Superman is back, and right on track

James Gunn, a master of superhero cinema who gave the Marvel Cinematic Universe a big boost with his ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ trilogy, has helmed this film and the reason why he was chosen to resurrect Superman from out of the dumps was never in doubt. His new iteration of a DC universe with Superman has all the markings of a big hit.

The most iconic superhero of all time will most certainly get a new lease of life with this film.

The myth of Superman is that he is an alien brought up by adoptive parents in rural America with traditional values, and does the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. He has a clear-cut conscience and never gets dissuaded from that path. He moves to the Big City, and continues to follow that path.

Superman (David Corenswet) gets into the act swiftly, without getting bogged down by the origin story. For those who don’t know how this metahuman came to earth, there are enough dialogues that help retrace the journey.

Superman gets drawn into a conflict in the beginning of the movie itself. Boravia is in the process of invading Jarhanpur and Superman, who reached in time to help the Jarhanpurians, has returned all battered and bruised. Tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is just waiting for the opportunity to get the Man of Steel out of the way for good.

The Justice Gang, consisting of Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) for now, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Krypto, the disobedient wonder dog, play a big role in helping Superman. It’s a bit sad for fans but all for the good in terms of the story that Superman — the all-conquering superhero — is now more human, and has his own angst to deal with.

The opening sequence has some funny moments with Krypto going about his instructions in a chaotic manner, yet managing to pull Superman out of a deep spot.

There are quite a few humorous moments in this goofy yet dynamic action flick filmed with Imax cameras. This Gunn version of ‘Superman’ maintains the pace, has quips coming at random intervals and stirs up enough action to please the fans.

Superman is more humane here; he is always striving to do the right thing and his clash of ideals, brawn and metahuman abilities with the scheming Lex Luthor is presented in a clear-cut fashion as the narrative races on to a less than enviable climactic showdown. The main conflict centres around the invasion of Jarhanpur by the evil armies of Boravia. And that conflict intermingles with Luthor’s evil machinations to be the top dog of the world at large.

Nicholas Hoult’s infantile version of Lex Luthor, bordering on toonish, is par for the course. When people turn on Superman and get convinced all too fast about him faking his so-called goodness, it becomes a bit unbelievable.

Superman’s relationship with his ageing adoptive parents on Earth (played by Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) is portrayed quite touchingly here. His three-month- old on-off relationship with intrepid reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) gets a new lease of life when the central conflict goes sci-fi mad and starts getting into pocketverses and inter-dimensional beings.

This new ‘Superman’is loaded with comic book references, characters and story. It gives David Corenswet enough opportunity to shine in a deep-rooted role and has wonderful echoes from the past in John Powell’s score.

Coronswet may not look as chiselled as Christopher Reeve, but his dimpled charm can easily sway you into the scheme of things here.

There’s not much character development but the racy tempo, the fierce debilitating action and the quasi-attempts to make allusions to contemporary history make it interesting enough.

‘Superman’ has its fair share of fun moments filtering through before and after the set-piece action events. Gunn’s imagination takes Superman through the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ route and the goofy, spoofy, weird add-ons feel like they belong to this universe. The VFX is seamlessly incorporated and the CG on Krypto is pawfect.

James Gunn, tasked with revitalising Superman and rebooting DC’s cinematic universe, has done a good job and now it’s up to the fans to give it a heads-up at the box office.

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