The new Superman movie has been met with a sea of just two star reviews as critics are unconvinced of the first foray into the newly-branded DC Universe – as the director faces backlash for calling the Man of Steel an ‘immigrant’.
The new film – directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet as the fictional superhero, with Rachel Brosnahan as precocious reporter Lois Lane – will go on general release from July 11.
Many were skeptical of the film – the third new Superman reboot in just under two decades, following Brandon Routh in 2006’s Superman Returns and Henry Cavill in 2013’s Man of Steel and 2017’s Justice League.
And now the reviews are out it seems they were right to be skeptical as it has failed to impress most critics.
It comes as Gunn has garnered controversy ahead of the film’s widespread release Friday, likening the Man of Steel to an immigrant.
Gunn, 58, told The Sunday Times of London on Friday that he felt the character – played by Corenswet, 32, in the new movie – had a lot in common with immigrants who come to the America in search of a better life.
The new Superman movie has been met with a sea of just two star reviews as critics are unconvinced of the first foray into the newly-branded DC Universe
The new film – directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet as the fictional superhero, with Rachel Brosnahan as precocious reporter Lois Lane – will go on general release from July 11
‘I mean, Superman is the story of America,’ Gunn told the news outlet. ‘An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.’
The Times gave it a negative two star review calling it a ‘migraine of a movie’ but did praise the leading man.
Reviewer Kevin Maher wrote: ‘David Corenswet is serviceable as Hollywood’s latest Man of Steel, but director James Gunn has turned the ninth big-screen film into an indigestible mush.’
He wasn’t positive about Gunn’s efforts either, adding: ‘Gunn approaches the nerdosphere’s most celebrated property like a giddy amnesiac who has missed the precipitous rise and fall of multi-character Marvel superhero movies and is instead stuck somewhere in the early 2010s.’
The Guardian was equally as scathing, also giving it two stars and branding it a ‘dim reboot’.
Reviewer Peter Bradshaw wrote: ‘The Man of Steel – played with square-faced soullessness by David Corenswet – has an uninteresting crisis of confidence in Gunn’s cluttered, pointless franchise restarter.’
Highlighting a tired format, he added: ‘How many more superhero films in general, and Superman films in particular, do we need to see that all end with the same spectacular faux-apocalypse in the big city with CGI skyscrapers collapsing?
The Times gave it a negative two star review calling it a ‘migraine of a movie’ but did praise the leading man (pictured)
The Guardian was equally as scathing, also giving it two stars – branding it a ‘dim reboot’ (Rachel Brosnahan seen centre)
Nicholas Hoult (seen) is playing Lex Luthor in Gunn’s Superman but he originally auditioned for the main role of Superman
‘They were fun at first … but the thrill is gone.’
Empire also gave it two stars, simply saying in its review that the film ‘didn’t work’.
Reviewer Sophie Butcher penned: ‘The final act sinks into CGI chaos, with an unsatisfying climax, an eye-roll-inducing reveal, a restlessly intermittent tone, and an insistence on prioritising things and people we don’t really care about over core characters.’
She did however have praise for leads Corenswet and Brosnahan saying they had ‘clear chemistry’ and adding that Brosnahan was ‘spiky and engaging as Lois, breathing life into a role with minimal dimension otherwise.’
The BBC also gave it a largely negative review and just three stars saying it was ‘glib and flimsy’ and felt like ‘an eccentric sci-fi B-movie’.
Reviewer Nicholas Barber wrote: ‘It’s a shame that Gunn didn’t give his story more time to breathe.
‘It’s a shame, in particular, that he didn’t devote more time to showing us that Superman really is the paragon that his supporters keep saying he is.’
The film follows the Man of Steel as he tries to balance his life as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent while also being the most powerful entity on the planet.
This version of Superman is already established in his profession, older than Tom Welling’s portrayal on The CW’s Smallville but also younger than Henry Cavill’s version of the superhero in the previous DC films.
The film also brings in numerous other beloved characters from the DC Comics like Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), plus the beloved Crypto the Super-Dog.
The BBC also gave it a largely negative review and just three stars saying it was ‘glib and flimsy’ and felt like ‘an eccentric sci-fi B-movie’
While the budget has been reported to be $225 million, Gunn recently shot down rumors that his film needs a huge result at the box office.
‘This is not the riskiest endeavor in the world,’ Gunn said to GQ.
‘Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it’s not as big as people make it out to be,’ Gunn admitted.
‘They hear these numbers that the movie’s only going to be successful if it makes $700 million or something and it’s just complete and utter nonsense. It doesn’t need to be as big of a situation as people are saying,’ Gunn clarified.
David Rooney from The Hollywood Reporter admitted the two-hour-nine-minute film did feel ‘lumpy and overstuffed,’ though he praised the film’s tone and lead actors.
‘But what matters most is that the movie is fun, pacy and enjoyable, a breath of fresh air sweetened by a deep affection for the material and boosted by a winning trio of leads,’ he wrote.
The Toronto Star critic Peter Howell called the film ‘all over the place,’ both geographically and narratively.
‘Gunn packs so many heroes, villains, creatures and incidents into his screenplay, it’s as if he’s presenting a preview of future DC Universe delights. That is, in fact, largely what he’s doing. He seems to have forgotten that popcorn munchers want to see the story now, not tomorrow,’ Howell adds.
The Los Angeles Times‘ Amy Nicholson offers a positive review, though she adds David Corenswet’s title character is, ‘a little stupid.’
‘This isn’t quite the heart-soaring ‘Superman’ I wanted. But these adventures wise him up enough that I’m curious to explore where the saga takes him next,’ she added.
One of the other negative reviews was from IndieWire‘s Dave Ehrlich, who admits that both David Corenswet as Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane are ‘great,’ but adds it ‘overcorrects for the Zack Snyder era,’ the last filmmaker who tackled the Man of Steel in several super-serious and dark movies.
‘Determined to restore a lightness to Superman without dancing around how dark things have gotten in his absence, Gunn’s movie is too busy reacting to the world at hand to create one of its own,’ Ehrlich writes.
Deadline‘s Peter Hammond praised the film for having, ‘something to say about who we are, what we are becoming, and what we should aspire to.’
Still he admits that Gunn, ‘might be trying to do too much here, basically throwing everything against the wall and hoping some of it sticks. More than enough does in this entertaining new direction, but at times suffers from overload.’
It comes after Gunn’s comments likening the Man of Steel to an immigrant.
The filmmaker was subsequently asked by the outlet if he expected that the motion picture would be received differently in historically Democratic or Republican areas amid the current political climate in America.
‘Yes, it plays differently,’ Gunn said in response. ‘But it’s about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.’
The Superman character is from a planet called Krypton who lands on earth after his parents send him away as a baby in a travel pod ahead of the planet’s imminent destruction.
The baby, named Kal-El, grows up and goes by the identity of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent when he is not Superman.
Gunn faced criticism from a number of media personalities, including Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld, who said the filmmaker is operating with ‘a woke shield’ – and out of touch with what Americans really feel.
‘He’s creating a moat of woke, enlightened opinion around him,’ Gutfeld said of the St. Louis-born filmmaker.
Kellyanne Conway, who served under President Donald Trump during his first term, said that Gunn had missed the point of a trip to the movie theater being about escapism.
‘We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us,’ Conway said, according to the New York Post.
Conservative personality Chris Stigall said the filmmaker was trying to confuse the issue with the words he used.
‘This guy Gunn says you’re not an American if you don’t support immigrants – well, of course, it’s not about immigrants,’ Stigall said. ‘The issue is the word he left out – illegal – illegal immigrants and aliens. Isn’t [Superman’s] tagline ‘Truth, justice, and the American way?”
Stigall added: ‘Truth Justice, and the American Way, which I think [the hard left] long ago ditched [the phrase] ‘American Way’ because the hard left couldn’t have an iconic superhero actually standing up for the country and saluting the country.
‘But I’m pretty sure, once upon a time, they used to associate that with Superman … when did they ditch it?’
Stigall said he believed DC Comics was leaned on by the hard left to distance the superhero from overtly nationalistic values – betraying the character’s comic book roots.
‘I am sure at some point, the DC people were castigated by the Progressives and said, ‘You got to ditch that American way stuff – Superman can’t be American – and he certainly can’t be pro American!’
He added, ‘But I bet if you go back into comic book lore … you will find a rich history of people producing comic books and comic book characters that were very, very pro-America and the American spirit.’
James Gunn spoke with Variety about the backlash to the remarks at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles on Monday.
Gunn said he didn’t have ‘anything to say to anybody’ and wasn’t there ‘to judge people’ he had a difference of opinion with.
Gunn reiterated, ‘I think this is a movie about kindness and I think that’s something everyone can relate to.’
Cast members were more vociferous in their defense of Gunn, who has a history of being well-liked by the actors he works with and fans of the franchises he’s overseen – most notably Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Actor Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner-Green Lantern) said of Gunn’s critics, ‘Aw, somebody needs a hug,’ adding, ‘Just a movie, guys.’
The director’s brother Sean Gunn, who plays Maxwell Lord in the movie, took up for his sibling, saying that his reaction to the backlash was that Superman does indeed represent the immigrant population amid the politically-divisive times.
‘My reaction to is that it is exactly what the movie is about,’ Sean Gunn said. ‘We support our people, you know? We love our immigrants.
The film also brings in numerous beloved characters from the DC Comics like Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), plus the beloved Crypto the Super-Dog
The Empire review praised leads Corenswet and Brosnahan (seen) saying they had ‘clear chemistry’ and adding that Brosnahan was ‘spiky and engaging as Lois, breathing life into a role with minimal dimension otherwise’
Gunn himself has been facing backlash for comments he made in an interview in The Sunday Times of London last week
‘Yes, Superman is an immigrant, and yes, the people that we support in this country are immigrants and if you don’t like that, you’re not American.
Sean Gunn concluded that ‘people who say no to immigrants are against the American way.’
Joining Corenswet, Fillion and Gunn in the cast of the motion picture are Rachel Brosnahan (as Lois Lane), Nicholas Hoult (as Lex Luthor), Isabela Merced (Hawkgirl), Milly Alcock (Supergirl).
Limitless leading man Bradley Cooper plays the role of Superman’s father Jor-El, the role famously commandeered by late Hollywood legend Marlon Brando; Oscar winning A-lister Russell Crowe; and venerated late actor Julian Sands in previous productions about the famed Man of Steel.
