The new Superman film, whose whirlwind of CGI fails to develop much of its lightly anti-imperialist plot, leaves the audience little in which to invest, finds Jamal Elaheebocus

It’s fair to say the critics are not sold on the new Superman. The Guardian found James Gunn’s reinvention of the 1978 classic ‘unconvinced of the reason for its own existence’, while Forbes labelled it a ‘painfully mediocre, super generic mess of a movie’.

You can see why the critics have cast a damning verdict. The film moves at breakneck speed through storylines which are not well-developed and only given some vague context in a prologue. It’s not enough however to compensate for a film which is just not written very well.

The film appears to start halfway through the plot, with Superman (David Corenswet) already having intervened to stop a war and incurred the wrath of the tyrannical arms-company boss Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). Meanwhile, Clark Kent is tangled up in a fractured relationship with colleague Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan).

From there, it is a whirlwind of CGI, near-apocalypses and seemingly never-ending brawls. There’s little time to invest in what is happening and not enough time given to the many characters for the audience to feel any connection. That all being said, it is an entertaining enough watch, given there’s no shortage of action, and Corenswet gives a strong performance.

Following the theme, the soundtrack underwhelms as well. John Murphy and David Fleming shoehorn in John Williams’ famous motif whenever they can but do little else beyond that.

There’s some vague anti-imperialist sentiment, but this ends up being more confusing than anything. By the time the film starts, Superman has already intervened to stop the imperialist adventures of US-backed Boravia, which appears to be a Russia-heavy blend of Russia and Israel.

Much of the rest of the plot is devoted to preventing Boravia invading neighbouring Jarhanpur, a move being orchestrated by arms company Luthorcorp to bolster its own profits. All the while, Luthor himself tries to destroy Superman’s reputation and exile him from society.

It’s an appropriate commentary on an increasingly dangerous world with simultaneous bloody wars happening across the globe, to the benefit of arms manufacturers. The film doesn’t venture outside the relative safety of this plot though and in the end the invasion is portrayed as Luthor’s responsibility alone. It therefore doesn’t explore American imperialism in a meaningful way, beyond a couple of scenes in the Pentagon discussing working with Boravia against Superman.

Maybe it’s too much to expect from a film like this but with American imperialism wreaking havoc in Ukraine and Gaza, you feel the writers could have been braver with the plot. Because while arms companies are certainly profiting from the ongoing violence, there is a wider political system at play which seeks control over countries to access their resources and it can’t be laid at the feet of one or two evil characters.