Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios
SUPERMAN— 4 STARS
There is much to draw from when it comes to the 87 years (and counting) of character history on printed pages and screens big and small for Superman created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster, but there are certain core tenets—more than the usual “truth, justice, and the American way”—that are sacrosanct. An upstanding storyteller can make those old-fashioned and staunch qualities fit their present era, no matter existing oppositions or pervasive cynicism. Lest we forget, the first in-movie public reaction to Christopher Reeve coming out of a spinning door in costume for the first time in 1978 comes from a flamboyant Black pimp of all people. Across the 129 minutes of James Gunn’s Superman, there’s an irrefutable clarity of choices that have been made by the filmmaker and his assembled cast and crew for 2025. Through his path, Gunn has achieved that mesh of ideals and worldview, and then some, with Superman.
Skipping the oft-told Kal-El/Clark Kent origin story for a fast-forwarding set of on-screen interstitials that outline this new universe from 300 years ago to three minutes before the camera rolls, Superman (David Corenswet, the strapping, dimpled delight from The Greatest Hits and Twisters) has suffered his first physical defeat after stepping out in his cape and trunks to the world as a hero three years prior. He crash-lands heavily injured in Antarctica, where he requires the pulling assistance of his super-dog Krypto (a CGI creation modeled after the director’s own dog) to reach his Fortress of Solitude. While healing up with a concentrated dose of yellow sun energy delivered by his attending and numerically-named automatons (voiced by Gunn’s wife Jennifer Holland, voice actor supreme Alan Tudyk, and a pair of his previous Guardians of the Galaxy buddies in Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker) before jumping back in the fray, Kal-El is soothed by a fragment of the only surviving hologram message from his biological Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara. It is a blessing of love, support, safety, and the introduction of their intended predestination for him on Earth.
The young hero has been using that benediction of sorts as a motivational source for all the good deeds he has sought to perform as a champion of humanity, often fighting alongside the “Justice Gang” of Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Gunn good luck charm Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced of Dora and the Lost City of Gold), and Maxwell Lord tech whiz Mister Terrific (The Harder They Fall cast member Edi Gathegi). While Superman’s nobility and altruism have made him a popular symbol as Metropolis’s resident hero, his interjections into world affairs—namely squashing a border war singlehandedly between the fictional countries of Boravia and Janhanpur—have triggered the nefarious envy of billionaire CEO Lex Luthor (a smoothly shorn and incensed Nicholas Hoult), who is ravenously determined to expose and unseat the Big Blue Boy Scout. Combining the hulking Ultraman minion and the nanotechnology-infused Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría of TV’s Deadly Class) and training them with a fighting program that has mapped Superman’s battle moves, Luthor forms the Planet Watch responsive team he pitches to the Pentagon brass, including Gen. Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo, stepping into live-action after voicing the character on Creature Commandos), for a contract work to neutralize metahuman threats. Behind even darker curtains of comic book-level fiction and chicanery, Lex has created a pocket universe as his own workshop and prison space, where careless tinkering has ripped the celestial fabric enough to bring forth unchecked black holes.
Superman’s high public approval has also boded well professionally for his alter ego of Daily Planet news reporter Clark Kent. He’s his own interview scoop source for bylines reporting the exploits of Superman, a buddy to Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo of Licorice Pizza), and is dating fellow reporter Lois Lane (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Emmy Winner Rachel Brosnahan), who has figured out his dual identity. Nevertheless, despite her burgeoning mutual affections, Lois strenuously tests Clark as a journalist on his preparedness to address the ramifications of his presence and actions, a tedious task that is growing by the day with social media fodder and Luthor’s wild claims that Superman is grooming the planet and its people for his personal domination of indomitable superiority.
LESSON #1: QUESTION OR TRUST EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE— These excellent conversation moments between Lois and Clark, which highlight the outstanding chemistry between Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet, tiptoe between their workplace ethics and his symbolism in tights. Clark is the consummate do-gooder with a trusting heart and an assertive code of benevolence. In contrast, Lois is the eternal devil’s advocate, as a person built and driven to question everything and everyone. Their differences challenge their young romantic relationship and also virtue-signal an unashamed spine of kindness Superman flaunts fully against the film’s external cynics and critics.
LESSON #2: CHOICES AND ACTIONS MAKE THE MAN— Trying to fly above the negative media tailspin and any preordained fate from his more authoritative alien roots, Superman flirts with a borderline identity crisis at his lowest point. It takes a recharging visit to his adoptive Kansas parents, Pa and Ma Kent (played with golden warmth and gumption by veteran character actors Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) to remind him that choices and actions make the man more than his origins. With an immigrant’s soul, a trait and stance the film is not afraid to propound, Kal-El embraces and showcases a purity for humanity with an American spirit. Echoing the lesson further, Superman’s inherent goodness is matched by the opposite ruthless extremes orchestrated by Nicholas Hoult’s shrewdly unhinged portrayal of Lex Luthor. Unlike many other recent superhero flicks, there’s not a whiff of sympathy spritzed onto this outright villain, which is a big plus for Hoult’s impact and the film’s stakes.
LESSON #3: THIS GUY GETS IT— Call this an over-simplication or dated if you must, but a viewer could take just about any name in the end credits of Superman, and drop the classic Nick Offerman Parks and Recreation GIF of Ron Swanson pointing his thumb next to him and saying “This guy gets it.” As aforementioned, the cast members, particularly the aforementioned leading trio of David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult, nail their proper characterizations for this type of emerging Superman story. The addition of an adorable and “unruly”-labeled Krypto counts as a bit of stunt casting to trigger dog lovers positively, but also adds to the overall humanizing treatment. Even counting which citizens of the observing public support or fear Superman counts as a measure of who “gets it” or who does not.
The biggest winner of the Ron Swanson GIF applause for Superman is writer, director, and studio head honcho James Gunn. Through the zippy script and a special effects extravaganza that flies at times at a manic, over-packed, and panel-flipping comic speed, he provides levity and humor amid the rainbow-hued action and uses his reins to steer this film down a suitable and satisfying middle road between batty camp and self-important gravity. A perfect example of his artistic understanding and control is the bold score from composers John Murphy and David Fleming, which triumphantly infuses the legendary John Williams cues with different instrumentation merged with their own new flourishes, like jazzy cymbal crashes for establishing Lex Luthor.
Even greater than his proficiency as a blockbuster filmmaker to make a movie that pops off an IMAX screen and surges through speakers, James Gunn genuflects prudently to show his respect for the Superman character and universe. That’s where success for Superman matters the most. The level of care he demonstrates in the vital areas of principles, tone, attitude, politics, legacy, and a host of other qualities is encouraging and passionate. His bright and vibrant clarity of choices, as stated above, should be seen rather as crucial efforts. Get those wrong and you’re doomed from the start. Instead, with towering entertainment value and inspirational depth, “this guy gets it” over and over.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1319)
