Superman: A Bright, Exciting Jumble

Superman tells an exciting story with as much originality as such an old character can have, but gets a bit lost in a crowded world that misses an opportunity for a truly impactful statement.

Rating: 7.0/10

Highlights

• Beautiful coloring and cinematography

• Great music

• Perfect casting

Lowlights

• Distracting subplots

• Several one-dimensional female characters used as punchlines

• Some characters felt forced

Superman is an American story old as the movies themselves, and it's hard to make a new film that's both inventive and loyal to the lore we know. However, James Gunn's Superman manages to do just that. The film was fresh, bright, and witty, with genuine and emotive characters who embraced their roles wholeheartedly. Overall, I have much confidence for later iterations of Superman under Gunn's direction. However, the film was a bit too ambitious, and overwhelmed at times with the amount of secondary characters and subplots. I think a bit more backstory and some trimming of the plot would've grounded the film more successfully. The focus on Superman's identity as an extraterrestial was smart and particularly poignant in today's climate (though I'm not sure that was intentional), but leaning more into this theme rather than distracting with other, less compelling conflicts would have rasied Superman to another level of impact and inspiration.

Enjoyed Superman? Watch Guardians of the Galaxy, another film of Gunn's with the same humor not often enjoyed in superhero films (and an incredible soundtrack).

Watch the trailer!