Superman (2025)

Is it a bird?! Is it a plane?! No! It's YET ANOTHER superhero flick and YET ANOTHER attempt by DC and Warner Bros to try and get their DCU started (ugh!!!!!!). Jesus read the room guys!

So after the failure of literally everything else in the DCEU and DCU, the powers that be thought it would be a wise choice to hire James Gunn in order to kickstart/reboot everything all over again. Was this a wise choice? Well this still remains to be seen but going by his previous work, personally, I don't think he was the right choice.

Plot wise, a world where superheroes exist, people know of Superman, and he's been around on Earth for years. So no origins story for Supes...or anyone or anything really. You're just pushed right into the fray, right into the action, this is the world, accept it. Superman is trying to stop a conflict and a mysterious supervillain, at the same time, Lex Luthor is trying to upend and ultimately get rid of Supes in any way he can. Does Superman have too much power? He is a friend or foe? All sounds familiar doesn't it?

So this time around we seem to have been given a real mix of Superman interpretations from various eras. As we know, the bulk is taken from the Silver age era. There is also some 80's influence, 90's influence, current day influences etc...But this leads to the first problem. The Silver Age content is overly goofy and doesn't come across well, in my opinion. The inclusion of Superman robots in the Fortress of Solitude and Krypto the Dog are terrible inclusions. The robots could have been decent had they been realised properly and not like something out of 'The Phantom Menace'. Whilst Krypto just comes across like something from a kids' Saturday morning with all the silly baggage that would encompass.

The bright colourful visuals and overall comicbook appearance do look good (if a tad too CGI, as usual), and come across nicely, harking back to the classic 1978 movies (more so the third). But again I can't help but feel Gunn and co have gone over the top simply trying to distance themselves from the previous Zack Snyder movie which was seen as too dark. Whilst the Donner films were comicbook-esque, they were also grand in scope and dramatic when required. This Gunn movie feels far too cartoonish with little drama and too much quirky, dare I say, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' style tomfoolery. Almost every moment of drama is totally undercut with some stupid joke or visual gag! It's painful to watch.

Another problem is the dicey inclusion of current-day influences. Firstly this will easily date a movie in the future which is never good. Secondly, despite what you may have heard, there is absolutely an obvious reference to a certain Middle Eastern conflict in this movie. The plot revolves around two (fictional) countries, one with superior military might and supported by the US. The other a much poorer, ragtag bunch of people from a clearly poorer war-torn country with no military power, is OBVIOUSLY a nod towards current affairs, come on!

So let's talk about the Justice Gang, ugh! From the get go I always thought this was a mistake, too much pork. For starters we have no explanations as to who these guys are. Why are they around? Where do they come from? If these guys are around, where are all the other superheroes in the world? There should be tonnes flying around. Okay, so most people will know of, or heard of, Green Lantern. But who is Mr. Terrific? What's his deal? What are those flying spheres he uses? Why does he fly around in a flying armchair like a flying Professor X? Turns out he's essentially a Black Tony Stark, pfft! As for Hawkgirl, stupid name, stupid character, didn't even need to be there. Oh, and there's also Metamorpho, another character that Supes eventually gets help from. Who is this guy? Where's he from? What's his deal? (is what regular non-comicbook nerds will be asking). But its characters like this that give this movie an unwanted 'Guardians of the Galaxy' vibe.

Due to the inclusion of the Justice Gang, too many characters, this leaves little time for everyone else. We hardly get any Clark Kent, which also means we hardly get any 'Daily Planet'. In turn this means we get little from Jimmy Olsen, Perry White (race-swapped again), and any other Planet employee or Planet scenes. Superman's parents are there but again hardly used. Any emotional moments with them are undercut as previously said. Let's not forget about Lois Lane, well this movie does. She starts off okay, but past the first act, she is literally of no consequence to the plot.

Bizarrely, Mr. Terrific becomes more of a key figure than the rest, why? Beats me, because he's a Black character? (it is 2025 remember). I still don't even understand why people are raving about this guy. Sure he's a neat character, but nothing special. His main action scene was weirdly unexciting if you ask me as he merely walks along, surrounds himself with a shield or forcefield, and his flying metal spheres take out all his opponents. What was exciting about that?? 

As for the main man Lex Luthor, is it just me or would Nathan Fillion have been better in this role? Fillion's smartass asshole performance as Guy Gardner might have worked better as Luthor if you ask me. I didn't really like Nicholas Hoult as Luthor. He looks too young, too baby-faced, too clean-cut, and he wasn't very threatening (Gene Hackman used to scare me as a kid). Sure he's nicely sardonic but his face just didn't fit for me, needed a bit more gruff, or facial hair. He looked like Agent 47 outta 'Hitman', especially when wielding that gun. Gotta say I didn't really like the choice of David Corenswet as Superman either. This guy just came across to me as wholly bland, like brown bread, vanilla ice cream, nothing special at all. He doesn't even look remotely muscular as Superman either, although that could be the awkward look and fit of his outfit.

Critically for me this whole thing doesn't even look or feel that grand! The 1978 Donner film felt epic in scope, very special in every aspect, it blew you away. This Gunn offering feels and looks like an extended TV episode and small in scope. It comes across as very average, there's nothing grandiose about this at all. The casting, the effects, shots, sequences, dialogue etc...it all feels very generic and no different to a multitude of other similar superhero flicks we've already seen (especially, obviously, previous Gunn offerings). Hell, we don't even really see any proper sequences of Superman flying, or get any sweet flybys. Everything is mostly close quarters and right in Supes face (what's with Corenswet's eyes when he flies? It looks like he has exotropia).

And what did they do with the score here?? What was that terrible song over the end credits? Horrendous decision! Just goes to show you how important John Williams was, in the fact that even to this day, a Superman film doesn't work without his Superman theme.

Look, don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad movie, in fact it's a perfectly solid superhero flick. The main issue here is, this is a superhero flick and not a Superman flick. This is a typical James Gunn team (of smartasses) flick and not a Superman flick. This is not a Superman film for everyone, it's aimed squarely at comicbook nerds and the short attention span of TikTok Gen Z. Whereas the 1978 Donner film felt like Superman was actually set in a realistic place with real emotions and was somewhat grounded sensibly, this is a highly generic movie that looks and feels like a kids' cartoon. There has been WAY too much time and thought in trying to set up a new universe/franchise with multiple characters, and not enough Superman (leave things like that for sequels!). There is FAR too much stuff packed into this movie and overall it suffers.

5/10