Skipping past Kal-El’s famous origin story, James Gunn’s Superman rightfully assumes that we’re familiar with Clark Kent’s background, superpowers, career and love life. Likewise, most viewers will arrive with some preconceived notions about the contrast between his adoptive parents and his Kryptonian birth family.
Played by a pair of lesser-known actors (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell), the latest Jonathan and Martha Kent are a lovable caricature of retirement-age Midwestern normality. Lara and Jor-El (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan), meanwhile, are aloof and mysterious, depicted exclusively through the holographic message they recorded for baby Kal-El when they sent him to live on Earth.
