Movie Review: ‘Superman’ (Second Opinion)

Plot: After Superman (David Corenswet) prevents the nation of Boravia from invading the neighboring country of Jarhanpur, he finds himself at the center of a legal and ethical lightning storm. As the Last Son of Krypton strives to do good both in Metropolis and abroad, a sudden shocking revelation orchestrated by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) turns the world against the Man of Steel. Struggling to balance his romantic relationship with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and his desire to be kind and compassionate in a world that sees those values as old fashioned, Superman nevertheless soldiers on. Determined to bring peace and with help from “Justice Gang” members Green Lantern Guy Gardener (Nathan Fillion), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced), Superman endeavors to foil Luthor’s plans and prevent a worldwide disaster.

Review: I want to tell you about a man called “Big Donkey.”

“Big Donkey” was the moniker of a fairly prodigious hitter in Major League Baseball by the name of Adam Dunn. Over a 14 year career, he slugged 462 homeruns including one that traveled 535 feet out of Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, landed in the Ohio River, and eventually wound up across the river in Kentucky. That’s right. Dunn hit a ball to a completely different state. Unfortunately, hitting homeruns was about the only facet of Dunn’s game he was successful at. He struck out a lot, including a record 222 times in one season. Yet I always appreciated Dunn because he was fearless. Much like Joaquin Phoenix’s Merrill Hess in Signs, he never hesitated to swing for the fences.

I bring this up because Hollywood becomes more risk averse with each passing day. The executives running the studios are less likely than ever to let their creatives off the leash. Instead they prefer something safe that will yield a return on their investment. However, as a fan of art, and cinema in particular, I will always value artists who take Adam Dunn-like big swings and fail miserably, rather than the same old pablum. With 2025’s Superman, James Gunn takes a monumental big swing.

While Gunn’s iteration of Superman will not be everyone’s jar of jam, for myself it is a moonshot of a film that cleared the fences to the deepest part of center field. However, for the first twenty minutes of Superman I wasn’t vibing with it. In point of fact, I was apprehensive that I was going to hate it. Then came a certain moment where the tumblers aligned and a click happened in my brain that you could have heard from the concession stand. From that point on I was ensorcelled by Superman‘s spell.

Director and writer James Gunn has stated multiple times that Superman is his love letter to comic books. I couldn’t agree more. Superman is unlike any comic book film you’ve ever seen. In fact, it is maybe the most “comic booky” film ever to exist. Gunn does something with his writing and direction heretofore unseen in the world of Superman. Rather than take Superman and put him in a version of our world, Gunn takes the audience and puts us in Superman’s world. It’s a world where super science, aliens, kaiju, and a myriad of other fantastical elements are commonplace. It’s a world where metahumans have existed for 300 years and are an accepted part of daily life. Additionally, it’s a world where exposition by both villains and heroes is the norm and therefore sometimes clunky. I can fully understand why these elements might be jarring for some folks, but if you can suspend disbelief and enjoy the flight, you’ll discover a wildly entertaining film.

From a technical standpoint, this movie is gorgeous. Multiple scenes are like splash pages from a comic book come to life. Weta, Framestore, and Industrial Light & Magic deliver yeoman’s VFX work, that only rarely seems obvious or cartoonish. I also appreciated that multiple sequences were filmed on location particularly in Norway and Ohio. This adds a layer of verisimilitude that fans will appreciate. The color palette also comes off delightfully colorful, bright, and vibrant, a stark counterpoint to the comic book world of Zack Snyder. Additionally, Emmy award winner Henry Braham’s compelling cinematography balances bombastic and triumphant action sequences with heartfelt intimate moments. Whether it is Superman battling a space rift heading for Metropolis, a tense interview with Lois, or a heartfelt conversation with Pa Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince), Braham’s work conveys powerful emotions. (Full disclosure I teared up twice.) Couple this with a dynamic score from John Murphy and David Fleming that sprinkles John Williams’ original classic just enough throughout, and you have the recipe for something truly special.

Speaking of special, I was pleasantly surprised at how endearing the supporting cast was. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardener is a hilarious prick while Edi Gathegi steals the show as Mr. Terrific. An emotionally distant, and hyper intelligent technology genius, Gathegi brings a dead pan humor to the role that I found refreshing. Mr. Terrific even gets his own significant action sequence to the tune of “5 years Time” by Noah and the Whale. Isabella Merced makes the most of her unfortunately limited screentime as Hawkgirl, including a shocking moment that shook me. I also can’t stress enough the brilliance of Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olson. What they do with his character is delightfully awesome and his dynamic with Sara Sampaio’s Eve Teschmacher is hilarious and heartfelt. If I had one gripe it would be that we didn’t get enough time with the Daily Planet gang. Beck Bennett’s Steve Lombard and Mikaela Hoover’s Cat Grant are afterthoughts and I desperately wanted more Wendell Pierce as Perry White. He isn’t in it nearly enough.

However, the character that shines in Superman just enough is Krypto the dog. I was concerned that Gunn and company would overutilize Krypton’s best/worst dog. However, Gunn peppers Krypto the exact right amount throughout Superman, to the point that Krypto plays a key role in the plot late in the movie.

Yet the success of Superman hinges on the trifecta performances of Corenswet, Brosnahan, and Hoult as Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor respectively. Brosnahan shines as the whip smart and fiery intrepid reporter. Her chemistry with Corenswet is first rate and it’s clear she struggles to balance her romantic relationship with Clark/Superman and her career as an investigative journalist. Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois is jaded and skeptical, which is a distinct counterpoint to Superman’s earnestness and acceptance. I appreciated her integral role in investigating Lex, and her prominence in Clark/Superman’s story arc in the final third of the film.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Hoult is clearly having a blast portraying the conniving, devious, and deceptive villain Lex Luthor. He’s a business tycoon and scientific genius who considers himself a modern day Alexander the Great, and whose envy of Superman knows no bounds. In his mind, Lex sees Superman as an existential threat whose power demonstrates how insignificant and inconsequential the human race, and by extension Lex, actually is. It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Superman but from Lex’s perspective he’s right. While I’ll admit Lex’s motivations occasionally seem muddled, Hoult plays the comic book version of Lex to the hilt. Trust me, Lex engages in some profoundly evil activities. You cannot wait until Lex finally gets his comeuppance.

As for David Corenswet? All I can say is that he was born to play Clark Kent/Superman just as much as Christopher Reeve was born to play Clark Kent/Superman. Corenswet’s Superman embodies everything the character stands for: compassion, empathy, tolerance, and patience. He puts people over politics, looks for the inherent good in everyone, and holds no philosophical tenet more sacred than doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. Time and again Corenswet’s Superman demonstrates this, whether it is saving a woman from a rampaging kaiju and taking a moment to help her panic attack, to the ethical treatment of that very same kaiju. Despite Superman being this all powerful extraterrestrial, Gunn and Corenswet are both concerned with Superman’s humanity. It shines through with every frame. David Corenswet’s Superman comes off profoundly earnest and easy to root for. As corny as it may sound, Gunn and Corenswet’s version of Superman is something the world desperately needs right now.

Having said all this, there are two massive Gorilla Grodds in the room that I’d be remiss if I didn’t address. Namely the inevitable comparisons to Zack Snyder’s version of Superman and the politics of the 2025 incarnation of Superman.

Firstly, for good or ill, I think it is impossible to discuss Gunn’s Superman without touching on Snyder’s Superman. If you are a hardcore Snyderbro, there’s a significant possibility that you will loathe this film. In fact you can go online right now and find numerous videos and articles to support my claim. From my own perspective, I love what Snyder did with his three films–as an Elseworlds story. They are operatic, Wagnerian, and fucking metal as Hell. However, they are also dour, joyless, and often ham-fisted in their execution. James Gunn’s Superman is your classic four quadrant film whereas Zack Snyder’s films are not for kids. Yet as controversial (not really) as it sounds, I think it is possible to like both.

Secondly, much has been made (mostly by the far-right) about the politics of James Gunn’s Superman. Is Superman political? Yes. But the character of Superman has always been political. Superman was created by two Jews whose parents immigrated to America to escape antisemitism. The very first frame of the very first depiction of Superman in Action Comics #1 calls him the “champion of the oppressed.” This is a character who once fought Hitler. A character that in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, took it upon himself to rid the world of every country’s nuclear weapons. Saying Superman isn’t political or shouldn’t be, is either woefully myopic or demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the character. Also, anyone objecting to Superman stepping in to disrupt a country from illegally invading another nation and wiping out its citizens for their resources, or wanting to free unjustly imprisoned beings from a gulag in a pocket dimension; I mean I think that speaks more to the character of the objectors than the politics of Superman. Cinema often serves as a reflective lens that creators hold up to society. If you don’t like the reflection, maybe it is time to change yourself, not the mirror.

In any event, Superman soars to unexpected and profoundly satisfying new heights. It’s a solid foundation to the newly formed DCU and a bold leap forward for the future of comic book films.

My rating system:

1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad

2 Straight Garbage

3 Bad

4 Sub Par

5 Average

6 Ok

7 Good

8 Great

9 Excellent

10 A Must See

Masterpiece

Superman: 9/10