“Superman” makes the radical choice of being an unapologetically silly, earnest, and sincere movie about a genuinely good guy who respects all life, values truth and justice, and is just out here trying to save people as he fights for a better tomorrow.
Though the film is firmly Golden Age in how political Superman is, it’s also very much a love letter to DC’s Silver Age comics in terms of its tone and outlandish concepts. This is, after all, a movie where a kaiju attacks Metropolis, keyboard-typing monkeys post rage-bait online, silly heroes fly around left and right, and nobody bats an eye at any of it. Even Lex Luthor’s (Nicholas Hoult) big real estate scheme is pretty elaborate, even by his standards.
The gamble works in no small part because Gunn creates a world that feels lived-in, allowing “Superman” to kickstart a cinematic universe that can support all sorts of stories and tones. Unlike the DC Extended Universe, this new DC Universe already feels like a connected, comic book-based setting where characters like Swamp Thing and Booster Gold could conceivably co-exist without asking too much of audiences.
Arguably, however, the most Silver Age thing in “Superman” is also the character that makes the movie shine the brightest: Krypto the super-dog.
