For years, Warner Bros. Discovery has been playing a desperate game of catchup in hopes of recreating the success that Marvel achieved with its live action comics adaptations. DC movies had their moments, but they never managed to come together in a way that felt right or intentional. And for a long time, it seemed like WBD simply did not know how to pull itself out of a very expensive and artistically hollow downward spiral.
Things got so bad that the studio eventually pulled the plug on the entire enterprise and decided to start over with a new cinematic universe crafted by James Gunn and Peter Safran. It felt like a risky bet both because of WBD’s track record and the public’s waning interest in superheroes. But as iffy as WBD’s bet on Gunn seemed at first, his new Superman film is a shining example of what all the studio is capable of when the right creatives are in charge.
Like most great comic books, the new Superman movie is as big as it is simple. It assumes you know most of the basics about its titular hero, but knows that there are weird little pieces of his lore you probably aren’t familiar with and will be delighted to learn about. Even though it hits a lot of the same beats as previous Superman movies, it does so with a slick panache that feels wholly different from the kind of storytelling that WBD has been doing over the past few years. It feels like the sort of movie that the studio should have led with from the jump — one that’s romantic, and a little silly when it needs to be. And its message about how immigrants are what makes the United States a beautiful vibrant place could not come at a more appropriate time.
Though Superman (David Corenswet) is a known quantity in this world who has been saving people from disasters for a bit of time, very few people know that he is also bumbling journalist Clark Kent. There are a couple of clever reasons that most folks don’t recognize Clark when he takes off his glasses. But the duality of his identity is something that Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) understands well. Clark and Lois’ colleagues Perry White (Wendell Pierce) and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) can kind of smell the Superman charade as well. But with Metropolis constantly being attacked by aliens and monsters, the people in Clark’s life – aside from Lois – don’t really have the mental bandwidth to put two and two together to realize that he’s a superpowered man from another planet.
Superman’s alienness is something that consumes billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), a man who insists that his technological creations are the solutions to all of humanity’s problems. Lex would never admit it, but he’s also just kind of a Superman stan whose desire to kill the last son of Krypton is rooted in a deep insecurity that Lex’s girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio) can’t fix. Even though he’s constantly in the news for saving civilians, Superman’s used to having haters. But it does perturb him to some extent the way that the members of the Justice Gang (yes, that’s their name because the team is very new) — Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) – look at him askance.
Gunn’s specific understanding of what makes DC Comics fun and different from Marvel fare is evident from the moment Superman starts. Everything is heightened and just shy of being over-saturated in ways that feel cartoony, but exactly the right kind of aesthetic vibe that a comic book movie should be leaning into.The Justice Gang are only a couple of people, and so when a kaiju of Lex’s making starts tearing through Metropolis, Superman is the only person around who can do anything about it. And because the creature is so large, it takes all of his strength to put it down in a way that will keep the city safe.
The kaiju is just one of the many harebrained schemes Luthor has cooked up in hopes of turning the public against Superman. It’s a plot point the movie repeatedly reinforces in ways that illustrate the fact that Superman, as a character, has always been an embodiment of what it means to be an immigrant. No matter how much good Superman does in the world, Lex can only see him as a foreign invader — even though Superman looks and sounds every bit the American claims to be. That idea also comes to the fore in moments when Clark has to rush back to Smallville, Kansas to see his mother Martha (Neva Howell) and father Jon (Pruitt Taylor Vince). You’re meant to see the Kents as humans who are very different than Clark, but whose love has inspired within him a deep responsibility to protect other people regardless of their differences.
DC Studios
Superman also makes very clear that its world is very populated by different kinds of metahumans — some of whom are destined to become heroes, while others like the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) are dead set on being murderous villains. Gunn does a tremendous job of making Superman’s action gorgeous and reflective of the power fantasy that’s built into Clark Kent. There’s a cool, but playful energy to the way the movie depicts Superman flying around and letting his laser eyes fry through enemies who mean to harm civilians. Every set piece works to remind you that, in a world populated by superhumans, Superman’s the best of the best. But he’s also just a farm boy who happens to have excellent chemistry with a woman who wants the world to see him for what he truly is.
There’s a very pointed cheesiness to Clark and Lois’ love story that feels like a complete 180 from the energy WBD and DC leaned into in the Snyder era. It’s goofy, but it’s fun and comes across like the kind of romance classic, Golden Age comics excelled at. It’s refreshing to see that kind of energy on display in a genre that’s felt decidedly devoid of intimacy and yearning. And it speaks to Gunn’s grasp of what it takes to make these kinds of movies work across all ages.
Superman absolutely feels like a strong launching point for a new era of DC projects, but what’s less certain is the degree to which all of the studio’s currently-announced projects will be able to match this movie’s energy. Superman has always been the centerpiece of DC’s brand, and the new film gets what makes these characters work. Now comes a much harder task: keeping this momentum going.