Writer-director James Gunn (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) has jumped ship from Marvel to reboot the DC Universe, and the first film in this endeavour really suffers from setting up the chessboard. It's a film that is overstuffed with ideas and characters and so many aliens that I couldn't give a shit about. There's also a scrappy dog called Krypto that is presumably adorable if you like scrappy dogs (I do not) and that's basically ripped off from Terry Pratchett's Luggage - a super-powerful, super-loyal chaos agent. As a result, the real life human characters - whether Clark Kent's adoptive parents or his Daily Planet colleagues - are given way too little screen time. Poor Wendel Pierce as Perry barely gets a line and even Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane feels sidelined. All to make way for alien monsters, quirky robots (come on Alan Tudyk - do something new!) and endless gonzo fight scenes. This far into the Marvel universe it's just all so blah. I would rather have seen Superman rescue a cat from a tree than yet another Big Bad ripping up Metropolis.
So for much of its running time I was basically quite bored by this film. I realised about two-thirds of the way through that I would probably rather just watch Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern doing his comedy schtick in his own film. I guess that's coming.
Part of the problem is that this film needs to pick a lane in its look and feel. Is it in a contemporary near-future in which evil mastermind Lex Luther (Nicholas Hoult) has super technology and sleek Marvel-style henchmen and headquarters? Or is it in a world where people actually care about newspapers, and take notes with a pencil and notepad, and record interviews on dictaphones rather than iPhones? The whole concept of the Daily Planet is basically anachronistic now and I don't think the film knows how to handle that.
Thing is. Thing is. By the denouement, despite all of its flaws. This film had me. Because its core message is a good one. And a moving one. That to be kind and think the best of people and not be cynical is actually "punk rock". And that to be human is to make your own choices and to make mistakes and to try to be better. And that family is what you choose it to be. I want my Superman to be in day glow blue and red and to be earnest and kind. I don't want moody post-modern dark Superman. Superman has always been hokey and kitsch because that's what we need. Onwards!
SUPERMAN is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 129 minutes and is on global release.
