Is there a more important movie this year than Superman? Director James Gunn’s red and blue reboot isn’t just the latest in a long line of spandex-clad summer event movies, it’s something far more significant than that – the launch proper (let’s call animated show Creature Commandos a false start) of new world-building venture the DCU, which aims to take Kal-El and his universe of super-pals soaring into the next decade.
That's a lot of pressure to put on a single movie, particularly the umpteenth feature film to center Big Blue since 1978’s Superman made the world believe a man can fly. But like Supes shouldering the Daily Planet Globe in a nod to Atlas lifting the heavens, Gunn’s big screen re-do doesn’t buckle under the weight. It’s a triumphant reinvention for the character, taking Superman back to a more hopeful, optimistic place and situating him in an unapologetically strange comic-book world that feels refreshingly distinct from the last two decades of superhero fare.
