I’m finally here. I’ve been waiting for what feels like my whole life to get to this moment and review this movie. You may say I need to change my priorities because that’s sad, to which I’d say “How dare you but also yeah”. Anyway, review time!

Superman (2025) stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, María Gabriela de Faría, Sara Sampaio, Terence Rosemore, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Edi Gathegi, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Wendell Pierce, Beck Bennett, Mikaela Hoover, Christopher McDonald, Frank Grillo, Sean Gunn, Bradley Cooper, Angela Sarafyan, Neva Howell, and Pruitt Taylor Vince.

Quick Plot Rundown –
The world is a sad and confusing place full of anger and division. Nobody believes or likes anybody because cynicism is easier. But one man exists who can make the impossible possible. He can’t fix the division or the world. But he can do his best every day and save as many people as he can. And that man is Superman.
Unfortunately for Superman, his opposite also exists. Lex Luthor will stop at nothing to destroy Superman, purely because he represents everything he hates. And equally unfortunate for Superman, this is the first genuinely competent Lex Luthor in cinema history. Over the course of two hours Superman’s public standing, sense of self, relationships, and ability to not die in some gruesome fashion, is tested several times over.
Meanwhile Lois Lane, who has been dating Superman/Clark Kent for three months, is led to question whether they’re too different for their relationship to continue. Also there’s a quasi-Justice League team running about and Ma and Pa Kent are giving homely wisdom. There are a lot of characters in this but unlike some more professional viewers, I don’t mind that.

General Non-Spoilery Thoughts –
I have seen this movie twice. On first watch I had a great time but took issue with some of the CGI and a few odd lines throughout. The second watch made that mostly not matter. I do have issues with this movie that I’ll get into later, but… I mean nothing I’m about to say will surprise you if you know me or how excited I was for this. I loved this. It’s very much like The Batman or Spider-Man: Homecoming. It distills the core elements of the character into one flawed but very well-executed and far more character accurate package.
Superman is the best. He’s hopeful and positive and he represents the best of humanity. He’s also, and James Gunn got in trouble with some bad people for saying this, the ultimate immigrant. He comes from another planet and he was created by two Jewish men and it’s not political to say that. Although some choices in this movie do somewhat undermine the positive message this film is meant to have. Anyway, shut up Dean Cain. You’re a bad guy. Let’s get into it.

Recommendations –
In advance of this film I got Super-Mania and read some of the best Superman comics, some for the first time. All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely was listed as an inspiration for this multiple times and is a good fun time. Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar and Dave Johnson was actually great and not insufferable which I assumed it would be because people never shut up about it and that’s from what I consider to be Mark Millar’s worst era as a writer.
Superman For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is a narratively simplistic but endlessly charming comic by one of the most beloved writer/artist duos in all of comics. It looks gorgeous by the way. And Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu, which has a particular element that this film sort of takes on board. These are all excellent.
And directly before I watched the film I treated myself to a very sad viewing of Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. I was sad because this great but flawed man who meant so much to so many people was paralyzed and then died the day before I turned two years old. And his wife died of lung cancer which also sucks. Watch this documentary but it will make you sad.

Characters –
Clark Kent AKA Superman – David Corenswet
During the first few months of quarantine I watched an episode of a show called The Politician with my step sister. David Corenswet played a man who had died and now existed in the imagination of Ben Platt’s character. I remember watching that and thinking “That guy looks like a young Henry Cavill”. Apparently there’s also a line in that show where Ben Platt says “You look like Superman” but I don’t remember that and I’m saying I’m the reason he was cast in this movie.
And everyone should thank me quite frankly because he nailed it. He’s got a lot of charisma and pathos and a good sense of humor. I would like to see more of his Clark Kent because, spoiler alert, we really only get one scene of him Clarking about. I want to see more of him shifting between the two personas. Get on that James Gunn, and Matt Reeves, you hopefully did the same for the The Batman Part Two script you just completed.
Throwing us into this universe a few years in does kind of leave us having to catch up with this Superman but he does a good job. He says very Midwestern things like “What the hey?” and “Good gosh”. He’s a big old cornball. And he cares about everybody, even squirrels. He is quite easily the best movie Superman since Christopher Reeve, with much respect to Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill, who gave good performances buried in depressing soulless films. Man of Steel was okay but it’s not what I want from Superman.
But yes, he has wonderful charisma and he has “it” so I’d like to see him play this character for a good long while.

Lois Lane – Rachel Brosnahan
Also excellent. Just like Superman, you need a specific quality to nail this character, and Rachel Brosnahan managed it seamlessly. I do think she could have benefited from more scenes, because Lois is a great character. Everyone knows that. Amy Adams is great, she could have nailed it if given the chance, but she had nothing to work with, just meaningless dreariness.
Rachel Brosnahan has that tenacious quality nailed down. I presume she mastered that throughout her several seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, a show I haven’t watched because it’s one of many excellent shows out there that I just haven’t gotten to yet. She’s particularly good in the Superman/Lois interview scene, where she raises some good points that unfortunately kind of get ignored as the movie goes on.

Lex Luthor – Nicholas Hoult
As I said before, this is the first movie Lex Luthor to act like comic book Lex Luthor. Superman also is more comic accurate, but purely from a powers standpoint, Christopher Reeve had the characterization locked down from day one. This is Lex Luthor. He’s not a petty criminal obsessed with land deals surrounded by idiots and living underground. He’s not wearing wigs. He’s not being played by a rapist that somehow still gets work. And he’s not whatever the fuck Jesse Eisenberg was told to do.
This Lex Luthor is cold, calculating, malicious, and diabolical. He also just has a bunch of weird shit. He created or found some weird pale creature that just pulls a lever to move a platform. He’s got an army of hyper-intelligent typing monkeys. These all seem to just be odd experiments that he’s repurposed on the fly for whatever he needs.
He’s a mad scientist but he’s also got a room full of office drones committed to helping him screw Superman over. He’s also dating Eve Tessmacher, who I think in the 1978 film was just an assistant. And he’s doing much more malicious shit which I’ll get into. But yeah, loved his performance. Nicholas Hoult has redeemed himself from being a very bland Beast in the X-Men movies. Which also wasn’t really his fault, it was more because the writers gave him the ability to change back and forth like the Hulk.
But yeah, good, Nicholas Hoult continues to kill it always.

Jimmy Olsen – Skyler Gisondo
There are two things as a nerd that I really enjoy. The fictional character of Jimmy Olsen and the non-fictional actor of Skyler Gisondo. Have you seen Booksmart? Go watch it if you haven’t. Like right now. Anyway, I want more Jimmy Olsen. There’s another recommendation for you, Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. His main plotline is for spoiler territory, but he’s got the fun energy you need for Jimmy Olsen and they leant into the All-Star Superman iteration who’s inexplicably a lady’s man and doesn’t get it himself.

Michael Holt AKA Mr. Terrific – Edi Gathegi
Edi is finally getting a second take at a superhero role after playing Darwin in X-Men: First Class, the first mutant who dies even though his power in the comics is that he can literally adapt to anything so therefore cannot die. Mr. Terrific is quite a different character. His interpretation does feel a bit more Gunny than I typically perceive him being in the comics.
He’s very cocky because he knows he’s the third smartest man in the world, which is in line with most versions. If you want a good example of how bad of a job the filmmakers of Black Adam did, my dad thought Mr. Terrific and Hawkman were the same character. I said in my review that Hawkman felt nothing like any version of Hawkman and more like Mr. Terrific, so it’s nice to see that a man who raised me and sometimes thinks a lot like me agrees.
My main complaint of this iteration of the character is also necessary for the film itself. There’s no time for the audience to learn that he’s the third smartest man and he’s invisible to technology and he became the second Mr. Terrific after his wife died in a car crash and the ghost of the World War 2 era Mr. Terrific visited him. Instead he just comes off as a cocky smart guy. Which is fine also.

Guy Gardner AKA Green Lantern – Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion was cast in this primarily so James Gunn could make his good friend have a shitty bowl cut in a movie. Heh. I like Guy Gardner. This felt like a somewhat bare bones version of the character. He was an ass but more like the modern day version, not like the first few arcs of Justice League International when he was the worst prick ever. He did a few fun constructs but I’m picky and I still want more. I am hoping we get a lot of fun constructs in Lanterns, otherwise why make a Green Lantern show?

Kendra Saunders AKA Hawkgirl – Isabela Merced
Even more basic, just a screechy badass woman, not much to her. She’s funny, but I didn’t really recognize any particular version of Hawkgirl from the comics in this interpretation. In the comics both Hawkgirl and Hawkman have been reincarnated throughout the centuries, and this is the Kendra Saunders version though she doesn’t much act like it. When we see her again I hope they lean into her comics history.

Angela Spica AKA The Engineer – María Gabriela de Faría
I know nothing about the Engineer. She’s from a universe that got added to DC a long time ago. The WildStorm Universe. I’ve never had any real interest to explore that. So I didn’t know about her or the Authority, which is her team. The actress did a pretty good job and the character was fine I suppose, she’s mostly just muscle for Lex Luthor. I still don’t know why James Gunn picked her in particular. He gave her some fairly clunky dialogue that she delivered earnestly. That happens throughout, there is some very odd dialogue that feels like it’s from a Chris Claremont comic book. But for the most part it works, and without her skills with delivery, her lines wouldn’t work as well. Her powers are fun though. She’s basically all nanobots now and not very human.

Rex Mason AKA Metamorpho – Anthony Carrigan
I love Anthony Carrigan and the character of Metamorpho. This didn’t really feel like Metamorpho. In the comics Rex was an archeologist and explorer who become the element man and he’s brash and he’s got this big personality. This Rex is just a timid broken guy. Which is fine, it’s a new take, but I think the main issue with James Gunn throwing all these characters in at once is, again, I don’t think Metamorpho gets his due. He feels half-baked and ill-represented. But also he’s not in it much and he is mainly in this to serve a story purpose, so this may change. I don’t know.

Score/Soundtrack –
This is James Gunn’s first movie that leans more on score than soundtrack, and he has admitted he was outside his comfort zone because he’s good at needle drops. Except for Guardians 3 with “Creep” because that’s a bad overplayed song that shouldn’t have been in that. There are two needle drops in this, both perfect, and otherwise the score was great. It was composed by John Murphy and David Fleming and revamped in parts the iconic John Williams score in a fun synthy way. My favorite part of the score before listening to it outright, which I should do, is the theme for Lex and his gang of evil pricks. And both “5 Years Time” by Noah and the Whale and “Punk Rocker” by Teddybears and Iggy Pop went directly into my playlist. They played at perfect times. I shan’t be saying when.

Cinematography –
There’s some great shots in this. My main issue is I wanted more flying scenes. My favorite flying scene was him going through the kaiju’s flame breath. It is interesting that the guy who did The Flash is James Gunn’s go to guy because that movie looks like shit from a butt even in the way some of the shots are composed, but I’m just anti-Flash. The movie specifically. Guy did a good job this time.

DA DA DA DA DA

DA DA DAAAAA

DA DA DA DA DA

SPOILER TIME

I was doing that to the Superman theme to be clear.

I wasn’t just saying yes in Russian multiple times.

What a weird time it is, that this movie has finally come out, yeah?

I’ve had so much anxiety about this movie being good.

Because I’m a massive fucking nerd.

I know movies shouldn’t have an impact on my mental health.

But… I don’t know, screw you, don’t tell me how to live my life!

At least I’m not on TikTok.

Yucky. Anyway, spoilers.

Superman Spoiler Review
Most of the trailers are centered on the beginning of the movie. The plot, as is revealed in the opening crawl, is that Superman, who has been doing his thing for three years now, recently went to a foreign country called Jarhanpur and prevented the soldiers and the President of Boravia from invading and starting a war. Many people are not pleased with his decision and see it as an act of foreign aggression. He believes it was a very simple decision to save people and do good.
As a consequence of this decision, a Boravian metahuman known as “The Hammer of Boravia” flies to Metropolis and beats the shit out of Superman. Of course there is no such metahuman, this is Lex Luthor’s silent goon Ultraman in a big metal suit (That looks really good by the way) and Lex is trying to trick the general public into believing this is a consequence of Superman’s actions. In actuality, the escalated conflict between the foreign nations, this ruse, all of it is part of Lex’s petty plan to make everyone hate Superman so he can destroy him.
Lex uses Ultraman and the Engineer to get into the Fortress of Solitude and steal a message from Clark’s parents, played by Angela Sarafyan and Bradley Cooper. Superman constantly has his Superman Robots play this message from them telling him to be the best he can and look out for Earth because it reminds him who he is and why he does this. But the message got scrambled and he’s never heard the second half, where they tell him to rule over the people of Earth and start a harem.
Lex distracts Superman by releasing a kaiju in Metropolis and then shows this message to the people of Earth, who turn on Superman almost instantly. Also Lex kidnapped Krypto. And Clark tells Lois he’s going to turn himself in so he can find Krypto and make sure he’s okay. So Lex gets what he wants and puts Superman in his pocket dimension prison where he also keeps Metamorpho and his son. He blackmails Metamorpho into creating Kryptonite to kill Superman slowly. He also reveals that the President of Boravia works for him and that most of the internet hate campaign and the war Superman stopped, all of it is Lex’s plan. And then Lex very nonchalantly kills Mali, a street vendor that was nice to Superman and vice versa. That was so evil and I didn’t expect it.
Mr. Terrific and Lois rescue Clark, Krypto, Rex and his baby from the pocket dimension. There’s a little bit where Superman and the baby are stuck in a proton river or something and it looked iffy the first time I watched it but I don’t mind it that much. Clark recuperates on the Kent’s farm and receives a brilliant and beautiful pep talk from his dad (Great scene) while Jimmy receives all the information him and Lois need to nail LexCorp from his ex and Luthor’s current girlfriend, Eve Tessmacher. Eve is secretly an excellent character in this and I was surprised because I didn’t care about her and Otis as brand new annoying characters being thrown into the ’78 film and I thought they’d both be annoying in this but they both served a purpose.
Luthor willingly destabilizes the pocket dimension in a way that he knows can destroy Metropolis and the world, but he ignores his team because he just wants to kill Superman at all costs. And there’s a big fight while the Justice Gang and Metamorpho save the citizens of Jarhandpur. Superman takes on the Engineer and Ultraman, who’s revealed to be a Superman clone. He defeats the clone and Superman and Mr. Terrific go to LuthorCorp and shut down the rift. Superman gives an excellent speech about his humanity, saves the day, and makes out with Lois.
And it ends on a great note where Superman is at the fortress and his cousin Supergirl arrives, drunk from a planet with a Red Sun. Her and Krypto fly off into her movie next year. And Superman asks his Robots to play the video of his parents, and watches home videos with Ma and Pa Kent. Wonderful.
Overall, I loved this. Well done.

Did James Gunn make the first comic accurate Superman movie but also make it good for once because most of them suck?
Yes, he absolutely did. I was going to sit down and watch all of them in advance of this. That did not happen, I was too busy avoiding doing other things with my life. I did watch Superman 1978 for the first time since I was five, and that’s not an incredible movie but it was fun in a campy way. Christopher Reeve is so fucking good, man. I’m hesitant to rewatch Superman Returns because it’s boring and sad and multiple sex criminals were involved in making it, and the Henry Cavill version is just so much wasted potential. This is definitely the best of a very mixed bunch.

Did it all work?
Not really. It’s a great film and I’m happier about this DC universe than I ever was about that last shit show. But this is an unfocused movie that would have benefitted from an extra half hour. The whole emotional core of the film is meant to be Clark coming to terms with what his Kryptonian heritage actually is and realizing the human side is more important, but that arc is inherently underbaked for a few reasons. Ma and Pa Kent are in three short scenes and one is a (Subtly done and fun) joke about how old people don’t know how phones work. There’s a line where you realize Clark hasn’t been home for a while, but that’s not explored. He could’ve been avoiding them but he just wasn’t.
The Jor-El and Lara thing is fine as a retcon. I don’t love that James Gunn threw in a harem joke that kept coming up, it felt unnecessary and gross for this kind of movie, even if it did mean we got to see the frizzy-haired Triangle of Sadness guy do a little dance. I don’t care about Jor-El and I find Bradley Cooper inherently smug and annoying so I wasn’t upset by the evil twist like some people have been. But it never felt that consequential to the plot. And it felt like something that would be faked, especially in this movie about people faking things to screw with Superman. I appreciate why James Gunn wanted to throw that in there but again, we’re in a hurry, so we get a line from Mr. Terrific saying “I know those video authentication guys, they know their stuff.” And I’m sorry but that’s a monumentally stupid line.
Lex told the Boravian President it was real but you’re telling me the third smartest man on Earth, whose main characterization is being frustrated that nobody else is as smart as him, blindly takes it on face value that these guys accurately authenticated a video from across the universe? And that he wasn’t curious enough to check himself or consider, since he was already anti-Luthor, that Luthor could have bribed someone to say it was real? Yes this is a pedantic take but it irritated me a whole lot.
I’m not the first person to make these complaints. It’s a good movie and it’s cast well but there’s not enough of these great characters. Perry White is barely in it, played excellently by Wendell Pierce. There’s a great scene where the Daily Planet is being evacuated and Lois, Jimmy and Perry are just calmly going over Lex’s conspiracy in the midst of it all and Lois says “What’s Luthor’s end goal, you ask?” Or something like that, and Perry says “I do ask”. And it’s just a great delivery from a great actor. Meanwhile Beck Bennett was either given more screen time as Steve Lombard or is just really good at making the most of a character like that. He nailed it. Good job.
I just have to emphasize, I’m not unhappy that this is a “drop you in the middle of it” film and the universe is already established. I don’t think it’s over-stuffed. There’s a lot going on, there just needed to be more time with the good stuff. In the sequel give me more Clark and the news team. Give me Brainiac and Toy Man and any number of weird villains. Oh and that’s my last minor complaint, Ultraman being non-speaking clone Superman with no personality was underwhelming, they didn’t have time to do something more interesting with that, but hopefully he comes back as Bizarro.
Which, I should say, there is some good character building in the background, that he created a Superman clone and most of the time Ultraman is turning lights on and off for him or giving the Boravian President donuts. He made a Superman who was dumber and subservient. Good stuff.
I wish the movie wouldn’t ask so many questions it doesn’t answer though, like “Is Clark an ethical journalist and should he be reporting on Superman’s adventures or interviewing him?” Well actually it does answer that and the answer is no, but you know he’ll still do it. Also “Should foreign aid be a thing?” More complicated, that.

Is this DC Universe off to a good start?
Absolutely. I was already excited because there are people involved who have read or written comic books before. But this is so immediately such a counterpoint to the MCU. It’s sincere, it’s not afraid to be different. It’s weirder. And this movie actually felt like a comic book, one we started reading several issues in. They teased Supergirl and I like this version of Supergirl already. She feels nuanced and interesting and dark in a fun way. Lanterns sounds good. I mean, technically this isn’t the start, because we got Creature Commandos first and Peacemaker season one and the Suicide Squad are both canon. But yeah. Great stuff. I’m probably forgetting so much more I wanted to mention. Ah, well. I’ll talk about this again at the end of the year.

Politics
I should say, I’m updating the review because I didn’t mention it really, that this film is political in a way most superhero movies aren’t. Ironically it’s more political than Captain America 4, which was essentially an example of big cowardice, where nobody said anything at all about corrupt presidents or wrongful imprisonment. It was ridiculous. Whereas this film essentially recreates footage of the conflict in Gaza and Hawkgirl kills Benjamin Netanyahu. I thought that was super interesting. It’s not the main thing I focused on, I mainly fixated on the action sequences and Superman saving a squirrel when I saw it the first time.

Will people like this or do they all suck? (Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions obviously but people on the internet suuuuck.)
A lot of people are liking this but yeah people still suck quite a bit. To clarify, if someone doesn’t like it, that’s fine, but you don’t need to be cruel if you didn’t like it. Or talk about wokeness or whatever because that’s not a thing. I like it and that’s what matters right now.

Overall Rating – 8.4/10(Flawed but fun with a good heart at the center. Superman saved a squirrel while fighting a kaiju just because he’s a great guy. Fuck yeah.)
John’s Inner Kid Rating – 100/10(It’s hard not to smile during this movie. Though surprisingly, inner child John was most excited by the long interview scene between Clark and Lois. My favorite part is that neither of them are wrong but Lois sees the interview as a sort of intellectual exercise and isn’t trying to hurt Clark’s feelings so when she asks “How do you think it’s going” and he says “I think I’m doing a good job” she has that look on her face that says “Alright fuck this, it’s Lois time”. So GOOD! Best scene.)

I’ve fallen well behind because of graduationing and depressioning but I know I owe you all a Ruddtrospective and three Flying Nun Recaps. Those are coming. And expect a Fantastic Four review soon, that’s out this week. Yay!!!