Brandon Routh ‘Cried’ Watching David Corenswet’s ‘Fantastic’ Superman

When James Gunn’s “Superman” was released earlier this month, former Man of Steel Brandon Routh cheered its arrival on Instagram.

A July 12 post featuring a trailer for the movie was accompanied by Routh’s message, “Go see #Superman in theaters now!”

He also wrote, “Seeing it soon! But at @fanboy_expo in Nashville— talking to all the amazing Superman fans who have seen it already, and we are very excited to see it soon! Same as me!”

Routh, who starred as the DC superhero in 2006’s “Superman Returns,” tells me he has now seen the movie.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said Monday while promoting his new sci-fi horror comedy, “Ick.” “I really enjoyed it. I think David [Corenswet] is fantastic. I cried no less than three times.

“I see this in a different way. I come at it from a different perspective,” Routh added. “I really got into it as I’m watching him navigate those tricky Superman moments in the first conversation with Lois and Clark in the apartment. And then all of the family stuff for me really hit. It’s a big movie. There’s a lot in there. I have to go see it again.”

While “Superman Returns” disappointed at the box office and with critics, Routh has never soured on DC. Over the years, he’s appeared in several adaptations of its comic book IP in a variety of roles.

“I really am excited for the potential for the DC Universe,” he said. “A successful launch with this is just good for everybody who wants more of what DC has to offer. There are a lot of great properties that can be explored.”

In “Ick,” Routh stars as Hank Wallace, a former high school football star whose dream to play in college get derailed by an injury. Years later, now a science teacher at the high school, he teams up with a Grace (Malina Pauli Weissman), a student he thinks may be his daughter with ex-girlfriend Staci (Mena Suvari), to battle the Ick, a Blob-like alien species that threatens to destroy their town.

The movie is a mashup of bloody horror, sci-fi and coming-of-age comedy. It begins in the year 2000 and features music from All-American Rejects, Paramore and Blink 182.

Director and co-writer Joseph Kahn incorporated decades-old footage of Routh and Suvari to de-age them to their teen years.

“There’s about 10 to 15 minutes of high school Hank and early twenties Hank, and it’s mostly just the high school stuff for Mena,” Routh said. “She was easier for them to do because there was a lot more footage of her at that time. For me, I was just starting out acting, so I didn’t have a lot of footage. What there was was the soap opera that I did, ‘One Life to Live,’ which was on tape so they didn’t have much.”

Routh says his high school years in his native Iowa were far from being the big man on campus like Hank. “I was like Clark Kent,” he offers. “I was involved in many activities. I played soccer. I was on the swim team. I was in band, marching band, choir, jazz band and theater. I was social at school, but I didn’t have friends outside of school. I was playing video games or reading after practice.”

In “Ick,” Hank gets ridiculed by his students for being “old.” “It was weird and a little bit humbling,” Routh, 45, said with a laugh.

As the Ick begins to overrun the town, one can’t help but wonder what it may symbolize — be it COVID, climate change or natural disasters. “It’s a fun popcorn movie but there’s layering there. Any good story has that,” Routh said. “I think [the Ick] can be the things we’re afraid to look at and address because we think they’re going to be icky. But the thing is, it just builds up. It just builds up and up and up and becomes a mask that you can’t control anymore because it’s taken over more of you.”

But “Ick” could be a great escape from real-life ick.

“I’m doing good, all things considered with the state of the world,” Routh said. “I got a movie coming out and ‘Superman’ is also out. It’s a good summer.”

“Ick” will be in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on July 25 followed by a nationwide rollout on July 27.