Movie Review – Superman
Principal Cast : David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Maria Gabriela, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, Wednell Pierce, Beck Bennett, Michaela Hoover, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell, Frank Grillo, Christopher McDonald.
Synopsis: Superman must reconcile his alien Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as reporter Clark Kent. As the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way he soon finds himself in a world that views these as old-fashioned.
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For Superman fans, it’s been a very long time between successful cinematic outings involving their favourite Kryptonian orphan, whose origin by now has become intuitive knowledge for all kids born over the last eighty years. The days of Christopher Reeve’s pitch-perfect flight of fancy are well behind us, with subsequent iterations on both big and small screen gradually leaning further into a more nihilistic take on a character originally created to smash evildoers in 1938, resulting in tonally discordant material from Zack Snyder with both Man of Steel and Batman Vs Superman finding critical ambivalence (of not outright hatred) scarring the popular American hero. That, and recent political events in America have turned a large portion of the global community against the American Ideal, and more specifically soured the notion of Superman’s emblematic Truth, Justice & The American Way to may fans who find US imperialism too bitter a pill to swallow. Myself, as a long time comic book collector, and equally long time fan of DC’s roster of characters, that Hollywood had taken the Big Blue Boy Scout and turned him into some kind of pariah against American idealism always wrenched me somewhat: that is, until now, at the hands of former Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise director James Gunn, who has single-handedly resurrected the DC brand from the doldrums and given us a blast of fresh, classic comic book movie air.
In Superman, Clark Kent (David Corenswet) is already established as Metropolis’s beloved yet polarising hero, balancing his alien Kryptonian heritage with his role as a Daily Planet journalist and girlfriend to fellow reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). The film opens three years into his career, as he intervenes in an international conflict in Boravia, drawing public scrutiny and political backlash. Enter Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), a tech-mogul intent on discrediting Superman; Luthor engineers a clone—Ultraman—to challenge the Man of Steel and escalate his campaign. Along the way, Superman forges alliances with other metahumans—Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Metamorpho (anthony Carrigan)—and contends with corporate and moral dilemmas, all while galvanising hope in a cynical world. Featuring emotional support from his earthly parents (Jonathan and Martha Kent – Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell, respectively), and his Daily Planet colleagues in Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), Cat Grant (Mikaela Hoover) and Perry White (Wendell Pierce), Clark Kent, or rather Superman, must contend with enormous kaiju, shattering interdimensional threats and a potential invasion between war-torn countries, all whilst battling to control his disobedient dog, Krypto, and public sentiment against him.
James Gunn’s approach to his Superman film is to absolutely refuse to give the audience time to draw breath, The 2025 Superman is a far cry from the more stately, Christ-like romanticised versions of decades past, with the film resolutely embracing the action-centric cartoonish fun of some of DC’s animated content over the last decade. Led by an engaging David Corenswet, who wears the pyjama-like over-designed Super-suit here with aplomb, and abetted by Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult in key supporting roles, Superman’s breathless pace and jam-packed narrative – together with eye-catching visual effects and a whiplash-inducing roster of new and revisited favourite characters – the fan-favourite character of Eve Teschmacher is given breezy charm thanks to Sara Sampaio’s winning performance – and a gaggle of imposing threats, notably the mysterious Ultraman and the cruel yet dedicated Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria), not to mention innumerable tips of the hat to franchise legacy concepts, and you have a film that’s almost overstuffed with… well, stuff happening. Gunn has parlayed his hold as DC Studio’s co-CEO into a deep-dive into Superman’s storied history, most of which works and only some of which doesn’t quite hit the mark.
The go-for-broke attitude to Superman is one that will feel like a breath of fresh air to longtime fans such as myself, and indeed I had an absolute blast watching the film in much the same way as I used to gorge reading DC comics back in the day. The film isn’t without some minor and major quibbles and problems, in my opinion, but it’s so joyful, so emblematic of where Gunn plans to head with his new DC franchise, and so thematically uplifting, at no point does what I’m about to critique in any way negate the sheer brilliance and enthusiasm of what this film achieves. The film is not only directed by Gunn, but written by him too, and as usual he deftly weaves comedic beats, serious emotional weight and dynamic plot crosscutting mirroring his similarly lauded work on the Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy. The film gets a number of big laughs, most often at Superman’s expense, but is played with a wide bat enough to not accidentally fall into high camp or outright silliness. The film balances the comic book flavour with a widescreen cinematic weight with just enough skill that it personifies the phrase “crowd pleasing” in almost every respect.
In terms of things that work, Corenswet is dynamic as Superman, but I’d argue the real strength is his on-screen chemistry with the new era’s Lois Lane, Rachel Brosnahan. As a screen couple their tension and character dynamic is palpable and fascinating, and although the film never really sits long enough with them together for my liking there’s enough to be mined here that heightens my anticipation for their next appearance. So too, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, arguably the greatest villain in all of comic book history (easily top five, for sure), who brings hot-mess gravitas to a withering, focused and often arch performance as the incredibly jealous billionaire CEO. While Luthor inexplicably spends a great deal of this film watching screens in a bunker above the city, and barely interacts with the rest of the principal cast at all, Hoult gives us a genuinely frightening take on Superman’s nemesis that easily establishes him as a central figure in the new DCU.
The film’s breakout star, for mine, is either Edi Gathegi’s grumpy Mr Terrific, a venerable African-American DC hero, with a superior intellect and enormous wealth who has formed himself into a formidable physical and technological threat; thanks to Gathegi’s enigmatic and charming portrayal, I think Mr Terrific will become a definite fan favourite for the ongoing DCU. Surprisingly, Nathan Fillion delivers enough sass and attitude as Guy Gardiner, Earth’s garrulous Green Lantern and unelected leader of the “Justice Gang”, to make me chuckle more than a few times; he’s a good guy, but often his mouth says stuff that makes you cringe. I didn’t expect this kind of turn from Fillion but I’m glad Gunn cast him. The third wheel in the Justice Gang is Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl, whose origin and character arc are limited considerably against her higher profile colleagues, which was disappointing, but allows for more surprises in future.
Heavily central to the film’s marketing is the inclusion of Krypto, a canine with incredible powers belonging to the wider Super-family – including Supergirl and Superboy, at various times in the comics – and as a completely digital creation with predilections for being cute as hell, one might accuse Gunn of giving us another Groot-like non-verbal character with immense public appeal as a crutch to storytelling deficits, but the director utilises this super-cute pupper for great comedic and narrative effect. Krypto is easily this year’s Baby Yoda, with attitude and public appeal to spare. This kind of cool storytelling techniques are de rigueur for modern pop culture franchises, as audiences need for cute or easily marketable characters only grows, and it stands to reason that several CG creations in Superman might fit that bill – particularly a monstrous Jack Kirby-esque kaiju creature that causes a lot of damage in downtown Metropolis at one point, belching flame and knocking over buildings. Gunn’s effervescent insertion of non-sequitur monsters and city-level threats for Superman to take on, or even totally ignore at one point, make for fun and frivolous throwaway gags, lighter in tone than the director’s Suicide Squad take but just as intimately designed.
It’s here where I have a couple of minor criticisms of the film, and while I’m about to be very specific with my negativity please be assured that I actually really did enjoy the movie wholeheartedly, and clapped when the end credits started – something I almost never do in a cinema. One of my major gripes is the film’s score, credited to John Murphy and David Fleming. The composers, together with Gunn, had the choice between re-using the iconic big-screen themes of John Williams’ Superman, or stepping out with their own take on the franchise – a la Hans Zimmer’s bombastic work on Man of Steel – but in some bizarre twist decided to half-and-half it. There’s a recurring motif lifted from Williams that indicates his famous Superman March, but this score never exhibits the entire thing, content to tease and tease and tease Williams’ cues but not once paying them off entirely. Coupled with a fairly generic action movie underscore, filtered through a Tom Holkenborg remixer or something, and I ended up finding the music to Gunn’s Superman to be decidedly disappointing. Either use a familiar tune or create something else entirely – this collision of old and new just didn’t work for me.
Secondly, and this is where things become more of a lesser quibble, the story just felt too rushed and too overstuffed with characters to feel like a legitimate Superman solo movie, leastways not for a restart of the DCU. There’s simply so many characters, ideas, plot arcs, sidebar plots and unnamed nonsense going on here, the emotional gravitas of the film becomes lost in the noise. Apocalyptic world-ending threats are definitely Superman’s wheelhouse, and Gunn extrapolates several very cool ideas to translate onto the big screen, but in trying to maintain such a breakneck pace all the time, there’s never really much time to sit and live in this world for even a moment before we’re onto the next explosive fight sequence. Corenswet’s Superman is so busy battling all kinds of villains, and getting his ass handed to him more than once – it actually became distracting just how under-powered this Superman was, to be honest, compared to most previous iterations – that you struggle to find a strong emotional connection to him at times. Corenswet’s performance is strong enough to generate some, but I think folks who don’t have a strong affiliation or knowledge of the character and his world will struggle to keep up with this. It feels too cluttered, to messy, at least for a First Issue. Again, just my opinion, and I reiterate again that I absolutely loved watching this movie. But the critic in me couldn’t help but feel Gunn was reaching way too much into Superman’s legacy of characters, and introducing too many new faces at once, to really allow his new Superman to settle.
Thirdly, and I alluded to this earlier – the film feels so overburdened with characters and moving plot pieces that even at a mighty brisk two hours it feels incredibly short, and maddeningly uneven in tone. The compression of exposition and the limited time to get to know these characters means that the film feels like there’s half a film somewhere on the cutting room floor, as if a lot of additional footage was cut that might have fleshed out come crucial elements. I understand the mandate for a studio to make films of no more than two hours to maximise their ROI but with so much Stuff going on here it becomes bothersome that we don’t get to spend more time with Perry, Lois and Jimmy at the Daily Planet, or more time with Clark and Krypto, or Clark and Lois just shitting on each other, or Lex and his minions devising plans – Lex already has his plans in place, the film is simply him trying to execute them – or anything that might allow us to engage with the characters. The race to get to the next action beat or verbal gag or pratfall is telling; and don’t even get me on the short thrift given to Clark’s adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent. I’m not exactly sure why they were given such grating accents compared to Clark (who speaks relatively normally, jarring considering he was raised by the Kent’s from infancy and should be speaking with a similar accent to them) but for such cornerstone characters to Superman’s history to be treated in such a way I found this to be hugely disappointing.
But, all things considered, Superman is an amazing success for Gunn’s new DC Studios, and a blistering return to big-screen form for a character so poorly treated in relatively recent history. While I continue to have issues with the aesthetic of Corenswet’s Superman costume, Gunn’s approach to the franchise is a gateway template to the absolute absurdity that could be DC Comics on the big screen, and a film filled with this much hope and joy in itself is an infectiously engaging thing to see indeed. Minor caveats in place, James Gunn has triumphed with Superman, and I cannot wait to see where he takes this character next.
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