Superman (2025)


Warner Bros., after failed movie after failed movie, decided it was time to cut their losses and completely reinvent the DC Cinematic Universe.  To do this they poached James Gunn, who had directed the Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel before being briefly given the boot for some immature stuff he said on Twitter in its early years.  It was at a time when everyone was looking for any excuse to cancel someone and studios were on edge.  However, fans were not having it and rallied go Gunn's defense, getting Disney and Marvel to let him back in and complete his trilogy.  Good thing as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was one of the few latter-day MCU films to deliver thrills, humor and emotion like some of the first batch did.  

What Gunn had done during his issues with Marvel is slip on over to DC and make The Suicide Squad, the third film featuring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, this time with a completely new cast of ne'er-do-wells tasked with being heroes.  Unlike the first two Gunn got the formula right, balancing humor and action and making a movie people actually wanted to see.  It worked well enough that one of the main characters, Peacekeeper, even got his own television show.  As Gunn worked on them the show and the movie are the only things surviving from the other DCCU films that is currently canon, which is a breath of fresh air.

As always, when starting a D.C. series, one has to start either with Superman or Batman, and poor Superman has suffered the most abuse in recent decades.  While I always liked Superman II and, in particular, Christopher Reeves in the role, I wasn't the biggest fan of the original film nor any of the sequels.  I always wanted a more serious tone, and Superman Returns, though a direct sequel to Superman II, wasn't it, but rather a kind of dull and plodding reboot. With Man of Steel Zack Snyder tried to shove both original films into one giant sci-fi epic of his own and only half succeeded, with each film down the line getting worse.  Gunn, thankfully, knows how to walk the line between corny and camp, and manages to mostly deliver with his attempt to reboot the franchise.

Instead of going over the whole backstory again it is summarized in a few words at the beginning as we meet Superman (David Corenswet) right after getting beat to a pulp by the Hammer of Boravia, a superhuman claiming to take revenge for Superman stepping in personally to keep the country of Boravia from invading neighboring Jarhanpur.  It is soon revealed that the person behind the metahuman is none other than Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who is bent on discrediting Superman in front of the U.S. government and the world.  With the help of the Engineer (María Garbriela de Faría) and the Hammer, who is actually Ultraman, Luthor locates the Fortress of Solitude and reveals a secret reason why Kal-El was sent to Earth when Krypton was destroyed.

With the world turning against him and his relationship with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) deteriorating he decides to turn himself in, which results in him being imprisoned in a pocket universe by Luthor.  Lois, desperate to save him, enlists the Justice Gang, made up of Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan FIllion), Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi).  Only Mr. Terrific agrees to help but, for their efforts, Luthor decides he's more than happy to destroy the world just to be rid of his greatest enemy.

I was happy that Gunn instinctively knew that the audience did not need another 45 minutes of Clark Kent growing up in Kansas.  We have seen that in Superman, Man of Steel and, for those that watched it, Smallville.  He gets right into what Superman is up to, with Lois Lane already dating him and knowing for at least three months that he and Clark Kent are the same person.  Gunn is pretty sure that anyone seeing this has read the comics, watched the films and doesn't need to have everything spoonfed once again.  

The other thing he does right is, from the beginning, Superman is not an invincible messiah figure.  He has always been overpowered which meant that it was difficult to find enemies that could get the better of him.  Ultraman is one of those, as is Superman's foster pet Krypto, a wild mutt that seems bent on destruction of anything that flies by him.  Superman has an army of robots that man the Fortress when he is not around (it is in Antarctica this time) and nurse him back to health when things go wrong.  There is even already a Hall of Justice, although Superman is not a member of "The Justice Gang", which is more a Green Lantern thing with corporate sponsorship.  The fact that these other heroes are already established in-universe is refreshing as well as the fact that they are integral to the plot and not just random cameos. 

I hate to sound like a broken record but, as good as Superman is, and as perfect a fit as Corenswet is in the role, the special effects bring it down.  Krypto is a well-done CGI character, so much that I was surprised they didn't use a real dog.  Metamorpho's (Anthony Carrigan) baby, though, is the usual blobby CGI cartoon, as is the "proton river" flowing through the pocket universe to its parent black hole.  Ship effects work as it seems everyone has figured out how to do these, the kaiju is lovably goofy and there is a cool dimensional imp, but too many of the special effects just aren't that special.  They look half finished, which they shouldn't in a movie that cost so much to make that, even though it was successful at the box office, there were concerns that it was going to lose money.

Despite this Gunn is mostly successful at rebooting the franchise.  Gone is the dull, washed-out color palate, and back is the more colorful world of the old films but with a more modern sensibility.  The humor present in the Guardians of the Galaxy series is here and everything is set to provide us a Justice League that is more in line with Saturday morning memories rather than some grimdark low fantasy.  It does remain to see how Batman is portrayed, as Gunn is happily leaving the universe the Robert Pattinson version is in alone to do its own thing, hinting that there is plenty of room to expand rather than try to jam everything into some long, drawn-out story.  

Superman (2025)
Time: 129 minutes
Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Fillion, Edi Gathegi, María Gabriela de Faría
Director: James Gunn



 

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