Usually it’s just kryptonite that brings Superman out in a rash, but early reviews of the latest instalment in the long-running film franchise suggest our lycra-clad hero has significantly more to worry about than green crystals.
The new film – directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet as the fictional superhero, with Rachel Brosnahan as precocious reporter Lois Lane – will go on general release from July 11.
But while it marks a new chapter in a franchise that began with the iconic Christopher Reeve in Richard Donner’s well received 1978 classic Superman: The Movie, a faction of early reviews suggest some critics are already longing for it to end.
One such review, published by the Daily Beast some five days before strict press embargoes had been lifted, didn’t hold back in its negative assessment of the film.
In an extensive critique that has since been removed online, the publication condemned Gunn’s latest offering as ‘the Final Nail in the Grave for the Superhero Genre.’
Moot points include a convoluted, humourless script, poor character development and a plot filled with ‘fanciful nonsense that soon renders the entire affair superficial and silly.’
‘Just as the seemingly indestructible Man of Steel is fatally weakened by kryptonite, so too is the once-unbeatable superhero genre gravely threatened by audience fatigue,’ they write.
‘Looking ahead rather than focusing on the here and now, this attempt at reimagining DC’s movie series ultimately proves to be more of the same old interconnected-universe bedlam that, at this point, is perilously close to going out of fashion.’
While British star Nicholas Hoult’s portrayal of nemesis Lex Luthor wins scant praise from the outlet, leading man Corenswet’s portrayal of Superman is dismissed for adhering to a woke checklist of cringeworthy cliches.
‘Superman’s hero is no brooding Snyder-ian Christ figure; rather, he’s a sweet and sincere do-gooder who uses the word “dude,” takes time out of fighting behemoths to save squirrels from harm, and believes that viewing everyone as beautiful is “punk rock.”‘
