Writer/director James Gunn resets the status quo of the DC cinematic universe by reintroducing Superman as a relatable hero with flaws and aspirations in a full-formed comic book inspired universe.
Right off the bat, I’ll start my review of James Gunn’s Superman by saying I was a big fan of Henry Cavill and his take on Superman. The previous iteration of DC Comics’ films had their tone set by Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel, a movie that was trying to be a grounded take on superheroes in the modern world. This take was inspired by the wildly successful Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy of films. By and large, Man of Steel is a good movie, thought it gives us as an audience the difficult position of watching Superman as essentially an alien god who struggles to relate to humanity as an outsider. The parallels to Christ in Man of Steel are many and readily evident and while that is an interesting take to explore, many people were raised on the Richard Donner fantastical Silver Age version of Superman. This is the version people have sort of longed for Henry Cavill to embody. An everyman relatable hero.
What I can say is that James Gunn’s Superman is that silver age comic book inspired version of Superman. David Corenswet plays the Man of Steel and we join the world he lives in three years after he has debuted as Superman. This is an interesting way to approach the reset and one I enjoy. In films like Big Trouble in Little China or Buckaroo Banzai, we’re thrown in headfirst into a fully formed world and it makes for fun world-building. The Metropolis of Gunn’s Superman is very much it’s own universe, with it’s own bands, restaurants. sports teams which makes for a fun, unique and engaging world.
When we first meet Superman, he’s just been defeated for the first time by the Hammer of Boravia, a supposed nationalist hero in a conflict Superman has helped stop unilaterally without acting as a state agent. This is one of the conflicts in the film, Superman performing state level actions and what does it mean. A similar plot point was explored in Batman V Superman; I dare say Gunn handled it much better here and in a comic book-y way. People see Superman as a beacon and while Lex Luthor is clearly behind it here as he was in B v S, it’s people asking what is a hero and what qualities embody that. Those people include Superman himself, who sees being a hero as something his birth parents gave him as a birthright by sending him to Earth. But when that conviction is shaken by Luthor’s actions, Superman looks to the Kents, his family on Earth, to reinvigorate his belief in himself and humanity. He stumbles and falls, walking into pitfalls like social media traps meant to show him in the worst light, but he perseveres.
Speaking of Lex Luthor, Nicholas Hoult plays with aplomb. This is a character who almost never is played with the right level of envy and antipathy towards Superman as the man who stole his shine and Hoult here gets it. While he never dominates Superman physically, he believes that brain beats Brawn and his plan in this film, while convoluted and silly, is very much in the mold of the comic book Lex Luthor, while giving us shades of the movie version by including characters like Otis and Eve Tessmacher.
And this casting is where Gunn really wins with this film. The actors all have great chemistry with each other and inhabit their roles in the best ways possible. Nathan Fillion is actually amazing in this as Guy Gardner, a space cop essentially as he’s been assigned by the Green Lantern Corps to watch over Earth and does so as part of “The Justice Gang” a corporate super team assembled by rival oligarch Max Lord (Sean Gunn) consisting of Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced) and Mr. Terrific, a Tony Stark-esque superhero super genius played by Edi Gathegi, who largely steals the movie and has the best solo set piece in the film. The idea of corporate superteams is explored a lot in this film as Lex has his own team called PlanetWatch (a play on the WildStorm comic team Stormwatch) featuring the mysterious Ultraman and The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría). PlanetWatch acts like Luthor’s mercenaries in manipulating Superman throughout the film and they control a system of portals used to access The Bleed, a pocket universe that Lex uses as his own personal gulag.
As you can tell, there’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of cameos from characters you wouldn’t expect and some who steal the show like The Elemental Man that I would love to see more of. But really the heart of the film is Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane, who she absolutely channels the Margot Kidder version of the character. Corenswet and Brosnahan have amazing chemistry and they feel like real people in their situation. She makes Superman seem human and real and fallible and you can see why people would be attracted to her, she’s a magnetic character. No less praise should be heaped on Corenswet, who steps into a role here where he has to prop up one of the most well-known characters in human history but a while universe built around him. The supporting players here like Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen make the world seem real and he’s great in this as well. A lot of people will also fall in love with Krypto and the Super Robots, in particular Four voiced by Alan Tudyk.
Overall, Superman is a fun fresh reintroduction to a fun comic book universe. It’s light, very much in the vein of Silver-Age comic books or the Superman Animated TV show. Fun heroes fighting monsters, aliens and with a throwback vibe with a relatable human hero at the heart. I really loved it.
—
SUPERMAN (2025)
★★★★ of ★★★★★ stars
A fun reinvention that stays true to the character with plenty of rewatchability
—
OUT OF THEATER REACTION