Note: This review contains no significant spoilers for Superman.
Conventional wisdom holds that it’s been difficult making a Superman movie in recent decades that sticks to the character’s core while still relating to audiences with relevance. Myself, I’ve always enjoyed Batman more than Superman, being one who generally found the Superman to be too powerful and too smugly ‘good’ to be compelling. The turns of casting Superman ‘darker’ to mimic the success of Batman at the cinema just made the situation worse.
Truthfully, all of the DC Universe characters are challenges to write well today, particularly in the format of movies where you get just one (or a few) shots to make things stick for a couple hours of runtime. DC has consistently failed to adapt their properties on the screen, and even the best among them I would just consider as okay or passable — certainly not endearing, exceptionally entertaining or with anything profound to say.
So I re-watched the animated series of the 1990s into the early 2000s, and have avoided most of what has been put out in the last years after being sorely disappointed too often. I scoffed at the idea that yet another rebooted Superman (and extended universe) would be coming, but got a hair less negative at hearing James Gunn would be directing, though my first thought was sympathy for Gunn as I wasn’t convinced that even he could save Superman.
Despite all my doubt, I was thrilled and amazed to discover that Gunn has done just that. Superman (2025) is a movie that speaks to today while retaining that innocent “Boy Scout” essence of the character’s personality and ethos.
In a scene in the movie where Clark (David Corenswet) and Lois (Rachel Brosnahan) discuss his taste in music and the “punk cred” of a group he likes, Clark posits that perhaps his optimistic and bright outlook on humanity is now the more subversive attitude to have, the more “punk” compared to the skepticism of authority and general mistrust that Lois and most others cling to. This argument is the soul of Superman, and what enables Gunn to tell a compelling story by unapologetically embracing the heart of the character.
This focus works because Gunn conveys Superman’s inherent optimism and goodness without making it seem arrogant or easily achieved. The entire plot of the film is constructed around breaking Superman down, mentally and physically, to abandon his hope. Fight him where physical strength is no longer a benefit, and fight the image of Superman even more violently than the Man of Steel himself.
In a world where goodness and trust in individuals is considered naive or dangerous, and where acts of good intentions are criticized or expected to be hiding some sort of ultimate malevolent intent, Superman becomes an easy target for disbelief. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) uses this to his advantage to transform Superman from a symbol of virtue and integrity into an object to be mistrusted and feared.
These are some dark themes that Superman delves into, but rather than making the entire tone of the film give into such darkness, Gunn makes the wise choice of having Superman (and his friends) show a better way of responding to Luthor’s attacks. Superman becomes emotional, angry and violent demonstrating just how “human” and imperfect he is, though able to stay true to his ideals.
Ultimately what I found Superman to be asking its audience is the question of what should one do when society and the world becomes threatened by individuals like Luthor. How can we resist and fight against individuals who want to dominate and oppress, who fear and seek to dehumanize the alien outsider, who view lives as expendable, who want to usurp governmental/state powers to deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate and turn the people against the powers and systems that actually support them?
On the surface level Superman gives us the answer of every other super hero movie: People with super powers will save us from such threats. Super heroes like Superman and the members of the Justice Guild in the movie. And that’s entertaining and fun, but it’s also a cop-out out to a serious and timely issue that this movie is exploring.
Of course, Gunn has things going on below the surface. At the end of the movie a shot of someone reading a newspaper article with a title something like (going from my memory) “The real hero of Metropolis” reminds viewers of a regular, simply human character whose bravery and willingness to resist becomes the turning point for everything. Similarly, alongside the activities of the superheros are regular human characters like Lois, Jimmy (Skyler Gisondo), and others who I won’t spoil (even though it’s probably not a big surprise for fans) who fight back with everything they can.
The success of Superman doesn’t just lie in how well Gunn handles the story, character, and present-day relevance, but also in how great he writes all of the characters and the superb performances by each of the cast members who inhabit the roles, primary and secondary. Each character has the traditional elements that make them icons, yet there is never a moment where they speak or act in ways that would come off ridiculously clichéd. With Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio) Gunn even subverts expectations a bit. From top to bottom everything is sincere and earnest; even Krypto who is an utter delight.
One of the dangers (and failures) of movies in the super hero genre (particularly expanded universes) would be putting too much in, introducing things prematurely and haphazardly, or in handling character development. Despite the numerous characters in Superman, Gunn handles each great, particularly Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) who gets a lot of screen time. The movie also hugely benefits from skipping over origin story quagmires, while still telling the audience essentials. There are a few lines in there that come off as awkward exposition (including one that a Fortress of Solitude robot humorously points out.)
The strongest argument for this being a solid foundation for a new and successful DC franchise is that unlike the previous DC attempts, this does not focus on the future at the expense of itself. It’s a great movie unto itself, entertaining and inspiring even amid super-hero-movie-burnout.
