Last night, I attended a special showing of James Gunn's Superman. My short review is: I liked it a lot. I think it's the best Superman movie ever (with the caveat that it likely wouldn't have been made without an existing tradition of Superman films to build and comment upon), and one of the best superhero movies period.
I was a bit worried, honestly, when I heard Gunn was going to helm this one. I've enjoyed his previous films, but they often engage in a level and type of humor that while fine on an individual film level, I have come to like less when it's the standard for superhero films. There's often not a lot of space in the movies between having fun with superheroes and making fun of them.
Also, as specifics for this film became to come out, I had other concerns. It seemed like it was overstuffed, like Gunn was trying to jumpstart an entire universe with one movie. That sort of ambition has proved hubris for superhero movies before, I feel like. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, I think most everyone would agree, seems at times to be spewing out product solely to point to future products.
Happily, my fears weren't realized. The film has humor, yes, but it isn't farcical or even particularly quippy in the tired manner of CMU films. It does eschew any of the reverence or perhaps mythic tone that has been a part of Superman's cinematic portrayals since the first Donner film--to the detriment, I think, of later films like Superman Returns or Man of Steel. This film is lighter, definitely, but critics of the "darkness" of the Snyder films should reckon with this films inclusion of government sanctioned extralegal detention, torture, Lex Luthor murdering an innocent man to coerce Superman, an extralegal execution by a superhero, and a shocking (well, as shocking as something that was foreshadowed with the subtlety of a flare) reveal about Jor-El and Lara.
Through this all, Superman, however, stays good and strangely innocent. This is the character at his most "Blue Boy Scout." It's to a degree not seen, perhaps, since the Superfriends. Gunn seems to have gotten an aspect of the pre-Crisis Superman (perhaps from Morrison's All-Star Superman) that isn't much talked about where Superman suffers indignity and hurt to solve problems in the name of not resorting to violence or at least to minimize violence before he acts. It's a thing that most sets his stories apart from Marvel Comics stories or even his fellow headliner at DC, Batman. While it likely started as a means to not have stories end too quickly through use of amazing power ultimately sort of became a character trait.
The film is perhaps objectively a bit of a too rich superhero confection, but its kind of in media res plotting makes things move along so that it's not ponderous. Further, the inclusion of multiple other heroes doesn't seem to be merely to build a universe. The narrative needs those other heroes so we can see Superman inspiring others to be better, and we can feel the limits of his personal abilities. Even Superman sometimes needs a friend.
There are things I didn't care for. The Kents are rural caricatures in a way they've never seen before and that's distracting and unnecessary. It might be a mistake to have Lois raise very good points about the unilateral use of force in complicated geopolitical situations only to ignore them, or perhaps imply it's okay 'cause Superman's really, really good.
But dodging ethical questions and realistic implications has a long history in comics, so I can't get too upset about it here. Questionable portrayals of the Kents are hardly new to Superman media.
Overall, these feel like talking about the icing. The cake is really good.
