Superman (2025)

Superman (2025)

 

8/10

Starring

David Corenswet

Rachel Brosnahan

Nicholas Hoult

Edi Gathegi

 

Directed by James Gunn

 

I have to be honest, I expected this movie to be average at most, but it seems like James Gunn was like, Tosin, hold my beer. This movie has one of the best Superman starts there is. There's no point going through the whole rigmarole of who he is, where he's from, or how his hatred with Lex Luthor started. All of that is irrelevant as we’ve all seen and know the Superman story in and out, so there’s no need to go through it again. It starts with a fight, which I have to tell you is such a very, will I say, dangerous thing to do, to start a movie on a high. But Gunn knew what he was doing and knew if you let him run untethered, he can make it work, and he did. That doesn't mean there were no notable tone shifts, as there were times when the tone felt too low compared to what had occurred earlier.

Another thing I liked is the acting. Everyone seems to be in for the gold in this movie, giving masterclass left, right and centre. And the Clark Kent persona is not just removing the glasses, the hair and mannerism are very different, which is something you won't see in other Superman movies. The visual effects actually flowed well, and you will love the way Krypto (Superman’s super dog) plays into the entire plot.

The movie has a serious political undertone, which for me was not a problem. But the way it was constantly being placed in the forefront of almost everything at the start of the movie was very tiring.

The movie does not start from the beginning of who is Superman, how he got here and how his beef with Lex Luther started. In this movie, Clark Kent/Superman (David Corenswet) is already an established hero, and we are three years into his journey in Metropolis. The main point of issue in this movie is Superman intervening in an international conflict between two fictional nations. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) uses this action to manipulate the world's opinion about Superman. Then he uses a clone called Ultraman to fight him, a fight which Superman lost and had to retreat from, heading to the Fortress of Solitude to recover with the help of his loyal dog, Krypto.

Superman later forms an alliance with the Justice Gang, a team of heroes composed of Mister Terrific, Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, to face the world’s dangers and stop these clone villains.

What I must warn you is, the whole Superman origin in this movie gets some rework.

The movie was fun to watch and, as I said, took me by surprise as to how much I liked it. But the end felt like a whole CGI-fest, which made it look so out of place compared to the way the entire movie felt. I highly recommend you see this movie, and I will be doing a rewatch of it later on.