New Superman movie a joy to watch as DC goes back to old-fashioned basics

Film review: Superman (12A) - seen at The Light, Wisbech

Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult

Director: James Gunn Run time: Two hours, nine minutes

Great news, everyone. Hollywood and DC have remembered what a superhero movie should be like.

After years of humdrum offerings from both DC and rival Marvel, with too much darkness and multiple, hard-to-follow plot twists, they've gone back to basics, and it works a treat.

Director James Gunn, who was in charge of some of the few films that didn't fail - Marvel's the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy - has made a DC film that is an absolute joy to watch from start to finish.

No origin story, no joining up of the universal dots, just a good guy versus bad guy battle, Superman (David Corenswet) pitted against his enemy Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). And guess who, against all the traditional odds, comes out on top?!

As I said, there's no back story here. When we meet our superhero, he's already been beamed to Earth, raised on an American farm, adopted the alias Clark Kent, got a job at the Daily Planet, and started dating Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan).

And he's just had his butt kicked by one of Luthor’s metahumans, the Hammer of Boravia, shortly after stopping a rich, USA-backed nation from invading and taking over a neighbouring country, in an obvious nod to current world events.

Corporate billionaire Luther (also similar to more than one modern-day tech king) is, for some reason, backing the invasion, and what ensues is an old-fashioned good vs evil battle.

What’s got the right-wing media in a tizzy is the supposed ‘wokeness’ of this movie. Superman, although alien, has always been the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way, but has found himself living in a world that views these qualities as old-fashioned.

He's backed in his battle by super dog Krypto, who steals a few scenes and adds some comedic balance to the thrills, as well as the Justice Gang of Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr Terrific (Edi Gathegi), a wonderful character I'd love to see more of.

The plot moves quickly, and the run time of more than two hours goes fast too, with some good humour dotted throughout as a bonus.

Corenswet is exactly what you want from Superman: muscly, chiselled jaw, all-American good looks, Brosnahan as Lois is his ideal beau, and Hoult exudes the evil genius vibe as Luthor.

This is the best superhero movie I've seen in years. Hopefully, Marvel will take note.

By Jeremy Ransome

Rating: 9/10