Superman (2025)

Ever since his 1938 introduction to society, no other fictional character (let alone superhero) has had to put up with society more than Superman. 

It is no wonder there have been comparisons to biblical figures like Moses and Jesus (in the original film, remember the dialogue of “I have sent them you, my only son”). It is not too far fetched to believe that we as humans would not take long to start treating the man of steel as an after thought. Yet still, as portrayed in James Gunn’s Superman, he persists to protect us.

Like Matt Reeves’ The Batman (though not at all in the same universe, as far as I know), this latest tale of the last son of Krypton takes place after the introduction of the title character (we don’t see any origin story here). We learn that Superman (David Corenswet) has lost his first battle about 3 weeks (it may have been 3 months: the titles at the start had a lot of “3 decades ago, 3 years ago,” etc) after he brought about the end of a war. He still assumes his alter ego as Clark Kent (who is not as present in this film) at the Daily Planet, while also in a relationship with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who does know of his true identity.

Meanwhile, the always devious Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is hell bent on destroying Superman in every possible way, which involves much more than just the usual amount of kryptonite: he finds plans on canceling him all together. The man of steel needs help not just from Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), but (as shown in the trailers, so it is not much of a surprise) the “Justice Gang”. The gang consists of tech genius Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), the warrior flying Hawk Girl (Isabel Merced) and the Guy Gardner version of the Green Lantern (a nicely adequate Nathan Fillion).

As the trailers have also shown, there is the live action cinematic debut of Krypto, Superman’s dog. He is indeed a scene stealer, though he may have been in just one scene or so too many. Still, that may have been inevitable, since Gunn (who also wrote the screenplay) is going for a much lighter tone than Snyder was going for in Man of Steel. That is rather impressive, since the film’s take on being an immigrant as well as two fictional countries going to war is, sadly, all too pertinent to what is happening in the real world today.

Corenswet is indeed a solid casting choice as Superman (as stated before, he does not do too much as Clark Kent). He is not as chiseled or muscular as Henry Cavill, but more human. To me, it was Hoult who was the stand out. Easily the most known of Superman’s villains (his list of bad guys could never compete with Batman’s), his Lex is ruthless, determined, unapologetic, and driven by envy. His take on Luthor is easily the best since the late great Gene Hackman in the original 1978 film.

There were some story choices that I found a little off for my taste. One such was (again, in the trailer) when Luthor breaks into Superman’s fortress of solitude. We never learn how he manages to get in there until the last half hour or so of the film. For me, that was too little too late, as well as being a tad on the trope side.

Parents, it would be simply silly of me to try to convince any child past a certain age not to see this. That said, the PG-13 is for a decent amount of swearing (no F-Bombs) and some disturbing, malevolent moments (mainly with Luthor, especially when he is threatening to kill an innocent civilian in front of Superman).

The film is not any kind of masterpiece, nor is it the best of the Superman films (the first film in 1978 will always be a classic, the second a solid sequel, and while I never saw the third one with Richard Pryor, I have done a great job of putting off rewatching the fourth film). Even though Superman Returns did not take off as well as we had hoped, and Man of Steel had its moments (and a vastly underrated Hans Zimmer score), Gunn managed to make what is most likely the best since the early days of Christopher Reeve (it also helps that he managed to allow variations on the legendary score by John Williams, the GOAT of superhero themes). It is easily the finest Superman film released in my lifetime.

Gunn even went so far as to make personal Spotify playlists for each of the characters, letting us know what each one has music taste wise. 

So far, the best one is for the title character, because he has “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World.

Overall: