Do call it a comeback.
“Superman” by way of Marvel darling turned DC Studios CEO James Gunn and breakthrough performer David Corenswet already made back 90% of its whopping $225 million budget, as of Sunday, July 13th—the conclusion of its opening weekend.
And with good reason. With no disrespect to predecessor tandem Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill, but the Man of Steel had grown too brooding. Too serious. Too bleak and too on-the-nose reflective of real-world order gone awry. Sometimes, we go to the movies to escape. You can tug at our hearts, alright; just as long as you tickle our funny bones as well.
Here, we have a certain action and drama-packed return to Metropolis, Smallville and a familiar socio-political and superhero and media-obsessed landscape in between.
In keeping with the whimsy he most recently showcased to offset the dire straits at play within his and John Cena’s “Peacemaker” series, Gunn and company prove unafraid to go silly.
He also lived up to his reputation as a master song curator, adding lighter soundtrack bytes to score some key scenes rather than a typical big band orchestra exclusively playing over everything.
“Punkrocker” by Teddybears feat. Iggy Pop in a wrap-up crescendo more reminiscent of something out of the "good times roll" display menu montage that concluded Adam Sandler’s Oscar-nominated “Click?” Certainly not on our bingo board.
What was: a movie keeping with Gunn’s simultaneous fan service and deconstructionist style.
The same man who introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy to the cinematic mainstream and revived The Suicide Squad was the perfect choice to chaplain this latest go at a mythology far too often mishandled.
As iconic as his iteration was, and as truly, unironically terrific as “Superman III” is in the same ways that “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” is mostly irredeemable, the consensus would agree the Christopher Reeve “Superman” installments were front-loaded.
Meanwhile, this “Superman as an immigrant” — struggling to prove to a global consciousness that he is more his adoptive parents than he is his heel-turned alien lineage — saga could just as easily be a self-contained one-off if it pleased, because it’s that good.
Gunn’s take is simply about man and man’s best friend—yes, Superman’s adorable behind-kicking canine sidekick, Krypto, endearingly stealing much more screen time than any trailer promised—being shunned from the same society that will desperately need them back.
The Marvelous Ms. Rachel Brosnahan crushed as a Lois Lane we are quick to forgive for journalistic integrity surrender; at the end of the day, a love triangle between a reporter, her superpowered subject and his alter ego — AKA her hypno-glasses wearing colleague Clark Kent! — is still good-old-fashioned popcorn fodder.
Obviously, “Superman” probably won’t remain in a fortress of solitude for too long. For those who live in the world of post-Endgame “Avengers” fatigue, Superman is finally the man of the moment again—and forevermore their man of tomorrow.
4 out of 5 only because it’s Wendell Pierce as Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White, and not the long-rumored Stephen A. Smith. Why show us something if we can’t have it?