“You trust everybody. You think everyone you meet is beautiful.”
This film marks the 4th incarnation of the character portrayed on the silver screen since 1978. Clark Kent is the Man of Tomorrow, that Strange Visitor (from another planet), disguised as a mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper who fights for truth and justice. With a Metropolis full of metahumans and several other super-supporting characters, this film focuses on the man inside the blue suit. In this adaptation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation, Clark Kent works two jobs (one of the gigs involves a cape), goes on dates, cooks dinners (badly), and tries to do the right thing in the face of uncertainty. This new iteration drops the viewer right in the deep end and expects them to know how to swim.
DC Easter eggs abound in a complex environment crafted as an example of meticulous worldbuilding. The city of Metropolis is alive; the people move with purpose, and the world is breathing outside every window. Instead of sequel-baiting, Superman has a clean arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Despite some minor flaws, this is a good-if-not-great film. With a vivid color palette harkening back to the four-color comics source material, excellent effects, some delightful performances, crisp super-brawls, well-written, clearly motivated characters, and the Phoenix-like revival of (yet another) magnificent John Williams score, this Superman should not be missed.
Superman is a 2025 DC Studios/ WB Pictures release written and directed by James Gunn. David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan lead an ensemble cast including Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Isabela Merced, María Gabriela de Faría, and Nathan Fillion, with Sara Sampaio, Anthony Carrigan, and the vocal talents of Alan Tudyk.
“I don’t think there’s anything funny about good journalism, Lois.”
It has been three years since Superman revealed himself to the public. Many other metahumans have followed suit. Maxwell Lord’s Justice Gang is battling a towering, fire-breathing Kaiju in downtown Metropolis. The team is led by Mister Terrific (Gathegi), a virtuoso martial artist with a brilliant, inventive mind, who is the master of his many T-Spheres, which are small, white drones with offensive, defensive, and surveillance capabilities. He fights alongside the winged warrior known as Hawkgirl (Merced) and the irascible Guy Gardner (Fillion), who considers himself the greatest Green Lantern in the galaxy. Superman (Corenswet) arrives to assist and becomes distracted during the fight with the massive monster while trying to keep the Justice Gang from killing it. Clark doesn’t detect Lex Luthor (Hoult) and his associates, the Engineer (de Faría), a cyborg-nanobot construct, and Ultraman, Lex’s burly, black-clad enforcer, breaking into Clark’s Arctic crystal palace known as The Fortress of Solitude.
Ultraman and the Engineer swiftly overpower Superman’s security robots and incapacitate Krypto the Superdog, who valiantly tries to protect his home. Then, the Engineer turns to hacking the Kryptonian computer mainframes to steal all of Superman’s secrets. The alien systems are too vast for her to swallow, but she can repair and translate a message from Superman’s parents that was damaged when Kal-El was sent to Earth as a baby before she begins to overheat.
Luthor has been advancing a multifaceted plan to turn the populace against Superman out of sheer spite. The billionaire head of Lexcorp, once considered the most powerful man in Metropolis due to his great wealth, genius intellect, and the simple fact that he owns half the buildings in the skyline, had that position usurped three years ago by the arrival of the alien interloper from Krypton. Lex’s ego is utterly unable to get past that diminishment. Luthor is bankrolling social media attacks on Superman along with ingratiating himself with high-ranking officers of the Pentagon as well as Cabinet Secretaries. Among other aspects of his scheme, Lex oversees the creation of a “Pocket Dimension” powered by a gravity well, which allows Luthor and his agents access to an area beyond the reach of Superman’s enhanced senses, where they can advance their plot.
Lex realizes that, WHATEVER the message actually says, he can use it to his advantage through his network of social media pawns and television talking heads. Suddenly, across the world, everyone’s smartphones are blowing up with tweets, xeets, and DM’s, along with reports from the MSM reporting on the foreboding message from the stars.
Jor-El and Lara appear to exhort their son to use his unfettered powers and lord over the human race. They tell him to spread his seed and rule without mercy. Almost instantly, the gathered crowd looks at Superman with eyes full of fear and fury. Taken aback, Clark returns to the Fortress of Solitude to find the place in ruins, the computers trashed, and Krypto missing.
Luthor and his Private Military Corporation, known as Planet-Watch, are given sole responsibility to bring in Superman by the Secretary of Defense. After a confrontation with Luthor that goes poorly but confirms that Lex has put the bag on Superman’s puppy, Clark conceives his own plan; if he turns himself to the military, maybe they will bring him to the same place they took his dog.
Superman tells daring Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Brosnahan) of his intentions, and she begins her own investigation. She suspects Luthor is involved with the recent war between Borovia and Jarhanpur that stopped after Superman had a conversation with the brutish Borovian president, and the terrified Tyrant immediately ordered his forces to withdraw from the border.
Superman surrenders and is transported into the Pocket Dimension by Ultraman. There, he is placed in a dungeon alongside a mournful Rex Mason, known as Metamorpho, the Element Man (Carrigan). Luthor is holding Metamorpho’s son hostage, and Rex knows what he must do. With downcast eyes, he reaches out to his new cellmate, Superman, and his hand glows a sickly green as it turns into kryptonite. Lex monologues for a bit, confirms he has Krypto, claims he’s going to kill the dog, kill Superman’s friends, one by one, and will be back the next day to watch Superman die of Kryptonite poisoning. Meanwhile, the moment Superman is imprisoned in the Pocket Dimension, the Borovian military mobilizes and begins to march on the border of Jarhanpur.
Can Clark convince his cellmate to chill with the radiation and help with a jailbreak? Can Lois connect the dots and tie the conflict to Lexcorp? With Superman out of the way, will Lex be satisfied by returning to his previous role and resuming his rule as Metropolis’ perceived regent? Can anyone save the people of Jarhanpur before their time runs out? Will the Justice Gang settle on a better name? See James Gunn’s Superman to find out.
“You have a flying saucer, but you couldn’t get a faster garage door?”
James Gunn is known for being able to understand the verities of certain comic book characters, and here he just nails it. Contrary to many recent depictions, Superman is not space-Jesus. If anything, this nebbishy hero created by two Jews is space-Moses, an allegory for a baby boy who was put in a basket by slaves and sent down the Nile river to become Prince of Egypt and who would then return to protect his people and set them free. There is an ancient concept that we Red-Sea Pedestrians have called Tikkun Olam, which is about helping people and trying to make the world a better place. As Superman, Clark Kent is the personification of that credo, wearing a cape and a big, red S.
It is in this reviewer’s opinion that the beef most DC fans have with the Snyder films are the selfish, Objectivist versions of Martha and Jonathan Kent. “You don’t owe this world a thing” should not be the Kent way. Gunn gives the viewers kinder, gentler Kents who want their adoptive boy out there in the world being the best man he can be. The brief scene with Clark and his parents is full of the kind of altruistic pride and love that put Clark on the right path. The only thing that’s weird is that Ma and Pa Kent have a thick Kansas twang in their voices, which is completely absent in Clark. If anything, though he practically blanches in the face of curse words, Clark sounds like a city mouse, through and through.
A scene with a group of kids with a Superman flag and then the entire group of Jarhanpurians chanting for Superman in the face of an advancing army is a very inspiring moment. There are a lot of great shots in the film, whether it’s Superman majestically rising out of a cloud of concrete dust or laying thunderous haymakers on a Kaiju, speeding to the Arctic in the blink of an eye or the colossal crystal spars of the Fortress slowly twisting out of the snow-covered tundra, this movie looks incredible. Gunn has crafted complex but clearly choreographed super-fight scenes, a skill he mastered during The Guardians of the Galaxy series. Gunn has an imaginative eye and isn’t afraid to work in absurdities and whimsy. He leans into source material and is not afraid.
As a writer and director, Gunn is brave to choose in media res. Starting the film in the beginning of this Superman story instead of the beginning of the Superman story, the broad strokes of which are widely known, is a smart move. Gunn also makes superb use of Chekhov’s black hole; early in the film, its presence primes the viewer for the weight the event horizon presses on the events of the climax.
Lex has a room full of thousands of augmented monkeys doing social media hits on Superman. It’s a sly allusion to the Infinite Monkey Theory (wherein you get an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, eventually you will get any work imaginable, including the entire Shakespeare folio).
The Pocket Dimension is a clever reference to the workaround that allowed the Legion of Super-Heroes’ story to still make sense after DC eliminated Superboy from the timeline in 1986. The team, who were first published in 1958, were inspired by the Teen of Steel to begin their super-adventures in the far-flung future. The writers stuck them in a Pocket Dimension where Superboy still existed, reinforcing the title’s internal consistency. They maintained that status quo for several years afterwards.
Created by Otto Binder in 1958 as a twisted reflection of Superman, the character Bizarro was later retconned into a failed clone in the 1986 miniseries, The Man of Steel, by John Byrne. This reviewer had a problem with Ultraman looking just like the character Black Noir, which gave away the game the minute he walked on screen, and if the viewer has read Garth Ennis’ dark, anti-hero, trope-deconstruction series, The Boys, that viewer knows why.
Nathan Fillion may have found the perfect character for him to portray. He inhabits the role of Guy Gardner as if he were possessed by that pompous prick. Gardner’s power ring constructs are depicted well, but this reviewer would’ve really liked for him to be surrounded by a glowing, green aura while he is flying around in his various scenes.
Giving Mister Terrific some edge, Edi Gathegi handles the job of portraying a super genius with great poise. When pressed, he and his T-Spheres kick a lot of ass and steal scenes.
Isabela Merced isn’t given a lot to do with her role. She screams in battle, she snarks during scenes at the Hall of Justice, she slams her mace into a Kaiju’s eye, she looks good doing all of it. There’s just not a lot of it. Her character isn’t nearly as spare as the staff of the Daily Planet or the Engineer. Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White are paper-thin and rely entirely on the viewing audience’s external knowledge of Superman mythos. The Engineer is even more terse. She growls, she battles at Luthor’s command, nothing about her motivations is made apparent in the slightest.
David Corenswet is a good Clark Kent. His Clark is humble, he’s nice, he’s kind, and he’s polite to a fault. For a mostly invulnerable man, he is surprisingly empathetic and always striving to see the best in people. There are distinct posture and vocal differences between his Clark and his Superman, but both characters come off as slightly disheveled do-gooders. Corenswet’s Clark knows his beliefs are out of step and slightly anachronistic, but he doesn’t care and wants to help people regardless.
Rachel Brosnahan has crafted an excellent Lois Lane. Like Margot Kidder, Dana Delany, Bitsy Tulloch, and Amy Adams before her, Brosnahan’s Lane is fearless. She’s inventive, quick-witted, foul-mouthed, driven by caffeine, sugar, and a reporter’s relentless instincts. A seasoned pro, she also takes the time to mentor Jimmy Olsen in the craft of journalism. Her relationship with Clark in this movie is convoluted yet believable. Putting her own spin on an iconic character, she does a very good job.
Hoult’s Luthor is a snarly, petulant, modern-day suzerain. He dresses like Steve Jobs, he throws fits like Elon Musk, and conspires to seize control of “his” domains like a certain MAGA president. Hoult is chewing scenery left and right like a Cookie Monster let loose in an Entenmann’s bakery. Though he did the best he can with what he was given, and is a significant step up from Jesse Eisenberg, this reviewer thinks Hoult is miscast. In this reviewer’s opinion, Lex Luthor needs to be much older than Superman. Hoult lacks a proper amount of seasoning and gravitas. In many previous versions, Luthor builds much of Metropolis with his technologies, two-thirds of its people work for him, whether they know it or not, and Lex feels like the city belongs to him. This reviewer is unable to imagine Hoult achieving that level of accomplishments and acquisitions at the age of 35.
Superman comes up somewhat short but is still a high-quality picture. Krypto the Superdog is AMAZING. This viewer sees MANY plushies sold on account of his fuzzy awesomeness. The film is fun viewing and an excellent return to form for a character who embodies the concept of fighting the good fight, the battle for “Truth, Justice and the American Way”. In a country that has turned inward, a country that has lost its way, a story about the power of kindness, diversity, and the benefits immigrants can bring might be arriving at exactly the right time. Superman is woke. He’s ALWAYS been woke. Get over it, get with it and go see the movie, please.
Superman is in theatres 7/11/2025.
Superman and related characters were created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Bizarro was created by Otto Binder and George Papp.
Mister Terrific was created by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake.
Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) was created by James Robinson and David S. Goyer.
Guy Gardner was created by John Broome and Gil Kane.
The Engineer was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch.
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher