Alright! Today I'm reviewing the 2025 Superman reboot aptly titled Superman. Meant to be the first chapter in DC's new cinematic universe and brought to us by the head of DC himself, James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad), Superman reintroduces the vast and exciting world of DC through a conflict wherein Superman oversteps boundaries and involves himself in an international conflict masterminded by the criminal genius Lex Luthor.
The first thing I'll say about it is that DC knowledge is required. Superman follows Spider-Man: Homecoming and The Batman's example by ditching the origin story on the basis that the audience already understands the gist, and this is undoubtedly true! We've all seen the planet Krypton blow up a million times, we know he landed in Kansas, we know he's in love with Lois Lane, and that Lex Luthor hates him. Why waste time on all that? It's a smart move! Let's move on to the story.
But... we kinda can't. The movie also introduces an extended cast of characters and the larger DC world. The "Justice Gang," comprised of Guy Gardner's Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mister Terrific, is there. Superman's dog, Krypto, is a major part of the film. Black holes, pocket dimensions, kaijus, flying saucers, interdimensional alien threats, Metamorpho, all that appears! The movie decidedly plays into the campier, happy-go-lucky Space Age of the comics, a welcome change after the broody "aura farming" Superman brought to us by Man of Steel. Shades of All-Star Superman are brashly evident and the movie is colorful.
But it's not particularly well done. I find it hilarious that for Spider-Man (2002), they decided that Peter Parker would have organic webbing to not break the audience's suspension of disbelief - eg, they would accept the spider bite and spider powers without qualms, but having him invent his own webbing might make the whole thing too ridiculous and lose the audience. And now, here we are, 23 years later, dropped into the large waters of DC with zero context or explanation. I imagine a casual viewer might have the following questions:
- When did Superman get a dog? How does the dog have powers? Is it also from Krypton?
- How did Metamorpho get his powers? Who is he? Why is his child green?
- Who is Hawkgirl? Why does she have wings in some scenes and not in others? Are they organic?
- Why is Mr. Terrific so grumpy? What do the T-Spheres do, exactly?
- What is a Green Lantern Corps? Why is Guy Gardner one of them? How did they pick him?
- How does Superman have such an elaborate Fortress of Solitude?
- Where did he get the robots from? Did he make them? How?
We also have a few of the unfortunate trademarks of today's blockbuster - there are a few emotional/cool moments undercut by out-of-place humor and some wonky CGI (There's a beautiful heart-to-heart between Clark and Pa Kent that's not undercut, but it's also, um, the only one). I was especially disappointed with this by the end of the movie - the rooftop conversations between Superman and Lex about morality and what it means to be human are always the best parts of Superman media, and James Gunn had some absolutely beautiful stuff going on before Krypto showed up to trash the entire office and roughhouse with Lex. It's just... It's sad to think that we're apparently not allowed to have anything as nuanced as Superman: The Animated Series anymore. That's a TV-Y7 show from '96, and it knew how to land the drama better than this! Not to say that Superman needed to be serious! No, never again... those days are over... but it's okay to let the moments breathe, y'know? Is that too much to ask? The audience doesn't need to laugh every three minutes to like the movie.
My other big issue was the visuals - not the CGI, which is actually incredible, not a single bad shot in the movie! Explosions, kaijus, all the over-the-top stuff I mentioned, are very well made. But the entire thing just looks very... bland. Very flat. Aside from the Fortress of Solitude, there's nothing in the movie that looks better (cinematically) than The Flash - the cinematography is decidedly boring. There's also a lot of funky camera work that distracts from the movie. Every flying scene has a fisheye lens, and every scene of dialogue has a camera angle seemingly designed to give the actors the biggest foreheads imaginable. It's things that James Gunn has shown a tendency to like doing in his prior films, but now that he's also the head of DC Studios, it looks like there was no one to rein him in, and a lot of the shots just look goofy. And the CGI, while good, also reminded me of the Star Wars Prequels - "y'know what would make this conversation between Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi cool? If they were the only real things in the entire shot! The background, Yoda, the passing clones, all of them will be CGI!" (Granted, this CGI is better, but it makes the entire movie look bland and exhausting.) Watching BTS footage shows that great care went into using practical effects for just about everything, which just makes the entire thing even more confusing when it looks... smothered in a thin sheen of CGI.
But that's okay! Because, despite all of these nitpicky criticisms, the real strength of Superman lies in the casting and characterization. As a film and franchise-starter, it's sloppy, yeah, but for the normal folks who just want to see a hopeful Superman, the film is superb. In fact, I dare say the only reason the film works at all is because of how sweet David Corenswet is as Superman, how happy-go-lucky and old-fashioned he is. Simply put, this Superman is a kind Superman, perhaps the kindest we have ever seen. He looks friendly. He gets along with kids. He's a dork who says things like "good gosh." The bright red trunks, his dedication to saving people, dogs, and squirrels during fight scenes, his cheerful optimism, and the fact that his morality drives the conflict of the story are the reasons that Superman is so great. Why did he stop the war? Because "people were going to die." Is he a bit too optimistic and hopeful? Yeah, he is, and that's punk rock. "That is being human, and that's my greatest strength," he says, and Superman suddenly becomes an inspiration for the first time since '78.
So too the rest of the cast! In addition to the comic-accurate wardrobe they gave everyone, Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane is easily the best iteration of the character we've ever gotten, and some other standouts are Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen (With lore-accurate rizz), Anthony Carrigan's Metamorpho (Who is also very sweet), Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner (Who is hilariously petulant), and Edi Gathegi's Mister Terrific (Why so serious?). I'd also love to love Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, but she's given so little to do that I can barely say anything about her at all. The other standout is easily Nicolas Hoult as Lex Luthor, who channeled his anger over not being cast as Batman or Superman into the all-time best Lex Luthor (To be fair, though, his competition is Jesse Eisenberg). His Lex leaned a bit more into the mad scientist aspect, taking more shades from Gene Hackman than I was expecting. I was surprised by the silliness, but it worked for the movie.
Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, another deeply flawed and crowded film from Gunn, Superman is also made incredible by the fact that they nailed the ending. It's one thing to have a surplus of characters and bland cinematography, but the bleeding heart of the film is what makes all of that not important. Clark's journey of understanding who he is and why he does his hero work is heartwarming, and the ending scene alone is enough to make a grown man cry. I've thought about nothing else since watching it three days ago. Nitpicks are just nitpicks, and the most important thing about a Superman movie is whether it was inspiring. If you felt hope and wanted to be kind because kindness is cool! And Superman does that better than any other Superman movie or show I have ever seen, so the mission was accomplished.
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| Peak, coming 2026 |
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