Written and Directed by James Gunn, based on the DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster | 129 min | ▲▲ | Crave 

Welcome to the new James Gunniverse of DC Comics heroes, replacing the Zack Snyderverse, which had its fans — I wasn’t one of them — but it flamed out. This is the start of a whole new cycle, and James Gunn isn’t a bad choice to launch and guide it based solely on the three Guardians of the Galaxy movies he made for Marvel. His first DC picture was The Suicide Squad, which was loud and witless. Superman was unlikely to be anything like it, and thankfully isn’t.

This is James Gunn’s embracing a bright and goofy superhero universe, more aligned with Saturday morning cartoons than the dour, gritty Snyder approach established with 2013’s Man Of Steel. A little bit of irreverant cheer, a dab of fun — that’s not a bad thing. Gunn divests entirely with the Superman origin story, assuming we know how the Kryptonian Kal-El came to Earth following the destruction of his home planet, his spaceship discovered by a kindly couple in Kansas who raise the boy as their own, a corn-fed American kid who’s also an alien.

Clark Kent (David Corenswet) is Clark, working as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Jimmy Olson (Booksmart veteran Skyler Gisondo), and Perry White (Wendell Pierce). This is one of the touches that feels entirely retro: it’s a full on newspaper, and citizens of Metropolis love to read it. It takes a few minutes to meet Clark — we start with a beaten down Superman off the top, rescued by trusty mutt Krypto and dragged to his Fortress of Solitude, the exterior very much like what was created for Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeve, though inside Supes has a team of cyclopean robots to give him a hand. The dog is a real comic relief supporting character here, though his origins are also left entirely unexplained, too.

Lois knows who Clark is behind the specs. In fact, they’re dating. These actors have plenty of chemistry, and you wish they had more moments together. In a terrific early scene — you may have seen part of it in the trailer — she interviews Superman about his having interceded in a conflict between two fictional nations and not consulted the American president or Secretary of State. Gunn attempts to cut his cartoony movie — complete with caped superdog, kaiju, and dimensional rifts — with present day political relevance, weighing in on American foreign policy, authoritarianism, and media. Who knew James Gunn’s Superman would have so much in common with The Boys?

Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is a tech bro writ large, Tony Stark gone bad, with a whole plan to rid the world of this illegal alien with the help of some cunning media manipulation, his own pocket universe, and a literal army of trained monkeys trolling the internet.

This all sounds like a good time, doesn’t it? Then why does Superman turn out to be such a chore?

Partly because this effort to be smart and satirical doesn’t mesh at all with the silly, cartoony stuff, and the nostalgic callbacks to the character’s cinematic legacy  don’t work with this zippy, emotion-free concoction Gunn has created.  I hope John Williams is getting a big cheque for how they reuse and rewrite his 1978 theme.

There’s a nice twist involving Kal-El’s parents’ (Angela Sarafyan and Bradley Cooper!?) reasons for sending their son to Earth, but that grim development feels like something maybe better suited to the Snyderverse movies and doesn’t get the depth it deserves. They could’ve built the whole movie around that identity-shattering issue, but it’s just one of a dozen things the picture brings up and tosses aside in favour of special effects and super-punching.

There’s nothing in the action sequences we haven’t seen done better before, the vertiginous, dizzying camerawork and sludgy CGI visions of alternate dimensions and black holes. This Superman movie is busy, overstuffed, and sometimes annoying.

We’re also introduced to a cadre of other superheroes — Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardener has one joke, which is he wants his super team to be called The Justice Gang. Isabela Merced is underused as Hawkgirl. Only Edi Gathegi, as a very silly character called Mr Terrific, really manifests and gets something to do.

Maybe the biggest problem here is something Lex Luthor nails: Superman is not very bright. The best thing you could say is he’s naive, but he spends practically the whole movie getting the stuffing beaten out of him due to a series of bad decisions. I guess this is supposed to drive home the idea he’s just like any human being, fallible, but admirable because he’s as honest, kind, and stalwart as a boy scout. That’s just not enough for us to care.

(There’s an alternate timeline here where Hoult landed the role of Clark Kent/Superman. I’m not sure that would’ve made this movie better — he’s a magnetic Lex Luthor — but he might made a better Superman in a better Superman movie.)

While Donner’s Superman has aged over almost 50 years, it might seem a little hokey, as time passes it becomes more impressive for how much it got right. Modern filmmakers seem unable to get close to the heart of that film, or the core of what people love about the character. Despite its ambition, rank this Superman as another missed opportunity.