That is, without question, the most fun I've had watching a Superman solo movie.

Now, there are a few ways you could take that sentence, and these days, most people would likely think that I've never had much fun watching Superman solo films, but that's not what I'm saying at all.

I'm saying that, of all the Superman solo movies, and granted, there have only been seven of them in the last 47 years, which is a travesty in itself, Superman is the one I had the most fun watching, and it's not even close.

No, that doesn't mean it's the best Superman solo movie. Man of Steel still takes that top spot hands down, but that's not a "fun" movie to watch. Entertaining? Epic? Grandiose spectacle? Absolutely, but that film is more heavily weighted and grounded in a universe that blends the grittiness of reality with the comic book aesthetic.

Superman isn't interested in grit whatsoever and says, "We've got aliens, metahumans and crazy science that everyone just accepts as part of the world they live in, no matter how terrifying and crazy it might be to regular people."

On one hand, that's refreshing to see, because the general dynamic of comic book movies in a shared cinematic universe consistently involves regular people adapting to the craziness of the world changing around them. After all, the concept of superheroes, aliens and metahumans is so fantastical that someone has to stay grounded to relate to the audience as a whole, but now James Gunn has made a Superman film that doesn't rely on that at all because we've had a glut of comic book movies in the past 20 years that has trained us to suspend our disbelief more than any other time we've watched movies, and instead of holding your hand to guide you through that world, he's just throwing you right into the middle of it and expecting that you understand how it works.

On the other hand, a longtime Superman fan who likes the gritty reality blend and wants the grounding nature of regular people to keep things level won't find it refreshing at all, and that's okay.

Superman is arguably the first Superman solo movie truly made for the general audience. Yes, it has Easter eggs, and yes, it introduces some more obscure things from the comics canon for the first time that I can't mention because it's a spoiler. Yes, it's DEEPLY entrenched in the comic book aesthetic to the point where part of your brain might expect to see a splash page in the middle of a scene. Still, instead of focusing on the grandiose spectacle of the DCU, it focuses on the essence of Superman himself and, more importantly, his humanity. David Corenswet is not playing an all-powerful god among humans who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. He's playing a kind-hearted, naive guy from the Midwest with superpowers who wants to do the right thing, regardless of politics, social standing, and every other complication that clouds our real world these days.

He is not perfect. He screws up. He gets upset. He gets scared. He self-doubts. He acts HUMAN throughout the entire film, and it's not an act or shield that he puts up to fit in with the rest of humanity. It's literally how he is as a person, and this might be the very first Superman film to focus entirely on that perspective of his character for the audience.

That also means that such focus can come at the expense of other characters in the ensemble, because they are truly in the movie to support HIS story, not tell their own, so when it comes to the Daily Planet crew, the only one that gets developed is Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane, but that's not out of the ordinary. After all, she's the love interest and the ace reporter who consistently gets the scoop. However, in this film, her relationship with Clark Kent and Superman is still fresh and evolving, and that gives us a look into that dynamic we haven't seen before: a Lois and Clark relationship that isn't as solid or resolute as we've seen it in past films. Lois has been his emotional center and rock historically, but she's not in this film because they're still figuring each other out, and that's more relatable to the general audience. It's not a storybook romance or a situation where she keeps him grounded; it's a "real" evolution that includes struggle, disagreement, and, at one point, the all-too-real "I'm leaving" moment that so many of us have been a part of in our relationships. Still, it's never happened on the big screen before with them.

So, yes, that means, outside of Skyler Gisondo's Jimmy Olsen doing his job to further the movie's plot, the rest of the Daily Planet crew serves as little more than visual support, which is only truly disappointing with Wendell Pierce's Perry White. He's there and he's the boss, but Lois is the one running the show the whole time, and he could have had more interactions with her that likely got cut out of the final film for pacing's sake.

As for the pacing as a whole, that is full-blown general audience posturing. Superman moves with a purpose through its 2 hours and 9 minutes runtime. A LOT happens, and while it's not quite too fast, fans that want to stop and savor the moment for a tick are not going to have time to do so. There's too much else going on to worry about that, and it's fast and furious at times, no pun intended.

That doesn't mean the movie is without decompression moments; they are just also paced with a purpose. It's challenging to think of a moment or a sequence in the film that is unnecessary or extraneous to the story itself, because nothing about this movie drags unless you're seeing something you don't like or something that personally doesn't work for you, and that's going to come down to how much you enjoy, tolerate, or dislike James Gunn's filmmaking aesthetics. Let's discuss those for a bit.

The humor in this movie, like that in any other, is highly subjective. I've been down that road before with James Gunn and his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. He's no stranger to one-liners and quips, but he also knows situational humor, and I've said for years that DC movies do situational humor better than most. That's still the case here. The jokes in this film are not a mile a minute and most of the one liners and quips are coming from the Justice Gang, imbalanced perfectly with Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner Green Lantern getting most of them, and Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl and Edi Gathegi's Mr. Terrific getting a few in here and there, but even those are largely situational. It's not MCU humor, but not every joke is going to land with you. That's just the nature of humor.

I've made no bones about not wanting Superman to use the John Williams theme, as it was composed for Richard Donner's version starring Christopher Reeve. Corenswet still deserves his theme for the DCU. That said, I do like John Murphy and David Fleming's score for this film because, in my opinion, it blends the old school with the new school of composing. The Williams theme is there throughout, but it's not lazy. They reworked it and composed new arrangements of it, instead of clumsily dropping a static version of the original into the film, as Danny Elfman did with Josstice League in 2017. It doesn't feel hollow or empty like it did with John Ottman's version in Superman Returns because again, they made new arrangements and did their best to fit the theme into the rest of the brand new score they created, and at times it punctuates the action on screen a la James Horner in so many of his movies like The Rocketeer or Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

There's a needle drop of popular music or two, but unlike Gunn's other films, it's not the primary music source by any means, and the last one in the movie is very relevant to the emotional plot line throughout the film.

Arguably, the most notable and relatable aspect of James Gunn's films, though, is the heart, and Superman certainly doesn't miss that beat here. Truthfully, it starts with Corenswet, because it's his heart that we've to see the most in this film, and we do from start to finish. Superman has had vulnerable moments on the big screen before, but we have never seen him THIS vulnerable for an entire film. What he goes through and how he responds to everyone in the movie is what makes you root for him beyond the cape and the symbol on his chest. You believe his joy, his pain, and his fear the entire way through, as anyone with a heart would, and that certainly extends to Krypto, his canine associate, who provides another strong, relatable connection to the general audience. He looks, sounds, and acts like a dog with superpowers and a cape, and it's remarkable how they avoid making it cartoony on the surface. That is where having a director who is a dog owner, who modeled Krypto after his dog, is a great benefit. As far as the general audience is concerned, Krypto is as real as any actor in that film, even though he's not.

The heart of Superman isn't just about the characters, though. It's also about the circumstances of the story and the struggle that Superman goes through, which ironically is essentially why Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor is the "Id" of Lex Luthors in this film. There's very little about his performance that's calm, reserved, or measured, as we've seen with past versions, but it's extremely calculated. Hoult is Lex Luthor, unhinged, both emotionally and tactically. He is the height of pettiness, arrogance, egotism, heartlessness, and obsession, and he HAS to be for the heart of the film to work. For Corenswet's Superman to be truly tested and brought to his knees from all angles of existence, it must come from a Lex Luthor who constantly escalates the situation, no matter what, and he does so infuriatingly throughout the film. The best compliment I can pay Hoult is that he's the first Lex Luthor that I truly wanted to see bodily harm done to, because I HATED him every time he was on screen, which of course was the point of how he played it.

There's a message at the heart of Superman conveyed through his family, and that's arguably one of the most relatable aspects of the film for the audience. We don't see a ton of Superman's birth or adoptive parents, but we see them enough to understand how he feels about both and the impact they have made on his life, and that is the most critical role they play in the story. By the time the movie is over, you see the journey Clark has undertaken, where it has led him, and how it has shaped him going forward.

Visually speaking, there are things in this film that we've never seen before in a Superman film, and that's where the comic book aesthetic truly comes into play. Again, this isn't the real world. There is no misconception about Metropolis or the DCU being a grounded allegory for real life, even with the real life machinations, allegories and parallels that it uses, but that allows us to see comic book elements adapted on screen in a new way that rivals even elements that the MCU has attempted over the years. Again, this is all about understanding that we, as an audience, know the score. Comic book movies, at this point in time, are not only not new, but are arguably the center of big-budget Hollywood. So when Lex or Mr. Terrific goes into comic book science exposition mode, the audience's eyes don't glaze over, because all of this is old hat now. Our packed theater at the Amazon Prime Advance Screening in Super EMAX had no one walk out, with barely anyone leaving early, knowing full well that it featured two credit scenes. It also elicited the most laughter during humorous scenes that I can remember at a DC movie premiere. We also had two rounds of applause, one during the credits and one after the final credit scene.

One guy booed, and he got quiet real quick once he realized it was just him.

Superman is a fun movie and a true summer blockbuster. It's not perfect, and it's not a referendum on Superman movies as a whole. Still, it's delightful and arguably the most relatable Superman film made to date, even with the full-blown comic book aesthetic on display.