Sketch o’the Week: David Corenswet!

Superman Spoiler-Free Review:

The short version is, I loved it. IMO it’s by far the best treatment of Superman in film since the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner movies. Gunn really understands the Superman character, everyone was perfectly cast and did a fantastic job in their respective roles, and it was a fun ride to boot.

I’m one of those people who can appreciate different takes on a character like a comic book superhero, even if they don’t match my idea of that character. That’s why I can enjoy the sixties “Batman” TV show and Christopher Nolan‘s “Dark Knight” trilogy in equal measure. The former is a campy, tongue-in-cheek comedic take while the latter is a gritty, dark examination of a revenge driven superhero in a real world setting. Both are good, but for different reasons.

Zack Synder handled Superman in a very different way in his DCU films. I appreciated his movies even though I did not see his Superman as the character I grew up reading. His Superman was careless with human life and destruction around him. He was brooding and spent way too much time questioning his purpose and direction. Synder’s Superman was more an alien than a human, revolving around his Kyptonian heritage more than his human life.

Gunn’s Superman is much more the Superman of the comics. The core of the character has never been his Kryptonian roots, it’s always been the human values instilled in him by his Kansas farmer parents. This Superman is trusting and believes in the good in people, even to the point of being naive. It does make him a little childlike in his view of the world, but Superman should be generous and trusting to a fault. Synder fans seem to think this makes him buffoonish and one-dimensional. It doesn’t. Believing the best in people might be sometimes naive, and those that do might get taken advantage of from time to time by unscrupulous people, but if the alternative is to be suspicious of everyone and believe the bad in them first, I’d rather be naive. Gunn’s Superman would rather believe in the good in people and sometimes appear naive, because he’s not afraid to appear that way.

The movie does have it’s darker moments, and Gunn turns one bit of Superman lore that has to do with his Kyptonian parents on its ear, but he uses it to reiterate where Superman’s true values and heroism really come from. Gunn really understand what Superman is all about, and that is the main message of this film.

I highly recommend this movie. It’s a feel good story that many of the DC character films have badly lacked, and just a fun movie to watch. I’ll be seeing it again.