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Rejoice! For the Man of Tomorrow has returned. With the recent news that Man of Steel star Henry Cavill will return as Superman in a DC Comics movie, fans have been expressing their excitement and joy via social media. The news of his return has left fans jumping so high with joy that they could leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Henry Cavill Is Gonna Play Superman Again!!

— Bd (@BrandonDavisBD) May 28, 2020

The news that Henry Cavill will suit up once again has been met with much celebration, with a lot of fans considering it to be the dessert following the main course of The Snyder Cut release announcement earlier this month.

DC is winning so hard right now.

These past two months have been nothing but amazing!! pic.twitter.com/uUg38TYEoV

— The Moonlight Warrior...

After earning home-crowd accolades when shown as a rough cut at the 1997 Hawaii International Film Festival, director David L. Cunningham's well-intentioned, nicely mounted but at times too formulaic feature debut was presented as a world premiere at the recent AFI Los Angeles fest. A limited theatrical release is not out of the question, but the seeking-distribution independent's best hopes for wide exposure lie in ancillary markets.

The story of a teenage "haole" (Hawaiian for white person or foreigner) who leaves home in a hurry when his soccer coach dad is caught in bed with a student and moves in with Mom on the Big Island, "Beyond Paradise" purports to rip away our illusions of Hawaii as a tropical playground and show the cultural and racial tensions that come with the great waves and exotic geography.

Since Mark Twain wrote passionately about the Sandwich Islands in "Roughing It" -- 125 years ago -- there's been a notable fascination with this far-flung region. Documentarian and USC grad Cunningham, who was born in Switzerland and raised on the Big Island, is also out to educate audiences. Admirable in many respects but predictable overall, screenwriter David Walker's "Surfs With Dudes" scenario lacks a strong central plot line beyond the overused outsider-among-the-"savages" hook.

Even though he knows the ground rules -- i.e., stick to your own kind -- would-be film student Mark Thompson (Roy Newton) is drawn to three hard-to-impress locals soon after his arrival. But when he saves one of them in a surfing accident, Mark is accepted into their circle and even gingerly pursues a cute Island Girl. With a new truck, a movie camera and his own surfboard, Mark has the time of his life, but there's a riptide of violence that occasionally pulls him into the unparadisaical home and street lives of his new pals.

The trio of Zulu (Kalani), Ronnie Boy (Lorenzo Callender) and Keao (Daryl Bonilla) heap abuse on Mark at first and show and tell him about their homeland and its traditions. But with shark gods and snowy volcanoes come domestic violence and vicious attacks provoked by challenging looks. Ronnie Boy is the most volatile of the three, while Zulu is the archetypal loafer.

Episodic with numerous montages, "Beyond Paradise" works in subplots about teen pregnancy and drug abuse, while epileptic Mark is literally pissed on when he's stung by a sea urchin. This uneasy mixture of "Once Were Warriors" and "American Graffiti" works better than one would expect, mainly because of the overall impressive performances by a cast of relative unknowns, including former Miss Honolulu Priscilla Basque as the lead's romantic interest.

BEYOND PARADISE

Kama'aina Film Partners

Director: David L. Cunningham

Producers: Anthony Bozanich, David L. Cunningham

Screenwriter: David Walker

Directors of photography: Graham Driscoll, Russell D. Steen

Production designer: Ligia Naghel

Editors: Thomas A. Ohanian, Patrick Flannery

Music: Nicholas Rivera

Color/stereo

Cast:

Mark Thompson: Roy Newton

Zulu: Kalani

Ronnie Boy: Lorenzo Callender

Keao: Daryl Bonilla

Lehua: Priscilla Basque

Running time -- 105 minutes

No MPAA rating...