AP photo
Superman, played by actor David Corenswet (center), is pictured in the Fortress of Solitude with his dog, Krypto, and his robot during a scene from the ‘Superman’ movie.

I’m a DC guy at heart except when it comes to the big screen; there’s nothing better than a Marvel super hero movie. Sorry DC.

For years, DC — specifically Warner Bros. Discovery — has been playing a desperate game of catchup in hopes of recreating the success that Marvel achieved with its live-action comics adaptations.

DC have had their movie moments, but they were few and far between and never managed to come together in a way that felt right. And for a long time, it seemed like DC simply didn’t know how to pull itself out of that downward spiral.

That’s why they pulled the plug on the entire universe and started over with a new cinematic approach created by James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Like most great comic books, the new “Superman” movie is as big as it is simple. It assumes you know most of the basics about the Man of Steel but knows there are probably pieces of his lore that you probably aren’t familiar with and would want to learn about.

Though Superman (David Corenswet) is a known quantity in this world who has been saving people from disasters for a bit of time, very few people know that he is also bumbling journalist Clark Kent.

There are a couple of clever reasons that most folks don’t recognize Clark when he takes off his glasses. But the duality of his identity is something that Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) understands. Clark and Lois’ colleagues Perry White (Wendell Pierce) and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) can kind of smell the Superman charade as well.

With Metropolis constantly being attacked by aliens and monsters, the people in Clark’s life — aside from Lois — don’t really put two and two together to realize that he’s a super-powered man from the alien planet Krypton.

Superman’s presence is something that consumes billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), a man who insists that his technological creations are the solutions to all of humanity’s problems.

Even though he’s constantly in the news for saving the planet, Superman’s used to having haters. But it does perturb him to some extent the way that the members of the Justice Gang (yes, that’s their name because the team is very new) — Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) — look at him.

The kaiju is just one of the many harebrained schemes Luthor has cooked up in hopes of turning the public against Superman. It’s a plot point the movie repeatedly reinforces in ways that illustrate the fact that Superman, as a character, has always been an embodiment of what it means to be an immigrant.

No matter how much good Superman does in the world, Lex can only see him as a foreign invader. That idea also comes to the fore in moments when Clark has to rush back to Smallville, Kan., to see his mother Martha (Neva Howell) and father Jon (Pruitt Taylor Vince). You’re meant to see the Kents as humans who are very different than Clark, but whose love has inspired within him a deep responsibility to protect other people regardless of their differences.

Gunn does a great job of making Superman’s actions reflective of the power fantasy that’s built into Clark Kent. There’s a cool, but playful energy to the way the movie depicts Superman flying around and letting his laser eyes fry through enemies who mean to harm civilians.

Every set piece works to remind you that Superman’s the best of the best. But he’s also just a farm boy who happens to have excellent chemistry with a woman who wants the world to see him for what he truly is.

There’s a very pointed cheesiness to Clark and Lois’ love story that feels like a complete 180 from previous versions. It’s goofy, but it’s fun and comes across like the kind of romance classic, Golden Age comics excelled at.

It speaks to Gunn’s grasp of what it takes to make these kinds of movies work across all ages — what worked so well for Marvel for so many years.

“Superman” absolutely feels like a strong launching point for a new era of DC projects, but what’s less certain is the degree to which all of the studio’s currently-announced projects will be able to match this movie’s energy.

Superman has always been the centerpiece of DC’s brand, and the new film gets what makes these characters work — finally.

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 129 minutes

Grade: A

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Greg Williams is a reporter and Weekend Editor for The Sentinel. A Mifflin County native, he has been writing for The Sentinel since 1991.