I've been following and enjoying Superman's exploits since I started watching him played by George Reeves on television when I was a kid in the 1950s, and started reading the comic book a few years later, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster way back in 1938. And as an adult I even contributed an article about The Man of Steel -- “Superman, Patriotism, and Doing the Ultimate Good” (which explored why Superman didn't just wipe out Hitler and the Nazis in World War Two) in The Man from Krypton -- an anthology published in 2006.
I think I've also seen most of the movies. Like the TV series and the comics, they were all immensely entertaining. But none packaged that with the political acumen and clout that James Gunn invested in the new Superman movie that my wife and I just saw in the LOOK Dine-In Cinemas in Dobbs Ferry. Andrew Slack and Jose Antonio Vargas nailed in their guest column in The Hollywood Reporter, "Yes, Superman Has Always Been an Immigration Story," what Gunn did in his movie. Superman has always been the ultimate alien -- literally, he came from outer space. And just as people from other countries helped build and protect America from day one, so Superman has done the same since he started growing into adulthood in Kansas.
The movie also gets all the related political travesties and depredations that currently afflict our country and thereby the world right on target, too. Lying buffoons on a Fox-like "news" channel, a fickle populace gobbling down fake news like it was cotton candy, a Putin-like character invading a neighboring country just as Hitler did in the 1930s, and most important, making Lex Luthor, Superman's brilliant, demented arch-enemy who first appeared in the comics in 1940 into someone we've all come to know all too well the past few years.
My nine-year-old grandson called it when he saw Superman with my son a couple of days ago and told him: "Lex Luthor is Elon Musk". I don't know if Musk is as smart or as evil as Luthor, but he's certainly done plenty of damage. Among the many reasons to cheer what Gunn has done in this movie is the way he put up Musk in Luthor.
And there are indeed many other reasons. Superman is not only powerful but vulnerable and amazingly admirably sweet and good -- he takes the time to save a squirrel. David Corenswet (who was in one episode of House of Cards) was excellent in the title role. So were Rachel Brosnahan (Mad Men, Mrs. Maisel ) as Lois Lane, Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind, StartUp) as Mr. Terrific, and Nathan Fillion (The Rookie, Castle) as Green Lantern. In fact, everyone was in fine form, including the super heroes I didn't know, the robots, and especially the dog.
So, if you're a fan of Superman, you can't go wrong with this movie. And if you're a fan of democracy and a foe of fascism, you can go wrong with this movie, either.
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Note added: James Gunn claims in this interview that one of the biggest pieces of fake news in his movie -- a recording of Superman's parents, released by Lex Luthor, urging their son to use his super powers to dominate the world -- actually wasn't fake news at all, that is, Superman's parents really said that.
My response: as I. A. Richards advised way back in the 1920s, it's a mistake to ask the author or creator what they intended in a given passage (or scene). They may be trying to manipulate the public, for whatever reason. It's far better, Richards says, to let the work speak for itself.
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