Susan Granger’s review of “Superman” (Warner Bros.)
Writer/director James Gunn’s new “Superman” is a comic-book action-adventure super-spectacle that’s great fun.
After a brief history of ‘metahumans’ on Earth, bloodied-and-battered Superman (David Corenswet) is first seen sprawled in Arctic snow, having been beaten by the hulking Hammer of Boravia.
Painfully pursing his lips together, Superman whistles for Krypto, his faithful, if overly frisky rescue dog, to drag him back to the crystalline Fortress of Solitude, where a trusty team of robots dutifully restore his strength.
The ensuing story revolves around the defenseless Eastern European country of Jarhanpur being invaded by neighboring Boravia whose autocratic dictator Ghurkos (Zlatco Buric) is a puppet of petulant, egomaniacal tech tycoon Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, who lacks menace/gravitas/substance).
Meanwhile in Metropolis, guileless Clark Kent works at the Daily Planet with reporter Lois Lane (savvy Rachel Brosnahan), who knows his dual identity.
There are brief glimpses of Kent’s kindly adoptive parents (Neva Howell, Pruitt Taylor Vince) who raised an ‘undocumented alien immigrant’ baby on their Smallville, Kansas farm. And a plot point pivots on a fractured hologram sent by Kal-El’s birth parents (Bradley Cooper, Angela Sarafyan) from doomed Krypton.
The key to James Gunn’s re-imagining the iconic superhero is his vulnerability; the Man of Steel is no longer invincible. His humanity is the source of his strength, along with devotion to his mischievous Superdog Krypto, a computer-generated canine, based on Gunn’s real-life dog Ozu (named after the Japanese filmmaker).
Gunn’s DCU is filled with a confusing horde of ‘aliens’- some good, like the ‘Justice Gang’ (Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern, Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific, Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl) – others sinister, like nanite-enriched Engineer (Maria Gabriela de la Faria) and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) wielding Kryptonite crystals..
Too bad, their frenetic battles grow repetitive, particularly when an intergalactic portal appears. And a key revelation is wasted on an idiotic flirtation between Lex Luthor’s ditsy, selfie-snapping babe Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio) and nerdy reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo).
Will Reeve (Christopher Reeve’s son) does a quick cameo as a TV newsman, and Supergirl (Milly Alcock) drops in – which should have been one of the two post-credit scenes – one mid-credits and the other at the end.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Superman” is an exhausting, exciting, irreverent 8, playing in theaters.
