Film Review: Superman

Superman
Director: James Gunn
DC Studios, Troll Court Entertainment, The Safran Company
In Theaters: 07.11.2025

I’ve been complaining that the market was oversaturated with superhero movies since long before it was fashionable, and certainly since before it was proven to be true by diminishing box office returns. Still, the fact remains that one of the most formative movies of my life was the 1978 classic Superman: The Movie, and my fondness for the character is immeasurable. As such, I’ve been awaiting James Gunn’s Superman as a major event the likes of which a superhero movie simply can’t be any more, hoping to see both a bold new vision and something that took me truly fresh back to my childhood at the same time. This is a lot to ask of any movie, but this is also the guy who made a raccoon the most memorably tragic character in film in the past 20 years. 

Thirty years after being sent away from the doomed planet of Krypton, Clark Kent (David Corenswet, Twisters) lives on Earth as Superman, secretly using his incredible powers to protect humanity while working as a reporter in Metropolis. After intervening in a foreign conflict, he is attacked by a vengeful enemy known as the Hammer of Boravia, controlled by tech mogul Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, Mad Max: Fury Road, Juror #5). As public opinion turns and even Clark’s colleague and girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) questions his judgment, a major revelation about Superman’s mission on earth hits hard, turning the public against him and causing Clark to question everything he’s ever known and believed about who he is and who he is meant to be. Retreating to the Fortress of Solitude, Clark must find the courage and strength to face his doubts in order to stop Luthor’s nefarious plot to take over the world. He’s not in it alone, however, as a small band of metahuman superheroes unofficially dubbed “The Justice Gang” by their self-appointed leader Guy Gardner, aka Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion, Firefly, The Rookie), join forces with him to protect the earth and its citizenry. But even more importantly, Clark is not alone because he has a dog. 

Gunn’s Superman takes a nearly polar opposite approach to Zack Snyder’s divisive 2013 version, Man of Steel, a movie featuring a lot of intriguing ideas — some daring, and some just plain asinine — and its constant insistence on taking itself so seriously made it almost impossible for the audience to do so. Gunn’s approach to nearly everything he makes is to take it seriously into unbridled enthusiasm and commitment to his love of the source material, while also embracing its silliness. The new film is the most overtly comic major adaptation we’ve seen since Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the ‘90s, with a touch of that series’ light rom-com elements sprinkled in with a loud, frenetic, immensely entertaining and just plain nuts action film that has all of the wildest elements comic book. The idea that we’d ever be seeing a live action blockbuster Superman film that prominently featured Krypto the SuperDog is something I never expected in my lifetime.Sure, it’s wacky and even stupid at times, but for the most part, in all the right ways. The action is frenetic but dazzling, and even though the story is at times overcrowded with characters and mythology, it weaves together to be coherent enough for modern audiences who are far more comic book savvy than those in the Christopher Reeve era. 

Gunn’s screenplay is funny and eerily topical, with a Lex Luthor who brings to mind inevitable comparisons to Elon Musk, and a major plot element that will bring to mind the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Trump administration’s complicity in enabling a dictator. The most widely debated subtext has been based on Gunn referring to Superman as an immigrant, which has quite understandably caused Lois & Clark actor turned right-wing noisemaker Dean Cain to make it his mission to remind fans everywhere that he will also be the biggest jackass ever to play Superman — one with no grasp on the concepts of truth and justice, with a truly sickening interpretation of the American way. The subtext of othering is there, but it’s not overpowering, and if you’re delusional enough to be a Trump supporter and watch literally any more and still identify with the hero, you’ll be just fine here. 

Corenswet is easily the best Superman since Reeve, bringing back the earnest charm, idealism and vulnerability that made the Man of Steel soar in the first place. This Superman is an unapologetically square nice guy who uses words like “golly” and has no clue that his favorite band is the one that all of the cool people hate, but he ultimately doesn’t care (an inspired choice by Gunn that embodies everything I love so much about this character). Brosnahan’s Lois Lane is a strong, competent, mature woman without being perfect or boring, retaining the best idiosyncrasies of the character, and her sizzling chemistry with Corenswet is one the film’s greatest assets. The perennially underrated Hoult brings gleefully villainous life back to Luthor after Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice nearly ruined the character forever, and this more overtly cartoonish take on the character is both fun and uncomfortably real. 

Superman is a thoroughly entertaining if often chaotic summer blockbuster that gets the new DC Cinematic Universe off to a fun and promising start, and it is best viewed as the flagship for the DCU. The worst way to watch this film is to go in expecting a definitive telling of the Superman story, which it blatantly is not. It’s Gunn’s telling of the story, and if you watch it as such, it’s a delightfully goofy movie that will leave you eager for more. —Patrick Gibbs

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