Can Superman save the movie business?

Superman is – as suggested by that stripped-back, single-word title – on a mission to take us back to the original superhero’s core values. The opening line is a command given by Superman to his loyal superdog, Krypto: “Take me home”. But what exactly are these essential values? And where is the “home” – Krypton or Kansas? – in which they were forged?

One matter does seem to be agreed upon: Christopher Reeve’s 1978 Superman is the last time the hero really soared on screen. Everything that came between – from that film’s three sequels, to the 2006 film Superman Returns, and the dark turn into the Zack “Snyderverse” – is easily overlooked.

Gunn’s smartest move is to avoid the obvious reboot route of offering audiences yet another origin story along the lines of 2013’s Man of Steel. Instead, we meet David Corenswet’s Superman/Clark Kent after he’s already been on Earth for three years and has pre-established relationships with canonical characters such as Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White at the Daily Planet (a perfectly cast trio of Rachel Brosnahan, Skyler Gisondo and Wendell Pierce), as well as familiar DC heroes Mister Terrific, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl.

This frees the film from a boring rehash of the backstory (comics aficionados will still be able to predict the plot twists, but that’s how they get their kicks, isn’t it?) and allows Gunn to overcome some of the tale’s longstanding issues. How is it that Clark Kent can put on a pair of specs, muss up his hair and suddenly no one – including a group of sceptical newspaper reporters – can tell he’s Superman? The answer lies in the addition of “Hypno Glasses” (derived from a December 1978 issue of the comic) and a key detail of characterisation.

With these niggling plot holes now filled and smoothed over, we are free to appreciate the inventive use of indie pop in action sequences (a Gunn speciality since Guardians of the Galaxy) and otherwise slide along the sleek surface of a solidly constructed storyline. This revolves around bald, billionaire brainbox Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and his attempts at war profiteering while tarnishing Superman’s reputation for international peacekeeping. There are real-world parallels here, of course; to problematic public-private partnerships and the ethics of foreign military intervention. There’s also a gentle satire of modern media culture in which outrage-farming “monkey-bots” live to post another day.

Not that this Superman is always alert to nuance or abreast of current affairs. In places it’s as daft and soppy as a happily slobbering dog, and just as difficult to avoid embracing. (Krypto is the CGI-rendered heart of this film.)

Superman is handsome and heroic and kind and good, but definitely not cool. He says things like “golly”. When a fire-breathing Godzilla-esque creature attacks Metropolis, he frets about how to contain it in a humane way (a suggestion met with side eye from Edi Gathegi’s drily efficient Mister Terrific). When Lois makes fun of Supe’s taste in music and naive worldview (“You trust everyone and think everyone you’ve ever met is beautiful”), he looks at her with his blandsome blue eyes and says: “Maybe that’s the real punk rock?”

If the latest run of superhero films, such as Deadpool & Wolverine, were so winkingly meta that they risked collapsing under the weight of their own self-knowledge, then Superman is refreshingly earnest.

The movie’s secret superpower is that swelling John Williams theme, deployed to invest even the hokiest moment with tear-brimming triumph. Is this the real punk rock? Absolutely not. But Corenswet has a hopeful quality, capable of lifting audiences up, up and away: you will once again believe a man can fly.

Photograph by Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros