Superman

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Superman marks the first feature in the new DC cinematic universe. We join the titular hero amidst his third year of being a superhero as he comes up against the intellect of his adversary, Lex Luthor.

One thing I strongly feel about this film is that it's nice to see a Superman who is just a good person. He is motivated by his positive values, and he acts on them; that's the character at his core. It also felt like Superman was genuinely immersed in a comic book world already full of heroes and villains, which is much more interesting than anything done with the DC superheroes in a few years.

Mikaela Hoover, who played Cat Grant, embodied the flirty gossip columnist well; Hoover really plays up her role's curiosity and hunger for juicy info. Skyler Gisondo, who played Jimmy Olsen, was made to play this character; Gisondo manages to be nerdy and awkward while also entirely confident within himself. Frank Grillo, who played Rick Flag Sr., genuinely gives off the impression of a man who has seen conflict; Grillo is quite interesting as a character at the top who is trying to speak to the good side of heroes. Edi Gathegi, who played Mr Terrific, is a real scene stealer; Gathegi has this stoic detached thing going that makes his character one of the most badass. Milly Alcock, who played Kara Zor-El, is only in one scene, but it's a massive show of talent; her more reckless Supergirl was a lot of fun and presents an upcoming film I'm much more excited about.

However, the best performance came from Nathan Fillion, who played Guy Gardner. At first, this outwardly grumpy and arrogant superhero figure is an abrasive one. But the longer you sit with him, the more you realise that's kind of the point. Guy Gardner has always famously been one of the worst Green Lanterns when it comes to attitude, and this iteration gets right to the heart of that. Fillion's Guy is entirely self-obsessed, paints himself the leader of the 'Justice Gang' and is constantly butting heads with his team. His cocky, derisive air results in some brilliant and funny moments of dialogue. Even within all that tough-guy bluster, Fillion presents a hero with a heart of gold at his core. Seeing the worst Green Lantern shine as one of the very best live-action Lanterns was a spectacular treat.

Superman was an unusual superhero film experience to me; it felt like someone I didn't know particularly well had tossed episode seventeen of a random cartoon onto the TV for me to watch. This is a film that hurtles you smack dab into a superhero universe that is well underway, but there's nothing much to the padding in that worldbuilding. There are so many characters here, and so many things going on, that it becomes so very easy to actually lose Superman in all this. The dialogue for many of the characters also feels unnatural and a bit forced to evoke a style or era of comics. This just didn't feel like the best story to reintroduce Superman with. The whole film hinges on Lex Luthor essentially 'cancelling' Superman in the court of public opinion, via talk shows and social media. We even get a weird scene where Lex has trained a bunch of monkeys to hurl insults about Superman onto the internet. Given that the film's director was cancelled online and fired from projects he was involved in a few years back, this is all pretty on the nose stuff; but even removed from all that, why waste the big new Superman film on a commentary about cancel culture? Why are online trolls and incel billionaires so present here? This Superman has been hyped for bringing the good-natured, classic Supes back, but it also presents some very ugly and uninteresting elements of our current society that don't feel particularly necessary to the character of Superman. The humour and moments of parody in this film are bizarre or downright uncomfortable. The film feeds us a global conflict between two sovereign nations that is very clearly an oddball parody of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Meanwhile, other characters are making jokes about their ex-girlfriend's weird toes, or we have scenes of Lex musing that Superman has a space harem of Earth wives. I guess a part of me wonders who all of that is for? Sometimes the humour gets downright simplistic. We all know Krypto is here for this film outing, and he's fun for a couple of scenes. But the Superdog is just here to be badly behaved and played for comedy, so when his presence hinges on winning the final act conflict, I felt quite disappointed as a viewer. I also thought the final act devolving into a simple Superman vs. Superman brawl was ridiculously lazy. If you thought the pseudo-science problems of Jurassic World: Rebirth were shocking, you are in for a real treat here. 

I am a massive fan of James Gunn's filmography up until this point; his works are often visual treats. So it was quite the moment of whiplash for me watching the cinematography of this feature. The flying or action sequences in general looked blurry, flight motion looked awkward and the way the film shoved constant close-ups that looked like a 0.5 phone shot made this one of the worst-looking superhero films I had watched in a while. The visual effects really did very little for me either; there were several instances of CGI characters plastered badly against a CGI background. Once again, fight scenes or flight scenes just looked completely blurry and poorly rendered. The musical score was a warbling affair that didn't feel much like a homage, so much as it felt like a mismanaged imitation. It surprised me that Gunn (who is known for his soundtrack compilations) put together such poor picks for Superman. The fact that this film weirdly mischaracterises Superman as kinda liking punk to the point that the film ends with Iggy Pop is the most ridiculous ending imagined.

David Corenswet, who played Superman, lacks the presence required to really stand out as a leading man; I felt he lacked the range to flesh this character out for the more interesting moments of conflict. Alan Tudyk, who voiced Gary, is becoming a voice presence I'm getting a bit tired of hearing in all my robots and DC characters; Tudyk is a talent, but the monotonous tone played for comedy wears thin. Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan, who played Jor-El and Lara respectively, were some of the most lifeless portrayals of Superman's parents yet; it's a good example of when a celebrity cameo undercuts what could have been a good character performance. María Gabriela de Faría, who played The Engineer, is a rather forgettable henchwoman role that gets buried in CGI; de Faría's over-the-top portrayal of anger and hatred makes her character more of something to laugh at. Sara Sampaio, who played Eve Teschmacher, really oversells this airhead girlfriend role; Sampaio presenting the social media addicted, lustful attache to the villain is a role that doesn't work for a variety of obvious reasons. Nicholas Hoult, who played Lex Luthor, is the same whiny Lex we got from Eisenberg that makes me wish they'd cast Lex older; Hoult's lean into the exaggerated incel billionaire feels completely off character for Luthor. Wendell Pierce, who played Perry White, is quite happy phoning in the caricature of Perry; Pierce plays the newspaper editor like he's in a cartoon. Beck Bennett, who played Steve Lombard, is some of the laziest comedic relief the film has on offer; Bennett could have been cut, and nothing would have been lost. Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince, who played Ma Kent and Pa Kent respectively, fail to really evoke an emotional connection with their on-screen son, nor seem like the origin of his morals; Pruitt Taylor Vince could win an award for really dragging out every single word of dialogue his role had. Rachel Brosnahan, who played Lois Lane, just didn't feel like she gave the role much punch; Lois is often a real fighter, but Brosnahan was used to be more of the girlfriend than anything else. Zlatko Buric, who played Vasil Ghurkos, feels like a strange parody of a real-life figure; I found the way Buric leaned into this parody of a dictator to be borderline perverse at times. Isabela Merced, who played Hawkgirl, is perhaps just too young for this role to be taken seriously; for my money, I'd say her actually shrieking like a bird might be why her performance sucked. Anthony Carrigan, who played Metamorpho, not only looked awful in this role, but his voice did not suit who he was playing; this shrill, panicked figure just comes off as a bit of a joke. 

This is one of the ugliest Superman films I have ever seen. I would give Superman a 4/10.