“Superman” Rebels With Kindness

“Superman” exudes hope, undeterred by cynicism.

Spoiler-free thoughts on Superman

Superman is the cinematic equivalent of eating a bowl of cereal while enjoying your favorite Saturday morning cartoon. It’s not simply the nostalgia, but the feeling of hope. The good guys would win, and they were actually good. Life was sincere, not cynical. This is the world from Superman’s perspective.

David Cornswet embodies an optimistic but emotional Superman. Rachel Brosnahan oozes the hard-nosed determination of Lois Lane. Nicholas Hoult manages to capture the controlled tech billionaire genius and manic, jealous supervillain Lex Luthor.

The movie attempts to drop you directly into a full-fleshed, lived-in world. You aren’t following Kal-El in his harrowing flight from a doomed Krypton. We don’t see a young Clark Kent being raised on a Kansas farm.

In one way, this allows the film to maintain a brisk pace and avoid a bloated runtime. On the other hand, we spend parts of the movie with other ancillary superheroes—Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern, and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl—when the heartbeat of the movie is the chemistry of the three leads.

Screenwriter and director (and DC studio head) James Gunn brings in much of what established him in the superhero cinema world with The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. He also manages to tone down some of his more sophomoric tendencies, though they occasionally still force their way onto the screen.

Superman is a unique entry into the recent comic book movie fare and a great introduction to a new cinematic world. Yes, like the Saturday morning shows, another episode will come along soon. There might be an earnest but ham-fisted moral or two along the way. But overall, you leave Superman feeling hopeful, believing that niceness matters and sincerity has significance.

Spoilers for Superman

After a difficult moment for Superman, Lois Lane and Clark Kent argue over his punk rock bona fides. As the one who became the take-no-prisoners reporter, she grew up listening to the unknown indie bands. He, on the other hand, listened to the bands with radio hits.

Despite the world turning against Superman, he remains steadfast even through hurt feelings. “You trust everyone, and you think everyone you’ve ever met is beautiful,” Lois says. That’s decidedly not punk rock, she claims. But Clark wonders if she’s wrong. “Maybe that’s what makes me punk rock,” he says. In a world of cynicism and sarcasm, is wonder and sincerity not the most punk rock ethos imaginable?

Drawing from perhaps the greatest modern superhero movie, The Incredibles, we might could say, “If everyone is punk rock, then no one is punk rock,” except maybe the earnest person with their heart on their sleeve.

I also thought back to Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae’s 2008 song “Rebel,” in which he samples a sermon that mentions sinful and seemingly rebellious actions, but says that everyone’s done that. “If you want to be a rebel, read your Bible. Because no one is doing that. That’s rebellion. It’s the only rebellion left.”¹

Superman is the rebel. He’s punk rock because he, more than anyone else, doesn’t change who he is to fit into society. Everyone around him may be cynical and jaded, but he remains kind and hopeful. Those traits are just as unusual in his cinematic world as they are in ours.

The “Justice Gang” is a triumvirate of superheroes—Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl—financed by billionaire entrepreneur Maxwell Lord. They work to save Metropolis, but they might not like the people in it or be concerned with how much damage they do. Green Lantern is constructing giant middle fingers with his powers, but Superman is saying words like “Golly.”

Zach Snyder gave us Superman as a god with the face of a man. James Gunn is giving us Superman as a man with the powers of a god. But not just any man, a humble, heartfelt, sincere man raised by good people on a Kansas farm. This is the aspirational Superman.

He is naïve in the best way, the way that wants to see the best in others. The way that wants to protect and value life and creation. He saves lives, including dogs and squirrels, and stops war, and he’s not sure why people would be mad about that. The villains are very clearly those who dismiss life and its inherent worth.

Superman not only rejecting cynicism, but it’s also a response to nuance. Many modern superhero movies give us morally gray characters in a washed-out environment. Despite the abundance of color in this Metropolis, Superman is a black-and-white character.

The film touches on numerous real-world, complicated issues surrounding immigration and assimilation, citizenship and rights, dictators and genocide, allies and treaties, tech billionaires and government corruption. It doesn’t diminish those serious issues, but it reminds us that our responsibilities center on the kindness we can offer to others.

The Saturday morning vibe extends beyond the moral messaging and bright colors to even the construction of the scenes. Crowds often feel sparse, as if the cartoon animators got tired of drawing background extras. They’re meant to be less spectacle and more representative. For some, that could be distracting, but it feels like the aesthetic of the movie.

There are times when Gunn can’t help himself. Mr. Terrific has an action sequence that closely mirrors one from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. But that was at least fun. When Superman is trapped in a mirror dimension, the lived-in Metropolis gives way to a CGI rainbow river flowing into a black hole. You can take the director out of the cosmic scene, but you can’t take the cosmic scene out of the director.

Yet, the criticisms of Superman lie in the periphery. The misses aren’t at the heart of the story. Lois and the Daily Planet crew are straight from the pages of classic comics. Lex Luthor is maniacal but with motivations. And in a world that’s lost hope, Superman is hope personified.

“Punk rock is going against the grain,” Gunn told Den of Geek. “Right now, the most punk rock thing you can do is be kind, be raw, be open, look out for the person who needs looking out for, be unapologetically earnest. I think those are the things that are most rebellious.”

In a culture where vitriol is rewarded and virtue is mocked, we need the rebellious Superman and those who would follow his punk rock lead.

1. Ironically, that sermon was from Mark Driscoll, who has now established himself as a sort of cultural chameleon after being forced out of his Seattle church.