Superman
SUPERMAN
Written & Directed by James Gunn
"You'll believe a man can fly"
The tagline for the 1978 SUPERMAN movie minced no words. People believed in Superman and SUPERMAN ('78) so truly and deeply that nearly 50 years later the original film is still considered THE gold standard; for Superman and superhero movies in general.
It's been a rocky road to get him back on the big screen...there's the endless development hell in the 90s where Nicolas Cage was so close to playing Supes there's an entire documentary out about the not making of that movie. We have 2006's SUPERMAN RETURNS, serving as a direct sequel to the original movies. I've always considered it to be a bit underrated, warts and all. Deemed a financial failure (the numbers aren't that bad) so WB canned the sequel. A mistake in my opinion, Brandon Routh's Superman had a lot of potential.
Which of course brings us to 2013's MAN OF STEEL directed by Zack Snyder, a man who HATED Superman and turned him into a dour and dark mope fest. MAN OF STEEL isn't completely terrible, the hard scifi angle and grittier tone was a swing, and I could appreciate that. If the studio had trusted the audiences enough and weren't blinded by Marvel Movie jealously, we could have gotten a decent series of Superman movies. Instead of a direct sequel we got team up movies like 2016's BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (actual title) one of the worst comic book movies of all time.
This is just a long yappy way of saying we haven't gotten a REAL Superman movie in so long. But here comes James Gunn to save the day and *sigh* reboot the universe again. 2025's SUPERMAN is a triumph. I was hesitant from the trailers and Gunn's kinda spotty track record but this might be his best movie yet.
No origin story needed. We start as Superman is a few years into his career and away we go. Instead of teasing and saving stuff for sequels and being precious about it, Gunn feeds us and delivers so much Superman. Relative unknown David Corenswet embodies Clark Kent/Superman so perfectly. He's sweet and goofy and a boy scout and oh so tall and handsome. Rachel Brosnahan is equally perfect embodying spunky reporter Lois Lane and Nicolas Hoult as Lex Luthor is PURE EVIL without ever chewing the scenery.
The movie is absolutely overstuffed with characters and plot strands. Other superheros already exist in this world and the choice to drop us already in the action is the number one creative decision that had me onboard and jamming. We already know who these characters are we do NOT need to see all the meet cutes and origin stories.
As you all know, we are living in Unprecedented Times and while the script was locked in way before last year's election the similarities to real life are impossible to ignore. As someone pointed out, we just have real life super villains now. So the convoluted plot about Lex getting involved in 2 countries' civil war that are most definitely not Israel and Palestine can sometimes be a little distracting and a little upsetting. A lot of effort is put into the politics of Superman, when at the end of the day he just wants to save people.
There are so many little choices that I adored. Ma and Pa Kent played by nonassuming character actors instead of celebrities, Krypto the SuperDog having such a major role, the iconic red trunks on the costume, pieces of the original John Williams Superman theme that is so good it's practically impossible not to use it 50 years later.
James Gunn is not my favorite, I have issues with his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy (also if I have to hear another millennial Disney Adult talk about how much Rocket Racoon made them cry I WILL lose my mind). But damn the dude knows how to film action. Everything is so bright and crisp and clear I could've cried from happiness to be out of the desaturated sludge of movies past. The flying scenes especially are glorious.
In conclusion, Superman has and will always be "woke". He was always a story about an "illegal alien" integrated into a society he loves and wants to help. A man that could be anything but becomes a journalist to uncover the truth and bring justice. (We get lots of journalism in the movie too!) Don't ever be fooled by his deceptively simple nature on the surface. Superman is all of us and Gunn might be on to something, right now kindess is kind of punk rock.
☆☆☆1/2 out of 4
