James Gunn gets his Superman right, he’s awesome and predictable all at the same time

When we first see Superman zoom through icebergs and blast off towards Metropolis, something changes within the viewer. Suddenly you aren’t the accountant for that big firm, or a critic (yours truly), or someone worried about the presentation they have to give tomorrow. You turn into a kid, a child who wants nothing else but to become that person on the screen because the narrative pulls at certain rusted strings of your heart. Gunn’s obsession with leaving nothing to the imagination and putting it all out there works spectacularly, portraying a very human Superman without relying on Clark Kent. It is a commendable feat. He doesn’t need to take off his cape for you to believe that he is vulnerable. The suit, the single twirled hair strand, and the character’s inherent need for saving everyone (I mean, he dived towards the ground at supersonic speed to save a squirrel), all these things make up a very convincing argument that we never needed a shirtless Henry Cavill looking for clothes (he stole those, by the way; no one talks about that). Cavill was great, and his charisma as a supreme metahuman will forever be appreciated, but I think it’s time to acknowledge the fact that the narratives were never able to handle his gravitas. He was the singular part of the frame which made sense, and everything around him was just underwhelming.

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Gunn already knows that people will show up for Superman; it’s like Indian producers betting on Shah Rukh Khan. If he is in the film, people will come because, well, it’s the guy from Swades (probably not what people say), and Gunn knows that he doesn’t need to build any more hype; what he needs to do is elevate everything around the character. Lois, the Justice Gang, the perfectly written character of Jimmy Olsen and, of course, the mad scientist Lex Luthor – these are all characters that don’t take anything away from Superman but rather add to his lore. They help make the story more layered and feasible; they help you connect with the audience. In a child’s mind, Lex becomes the guy your parents tell you about when they need you to sleep; Mr Terrific becomes your best friend who sits with you in school; Lois is the love of your life, and in turn, you become Clark Kent and Kal-El at the same time, ready to take flight right there in the cinema hall. The gripping story, which jumps from act to act as swiftly as turning the page of a comic, is paired with amazing songs, which, in all honesty, was expected of Gunn. Music is one of the most important instruments in film, as it can express so much without words, and understanding that was one of this film’s greatest assets, as the original Superman theme by John Williams plays in all the perfect moments, and the scale of the composition changes with the scene and what is required. You can’t just slap the same theme everywhere, but if you play around with the number of instruments and tweak the pomp and frills for the more subtle moments, you have in your hand a fits-all-size background score.

As Superman takes on Ultraman, The Engineer, a Kaiju from Pacific Rim, and Luthor himself, he tries to balance his complicated relationship with Lois Lane (the Gen Z were truly dialled in during this), and both David and Rachel Broshanan pull off the iconic interview scene insanely well as they give an insight into the minds of both a journalist and a superhero, who think they are doing the right thing, as their respective definitions tear through their actual relationship. But we do get to see a more hands-on Lois, as she teams up with Mister Terrific and does her best to save her beau, and Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific is a superhero performance for the ages. Remember how I told you that Gunn made Superman better by elevating everything and everyone around him? Well, Mister Terrific was the main ingredient of that perfect dish. He is quick and smart and does not shy away from acknowledging his own greatness, and his narcissism doesn’t seem all that bad when you pair him up with a character like Guy Gardner, played by Nathan Fillion. The star who has voiced several animated characters in the past, some with a connection to the superhero world, achieved the full-of-himself persona of Guy right to the tee. Guy, in some ways, is like the Peacemaker; he wants justice to be served but cannot for the life of him think about anything apart from that. His beliefs of what is right and wrong are somewhat skewed, but he still tries his best to expand his sensibilities (even though that bowl cut makes it pretty hard).

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Now this film also has some of the classic superhero movie problems that arise in all narratives that deal with powerful individuals muddling the line between being a hero and playing a god. Jarhanpur, which is a fictional country from DC Comics, is ‘saved’ by Superman, an act that lays the foundation of the entire story, but the portrayal of the people of the country is problematic. Tattered clothes, crippling poverty, and that trademark yellow tint, which makes the entire thing kind of questionable. Now one could argue that Gunn was trying to adhere to the original literature, but could he have handled it in a more tasteful way? Definitely. This brings us to the biggest problem with the movie, and, in my opinion, the only one) — Gunn makes no attempt at reinventing the wheel and stuck to what he knew about the characters, which in turn did something the director was probably not hoping for. Because the film feels like a comic book issue, it’s predictable and linear, as there are no real twists or moments that make you wonder whether Superman will be able to beat the odds. Then because the director has to focus on several different characters, trying to give any real depth to any one of them is difficult.

In Gunn’s attempt to tackle such a famous story and character, he ends up making a film which creates problems for itself. You feel like a kid while watching it, but you soon realise that maybe adulthood is better. You love the various different characters, but all of these great heroes and villains are taken away from you too soon.  Maybe this story could have been a duology; maybe this movie just wanted to give us context about the new DC. Even so, with all its flaws and problems, Superman comes off as a genuine attempt; ironically, Gunn can be accused of trying to be something his protagonist wants to be, a human. A human being who keeps making mistakes but still doesn’t feel like stopping. It’s an engaging watch and, in my opinion, just the thing DC needs to kick things off in this new era. People seem to forget that the previous reigns made multiple films, both stand-alone and ensemble, and still couldn’t get it right, so you can’t really complain when the new kid on the team fails to complete his century while the veterans struggled to even get off the mark. It’s supposed to be entertaining, and it does a beautiful job at that, and I am sure that Gunn and DC are going to figure out the cracks in the system soon.