Superman is back and has this divided, destructive world ever needed him more? The superhero was created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel— American sons of Jewish immigrants who first mentioned the character in a 1933 story about a villain who uses a mind-controlling drug to make money and mischief. Fast-forward 92 years and we have social media doing just that for us, and a Superman film has rarely felt more timely. The new movie comes to a planet that feels like it could do with a man who has the ability to turn back time.
Superman, directed by James Gunn, is a triumph. After a long wait, this is the film the character deserves. In 1978 Richard Donner made us believe a man could fly when he picked Christopher Reeve as Kal-El, the Kryptonian who falls to Earth to become Clark Kent, and despite a superb sequel the franchise has since been a reboot slog of diminishing returns: Brandon Routh is forgotten, Henry Cavill is boring. Nobody seemed to know what to do with Superman until now.
