One could fret this superhero reboot’s ambition is akin to Icarus soaring straight and unflinching into the Krypton sun. But fortunately in the hands of writer/director James Gunn’s singular craftsmanship, the new Superman (A-) is sufficiently earthbound and will keep viewers leaning in breathlessly, blissfully to trace its lofty legend. In keeping with his tuned-in, punked-up pop cultural sensibilities, the auteur tenders a mighty mixtape of everything currently intriguing him about comic books, comic book movies and life in the (mis)Information Age, and we as viewers are the beneficiaries of his visionary and occasionally cheeky gifts. Gunn’s candy-colored liberal arts curriculum of peculiar fandom and folklore sometimes careens into a pace oddity, but the boisterous blend of art, science and movie magic will surely reward repeat viewings. There’s a central theme simmering about the mysterious planetary protector being too good to be true and a hypothesis about what would happen if a supervillain pierced the perceived mythology he and we have come to expect. A constant hum of newspaper story uploads, breaking broadcast news, word of mouth buzz and social media posts fills the film’s vaguely contemporary Metropolis and surrounding dreamscapes. Gunn’s whiz-bang fortress of freneticism almost overwhelms and threatens to topple over itself, domino-style, like skyscrapers on a chasm: there’s more imagination per frame of this adventure than we’re used to getting in a summer blockbuster or even in a few twirls of a fidget spinner. From the get-go of its intriguing opening scrolls and multiple milieus, Gunn quickly plots the flight and fight patterns of his hero and those who love and loathe him. David Corenswet, graceful and earnest, and Rachel Brosnahan, wide-eyed and wordy, make an absolutely splendid Clark/Supes and Lois, respectively, with charming and too-infrequent screwball sequences straight out of classic Tracy/Hepburn mode. Nicholas Hoult is a deliciously diabolical Lex, always two steps ahead of his adversaries in his fastidious evil plotting. And Edi Gathegi is a solid standout as Mister Terrific, one of a series of DC Comics emerging characters who spice up subplots across various dimensions (he gets an amazing trick with a force field that’s a showstopper). Gunn raises the stakes with a title character vulnerable to physical and emotional pain, and the film is best when it spotlights this protagonist facing fear and fragility, including in tender moments with his nifty Smallville foster parents. The movie’s visual palette is unusual but inventive; not every effect gets “inked” with precision, but whisked in the whirlwind of super-breath, x-ray vision, heat rays and single-bound leaps, contours are maximized with thrilling panache. Once the action starts, with powerful pups and pocket universes hovering around each corner, the film sustains a rather relentless and surprising rhythm. It’s a run-on sentence no amount of diagramming can harness. The hopes and tropes powering this installment provide ample payoff in a superhero treatise with much on the mind. There’s also meta-textural material here about those who aren’t particularly keen on the filmmaker’s hokier, jokier take on the caped wonder plunged into a primary colored silver age universe; Gunn’s humor is preemptive disarming armor shielding against the haters, but sometimes his clever sensibilities do border on eclipsing the superhero himself. Regardless of the whirling dervish of it all, this movie definitely gets the Superman character right; he’s sure to be a fan favorite. It’s all a glorious calling card for a DC universe of possibilities (things are certainly looking up!), and it all makes for an invigorating and slightly exhausting time of fun under the Gunn.
