Gabriela de Fara), whose nanotech weapons are scary and nasty; and Rex Mason (Anthony Carrigan), better known as the shape-shifting Metamorpho, whose body can be composed of clay, metal and any element known to man ... along with a few not known to man (an important plot point).
Wendell Pierce is spot-on as Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and Skyler Gisondo is appropriately boyish and overly enthusiastic as junior reporter Jimmy Olsen. Grace Chan, Michael Rooker and Pom Klementieff are marvelously expressive, as the voices of the robots who manage things within the Fortress of Solitude.
Krypto is amazing: funny, unpredictable, overly eager and heedless of the effect his super-strength has on ordinary mortals. Given that this is Superdog’s film debut, it’s a corker.
Unfortunately, as often is the case with the last decade’s worth of superhero films, this one works itself into an impossible corner during the climactic third act. Some threats are so off-the-chart destructive, that there’s no going back ... and the necessity of making it go back is ludicrous. It’s another case of Only Because The Script Says So, along with CGI wretched excess, and the one time Gunn’s reach badly exceeds his grasp.
That aside, he has delivered a fun and suspenseful start to what I hope will be a new ongoing franchise.
Oh, and do hang around during the initial end credits — which are done in the swooping style of Reeve’s 1978 classic — and you’ll be rewarded with a sweet cut-scene.
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