Why Comparison Steals Joy: A Review of James Gunn’s Superman

I didn’t come up with it but I’ve said the phrase many times throughout my adult life. “Comparison is the thief of joy”.  Mostly, I’ve whispered it to myself when I felt like I wasn’t making enough money. When I didn’t feel like I had enough things. Or Sometimes I just plain didn’t feel like I myself was enough.  Comparison truly is the big robbing thief of joy.  Still, we can’t help it.   Which brings me to Superman.  The current version.  Look, the kids love it.  And at first, I couldn’t understand why.  I think I do now and I envy them. Why? Because they have absolutely no basis for comparison.  I’m sure they’ve all heard of Superman before.  Who hasn’t?  But for many of them this is their first real exposure to Big Blue.  The last version to grace the big screen was Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel which was released waaaay back in 2013. 

I am a middle-aged man. I have every reason to compare James Gunn’s offering of Superman to every other version I’ve seen. I’ve seen a few of them.  From David Corenswet to Henry Cavill to Brandon Routh to the immortal Christopher Reeves.  I can compare them because I lived through them.  But I will admit that as I have aged, the Supermen got more and more serious, which suited me fine.  Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel was so stoic and mysterious that even Clark Kent was more serious than that character had ever been.  Remember Christopher Reeve’s Kent being nerdy, awkward and downright clumsy.  What the heck did Lois Lane ever see in that guy?  Henry Cavill’s Kent by contrast was just as sullen and morose as his Superman alter ego. 

Having sat through James Gunn’s Superman, my knee jerk reaction was…this is just silly.  The costume is silly.  His parents are silly.  The justice gang is silly.  And that stupid dog is ridiculously silly!  Admittedly, it was only silly because I was comparing it to all the other versions of Superman I had grown up and aged up watching.  So, yea, I walked out of the theater with my joy having been thieved away by comparison.  But Art Abides.  I came home and sat down to a few bourbons.  I rubbed my chin and gave it a another thought.  I dropped the comparisons and my Henry Cavill man crush and judged the film with a clear mind and on its own merit.

Superman is a good movie.  It’s solid. It’s not a great movie but it’s good.  Like all previous Superman movies of their eras, this film is definitely of today’s era.  It’s for the here and now.  For starters, he is more human and less god.  I for one didn’t expect to go into a theatre and watch the man of steel get his ass kicked around for 2 and a half hours.  This poor guy gets body slammed, face planted and scissor kicked across the face nonstop.  But it works.  James Gunn forces you to root for him because he’s kind of an underdog.  I can imagine younger audiences relating to him and feeling like he’s one of them. I for one don’t like seeing Superman get beat down like that, but that’s me.  He’s Clark Kent with super powers rather than Superman with a Clark Kent alter ego to disguise who he really is.   He’s conflicted and confused and just trying to figure things out like everyone else, which is strange to me.  It seems like he just woke up one morning last week and discovered he has all these super powers and doesn’t know what to do with them.  As opposed to having grown up super human his entire life. 

The movie itself is all over the place.  It’s got a lot of moving parts all going at the start of the movie.  At the start of the movie it feels like I spent way too much time at the concession stand buttering my popcorn and walked in to the theater late. I thought I missed the first hour.  We all know Superman, of course, but there are other characters here that we get no introduction to.  They are just there and we’re expected to know who they are and how they got there.  And then there’s the dog, Crypto, who doesn’t seem to have any real role in the movie but to literally be annoying.  Maybe that and to make the movie more appealing for the even younger audiences…and to sell plush Crypto dolls. Don’t forget to grab yourself one. The movie seems to want to be everything to everyone.  It’s got its serious moments but James Gunn splashes cold water on them every time just to remind you that you’re watching a James Gunn movie.  In case you forgot.    

If you’re a Zack Snyder, dark, serious Cavill, Man of Steel fan, this Superman may not be for you.  But if you just want to choke down some popcorn and have a good time, this movie may be right up your alley. It is funny, bright, colorful and light hearted.  I like serious dramas as much as I like goofy comedies.  So, I can abide both versions.  And David Corenswet was a great pick for this part.  He looks every bit the part. At 31 years of age he is young enough to keep cranking out Superman movies. This could continue for at least the next 15 years if DC doesn’t screw this up.  The question is, will this Superman get more serious as he ages?