Here to save the day for the flailing superhero genre, James Gunn’s Superman arrives on the big screen and lands in the writer-director’s sweet spot, located precisely between irony and sincerity. This is a franchise reboot that honors the character’s history while feeling fiercely contemporary (except for the part where the Daily Planet is still a thriving, robust, functioning daily newspaper, somehow not yet purchased and ruined by Lex Luthor).
Luthor, played here by Nicholas Hoult, was a despicable megalomaniacal billionaire in the comics years before various real-life counterparts overran society, and while super-rich villains have been part and parcel of the last several years’ worth of film and TV, this particular one still stands out. More disturbing real-life parallels: between Luthor’s Musk-y aroma and the fact that our hero and protagonist is a refugee and immigrant, real-life right-wing commentators are already foaming at the mouth over these fictional characters and still playing at making “woke” a sick burn, never mind that baby Kal-El first fled his dying planet of Krypton in Action Comics back in 1938. Gunn’s Superman, then, balances the right-now with the baked-in history that has made this character an icon for the better part of the last century.
Rather than subject us to yet another exploding Krypton, Gunn wisely begins the story in media res, with a few cleverly-placed title cards to bring us up to speed. Superman (David Corenswet of Pearl and Twisters) recently stepped in to stop one country from invading another, and now the offended invaders have sent a robot to Metropolis to kill the Man of Steel, and it very nearly succeeds in doing so. (Superman makes it back to his Fortress of Solitude only with the help of rambunctious dog Krypto, who has all the same powers as his human companion, plus the added ability of stealing every scene he’s in.)
To Superman and his highly attuned sense of justice and fairness, preventing that invasion is just about protecting the little guy from a bully. (The victimized nation appears to have more pitchforks than guns.) But in the eyes of the rest of the world, he’s guilty of using his alien powers to meddle in human affairs and circumvent the will of government — or at least, that’s the line Luthor keeps pushing.
All of the film’s villainy can be traced back to Luthor, of course, whose arsenal includes not only robots and enhanced metahumans but also media, both social (he’s got an army of internet trolls) and traditional (a very Fox-y cable channel to parrot his anti-Superman talking points). Luckily for Superman, he has his own allies, particularly a cadre of heroes known as the Justice Gang (who have their own rival billionaire backer) and the intelligent and fearless Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan).
Superman’s invulnerability and broad scope of powers can make effective storytelling difficult; how do you best the man who bests everyone? Superman gives us a brilliant and lethal Luthor, one who seemingly outwits the Man of Steel at every turn, and it’s his friends — and not just the super ones — who help him win the day. This isn’t a Lois Lane who exists merely to be duped by Clark Kent or to be rescued by Superman; she knows that the two men in her life are one and the same, but that doesn’t mean she shrinks back from asking the hard questions about the Kryptonian’s motivations and his understanding of geopolitics. She lacks metahuman skills but remains essential to the narrative.
It’s that group effort and sense of community, even a reluctantly thrown together one, that makes Superman feel distinct from so many recent superhero sagas, which present one or more big strong people punching their way into mankind’s salvation. The problems of the world go beyond one set of super-fists, and Gunn’s celebration of collective effort feels both relevant and refreshing.
Obviously, these ideas all exist in the background of the big action sequences, and those consistently deliver. Even as the plot goes into pocket universes and other mumbo-jumbo, Gunn always makes sure we understand the immediate stakes (and the overall ones) along with basic notions of where people and potential threats are in relation to each other. His screenplay includes plenty of wit, as well as opportunities for supporting characters to shine. Jimmy Olsen (a perfectly-cast Skyler Gisondo) reluctantly reaches out to an ex-girlfriend for inside intel about Luthor, while Justice Gang members Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion perfectly embodies the Green Lantern Corps’ most obnoxious member, down to the awful haircut), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi, For All Mankind), and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) get on each other’s nerves in prickly, satisfying ways.
Gunn’s stated inspirations include the recent comics All-Star Superman and Superman for All Seasons; those series offered a take on the hero that’s more Kal-El Classic than the recent, grittier screen versions, and that approach to the hero and his world permeates the film. Henry Braham’s lush and glowing cinematography and David Fleming and John Murphy’s quietly heroic score (which borrows from John Williams with far less frequency than Jurassic World: Rebirth does) get to the heart and history of a character we have collectively come to know so well.
The prospect of follow-ups — whether they feature more of Corenswet and Brosnahan’s palpable romantic chemistry or a bickering Justice Gang that hearkens back to the great Keith Giffen-JM DeMatteis Justice League comics of the 1980s — feels more promising than threatening. The miracle of Superman is that, in 2025, it’s a superhero movie that inspires genuine delight.
Director: James Gunn
Screenwriter: James Gunn; Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster
Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Garbriela de Faría, Wendell Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell
Producers: Peter Safran, James Gunn
Executive producers: Nikolas Korda, Chantal Nong Vo, Lars Winther
Cinematographer: Henry Braham
Production design: Beth Mickle
Editing: William Hoy, Craig Albert
Music: David Fleming, John Murphy
Sound design: David Acord, sound designer/supervising sound editor
Production companies: DC Studios, Troll Court Entertainment, The Safran Company
In English
129 minutes
