Will James Gunn's risky Superman movie pay off?

"Superman is back and has this divided, destructive world ever needed him more?" said Jonathan Dean in The Times. Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel's iconic cape-wearing hero made his first appearance in an early comic book back in the 1930s. Now, James Gunn has directed the first film in the rebooted franchise and a Superman movie has "rarely felt more timely".

'Just a movie'

Some fans will enjoy the film for the "huge fights" and cast of characters, but it's hard to ignore the political context. The movie is being released during a summer of protests in America over Trump's intensified immigration raids; something that's "jolting" given Superman's refugee roots. "Superman is the story of America," Gunn told the newspaper. "An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost."

The director's comments "predictably" led right-wing commentators to "fly into a rage", said Justin Baragona in The Independent, with some even calling for a boycott. "We don't go to the movie theatre to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us," said Fox News' Kellyanne Conway. On Monday at the film's Hollywood premiere Nathan Fillion, who plays Green Lantern, responded to the criticism: "Aw, somebody needs a hug. It’s just a movie, guys."

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"What James Gunn said isn't controversial," said Screen Rant. His comments were "objectively correct": Superman hails from the planet Krypton, a place that was "tragically destroyed". From his debut to his latest adventures, Clark Kent's story has "unquestionably been that of the immigrant experience" and it is "woven into his DNA".

Ever since the trailer was released, online debates have raged about whether the new Superman (played by David Corenswet) is too "woke", said Nicholas Barber on the BBC. The superhero is known as the "ultimate all-American Mr Nice Guy" these days, but it hasn't always been this way.

The first Superman comic book strips, written by Siegel and illustrated by Schuster, both second-generation Jewish immigrants living in New York, in 1938, were far more "rowdy and rebellious" than the character we know today. This first iteration of the superhero was a "left-wing revolutionary". However, a gradual "blandification" took over as Siegel and Schuster slowly "lost control of their creation".

'Geeky weirdness'

Forget "green crystals" and "mad alien generals", said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph. Superman's "deadliest enemy" these days is "superhero fatigue" – and this "snappily vivacious reboot is Hollywood's best hope of defeating it". The film kicks off in the middle of the action: Clark Kent is already working at the Daily Planet, dating Lois Lane (who knows he's a superhero), and saving lives.

The opening sees Superman crashing down in the Antarctic following his latest battle, before being saved by his "trusty pooch" Krypto, said Vulture. His "superpowered canine" has a "starring role" in the new movie due in part to Gunn's love of dogs, but also to signal "how wonderfully dorky and earnest" the film is about to get.

Gunn had the fate of DC's new universe on his shoulders, but the pressure hasn't shown, said Barber on the BBC. The film is "bursting with the geeky weirdness" of his earlier films and it's "exhilarating" to skip the origin story and dive straight into the "superheroics". It's unclear yet whether his "fun" approach will appeal to a mainstream audience.

"Here is a film occupying the heartsinking Venn diagram overlap between franchise exhaustion and AI soullessness," said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. We needed to "get back to basics" and remind ourselves of the "exciting and escapist" fun that made us like superhero movies in the first place. But instead of opting for a simple origin myth, this new reboot is "encumbered by a pointless and cluttered new backstory", while Corenswet plays the hero with a "square-faced vanilla dullness".

The conflict between the fictional nations of Boravia and Jarhanpur is a "clangingly on-the-nose representation of current events", said Sophie Butcher in Empire. It's a "commendable" stance but using the "real-life humanitarian crisis as a sideplot in a film this bombastic and snarky feels a little icky" and the lack of cohesion means the film "just doesn't work". There is one "saving grace", though: "Krypto, the cheeky, cape-wearing canine sidekick. 'Superman' may not be a great movie, but one thing's for sure: Krypto is a very good dog."