Watched: 07/08/2025
Format: AMC IMAX
Viewing: First
Director: James Gunn
You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.
Light spoilers ahead. We'll do another post or two on the movie getting deeper into details.
Well, kids. We made it. It's 2025, and we have a Superman movie.
We posted some details of our screening previously, right after Jamie and I took in the flick.
At the top - I'll say, a good portion of my life has been spent reading Superman comic books, watching Superman films, television, cartoons, etc... I've read non-fiction about Superman's storied history as a pop-culture figure and feel pretty confident in saying that I'm up to date on the character.
And, yet, it is very, very strange to see Superman come to the screen and feel less like an interpretation of Superman re-imagined for the big screen by people wanting to put their own stamp on the character, and instead get a movie that feels like someone took a really terrific event Superman comic run and said "this is what we're doing. On the screen. With a budget roughly the combined GDP of Europe."
We're now roughly 23 years from Spider-Man, 17 years out from Iron Man and 6 from Avengers: Endgame. Those were films that were things I never expected to see. Spider-Man that actually respects the comics. An Iron Man that was about the man and not the suit and CGI fights. An event comic brought to life in the biggest way possible and had emotional stakes.
But we're also well into a period where people feel a sense of Superhero Fatigue. And I get it. I'd also argue that a huge part of that fatigue is that Marvel's movies and TV shows have become more about themselves, hammering at internal continuity (maybe my one big beef with Thunderbolts) than they were about anything that felt like what superheroes are supposed to be: a unique individual (or a team of exceptional folks) in a world where they're needed and can do great things for the greater good.
From a business perspective, I can see how and why WB/Discovery felt the need for one more shot at the DCU on screen before giving up and putting everyone but Batman away again for a few years (how can we miss you if you won't go away?). From a cultural perspective that will surely cheese off a reader or three, I'll argue we haven't had what I'd consider to be a real Superman movie since Superman Returns or - really - Superman II.* What we had was a movie with some take on Superman in a Superman-ish suit.
As a Superman reader, fan, viewer, etc... I'll say this: what we get in this movie is Superman. Not someone's interpretation or a Superman altered for an imagined movie audience... but just... the same Superman from the comics. In a movie. At long last.
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| a flying dog, a wise cracking robot, a girl with a suit of black goo, and this thing they call a "Metamorpho" |
As a movie? Superman is a thrilling, fun, funny, action-packed two hours of popcorn excitement. If your experience with Superman is wondering why the climax of this movie is him lifting a very large rock, or flying in circles or wrasslin' with the same feller for 30 minutes (you know I tease because I love), you can expect more from this film in the traditional action picture mode. The waves of challenges and foes are numerous and varied - and if you ever wondered why his nickname used to be The Ace of Action, this movie makes a pretty strong argument.
But! The mix of humor, sentiment and drama also feels right. There's that adorable dog, the intrepid reporter, the wholesome Midwestern parents... and some great moments of heroism, indeed. It's a reminder that seeing Superman step between people and disaster is as exciting as anything else.
It is possible that you've heard this movie has "heart", and that it does. In spades. As much as Christopher Reeve was able to imbue his version of Kal-El with a personality split between a bumbling Clark and a confident, positive figure in Superman, this movie gives us a Superman that feels undeniably human. He wants to do right by the blessing of his birth parents and the lessons from his Earth parents - and simply help his neighbors. There's less Kal-El here than Clark Kent, a nice dude from Kansas who wants to still be seen as cool because of the bands he likes, and who wants to be worth the amazing girl he's met. And the surest way to get him is to attack what he does and why.
In early reviews, folks are all coming out saying "yes, I have quibbles, but..." and from a few storybeat places and one or two loose threads, yes, there were moments that I think a longer cut could have tackled or unpacked better. Heck, I think the first ten minutes was a bit clunky and had me concerned until I was fully swept up into the thing. It really does feel a bit like you showed up in Episode III or so of an ongoing saga.
James Gunn as writer/ director/ producer has managed to bring Big Blue to the big screen in a way that honors the spirit of the character, reflects both the characterization and challenges fans of the character in comics, cartoons and more will recognize. He delivers the world of Superman in a tight, two-hour movie, with more bells and whistles than I could have imagined. The film sets up his alien heritage and how it impacts both himself and how the world sees him. It brings to life his supporting cast at the Daily Planet, as well as how he fits in with the bigger, wilder, weirder world of DC Comics - a place both oddly whimsical and where our heroes are regularly stopping Earth-ending disasters (which can, admittedly, be a lot).
David Corenswet is pitch perfect casting as a Superman still on the learning curve, before he becomes the superhero big brother and uncle he'll mature into (more or less his status in 2025 in the comics). His Superman isn't playing coy like Christopher Reeve's cool dude, he's a boy scout in a cape, whose primary worry is saving lives - all lives. And he wears the suit, the suit doesn't wear him, as a good man in a world that is fine with corporate sponsored superheroes, and letting people die in needless wars. What can be read as naivete in a complex world is his unbending desire to save *everyone*.
Our Lex Luthor in Nicholas Hoult is an astonishing distillation of every Lex on screen and page to date - from the Silver Age to the modern Machiavellian schemer who, despite his brilliance, has a grasp further than his reach. And is willing to risk everyone else's lives in order to achieve his personal goals. His hatred of Superman is pure to the point of crystalline - it drives her every move, merely because he cannot tolerate the world's adoration of Superman when he thinks he has more to offer. Hoult's performance is unhinged in the best way.
Regular readers of this site will know what a fan I am of Bitsie Tulloch's Lois Lane on Superman and Lois, but I think I'm just as much a fan of what Rachel Brosnahan brought to the screen. This Lois is not just a match (and/ or superior) to Clark intellectually and critically, but she has her own proactive arc, taking part and leading the action rather than standing around hoping Superman is okay. She asks Clark the hard questions and pushes him to be better.
Superman doesn't pick up with the bullet point origin of doomed planet, desperate parents, kindly couple, Metropolis.... that we all know. We're three years into Superman romping around Metropolis. He's landed in a world populated with metahumans - which was something I found a bizarre choice for a start to Gunn's DC Studios' cinematic universe. But it also opens the doors to leap straight into both the joyfully bizarre world of DC Comics and to make some key points.
While Superman's publishing origins in comics started with Clark as the only superhero in his world in 1938, that changed swiftly as National Comics (DC's original name) added a fleet of costumed heroes. By WWII, we had a full Justice Society - so it wasn't long before Superman was crowded by other capes. Functionally, in Superman, what bringing in the Justice Gang of Guy Gardener/ Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific and Hawkgirl does is give the audience an idea why Superman, even among superheroes - and therefore superhero films of all brands - is unique. And can provide a way forward for both the meganarrative of the coming DC Studios universe and our heroes (one of the throughlines in the comics).
To that end, we start in the middle of the action. Superman has just intervened in an international conflict, stopping a war before it could start. The unilateral action has caused some grave concern, and the arrival of a the Hammer of Boravia - looking for revenge. In the wake of the battle, Superman's actions are discussed a bit brilliantly between Clark and Lois - who are in the early days of their relationship and with her having full knowledge of his secret identity.
What's clear is that Superman did not care about the politics, the optics, and protocols of international war zones... he cared about the lives that would be lost when the powerhouse military rolled over the neighboring nation (with their own complicated internal politics). And that's who he is, right or wrong. He didn't put on the suit to ask permission of others to do the right thing.
It's a mission he was given by his Kryptonian birth parents, appearing to him as a broken hologram telling him they've sent him with love to Earth, that he might help those living here. And, of course, he's also got Jonathan and Martha to guide him.
Social media and other folks have alerted me that there was a concern about how many characters appear in the trailer for Superman. And, admittedly, it's *a lot of named characters*. And, being a nerd, I know who 90% of them are, already, so I've got a leg up. But I also think this movie is a textbook for how to have a multitude of characters, and assign each of them has a function and make sure they all fit. No, Ron Troupe does not get much to do. But Jimmy is in there. And as a Jimmy Olsen nut - note the name of this very website - I loved the way the part was written and performed and is integral to the film. The various Justice Gang members each has a point of view, and it's fascinating to watch - because the movie is in part about how Superman impacts them as heroes while the Planet staff exist as our more familiar human eyes. Meanwhile, those out for self-gain will see a threat in Superman via Lex and his cronies.
In short, I just don't think the large cast is a problem. And, it sets up both the start of the DCU while giving Superman a home base to start from.
I've alluded to how *weird* the world of DC Comics is a few times, but... yeah. I've seen reviews that were quaintly mad about (and I'm paraphrasing) "a bunch of old school science fiction" in the movie. (Deep breath). My guys... This is a *comic book movie* based on a comic from sci-fi's golden age.
Superman's origins are deeply mired in the fanzines and science fiction of the 1930's - 1960's. He's more or less a combo of the sci-fi novel Gladiator, and John Carter of Mars and Doc Savage books. And anything and everything was (and is) on the table when it comes to Superman, from space dragons to 5th Dimensional Imps to robots and alien conquerors. And James Gunn seems more than ready to embrace it all without apology. You want a pocket dimension with a quantum river? You have one. cybernetically enhanced monkeys on social media? Likewise. And that's within 2 minutes.
I'm not saying I don't like or don't appreciate that Superman: The Movie and Iron Man introduced their leads into worlds without superheroes. It can make it all easier to take. But the joy of just cutting loose and having a rampaging kaiju, a Metamorpho the Element Man and T-Spheres and Hawkgirls wielding Nth Metal maces is pretty great. If I were 8 years old, I'd be home with a towel around my neck trying to play that Mr. Terrific and I were hanging out.
In fact, Mr. Terrific - played here very, very well by Edi Gathigi, will likely be a fan favorite and has a complete shocker of a sequence.
By the way - There's a sequence where Superman, otherwise occupied, lets the Justice Gang take on on a threat, and it is truly a remarkable moment in superhero film history. Just good stuff.
But the elephant in the room is the dog. How is the dog?
First - less is more with Krypto. For a variety of reasons, I expected him to be far more front and center - and it can feel like he is despite what's not an overwhelming amount of screentime. But our good boy draws a lot of attention (why edgelords have decided this is bad, I have no idea. Go ask your dad's for hugs you were denied, I guess). While this Krypto is a bit different from prior iterations of the character - like the recent animated feature film, etc... - for those of us who recently adopted unpredictable dogs of our own, it sure lands. And, honestly, OG Krypto was a bit of a goose.
The chaos agent that is the badly trained dog is just good comedy. And it's also a sign of the *possibility* for the DC Studios universe when you embrace the whole thing and remember: these ideas were cooked up to sell $0.10 magazines to kids between 8 and 12. That we dragged them into our adulthoods and then expect for these characters to act like respectable action characters from a Fast and the Furious movie doesn't necessarily have to add up.
And, of course, Superman's relationship with the dog is maybe the beating heart of the movie.
The movie is so firmly embedded in the DCU that it's not really full of Easter Eggs so much as its just well designed and with the care that would elude someone who hadn't spent decades with comics in their hands. Not only do we get a Hall of Justice, inside there's a whole mural of the Justice Society on a wall, shown only in part and for a few seconds. Someone did that. Stagg Industries exists. (But they do get Superman's favorite food wrong.)
What's interesting, to say the least, is that this movie had to have been written about three years ago, shot a year ago and edited over the last year. People who don't know how these things work will be mad that certain events of the film reflect current geopolitical events - but the fact is, the sorts of things shown in the film that can be taken as analog *are always happening*. We do not get a break from world events, and stories are allowed to look at how people and nations conduct themselves - and how we get to respond despite what we're told is the "right" way.
What we can do is tell a story about what it means to be kind, and that the world would be a better place if we focused our energy on doing better and doing good, and focused on caring about each other. And we admitted how hard that can be not just to do, but that people will hate you and want to hurt you, as insane and spiteful as it sounds.
It sounds so simple, but it's been a long time since we saw a Superman movie that stuck to the simple principle of doing the right thing in a world that has a thousand reasons why you shouldn't.
I'm scheduled to see the movie again on Saturday with NeighborBryan. I'll write more then, probably straight up spoilers. That's okay! On a first viewing, I very, very much enjoyed this movie for what it did as an entertaining film, as a reflection of the DCU and what it had to say about things I essentially believe in. If this is the start of the big screen adventures of Superman and pals, I think we're looking at a potential resuscitation of superheroes for a new era.
*I will argue that television has treated Superman pretty well, especially Superman and Lois, but that's more or less an Elseworlds take. Still, the characterization was spot-on for our Superman and Lois. There are certainly things to like in Man of Steel, et al, but the movies were not a recognizable version of Superman's character. It was someone else wearing a version of a Superman suit.
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