Review: Strange ‘Superman’ is better than a boring one

Jake Coyle Associated Press It s a bird it s a plane it s a a purple and orange shape-shifting chemical compound Writer-director James Gunn s Superman was invariably going to be a strange chemistry of filmmaker and material Gunn the mind behind Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad has reliably drifted toward a B-movie superhero realm populated usually over-populated with the lesser-known freaks oddities and grotesquerie of back-issue comics But you don t get more mainstream than Superman And let s face it unless Christopher Reeve is in the suit the rock-jawed Man of Steel can be a bit of a bore Much of the fun and frustration of Gunn s movie is seeing how he stretches and strains to make Superman you know engaging In the latest revamp for the archetypal superhero Gunn does a lot to give Superman played with an easy charm by David Corenswet a lift He scraps the origin story He gives Superman a dog And he ropes in not just expected regulars like Lois Lane Rachel Brosnahan and Lex Luthor Nicholas Hoult but particular less conventional choices none more so than that colorful jumble of elements Metamorpho Anthony Carrigan Metamorpho a melancholy mutilated man whose powers were born out of tragedy is just one of countless side shows in Superman But he s the majority of representative of what Gunn is going for Gunn might favor a traditional-looking hero at the center like Chris Pratt s Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy And Corenswet complete with hair curl looks the part too But Gunn s heart is with the weirdos who soldier on The heavy lift of Superman is making the episode that the perfect superhuman being with S on his chest is strange too He s a do-gooder at a time when no one does good anymore Not everything works in Superman For those who like their Superman classically drawn Gunn s film will presumably seem too irreverent and messy But for anyone who determined Zack Snyder s previous administration painfully ponderous this Superman at least has a pulse It would be hard to find a more drastic in franchise stewardship Where Snyder s films were super-serious mythical clashes of colossuses Gunn s Superman is lightly earthbound quirky and sentimental When this Superman flies he even keeps his arms back like an Olympic skeleton rider We begin not on Krypton or Kansas but in Antarctica near the Fortress of Solitude The opening titles set-up the medias res beginning Three centuries ago metahumans first appeared on Earth Three minutes ago Superman lost a battle for the first time Lying bloodied in the snow he whistles and his faithful super dog Krypto comes running Like specific of Gunn s other novelty gags I m looking at you Groot Krypto is both a highlight and overused gag throughout Superman is in the midst of a battle by proxy with Luthor From atop his Luthor Corp skyscraper headquarters Luther gives instructions to a group sitting before computer screens while on a headset barking out coded battle directions to drone-assisted henchmen -B he shouts like a Bingo caller Whether this is an ideal localizing of main characters in conflict is a debate that recedes a bit when back in Metropolis Clark Kent returns to the Daily Planet There s Wendell Pierce as the editor-in-chief Perry White and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen But the character of real interest here is of program Lois She and Kent are already an item in Superman When alone Lois chides him over the journalistic ethics of interviewing himself after various derring-do and questions his flying into countries without their leaders approval Brosnahan slides so comfortably into the role that I wonder if Superman ought to have been Lois instead Her scenes with Corenswet are the best in the film and the movie loses its snap when she s not around That s unfortunately for a substantial amount of time Luthor traps Superman in a pocket universe enter Metamorpho among others and the eccentric members of the Justice Gang Nathan Fillion s Green Lantern Edi Gathegi s Mister Terrific and Isabela Merced s Hawkgirl are called upon to lend a hand They come begrudgingly But if there s anyone else that comes close to stealing the movie it s Gathegi who meets increasingly absurd cataclysm with wry deadpan The fate of the world naturally again turns iffy There s a rift in the universe not to mention particular vaguely defined trouble in Boravia and Jarhanpur In such scenes Gunn s juggling act is especially uneasy and you can feel the movie lurching from one thing to another Usually that s Krypto s cue to fly back into the movie and run amok Gunn who now presides over DC Studios with producer Peter Safran is better with internal strife than he is international politics Superman is often called the Kryptonian or the alien by humans and Gunn leans into his outsider status Not for the first time Superman s opponents try to paint him as an untrustworthy foreigner With a modicum of timeliness Superman is an immigrant story Mileage will inevitably vary when it comes to Gunn s idiosyncratic touch He can be outlandish and sweet often at once In a conversation between metahumans he will insert a donut into the scene for no real reason and cut from a body falling through the air to an Alka-Seltzer tablet dropping into a glass A few might call such moments glib a not-unfair label for Gunn But I d say they make this pleasantly imperfect Superman something quite rare in the assembly line-style of superhero moviemaking the present day human SUPERMAN stars out of Rating PG violence intense action language Starring David Corenswet Rachel Brosnahan Nicholas Hoult Edi Gathegi Anthony Carrigan Director James Gunn Running time hours minutes When where Opens July in theaters