We went to the drive-in on a perfect summer night, which is always an experience in and of itself. They lean into the retro, the graphics pure 1957 and ambient music pre-1980. We watched kids clamber in the playland under the screen, and the sun set in the sky to our left, just before the projector started. Trailers included one for the 50th Anniversary return of Jaws to the big screen. I might have to see that.
We came, of course, for Superman, another piece of the past fighting to remain part of the culture.
Sorry if this review did not exactly arrive faster than a speeding bullet.
Title: Superman (2025)
Cast and Crew
Written and directed by James Gunn
David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor
María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer
CGI as Krypto
Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher
Dinesh Thyagarajan as Malik ‘Mali’ Ali
Wendell Pierce as Perry White
Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard
Neva Howell as Ma Kent
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent
Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant
Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen
Zlatko Buric as Vasil Ghurkos
Martin Harris as Boravian General
Rudy Quintanilla as Reggie
Bradley Cooper as Jor-El
Angela Sarafyan as Lara
Sydney Happersen as Giovannie Cruz
Bonnie Discepolo as Ms. Jessop
Terence Rosemore as Otis Berg
Natasha Halevi as Amanda Marie McCoy
Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.
James Hiroyuki Liaoas General Mori
? as Ultraman /
The Justice…. Uh…. (A running gag has them arguing over their name)
Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mr. Terrific
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner / Green Lantern
Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl
Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason/Metamorpho
Superman Robots
Alan Tudyk
Grace Chan
Michael Rooker
Pom Klementieff
Mostly Amusing Cameos:
Milly Alcock as [spoiler]Kara Zor-El[/spoiler]
John Cena as Peacemaker
Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord
Premise
Three years after his debut, Superman faces an international conflict,* a scandal amplified by online malfeasance, a crisis of identity, and life-threatening opposition from Lex Luthor, his allies in a hostile foreign nation, and a bizarre antihero with all of the Man of Steel’s powers. Fortunately, he gets a little help from his friends, and, you know, he’s Superman.
Low Points
The movie, with its in medias res opening, multiple plot threads, and occasionally chaotic editing choices can be more than a bit of a mess. The number of things happening mute some of the character development.
Jimmy Olsen’s connection with Eve Teschmacher stretches credulity even in an unabashed comic-book movie. It also (like Metamorpho’s role) undercuts Superman and Lois as characters.
High Points
When this movie hits the mark, it really hits the mark. This is Superman in a way that other recent incarnations never have been. It also signals its tone with a dramatic opening… followed by Krypto’s big screen debut.
While I have complained about the film’s clutter, the Justice… Gang… are one of the most entertaining things in the movie. Soon after their appearance, I just surrendered to the chaos. I would watch a feature length film about these guys attempting to be superheroes. It would be terrific. And despite their important role, they never overshadow Supes in his own movie.
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6 It’s almost impossible to be original with Superman, but they’ve taken a fresh approach. The first movie in this new series references his origin several times, but it doesn’t depict his origin. We’re snow-dropped into a world where Superman has been active for several years, Luthor has a developed hate-obsession with him for reasons later made apparent, and other metahumans have started appearing—including some who have formed a nascent and as-yet unnamed Justice League.
Effects: 5/6 Impressive, but occasionally chaotic.
Production: 6/6 They spent money on this film and their investment appears to be paying off handsomely.
Acting: 6/6 This is a live-action cartoon with solid acting. Superman is the world’s most powerful boy scout, as earnest as Reeve in ’78.** The interactions with Lois Lane feel emotionally credible, as do the ones with the Kents. Nicholas Hoult plays smug, over-the-top evil as well as anyone.
The special-guest superheroes are often hilarious.
Story: 4/6
Emotional Response: 4/6 The movie punctuates its comic-book craziness with a few very powerful moments. I wish they had simplified the plot, so that we could have spent a little more time on the character interactions. They leave a lot of heavy lifting to the actors themselves.
Overall: 5/6 While the movie did not quite live up to the trailer, they have the right actors, an understanding of who these characters are, and enough high notes to make it worth seeing. The mess becomes a problem at times, but this film comes the closest a movie ever has to the experience of finding an old comic when you were a kid about a character you knew, and then encountering guest appearances by characters you didn’t know and references to a previous issue that you didn’t read, but you just kind of went on, eyes wide, like, “oh, this is cool!” The movie recreates that well enough, and it shows what the default DCU would look like. Whether that’s the best choice for a movie, much less a cinematic universe, remains an open question, but, thus far, I prefer it to the gloomy Murderverse that Zack Snyder created.
In total, Superman(2025) receives 33/42
Notes:
*Regarding online charges (good faith and otherwise. I’m looking at you, MAGA-media and the more fanatical Snyderbros) that the film is anti-Israeli/antisemitic, the foreign war that figures into the plot features (1) a long-standing DC fictional country that serves here as a generic stand-in for the kind of global chaos that would challenge the ethics of superheroes, if they existed, (2) an unprovoked invasion that far more closely resembles the Russia/Ukraine situation (and the aggressors are expressly coded as eastern-European) than anything unfolding in the Middle East, and (3) Spoiler-not-really-a-spoiler the involvement of a certain arch-enemy of Superman’s in the conflict.
Incidentally, the movie features a goofy but pointed jab at online toxic fandom.
**Probably my favorite actor in the role, even if he was shortchanged somewhat by the scripts of the series.
My personal favourite cameo: Will Reeve, son of Christopher Reeve and a real-life reporter, appears as the reporter when the Justice Gang appear on screen for the first time.
As I just got back from a matinee of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, I’ll make this comparison. Both are great movies at achieving their goals. Superman tells a good Superman story, but must also set up a Universe, making it feel a bit cluttered and unfocused. FF goes back to a “Marvel Phase One” feel, where everything before the credits roll is all about the FF, and the next Big Bad is teased in the first stinger. (Yes, there are two.) Both movies are easy to recommend, and the FF movie gets the team right in ways that previous films never did (except, perhaps, The Incredibles).
FF is a slower paced film, in much the same way that a stock car race is slower than a formula 1 race. The only major cameo there is the cast from the Roger Corman film, in the opening minutes of the film. That footage also appears in the Disney+ Special Look.
“Good at achieving their goals” seems like a sound assessment for Superman. Likely I’ll be seeing FF next week.