"Superman" is back.

James Gunn's Superman is one of the most pleasant surprises I've had so far this year, and I honestly didn't expect a film that tried to do so many things at once to pull it off so effectively.

Source

The film starring David Corenswet not only had the task of reviving the highly divisive Snyderverse by establishing a new continuity within the DC universe (about which it's still debatable whether it's canon or not), but also had to reconnect the masses with the young man from Krypton, one of the most recognizable characters in all of popular culture, but at the same time one of the most mistreated on the big screen, at least since Christopher Reeve's days behind the suit ended.

Although I appreciated the approach they took to Man of Steel with Henry Cavill at the time, it's no secret that the scripts for this film and its sequels often lacked a sense of purpose with the superhero, often adapting to the dark and "serious" trend that plagued all the comic book adaptations on the big screen in the previous decade.

This time, the desire for seriousness was abandoned, taking the underpants out of the window and avoiding the need to retell us Clark Kent's origins, condensing everything into an opening credits sequence that immediately immerses us in the film's conflict: Superman has just been defeated for the first time in his life.

What follows is a parade of elements that celebrate his legacy and that of the rest of DC Comics, with a literally chaotic structure. "Superman" is very reminiscent of The Flash, with the small difference that this time the script has soul and we can connect with its protagonists.

"Superman" features many heroes, villains, and elements of science fiction and fantasy that can create a whiplash effect on its viewers, but fundamentally, it's the story of an alien who manages to connect with humanity, adopting our essential qualities (love, kindness, the inevitable capacity to make mistakes) as his own.

It's a subtle allegory about immigration, with flying humans and ingenious action sequences, packed with a solid cast (especially Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois) and undoubtedly leaves us eager to see what else this new cinematic universe will bring.

Superhero movies are (probably) back.

This score was taken from my Letterboxd account.