Do you remember the first time you saw one of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy? lil Mercury does. It filled lil Mercury with so much joy and hope because Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man is filled with it. Superman invokes the same feeling that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man did.

It’s not only superhero movies in it’s purest form, it’s superheroism at it’s purest form. Superman lacks the cynicism and bleakness of the previous DC cinematic movies and instead replaces that with sincerity and hope. The story isn’t particularly inventive but it doesn’t need to be, it’s an introduction to Superman and an introduction to James Gunn’s DC world. While it is a simple story it’s also relatively modern, surprisingly dealing with themes of misinformation, authoritianism and public trust. While it does provide rather baseline takes for these themes it hits them with a sense of hope that is needed in the world right now. It can be argued that the movie tries to do too much in it’s around 2 hour runtime and I can see that. Some story beats and characters do come off as underdeveloped, but it’s a brand new universe so hopefully there will be plenty of time to develop these.

David Corenswet is your brand new Superman and he is perfect for the role. He plays a relatively new to the scene Superman. As well as Superman, David Corenswet of course, also plays Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego. The subtle differences between David’s Clark and Superman are sublime and very Christopher Reeve-esque. Opposite Superman is his new nemesis, Lex Luthor played by Nicholas Hoult and he is also superbly acted and is the perfect enemy to Superman. He is also bald. Fuck you Jesse Eisenberg. Alongside Supes are the Justice Gang, who are Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr Terrific who more or less are there to provide a playful comic-book energy into the film, which it accomplishes well. Plus it features a nice cameo from the upcoming Supergirl by Milly Alcock who is a great actor and I’m looking forward to her movie.

The score of the film is amazing, blending John Williams iconic themes with more modern sensibilities. Visually the film is great too. Unlike a lot of modern superhero movies the colours really pop, the cinematography is really dynamic and the action is punchy as all hell.

In short;

Superman is a refreshing, optimistic and emotionally rich take on Superman and Superhero movies in general. James Gunn may just be the greatest filmmaker in superhero movies at the minute