It’s just like starting over: James Gunn’s Superman

 

At this point, I think we best look at James Gunn’s DC Universe’s (DCU, as opposed to the DCEU under Zack  Snyder) fresh start. I was wondering how he was going to take on Kal-el/Clark/Supes and wondered how much of the traditional Gunn irreverence and weirdness would be preserved or would it be one of those properties where we’d see an independent filmmaker have to struggle with what the suits want (think Sam Raimi in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness). I mean, hell, his Suicide Club is a thing of twisted beauty and to be sure, Warners seems less fretful over what a director is going to do than Marvel/Disney. That said, my eyebrow was highly arched when I found out Gunn himself would be directing Superman. And when one eyebrow got tired, I just moved over to the other one.

In a nutshell, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I really, really did and if I felt like Cavill got shortchanged (irrespective of how I feel about the Snyderverse, Cavill struck me as a really good Superman and with a better script/understanding of the character, could have been up there with Chris Reeve). That said, David Corenswet is fab, man. He’s got the genuine goodness down pat, but there is nuance and hues among his reading of the character. And he’s a Juilliard alum like Reeve, soooooo? Lightning striking twice I guess?

What stood out for me throughout the movie was how much proof of concept Gunn had to prove. He and his cast and crew were going to have prove that they could do something new with these characters and launch a franchise that would be satisfying for fans, executives, and investors. Speaking as one of the former, he scored. My guess is that the latter’s responses might be muted and/or cautious. Superman’s box office was $615.8 million against a budget of $225 million. I’ll circle back to the cold hard cash element of all this later, but let’s get back to the flick.

I’ve got no problems with it. If anything, it’s more of a piece with Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy run than his Suicide Squad or Peacemaker series. It’s got its Gunn weirdness, it has the requisite humor and yes, heart. Gee, it’s swell. I wasn’t sure how Krypto was going to work, particularly when I saw the previews, but damned if he doesn’t work like a charm and there’s a crazy quilt of a plot to go back to over and over again. No, I’m not going to reprise this in any great detail, but some points really do bear looking at.

Where to begin? You’ve got a major geopolitical catastrophe in the making as the nation of Boravia gears up to invade Jarhanpur and is stopped by Superman who warns them to leave jarhanpur alone. In a striking turn of events, though, Supes gets his ass kicked by the “Hammer of Boravia” a metahuman, on his home turf in Metropolis. He heads to his Antarctic Fortress of Solitude and is resuscitated by his robots, all named Gary (big improvement over “One”, “Two”, “Three”, you get the idea….also, funnier.) 

He’s been followed by Lex Luthor’s engineer, Angela Spica. So much for your solitude, Kal. In short order, Luthor (and Nicholas Hoult gives us a Lex/Musk tech bro oligarch for the ages) releases a kaiju (see? It IS a James Gunn flick!!!) on Metropolis and we’re introduced to the “Justice Gang” led, kind of by Green Lantern (Guy Gardner, this time), the douchiest of comics heroes. Nathan Fillion for the win here, people. So, so good. Plus, Hawkgirl (do not, under any circumstances, piss off Isabelle Merced’s character) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi almost walks off with every scene he’s in). Of course, this was just a distraction so Luthor and his gang could infiltrate the Fortress of Solitude, where they find Kal-El’s message from his Kryptonian parents and restore it so the world can hear the whole thing. Superman was sent to Earth to spread his seed and continue the Kryptonian people on our planet. Honestly, I did not see that coming. I loved Jor-El (an uncredited Bradley Cooper) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan, also uncredited) being cosmic counterpoints to Ma and Pa Kent. Not sure I like them being antiphonal responses like this.

Be all that as it may, Lois Lane stands by Clark, uh, Superman (well, she knows they’re the same) and he surrenders to the US government and winds up imprisoned by Luthor in a pocket universe. As I look this over, I’m reminded of something I say - a lot, I think; that comic book movies are at their best when they lean into the absurdity of the tales. We don’t question Circe or the Golden Fleece or the presence of gods in earthly affairs across all our cultures.  We know there’s something deeper at play in our myths. Comics? Same, just not taken as seriously,  but still succeed on their merits of commitment to the story and finding, yes, the truth of each character through writing and performance (when brought to screen). That’s what we have here. And it only gets nuttier.

Supes is encaged with Metapmorpho (Anthony Carrigan, who I didn’t recognize and who turned in a remarkable, heartfelt performance that matched Corenswet’s) who’s being held in check by Luthor by holding Metamorpho’s son Joey hostage; he’s ordered to change one of his hands to Kryptonite. During questioning, Luthor kills one of Superman’s supporters and Metapmorpho determines to help Superman out. In the meantime, while Metamorpho and Superman have recovered Krypto and saved Joey, Metamorpho’s son, Lois and Mr. Terrific have entered the pocket universe (it’s really too convoluted to recap, let’s just get through this) and are en route to saving Superman. Once they’ve done that, Clark recuperates at his Earth-parents’ house and Jonathan Kent tells Clark that it’s his choices and his actions that make him who he is, not his birth parents and their plan.

In the final stretch, Luthor’s girlfriend who’s crush on Jimmy Olsen, leads her to share Luthor’s plan to have Boravia invade Jarhanpur in return for half of Jarhanpur’s territory. Luthor holds her hostage, lures Supes back to Metropolis, opens a portal to the pocket universe that looks to split Metropolis down the middle (these invasive realities, I tell ya). Anyway, Mr. Terrific and Supes hunker down in Metropolis while Metamorpho, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl head for Boravia to contain the hostilities. Angela aka The Engineer and the Hammer of Boravia, actually Ultraman - a clone of Superman developed by Luthor, battle it out. After the Engineer’s defeated, Supes knocks Ultraman into a black hole opened by the rift. You following all this still? Cool, cool, cool.

Needless to say, Terrific and Supes corner Luthor, and save the day and we learn that Luthor set all this up out of jealousy of the public’s admiration of Superman when all he is is a damned, dirty alien. And Luthor remains a tool till  the last. Luthor’s scheme is exposed, Superman’s name is cleared, the pocket dimension prisoners are freed, the rift between realities sealed, etc., etc. and we end with Superman on the mend in his fortress watching videos of his childhood on Earth with Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Recounting all this is mostly to show up that what it takes to sell the comic book reality is compelling writing and strong acting. It also helps if you have special effects that support the narrative and action clear-cut enough to be engaging and move the plot forward. Check on all these points. 

Look, Gunn is one of the few people in this world who knows and respects the comics medium enough to do justice to the characters and themes of whatever the source material might be. He’s also a wonderful writer and director who has honed his craft and pretty much came out of the gate fully formed after doing his understudy work at Troma Studios and on projects like PG Porn. None of that would matter without his sense of humor, his wry acceptance of the sandbox he’s playing in (I mean “wry” in the sense that he knows how off the wall that sandbox can be, but he knows how to lean into it and make it work), and frankly, his understanding of narrative structure and character motivation.

This puts him far and away ahead of, sorry Zack, Snyder. I’ll support Snyder by saying that he has a solid sense of visual composition, but his understanding of plot and character remains rudimentary at best. Bless him, he wanted a “dark and gritty” Superman but completely ignored what we love about the character as a representation of what is best in humanity. I’ve said before that I don’t disagree or even take issue with Snyder’s approach of treating Superman as an alien and the conflict that could arise from humanity’s fear that he could turn on us at any given moment. It’s just that his particular take was ham-handed and nonsensical in a way that didn’t and couldn’t land, given that he doesn’t understand the internal logic of the worlds he’s working with.

Conversely, Gunn’s got the goods.It also happens that he’s surrounded by veterans (and newcomers) that get it. There’s not a bum note in any of the performances and I was pleasantly surprised by Rachel Brosnahan’s turn as Lois Lane. I’ve seen her in a couple of roles outside of Midge Maisel and she’s a fine actress, but here she’s dealing with one of the most well-known women characters in pop culture. In many ways, a Superman tale may only be as strong as the Lois Lane in it. Margot Kidder? Right on. Amy Adams? I love Adams (where the hell is her Oscar?!) but Snyder and Goyer didn’t do her any favors in Man of Steel and with Chris Terrio in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, pretty much even less. Brosnahan did Lois proud, but there’s room for improvement and/or expansion and this is where the film sits as a maiden voyage.

While I think this is what Warners/DC needs, and while it feels very much like Favreau’s Iron Man in terms of a strong start, I sense that there’s so much, so far to go. And as I think about it, I find it exhausting, because here’s where my critique of these franchises hits a snag. 

I wouldn’t say I’m bored with the comic book cinematic adaptations. For the most part, I enjoy them. But there’s a danger of reading into them more than they can handle. Superman might also be an exception because the Boravia invasion of Jahranpur does feel very timely, though Gunn assures everyone he’d written the film before October of 2023. That said, the invasion and Superman’s response to it is questioned by Lois from a perspective of human, all too human, geopolitics and ethics. Does Superman have the right to unilaterally tell a country what to do? Shouldn’t this be left to the United Nations (or is this a critique of the UN, particularly when it is too hamstrung to act on humanitarian bases or to enforce international law)? 

We could go down a list of what are comic book analogies to real life events and concerns. From Bruce Wayne’s surveillance of Gothamites to find the Joker, to Tony Stark’s idea of building a literal layer of armor around the Earth to protect from alien invasions, there’s the whole “with great power comes great responsibility thing.” To be sure, like myths, like fables, comics early on trafficked in simplistic answers and moralistic storytelling (when not completely inane - I’m looking at DC in the sixties compared to Marvel at the same time). Of course, as time has moved on, comics themselves have become increasingly sophisticated, if not plot heavy and labyrinthine.

The cinematic expressions are coming close to that, as well, though it’s unlikely that the movies will ever be quite so convoluted. Nevertheless, I feel increasing ennui each time a new movie or series is released. “Superhero fatigue”? Maybe. But I think it’s the nature of how the genre has adapted in the 21st century. As these cinematic universes continue to grow and sprawl and tie into one another, it grows increasingly challenging to keep up, but/and if the characters or the stories are half-assed, there’s less reason for buy-in.

So far, this iteration of DC looks promising. I think Gunn’s definitely the man for the job, and I wonder at anyone tasked with leading a development like this. 

More to follow on this, but next, let’s check in on the Other Guys over at Marvel.