Dispensing with showing the well-known origin story this time, Gunn starts with the Man of Steel fully established both as the world famous superhero and mild-mannered, experienced reporter Clark Kent at Metropolis's Daily Planet newspaper. Also his passionate relationship with colleague, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), is in full-swing.
We join the story in the aftermath of a controversial situation where Superman has unilaterally intervened in a foreign conflict. Physically threatening a megalomaniac dictator to stop an invasion of a poorer, neighbouring sovereign state. To save lives, of course, but it has caused a rift between him and the Pentagon.
It's also causing a temporary rift between him and Lane as they argue over the incident in her apartment after work one evening. Meanwhile, across town at the Luthorcorp offices, tech mastermind and CEO Lex (Nicholas Holt), is beside himself. Through arms sales, his plan in cahoots with President Ghurkos of the aggressive nation to obtain territory for his own use has been foiled by Superman's intervention. Assembling all his allies, he is now determined, once and for all, to take the Kryptonian out of the picture by hatching a plan to discredit him in the glare of the World's media.
With a very similar feel to Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn is definitely going for a more screwball approach to these familiar DC Comics characters. There is an awful lot packed into the 2 hours 9 minutes run time. A constantly challenged and battered Superman faces many different foes sent by Luthor, including two genetically-engineered superpowered villains, an army of flying soldier drones and on one occasion, a giant fire-breathing Godzilla-type creature, terrorising Metropolis! There's even a Subatomic Universe that Lex has opened a portal to in which he is holding prisoners he deems a threat to his overall plans to portray himself as Saviour of Planet Earth!
The Fortress of Solitude now in Antarctica is run by numbered robots that watch over the Kryptonian archive. Oh - and our hero has a Superdog called Krypto that has behavioural issues! As well as help from this superpooch to assist leveling the playing field to a degree, Superman is also helped by a trio of nonchalant non-aligned superheroes led by Guy Garder, The Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) calling themselves the Justice League International.
There's heartwarming brief performances by Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as Jonathan and Martha Kent, respectively, Wendell Pierce as Daily Planet Chief Perry White and Skyler Gisondo as Lane's colleague, Jimmy Olsen - all worth an honourable mention. However there are many more peripheral characters, too numerous to name.
Now with all this going on, you may think that this story sounds like it may get a bit incoherent. I guess that being familiar with previous James Gunn projects, I took in everything very well - and even with all the ultra-fast paced action with much smashing and crashing, I enjoyed this first DCU outing. A lot of that enjoyment has to do with a very confident performance by Corenswet who statuesquely embodies the red and blue cape and underpants with a swagger that belies his newcomer status to the role. Take your whole family along!
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