It's a bird ... it's a plane ... nope. FINALLY, it's Superman.

James Gunn gets it. I don’t know how he does it, but he gets it.

            A while back, when I heard James Gunn was making Guardians of the Galaxy, I rolled my eyes and proclaimed the death of the MCU, remarking, “They’re really grasping at straws, aren’t they?” The Guardians, which have become favorites of movie goers across the world, were an obscure group of characters you’d likely only heard of if you were the kind of person who went to comic cons, and I thought they’d make a terrible movie. Well, as I have often had to say over the years, “Shows what I know.”  Guardians was excellent, Gunn tackling the humanity of the characters and focusing on the familial relationship of the group. It is my personal favorite of all the MCU films.

            But in spite of this, when I heard James Gunn was taking the reins of the DC cinematic universe, directing the upcoming Superman movie, I was skeptical. The humor won’t work. They can never do Superman right anymore, I thought.

            Again. Shows what I know.

            Superman is everything a diehard fan like me (Supes is my favorite superhero) had hoped it would be. A rollicking good time, a loud, boisterous, summer tent pole movie that is both new and innovative with the character, while staying true to the past. David Corenswet is excellent as the world’s greatest superhero, a feat made more remarkable by the fact that he’s perhaps even better at playing Clark Kent, which I would think is the harder role to play. The rest of the cast is superb, the action is great, the special effects are good, and even the stuff I thought might be cringey (Metamorpho and Krypto, for God’s sake …) turn out to be awesome.

            What’s the plot, you ask? Well, what is the plot of any Superman film? Kryptonian orphan Kal El, aka Clark Kent, aka Superman, strives to do good by all humanity while balancing a career as a reporter and a love life with colleague Lois Lane, while Lex Luthor, played as a genius but evil petulant child by Nicholas Hoult, tries to end Superman once and for all.

            This film, however, takes a jump into geopolitics in ways previous films have not. Prior to the film beginning, Superman has inserted himself into an international conflict, choosing a side and stopping a war before it starts, causing a serious rift between himself and the United States government and setting the stage for Luthor’s plans. There have been criticisms about this, that the film is too “woke” or political, some people praising the film as a metaphor for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like all stories, you are free to interpret Superman in any way you want, that’s the beauty of art. I for one don’t find it overly political, not “woke,” and frankly, if you were Superman, and perhaps this is what the film is asking, how could you stand by and let massive amounts of people massacre each other? It’s so easy for all of us to play armchair quarterbacks, dismissing acts of violence and wars that kill thousands if not millions from the safety of our living rooms. Imagine if we could fly to the various conflicts around the world and see them firsthand, see them from both sides. Would we feel the same then?

Superman should be beyond politics, and we should not try and cast iconic figures like him in our own political light. If Superman existed, I for one would want him to be pretty moderate, even apolitical. Could he really be Superman, a hope for all mankind, if he used his super speed to deport immigrants to their home countries or his eye beams to roast attendees at a MAGA rally? Of course he couldn’t. He should be better than us. His interference in a world conflict is questionable, but that is also what makes him special, that’s what makes him Superman, and what forms the moral question of the film, especially as Corenswet's Superman has only been public for three years, still a newbie. These characters are supposed to be what we aspire to be, not who we are.

All that aside, the movie is great. It has a great cast of characters, including the “Justice Gang,” presumably setting up future projects, and Corenswet is fabulous as Superman, clearly the best since the iconic Christopher Reeve. He combines the hope, optimism, even a little naiveté with the right amount of righteous anger and frustration with mankind and how we treat each other.

I for one hope there are lots of sequels and will be there opening weekend for them all.