Super Third Watch: Superman (2025) - the Score, Design, Plot Holes and Discourse

Watched:  07/30/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Third!

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.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!
• Super Third Watch:  Superman (2025)

This will be the last time I watch this in the theater unless it's out for a long, long time.  Or if it gets re-released, I suppose.  But I'm glad I saw it a third time.  Seeing the same movie three times between the 8th and the 30th is a lot, friends, especially when you've spent considerable time writing too many posts on the film.

Good Golly

I didn't previously mention it, but I really liked how the movie handled Superman's language.  Taking a page from Superman: The Movie having Clark say "swell", Superman is mid-kaiju-fight and still saying "golly" and "good gosh" and delivering it absolutely earnest?*  

All this as our guy is getting walloped by a 10 story monster.  Major points for Corenswet there.

It's a movie and a world in which people do swear (Mr. Terrific has a bit of a potty mouth - a sign of higher intelligence if the memes are to be believed) - so it's a delight to see the same Superman who just saved all those people muttering polite swears under his breath.

The Score

So, something they knew for Superman Returns and they figured out again by Justice League is that, like Star Wars, or maybe even The Lone Ranger, Superman has a leitmotif that transcends the director, the era, etc... What John Williams put down will probably outsurvive almost all other aspects of Superman in the centuries to come.  

That's not a complaint.  

I liked the Hans Zimmer score for Man of Steel - but I always felt real joy (maybe one of two moments of joy) watching Justice League when they used that familiar John Williams riff.  

The music is kind of interesting in the film - it does use three or four pop tunes but relies largely on a score instead of Gunn's famous use of pop in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.  We've already gone on at length about what is more punk rock? in prior posts, but Iggy Pop's collaboration with The Teddybears on Punkrocker has now entered the zeitgeist, and Pop played the song live last week at a show, embracing how it works in the film and declaring Superman "the best friend you could have" (we agree, Mr. Pop).

Noah and the Whale's "Five Years Time" hasn't quite received the same attention, but let's be honest - that whole sequence with Terrific laying out an armored goon squad and a few scientists with bad judgment is absolutely killer, and it's the kind of goofy spirit I love in the film.  

And, of course, the fictional Mighty Crabjoys get a 90 second track.  I believe they also appeared at SDCC 2025.  

But, by and large, the score is the work of John Murphy and David Fleming, Murphy had worked on prior Gunn projects as well as movies like Snatch, Sunshine and Miami Vice.  Fleming has a lot of TV credits, including The Last of Us.  

The score mixes orchestral, electronic and guitar-based sounds, matching maybe more of the ethos of both Superman as a modern character which WB needs, but also that Superman in this film is not averse to some killer guitar riffs.  And, in this case, they happen to meld easily with Williams' familiar theme.

I do think there's an argument to be made that, like Star Wars, the main characters should be coded with their own music.   You want to see me cry for no reason?  Play me Princess Leia's Theme.   I think this movie tried to start giving Lex a theme.  But where is Lois' theme? It easily could have spun out of the riffs of the acoustic music used when Lois and Clark are making out.  

By and large, I think it's a successful score.  And everyone here is living in the shadow of Williams' work.  But if I'm being honest - I think maybe I'd have been curious what Michael Giacchino would have done with this - but I assume he's locked up by Disney at the moment.  (And if I didn't say anything about his score on Fantastic Four, it's the best Marvel score since Phase 1).  

The Design

Costume Designs

There are many tough things about social media film discussion, but one of the toughest for me are the armchair experts on what looks "fake" or "wrong"- which is usually when the film doesn't match whatever people had in their heads.  Which... I guess after they put Batman in 85 pounds of black rubber when I was 14, I've kind of rolled with "I guess this is what this looks like in this movie" with the occasional exception.

I love that the film didn't shove people into supersuits with carved rubber abs (we decided nipples and butts were too much back in the Batman & Robin era).  That they've turned both Captain America's outfit and Superman's suit into things that look like something you could actually wear is something I never would have believed.  David Corenswet isn't wearing padding, and the suit is structured but it's not latex - it's... clothes.  Without being tights.

The Justice Gang's matching togs are similarly semi-practical, but still look fantastic.  That said, I am very much looking forward to John and Hal's costumes in Lanterns, which I assume we'll see at some point.  Anything will be better than the cartoon bodysuits of the GL feature film.

But all of the superheroes have colors that *pop* like they're coming off the pages of a comic with a specific color guide.  

The one CGI suit belongs to The Engineer, and while I miss the silvery look from the comics, and the face covering, I understand why we went this direction.  And, of course, I take some delight in how menacing/ goofy the Hammer of Boravia looks - it more than gets the job done.

They could have gone many directions with Lois' wardrobe, but I support that "I look professional-ish" look she's given as the person still clinging to their identity as a punk rock kid from Bakerline.  

I also had a laugh that Lex is still kooky enough to make his team at the basecamp outside of town wear Hawaiian shirts as a uniform.  Just good stuff.  (Also, Lex's purple suit is stellar.)

Set Design

First - it's a sign that people online need to hush themselves and Google a thing sometimes instead of typing out their every thought.  The set of the Fortress of Solitude is not CGI practical and real, GokuDeezNutz45623, and therefore the CGI does not look super fake.  Sure, it likely got touched in post, but the actors were acting in something tactile that they could see.   

I was kind of surprised that Gunn went for a look so close to the crystal palace of the Reeve movies, but I'm not disappointed.  The fortress has always been carved from rock and ice, the comics have leaned into the crystal look for a long time now, so extrapolating on that, plus figuring out how no satellite cameras have spotted the fortress was neat.  I have no real notes there other than wondering how big the Fortress is and what all goes on there.

Similarly, robot puppets were made for the filming to ensure a more grounded performance for both robot and human actors.  And not only do they look great - I dig that blue metal sheen and subtle expression through the "mouth" and eye - but I think the design makes more sense than 75% of the Super-robots in any media.  

The movie is grounded in a version of our reality that speaks to where we are now.  Sure, the Daily Planet is somehow still able to operate out of the most expensive real estate in Metropolis - but the architecture speaks to the institutional nature of the news source.  

And I get that Gunn, who is from Missouri, looked at the Kent Farm on the plains of Canada in the original film and said "not what I saw growing up".  Jonathan and Martha Kent living in a double-wide more than makes sense in the last fifty years or so.  

Cinematography

First - this movie is *bright*.  This is a feature, not a bug.

We're in a world where superheroes, monsters and goofiness of comics prevails, and we have no intention of trying to push realism, except in making people believe in the reality of the world by showing them *everything*.  Storm clouds do not brew overhead to set our mood - instead, it's maybe a Tuesday in springtime.  It is not a mistake that as Superman delivers his speech about what it means to be human, the sun is over his shoulder.  

We are not working in a movie that thinks red and blue are somehow unwatchable on screen - substituting royal blue (really, a very light blue in this movie) for navy and an odd, ketchupy red, like cherry red is somehow offensive to the eye.

Gunn kind of pioneered color in the GotG movies, if you remember how the first two movies were, with punchy yellows and a candy-colored Xandar.  And here our most romantic scene happens in front of a neon-pink 5th Dimensional Imp spraying light across the night time sky as Green Lantern bops it with green constructs.  

Superman is motion in this movie, and something we wowed at in 1978 has been on television convincingly now across two separate CW TV shows.  So, capturing that and making it exciting is not as simple as barrel rolls in front of a projection screen, but a combination of moves, of stops and starts that cement the action that makes the character visually spectacular and stand out even among the Justice League of the comics.  His power is shown to contained and controlled - chaos is left for Luthor's sloppy work.

The movie isn't afraid to have post-card moments - that kiss in the arcade is gonna stick with us all well after we've forgotten plot details.  We're going to recall Krypto on the moon, the terrier yapping at Superman as he keeps the doggy from getting squashed, Superman wrapped around a kid as a truck explodes, hurling gas canisters.  And, yeah, rising from the dust of fallen buildings, the last evacuee escaping.  

It doesn't have the design of it's hyper-stylized buddy movie this summer, Fantastic Four, but it feels *right* - Superman as a colorful bullet in the sir, and a recognizable world around us - but where these crazy things happen.  

The Plot Hole

The curious potential plothole of Superman is going to hinge on how they set up Kara's origin *this* time.  

In the comics, back in Action Comics 252, Kara Zor-El/ Supergirl was born *after* Superman and was hurtling through space in a  bubble city (Argo) that survived Krypton's destruction.  However, a meteor storm doomed the city, and so her parents shipped her off to Earth.  

More recently in the comics, her origin is that she was raised on Krypton but sent to Earth to take care of baby Kal-El when her rocket was knocked off course and spent years in hyperspace, only arriving recently as a young woman who - in her mind - very recently left Krypton behind.  The Supergirl TV show used this set-up and it worked really well.

In either case, Kara Zor-El was a Kryptonian for the first roughly 12-16 years of her life, depending on the version.  And one would guess she would *know* if Krypton's general vibe was to tell Kal-El to conquer or make Kryptonian babies.  Which, I don't think Krypton is the Alabama of alien planets, but one could make some assumptions about continuing bloodlines, etc... and would be suggested if they sent a lady Kryptonian.  

Ie:  introducing Kara means she would have likely told Clark about his birth-parents' intentions, and if she didn't, all Superman had to do was wait to get information from her when she came to get her dog.

I am not sure if Supergirl is publicly known in these movies - she was a secret for a few years in the comics, and they did that in the cartoon as well.  And it would explain why Superman is a bit dodgy about the ownership of Krypto when asked about the dog if no one, including Lois, knows Supergirl exists.

So I would guess Superman just felt for optics reasons he couldn't wait for Kara to show up?  I don't know.  And I know he had to retrieve Krypto, anyway, especially if he was watching Krypto while Kara was away.   

But Kara *should* be able to sort out Jor-El and Lara's message for Clark.  And their actual intentions in ways that might make more sense to him and people of Earth.

Anyway, it doesn't ruin the movie for me, but it does raise some questions that will likely get addressed with a throw-away line here or there.  

On the Political Discourse

Before and during the first weekend the movie was released, it was kind of wild out there as dopes who've never lifted a comic weighed in, very concerned about Superman being "woke".  Then, because these controversies are completely manufactured, no one was talking about Superman being a problem anymore by Tuesday after opening.

Superman is always a big target as he's a beloved figure in theory, and one folks want to fit a certain mold, mostly because they don't know what they're talking about - whether that's folks assuming he's some defense of the US who would never question authority, or if it's the unfortunate souls out there worrying about Superman helping animals and children as somehow *wrong*.

In this case, the fire was because people saw Superman caring about (checks notes) an unarmed people being steamrolled by a superior military supported by American-built arms that was about to commit genocide.  Of course people saw Gaza in this, but the real fact is - this is happening somewhere in the world in some fashion *all the time* and the timing just lined up with this crisis.

Lois's articulated argument that Superman - a fictional character - should follow the rule of law (while thinking Batman is neat for using his nepo-baby wealth to flaunt the law) as seen as wise.  And people bent themselves into knots to think of how Superman was *not* an immigrant or here illegally, then accused Superman of suggesting vile things about immigrants *while Superman was doing good things and rejecting bad things*.

The problem is:  Superman is and has always been A Champion of the Oppressed.

literally on page 1 of Action Comics #1

Like Robin Hood, Zorro, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Captain America, Wonder Woman and countless other figures,  Superman exists to do what others can't in order to help them no matter what bureaucracies or strong-arms stand in the way.  He's the guy who fights for people who can't fight for themselves. 

from 1949

Never forget, Superman was the product of two Jewish kids, one of them a Canadian immigrant, growing up under parents who fled the antisemitism sweeping Lithuania and Germany.  Siegel's father was killed in a robbery that the cops didn't bother to solve.  

Superman has long been coded as an immigrant - and in the modern lingo, he was absolutely undocumented.  And there's a whole Master's Thesis worth of stuff to unpack that he passed and was accepted so readily into America at every phase of his life appearing as a white male.

It did strike me on this viewing how anti-authority Superman actually is in the film - we even tut-tut him for breaking 12 international laws for dropping his Fortress in unused wasteland, safely away from other people.  For all her punk rock cred, Lois is asking the right questions about *government officials* - what she isn't asking about is the morality of the situation.  What she's doing is good journalism, certainly.  But she's also a reflection of that system, her own morality asking people to adhere to the system.  But what that doesn't account for very well is (1) when the system is manipulated or abused by a Lex Luthor - he's spitting in Superman's face at the film's end, ranting about his government-granted authority to *kill* Superman, which was offered up on untruths. or (2) Superman doesn't want anyone to be hurt or die and he doesn't take a paycheck from anyone.

It's *interesting* to me that we salute Batman and Iron Man for being rich and secretly becoming a one-man paramilitary operation - both in the fictional world and in our professed fandoms.  But we feel a little queasy when Superman didn't follow made up rules, like the preference is that kids get killed because he *must* fill out paperwork and wait for the right meeting to occur where someone could say "no".

That's not to belittle Lois or her contribution or own realization of who her boyfriend really is - and that he's not just the naive farm boy maybe she thinks he is - even if his record collection is inferior.

Anyway.. if being punk rock is about ignoring social norms to follow a moral compass, I guess he's playing three chords and screaming incoherently into a microphone.  

*As someone who natively swears like a pirate, I absolutely code switch and have my alternative euphemisms - and I highly recommend it. "Holy cats" is a favorite and very all-purpose.  "Criminy" - also very good.  I used "swell" so long ironically, I now just use it.