I’m tired of having to point this out about movies, television shows and daily life, so this may be the last time I’m going to broach this topic—and I’ll do so in a way I hope isn’t too terribly offensive: If you think the new Superman movie is “woke” then you’re in a cult and should probably get that looked at. And if the word “woke” is triggering for you, you probably don’t know what it means.
I’ll be even more specific. Superman is undocumented. He has been since Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster invented him in the 1930s. He is, by very definition, an illegal alien. As someone who has been reading Superman comics for most of my life, I can say regardless of where this very fictional character was born, he has spent almost 100 years doing nothing but fighting for truth, justice and the American way (although he became much more focused on saving the entire world post-WWII).
James Gunn’s new Superman movie does something I’m not sure I’ve seen in any Superman film. He focuses way more on the Man than the Super. As Clark Kent, he was raised on a farm by Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville, Kansas. He wasn’t raised to use his invulnerability to be a tough guy or to lord his power over everyone else. All the Kents did was teach him two things: how to be kind and that every single life is worth saving. He doesn’t use his super speed and flight to impress people, he does it to protect people as quickly as possible.
David Corenswet is a wonderful Superman and Clark Kent because he radiates a warm decency that I’m not sure we’ve seen since Christopher Reeve played this dual character. Yes, he’s charming and good looking and all the Hollywood stuff, but he projects a heroism that made me immediately excited to see more movies set in James Gunn’s newly launched DC Universe. If he continues to take these beloved characters and treat them with the respect they deserve and tell stories unlike any we’ve seen before with Batman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Swamp Thing and so very many more, then Marvel should be nervous.
Superman isn’t perfect. It does a lot of franchise building by stuffing the film with characters and subplots that won’t completely make sense until some other DCU movies pay them off. The film also plays Jimmy Olsen like a mega-desired ladies’ man, which, in theory, could work. But there is nothing in Skyler Gisondo’s performance that sold me on his desirability.
What also might bother people the most about this new Superman movie is it’s goofy as hell. The film feels like a Saturday morning cartoon (do those exist anymore?) brought to life for kids to enjoy just as much as their parents. For people weaned on the much darker Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, this might be too lightweight and cheeseball for them. This is Superman at his most optimistic and idealistic, so if you’re after that Zack Snyder gritty nihilism, Gunn’s Superman won’t work for you at all.
Yet, at one point the city is crumbling and Superman is doing everything he can to save as many people as possible and, in maybe my favorite comic book movie moment in the last few years, he takes the time to move a squirrel out of harm’s way. It’s played for a laugh, but I found myself suppressing a tear of joy so my friends didn’t laugh at me. I found the moment profound because this film took a single moment to show the audience that this character, who has always strived to be the best of us, treated animal life as equally sacred as a human one. All life is important.
From Rachel Brosnahan’s acerbic Lois Lane, to Nicholas Hoult’s sniveling psychopathic Lex Luthor, to Edi Gathegi’s scene-stealing Mr. Terrific, I can’t wait to spend more time with these characters in this lovingly created universe from Gunn. This is fun stuff with a beautiful layer of humanism designed to get people to look at one another with kinder eyes. If an alien facing off against a billionaire megalomaniac is too topical and triggering for you, I’m sorry. You’re missing out, in this case, on a lot more than just a superhero movie.
Grade: B+
