‘Superman' review: This latest reboot opens strong, and that dog Krypto's a pip

Miami Herald

3 days ago

A few things about the pretty good new "Superman" from writer, director and DC Studios mogul James Gunn, who probably needed to exercise a little more control over the writer-director, but too late now:
1. Really good first hour! Gunn has some fun with it, but just enough, as opposed to his preferred mode of too much. His reboot has the benefit of an actor, David Corenswet, who may not have a lot of colors to work with, but whose presence is infinitely easier to take and less of a huge pile of smug than Henry Cavill's Man of Steel. No origin story, Gunn's version begins with Superman having lost his first-ever battle off-camera, back in Metropolis. We catch up with him, bleeding and broken, in the opening seconds in Antarctica as he crash-lands, painfully, leaving a mouthful of blood on the snow. His underground ice palace awaits. It's staffed by robots hosting, indifferently, a fantastic maniac of a dog named …
2. Krypto! First seen barreling toward the camera at speeds only the most brazen digital effects house could estimate, this mutt runs like the wind and pounces like an anvil with hairy legs and a neat red cape. Great addition to any franchise reboot. I can't think of a scene in either "Jurassic World Rebirth" or "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" that wouldn't be improved by a sudden, super-destructive cameo from Krypto.
3. But there's a catch: James Gunn is still big into animal torture. Following a zingy initial "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie and a reasonably diverting sequel, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" tasted like pure garbage to me, laced as it was with a nominally sincere pro-animal rights plotline that played out, unfortunately, as one damn torture session after another. "Superman" is very rough on not just Krypto, but one or two strays as well, for laughs. Some of it's played for laughs; some of it isn't. Gunn has a way of toggling between the two that's more like chain-yanking.
4. Second half is bit of a chore: Many semi-endless action beat-downs. Superman suffers an inhuman amount of brutality in "Superman," while squaring off against petulant, sociopathic billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), an arms supplier and real estate speculator in league (an injustice league!) with the leader of an invading Slavic nation out to treat its neighboring country like a Ukrainian understudy. Other battles, some of which are frenzied yet draggy enough to fit right into the Zack Snyder action slogs in "Man of Steel" or "Batman v. Superman," involve Luthor's shape-shifting minions, and a tear in the universe, which spells trouble for Metropolis and beyond. On the bright side, though …
5. The Clark Kent/Lois Lane relationship in "Superman" feels like it matters. Largely that's due to Rachel Brosnahan (the strongest through-line in a pretty busy headbanger of a movie) and her easy interplay with Corenswet, but also because of the material. You know how often I've written the words "long sharp dialogue sequence!" in a notebook while watching a DC superhero movie? Never, until this one. Gunn wastes zero time getting Clark and Lois together. When "Superman" starts, they've been a couple for a while and their colleagues know what's up, and Lois knows who Clark really is, even if others don't. The long sharp dialogue sequence is a wary sort of argument in Lois's apartment (Clark is making dinner), with evenly matched wits and hearts searching for the way forward in a tantalizing cul-de-sac of a relationship. He's an alien; she lives and breathes for the thrill of a deadline and the smell of printer's ink. Wait, which one's the alien, again?
6. Is "Superman" woke? Fox News and others are having micro-strokes about how director Gunn told The Times of London that if you detect a whiff of encoded politics in the movie's depiction of Luthor's ICE-like private army, or in any number of other little script nudges, well, maybe you'll survive. The best superhero movies are rarely apolitical; often they're bracing collisions of reactionary elements and progressive ones, so that morally, we never really know where we are. Or when the sternest tests of the characters' character might arrive. ("The Dark Knight" was like that; same with the recent, brooding film noir "The Batman" and its excellent series offshoot, "The Penguin.")
"Superman" is too squirrely for that league. But it's nicely packed and quite funny, when it isn't giving into Gunn's trademark air of merry depravity. This iteration of Superman, riddled with doubts and confused about why he's on Earth, never quite dominates his own film. But there are witty supporting turns from Edi Gathegi, Isabela Merced and Nathan Fillion as Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern, respectively, members of the corporately sponsored "Justice Gang" in a world where branding is all and pretty good reboots, in this summer of 2025, are enough.
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'SUPERMAN'
3 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: PG-13 (for violence, action and language)
Running time: 2:09
How to watch: In theaters July 11
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