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My father took us to the cinema (Odeon, Leicester Square) once a year at Christmas and in 1978 the film was Superman. I remember it vividly, and I remember it as thrilling, but hadn’t seen it since so I rewatched it and it is everything a superhero movie should be, the gold standard. It has wit. It has intelligence. It has charm, humor, warmth. It’s as interested in the person behind the superpower as it is in the superpower itself. It does not mistake spectacle for storytelling. (Superman in all his garb doesn’t even appear until nearly an hour in.) It wasn’t noisy CGI mayhem with nothing else going for it. Like this is.
James Gunn’s Superman kicks off a reboot of the entire DC cinematic universe, so there will be plenty more where this came from, alas. Also, alas, it does not have a Christopher Reeve, who looked so like Superman it was as if he’d been lifted directly from the comic strip – a squarer jaw has yet to be discovered – and delivered a performance that is far more nuanced than he’s ever given credit for. In this iteration it’s David Corenswet, and he is handsome (dimples!), and maybe he can do nuance – I’d wish to give him the benefit of the doubt – but no nuance was required here. Angry, sad, pout a bit, great job, David, let’s wrap for today.
Christopher Reeve looked so like Superman it was as if he’d been lifted directly from the comic strip
This does not begin with the destruction of planet Krypton and a baby landing in Kansas, to be brought up by Ma and Pa Kent, who name him Clark. This does not wait an hour for Superman to feature. It opens with Superman lying injured in snow and being rescued by his (super)dog, Krypto. Krypto is a little white terrier in a red cape and even though he is a CGI creation he is the only one to come out of this with any personality. Or honor. Krypto drags Superman to some kind of Krypton outpost in Antarctica to be restored, then it’s off to Metropolis to fight “the Hammer of Boravia,” an armored giant whose origins and motive remained a mystery to me.
This is the first of many, many action set pieces while civilians look up at the sky, scream and run in terror. It never plays in a minor key. It has no curiosity about any of the characters. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Clark are, we find out, already an item (she knows his true identity), although they have yet to go public. I perked up at that. How do you have a normal, everyday relationship with a superhero? Would it be great or annoying to have someone around to lift up the fridge with one hand so you can sweep beneath it? Because now you have no excuse to not sweep beneath the fridge? But that film isn’t this film.
This film has no time for any of that. This film has Ultramen and Mr. Terrific and Green Lantern and Raptors and Hawkgirl and features so many DC characters you could never say it isn’t DC enough. (That wasn’t even an exhaustive list. We also have Supergirl, Metamorpho…). It’s so overstuffed there’s barely room for the main villain, Lex Luthor, played by a bald Nicholas Hoult. Luthor is villainous all right and has secret lairs and portals and can tear the Earth’s surface to create “pocket universes“… Lost? I know I was.
The plot, which also incorporates geopolitics, is all over the place, convoluted and confusing. Die-hard fans may find it less so but have we stopped inviting everybody in? This is, essentially, an assemblage of set pieces with dialogue that does not go much beyond the recitation of essential plot points as punctuated by that lame bantering these films so favor. I’d stay home and watch the 1978 one if I were you.
