No Origin Stories... No Man of Steel.... No Man of Tomorrow... No Kal-El... No Brood... No Grit... No Gloom... No Dark...
The bulletin board in James Gunn's offcie room might have been push-pinned with the each of the above in separate, distinct post-it notes, all caps and underlined in red, before he got himself to writing the latest feature about the man in red and blue, for, it is not an easy task to start a (yet another) reboot of a super hero in an already saturated, jaded and crowded marketplace of organically, chemically and genetically modified souped up men and women, without falling back on familiar tropes and themes, and when all else was tried (and failed), going dark. The latest version of Superman (and the title, continuing in the same clutter-free environment, refreshingly not burdened with further taglines) is bright, colorful, cheerful and heartful, free of even the slightest post-modern irony or cynicism, and is as close a return to the original Dick Donner's "Superman" as one can get, and yet set in a world of selfies, smartphones and harmless narcisissm. And that's a mighty trick that Gunn was able to pull off, just like he did with the first Guardians of Galaxy, keeping the proceedings playful and moving them all at a break neck pace. And all this was possible, by adhering strictly to the diktats he set himself on his writing (No origin stories..... et al).
The problem that any super hero in the current world has to face is to address the real world issues - war, terrorism, identity, and above all, the ramifications of the presence and the actions of him/her on/in the real world. This is the issue that any writer taking a stab at the super hero genre, be it in the comic world or the celluloid scene, has to confront if he intends to have his work be relevant and a product of its times. No longer can super heroes operate in alternate universes or timelines where the distinctions between noble and evil are clearly demarcated, and bad comes with a growl and good hides behind a cowl. No longer can the super hero operate with impunity even if it is as a response to evil or in defense of good. (like in the instance, where in Batman v Superman, there had to be dialogue looped in as an afterthought while destruction was being wrought upon the city with the colliding super heroes, that that part of the city was emptied out for the weekend, as a response to criticism for the previous movie "Man of Steel", where Superman was as much crashing into the skyscrapers and bringing them down as his nemesis was, with no concern to loss of life or limb of ordinary citizenry living or working in those buildings). And that concern, like consent of women, is clearly a product of the times that the makers cannot sidestep. Same goes with the jingoistic tendencies of the super heroes. No longer are they only American, waving the American flags and caring only about the American lives, while living in this intricately interconnected world (funnily enough, the character of Superman started off as an American hero, waving an American flag and caring only about the Americans). When an international conflict is interwoven into the plot, enough care should be taken to not transgress upon the geo-political sensitivities and relationships of the current world. Political correctness to some, addressing the historical biases to some other. To come out with a superhero story in this current climate is clearly a knife-edge's play and Gunn aces the high-wire act comes up all trumps.
The beauty of the writing is revealed in the opening minutes, in a dinner date between a prospective couple - Kent and Lane - that transforms slowly into a probing interview between Superman and the intrepid journalist Ms. Lois Lane, where the above uncomfortable questions about Superman's choice about taking sides between two warring nations are brought up, and how his well-intentioned actions catalyse and morph a smaller conflict into a bigger war, leaving Superman conflicted, confused and agitated, ending with an unanswered question - does doing good really does good to each and everyone in the world... each and everyone...? To which there is no clear answer in the real world. Gunn's spin on Lex Luthor is just as delicious. He is not just a scheming, maniacal villain in the strictest sense. Gunn's take on Luthor is eerily similar to that of Brad Bird's antagonist in Pixar's "The Incredibles", in that, in a world where everyone is empowered with super human abilities, no one is really super. And so, Luthor "creates" an army of super human sentients to democratize the playing ground, training them on the very moves of Superman, in effect developing a replacement to Superman and making him irrelevant. As Superman grapples with these existential issues that threaten his very identity and existence, a new war front is opened at a different location that forces him to pick sides again. The writing of Dunn seems at once topical, real, and exigent, for all the ways Superman is tangled up in issues that are not that far removed from the present day politics.
Dunn retains the old charm of the earlier Superman movies of the late 70s (together with the fonts and lettering and a jazzed up version of the rousing John Williams' Superman theme) and fuses it with the present day problems and politics, creating a near perfect reboot that more than earns its welcome into the new era and into the new pantheon of super heroes. Now, that, is a super feat!
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