REVIEW -- Superman (2025)

Superman is a 2025 American superhero film based on the character from DC Comics. Written and directed by James Gunn, it is the first film in the DC Universe (DCU) produced by DC Studios and the second reboot of the Superman film series. David Corenswet stars as Clark Kent / Superman, alongside Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, and Isabela Merced. In the film, Superman must prove to the world that he is their protector after billionaire Lex Luthor enacts a plan to turn public opinion against him.

Development on a sequel to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Man of Steel (2013) began by October 2014, with Henry Cavill set to reprise his role as Superman. Plans changed after the troubled production of Justice League (2017) and the Man of Steel sequel was no longer moving forward by May 2020. Gunn began work on a new Superman film around August 2022, after previously turning down an offer for such a film in 2018. In October, he became co-CEO of DC Studios with producer Peter Safran and they began work on a new DC Universe. Gunn was revealed to be writing the film in December. The title Superman: Legacy was announced the next month, Gunn was confirmed to be directing in March 2023, and Corenswet and Brosnahan were cast that June. The subtitle was dropped by the end of February 2024, when filming began in Svalbard, Norway. Production primarily took place at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with location filming around Georgia and Ohio. Filming wrapped in July. The film takes inspiration from the comic book All-Star Superman (2005–2008) by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, among others.

Plot

Thirty years ago, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van sent their infant son Kal-El to Earth to escape the destruction of their home planet, Krypton. Raised as Clark Kent by adoptive human parents Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville, Kansas, the Kryptonian gains incredible powers from the Sun. Inspired to heroism by Jor-El and Lara's farewell message, half of which was damaged on the journey, Clark introduced himself as Superman, the most powerful metahuman on Earth, to the world three years ago. Clark maintains his secret identity and a job as a reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, where he works alongside Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane, the latter of whom is in a relationship with Clark and aware of his secret identity.

Three weeks earlier, Superman had stopped an invasion by Boravia, an ally of the United States, of the neighboring country of Jarhanpur. Billionaire Lex Luthor assures General Rick Flag Sr. and others in the U.S. government—who wonder if Superman might be a threat—that he can kill Superman if necessary. Superman loses his first fight against the mysterious "Hammer of Boravia", who cites Superman's involvement in the war as the reason for his actions. However, unbeknownst to the world, the Hammer is actually Ultraman, who is controlled by Luthor using drones. Krypto—a superpowered dog being pet sat by Superman—takes an injured Superman back to the Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica, where he is healed with concentrated solar radiation. Luthor later secretly invades the fortress alongside Ultraman and the Engineer, steals the farewell message from Jor-El and Lara and decodes it in its entirety, before abducting Krypto.

As Superman and the Justice Gang—a team of heroes composed of Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl—battle a kaiju created by Luthor as a diversion, Luthor broadcasts the entire Kryptonian message to the world. To Superman's shock, in the second half of the message, his parents urge him to conquer Earth and take as many wives as needed to restore the Kryptonian race. Public opinion turns against Superman, and he voluntarily surrenders to the government for questioning; because of Superman's power, Flag gives custody of the hero to Luthor.

Luthor imprisons Superman in his artificial pocket universe where he holds his enemies, including Krypto and the metahuman Metamorpho. Using Metamorpho's baby son Joey as a hostage, Luthor forces him to create Kryptonite to render Superman powerless. Luthor's girlfriend Eve Teschmacher, infatuated with Jimmy, reveals that Luthor secretly backs Boravia in return for half of Jarhanpur's territory, providing photographic evidence of the plot before being imprisoned herself. Luthor interrogates Superman using Malik Ali, one of the latter's supporters, as a hostage before killing Malik. This prompts a horrified Metamorpho to help Superman escape, and the two free Joey and Krypto. Lois convinces Mister Terrific to help find Superman, and they enter the pocket universe, rescuing the heroes and taking Superman to the Kent farm to recuperate. Furious at Superman's escape, Luthor has his men increase the pocket universe reactor's power to lure Superman out, creating a rift that begins to tear across the city.

While Green Lantern, Metamorpho, and Hawkgirl stop a second Boravian invasion of Jarhanpur, Superman and Mister Terrific battle the Engineer and Ultraman as the growing rift approaches Metropolis. Hawkgirl fatally drops Vasil Ghurkos, the President of Boravia, from a large height. After defeating the Engineer, Superman unmasks Ultraman, revealing him to be a clone of himself. Luthor is so intent on defeating Superman that he refuses to close the rift, which splits the city in half. Superman and Ultraman engage in a long standoff at the rift, with Superman winning by trapping Ultraman within a bus being pulled into a black hole below the rift. Superman and Mister Terrific go to the LuthorCorp headquarters to shut down the reactor, closing the rift. The Justice Gang is celebrated as heroes alongside their newest member Metamorpho. Meanwhile, Lois and Jimmy reveal Luthor's scheme to the public, clearing Superman's name.

Luthor and his cohorts are all arrested, and everyone trapped in his pocket universe, including Eve, are freed. Later, as Superman recovers from his injuries at the Fortress of Solitude, his cousin Kara Zor-El drunkenly returns to pick up Krypto. To relax during the healing process, he watches footage of his childhood memories in Smallville growing up with Jonathan and Martha as his parents.

Cast

• David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman:
  Corenswet also portrays Ultraman, an armored clone of Superman created by Lex Luthor who masquerades as the "Hammer of Boravia".

• Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane

• Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor

• Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mister Terrific

• Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason / Metamorpho

• Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner / Green Lantern

• Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl

Additionally, Skyler Gisondo plays Jimmy Olsen, a boyish young photographer who is Clark and Lois's closest colleague, while Sara Sampaio plays Eve Teschmacher, Luthor's assistant and girlfriend who is secretly also involved with Jimmy. Sampaio felt comfortable performing with Hoult for her scenes, having worked with him prior on a campaign for Armani. Wendell Pierce plays Perry White, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. Pierce said that White is "always grumpy" because Luthor had an affair with Perry's wife, and that Perry's second child may actually be Luthor's; Pierce said Perry's "driving force" throughout the film is wanting to "get to" Luthor in light of this.  Pierce asked his friends for information on the character because he did not read comic books growing up. Other staff at the Daily Planet include Beck Bennett as reporter Steve Lombard; Mikaela Hoover as columnist Cat Grant; and Christopher McDonald as reporter Ron Troupe. Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell respectively play Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark's adoptive human parents. Vince and Howell studied tapes of the parents of The Howard Stern Show personality and Charred Walls of the Damned drummer Richard Christy to develop their Kansan accents in the film.

María Gabriela de Faría appears as Angela Spica / The Engineer, an ally of Luthor whose abilities come from nanotechnology built into her body and has "an edge", ahead of a planned film about the Authority, the team that she is a member of in the comics; Zlatko Burić appears as Vasil Ghurkos, the President of Boravia who is a political ally of Luthor; while Terence Rosemore and Stephen Blackehart appear as Luthor's henchman Otis Burg and LuthorCorp scientist Sydney Happersen, respectively; and Trevor Newlin as Mister Handsome, a humanoid creature created by Luthor. Frank Grillo reprises his role as A.R.G.U.S. director Rick Flag Sr. from the animated DCU series Creature Commandos (2024–present); Tinashe Kajese-Bolden reprises her role from the DCEU film The Suicide Squad (2021) as A.R.G.U.S. member Flo Crawley; Milly Alcock has an uncredited cameo appearance as Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El / Supergirl ahead of her own film, Supergirl (2026); John Cena has an uncredited cameo appearance as Christopher Smith / Peacemaker on a news show, mocking Superman, ahead of his role in the second season of Gunn's DC series Peacemaker (2025); and comedian Michael Ian Black appears as Cleavis Thornwaite, the host of the news show who interviews and interacts with Luthor throughout the film. Gunn's brother Sean has a cameo appearance as tech billionaire businessman Maxwell Lord, the head of LordTech who funds the corporate-sponsored Justice Gang. Sean said they ignored past depictions of Lord when creating their version, including Peter Facinelli's portrayal in the Arrowverse series Supergirl (2015–2021) and Pedro Pascal's in the DCEU film Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

Bradley Cooper, who previously collaborated with Gunn in his Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Angela Sarafyan portray Superman's Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, in a sequence where a recorded message of theirs is played back as Superman heals.[56] Alan Tudyk, Grace Chan, prior Gunn collaborators Michael Rooker and Pom Klementieff, and Gunn's wife Jennifer Holland voice the Superman robots, who aid Superman at the Fortress of Solitude; the former four respectively voice "Four" (nicknamed "Gary"), "Twelve", "One", and "Five", while Holland is uncredited. Christopher Reeve's son, ABC News correspondent Will Reeve makes a cameo appearance as an on-the-ground news reporter. Michael Rosenbaum, who previously portrayed Lex Luthor in Smallville, voices one of Luthor's Raptar guards. Louisa Krause has a non-speaking cameo as Sapphire Stagg, Metamorpho's wife. Dinesh Thyagarajan plays Malik Ali, a falafel cart vendor who is acquainted with Superman. Dog actor Jolene stood-in for Clark's superpowered dog Krypto, whom Gunn described as a "not-so-good-good-boy". The character was primarily created with visual effects, and was 3D modeled after Gunn's dog Ozu.

This was first initiated by tricking Superman to stop an invasion of Jarhanpur by Boravia, an ally of the United States. Boravia retaliates by having the "Hammer of Boravia" attack Superman and hand him his first loss in battle. Superman retreats to the Fortress of Solitude, only for the Engineer to track its location for Lex and the rest of Planetwatch to infiltrate the Fortress later while Superman and the team of Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl are busy fighting a kaiju created by Luthor as a diversion. For all of his efforts to save lives, Superman still failed to save the life of the kaiju, who was just as much of a victim of the circumstances as anyone else. Luthor's goons set him loose in Metropolis to run amok as a mere distraction. Superman getting upset that the Justice Gang killed it was one of many displays of his compassion for all life that this film is going to highlight again and again and again. 

The Engineer and Ultraman make short work of Krypto and the Fortress' defenses to allow the Engineer to decode and extract the entire Kryptonian message that Superman's parents left in his spaceship. The message urges Kal-El to conquer Earth and take as many lives as needed to do so.  I'm not going to lie but that half of the message having that world-domination decree in it was far too convenient for my taste. What was Lex going to do if the message was harmless? That was an interesting choice to take this version of Kal-El's parents. That message made me feel like James Gunn was opting to make the Kryptonians like the Saiyajin race from Dragon Ball or Viltrumites from Invincible who were both imperialist cultures. A part of me feels like that it will be revealed down the road that Brainiac tampered with the original message in some capacity to the point that it couldn't be detected by the geniuses on Earth. In either case, this message is replayed to everyone on Earth as if anyone can decipher and understand Kryptonian and are left to believe the translated subtitles in every conceivable language. That right there was a bit of a stretch for me, but by the time we got to the point where Luthor was bragging about his literal think tank of trained chimps to spread hate speech and fearmongering across the internet, I could see how gullible the people on this Earth were. We can laugh at that scene now, but I am dreading seeing that scene being the template for countless memes for the years to come. I'm going to get more into James Gunn's intentional and highly "manipulative imagery and messaging" later in this review, but that's one that pretty much explains itself.  Given how people tend to believe everything presented to them without formulating their own stance nor opinions of their own, this was another thing that was rooted in reality. A lot of people are searching and craving something negative about someone to dwell on it to blow it out of proportion and justify their own hatred of said person or thing. Luthor gave those people the perfect ammunition in that situation and didn't let up in the least. 

As silly as this was, it was one of many steps to prove how intellectually superior and several steps ahead of Superman in every conceivable way.

One thing that threw me off about the public reaction to the message was this talk about a "secret harem". That confused me at first mention but the more I thought about it, I realized that it's another tongue-in-cheek commentary on misogyny in this film. And boy, there are a lot of examples in this film - great ones - if I may add. I bring this up as the modern news media has a tendency to make these unsavory claims to discredit someone and to toss more salt into the wound, they would throw in that individual's unfavorable acts towards women and children. It's already bad enough that this planet sees Superman as an illegal alien but one who wants to round up his own harem of women to breed and produce children for him, then that paints a horrifying picture for generations to come. Lex Luthor's villainy in this film is multilayered and this is just one of many examples of how grounded his plans are in reality.

Like previously mentioned, I wouldn't be surprised that it would be later revealed that the message wasn't altered in the least, but instead was completely manufactured by Brainiac during the last moments prior to Krypton's destruction. He could have tailored that message to groom a powerful pawn that he could recruit down the road. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to have Brainiac as a long-term "big bad" to book end this is first "chapter" of this new DC Comics universe with. In either case, the story behind the message isn't cheapened in either scenario. 

Alternatively, the message could have been a decree forced upon his parents by General Zod too, but I honestly can't see Warner Bros. wanting DC to retread the waters with Zod so quickly after the end of the DC Extended Universe and that character (played by Michael Shannon) just appearing in The Flash (2023). I think setting up Brainiac as the big bad that would unite all of the heroes in this universe's first team-up film would make the most sense if you ask me. It would be a big deal too, especially that would mark Brainiac's first live-action appearance. 

Even Lois Lane found herself questioning Superman's involvement in the Boravia/Jarhanpur situation, despite dating Clark Kent and knowing that he was Superman. Starting this new continuity with numerous people - not just Lois Lane - knowing full well that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person was definitely a choice from James Gunn and I can't say that I'm completely onboard with it right now. I can understand having that level of trust with his other costumed heroes, but to already have that level of trust with Lois Lane feels like a cop out. It cheapens this story when we omit proving and establishing Lois Lane's expert cunning as a reporter whenever she figures this out on her own or kicks herself for not seeing it sooner. That being said, Lois already knowing that they are one in the same made for some entertaining banter between Clark and Lois, especially when she was grilling Clark for interviewing himself for his articles. 

Speaking of Lois Lane, I don't want to undersell her character in this. This iteration of the character is among the best of her live-action representations. She's intelligent, feisty, and headstrong - three distinct traits that people know her for that are well represented here. It doesn't hurt that David Corenswet's Clark Kent/Superman and Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane have amazing chemistry in every scene that they share together, so that's an added bonus. Lana Delany’s portrayal of Lois Lane in Superman: The Animated Series is always going to be my personal favorite depiction of that character in any medium, but Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois isn’t bad by any means. I look forward to seeing more of her iteration of this character. 

One thing I have to give David Corenswet his props for when playing this iteration of Superman is the clear distinction between Superman and Clark Kent. Clark is dorky and a completely lovable goof at times, especially with his occasional "oh gosh" or something along those lines to emphasize his simple, Southern upbringing. When Clark becomes Superman, however, his posture straightens and his line delivery is bolder, more confident and has a bit of authority and stronger tone behind it.

Lois and Clark's debate over Superman's interview in terms of how he handled the Boravia conflict was one of the better moments of this entire film in terms of demonstrating how much James Gunn understands the essence of this character. While Lois Lane was questioning the politics and bureaucratic relations in terms of how he handled this manner (and rightfully so if I may add) and not considering the consequences of his actions and involvement, Clark was growing increasingly frustrated at Lois' stance when none of that mattered to him.  What he saw was people doing bad things and he wanted to save lives - that's it. No more, no less. Superman is here to save everyone, regardless of borders, race, or affiliation. To him, all life is sacred and precious. It is his greatest strength and greatest weakness that Lex Luthor exploits from the start of this film to its finale. For Christ's sake, this version of Superman goes so far as saving a goddamn squirrel. 

I forgot where I heard/read this analogy but it's the perfect description of Superman and I had to share it as part of this review:
"Superman is a firefighter, NOT a cop."

He puts out fires, but he is not there to enforce the law. He doesn't care about the intricacies of any situation. He sees bad people doing bad things or lives being threatened and he's there to stop the bad guys and save lives. That's it. Let someone else worry about the politics behind it.

It can't get any more obvious that this is a version of Superman that is going to go above and beyond to save everyone, even if it kills him. He doesn't see himself as a representative of a country, a political deterrent, nor a weapon of mass-destruction. He injected himself into the situation merely to save lives. It was careless for sure, but to Superman, it didn't matter because it was the right thing to do to save lives. He acted without thinking about the consequences about how the rest of the world were going to see and interpret his actions. Most people are going to look at this and paint the picture that he is choosing a side in this conflict, but to Superman, he was just merely saving people. At this stage of his superhero career, it's naïve to think that way, despite how well meaning his intentions were. He is the most powerful metahuman on the planet, originating from the United States. His actions could have been interpreted as the country's involvement and usher in a war - resulting in more lives at risk due to the abolishment of any allied treaties and cease-fire relations in place. What doesn't get said in this scene is remarkable to me as Lois is practically teaching Clark on the spot to think before he acts solely on his impulses. In a brilliant manner of foreshadowing, it sets ups later events in this film since Superman didn't heed her warning.

That is a testament to how great this version of Lois Lane is written. She saw the writing on the wall well before everyone else and took caution in terms of not rushing into things before they could take a turn for the worse. It was why she was leery about having a relationship with Clark/Superman in the first place. We can't fault Clark for having his heart on his sleeve at all times, but Lois doesn't see the world as sparkles, rainbows, and sunshine like he does. She understands that this is a cruel world, even more so for a woman after watching Clark get allocates of praise for his minimalistic approach to his journalism instead of asking the hard-hitting, uncomfortable questions. It's a breath of fresh air that she's nothing like Margaret Kidder's Lois Lane from the Christopher Reeve Superman films, who was so head over heels in love with Superman above everything else. That was one aspect that I'm glad they didn't bring back for this film. 

Guy Gardner (Green Lantern), Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific, and later, Metamorpho served little purpose in this film as the Justice Society (Hawkman, Atom Smasher, Cyclone, and Doctor Fate) did in Black Adam (2022). A part of me feels like they were shoehorned into this film out of spite to spit in the face of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's attempt to take over the DC Expanded Universe following his pitches to revolve that entire continuity going forward around his film/character. For the record, I cared more about the JSA in that film by the time the credits rolled than I cared about this preliminary version of the Justice League. And don't tell me that it's not going to be the Justice League when everyone's outfit has a clear "JL" insignia on their chests. 

Don't get me wrong. I thought Mr. Terrific was pretty cool in terms of his contributions to the plot and the action scenes, but Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl both felt like two massive wastes of space.

Luthor's plans hinge on exploiting Superman's inability to keep up with his superior intellect, but with Mr. Terrific in this film as one of Superman's allies, the playing field is leveled to an extent. Mr. Terrific isn't making moves for Clark/Superman, but merely providing support where only he can. When the other members of the Justice Gang were reluctant to take action following Superman's imprisonment, Mr. Terrific didn't bat an eye to aid Lois Lane when she asked for their help. He singlehandedly wiped the floor with Luthor's Planetwatch soldiers and hacked into his systems to open a portal to access Luthor's pocket dimension. Without Mr. Terrific (and Lois') help, Superman, Krypto, and Metamorpho would have had to concoct another means to escape. 

I will knock Mr. Terrific for not being the first one to notice that the Hammer of Boravia was using LuthorCorp drones to assist him and broadcast their fight to the masses. For Christ's sake, those things were using similar technology to his own T-Spheres. 

In terms of Luthor's prison in that pocket dimension, I thought it was smart to have Metamorpho (AKA Rex Mason) in the same cell as Superman to manufacture kryptonite, but at the same time, it was lazy writing to have him there without any explanation. How/when did Lex Luthor abduct his kid? Between his appearances in Justice League, Beware the Batman, Batman: Brave and the Bold, and now this, he comes off as completely unlikeable in comparison to those appearances in animation if I'm perfectly honest. 

His place of origin, STAGG Industries, and his wife, Sapphire Stagg (daughter of Simon Stagg, the CEO that owns Stagg Industries who constantly tries to kill Metamorpho for dating his daughter, thus creating the accident that gave him his powers in the first place), both make appearances in this film, with the latter not even speaking a single word of dialogue. If I were to fill in the gaps with what little we were given here, I think it is safe to assume that at some point, Metamorpho started dating Simon Stagg's daughter, resulting in the "accident" that gave him his powers as a result of Stagg's attempts to kill him. Sapphire left to be with him regardless and they started a family together. Luthor got wind of all of this and found out about their child, Baby Joey, who he abducted to use as blackmail to coerce Metamorpho to work for him. I guess James Gunn decided to omit the part from the comics where Baby Joey's powers were affecting anyone who tried to touch him who wasn't Sapphire Stagg, Simon Stagg, or Rex Mason himself. That omission saved viewers from some possible body horror-inspired gruesome deaths in that regard. Metamorpho has a moment to shine in the film's climax with rest of the members of the Justice League, so there's that much to enjoy in regard of this character appearing in this film. 

I had a problem with the not-so-subtle mention that Maxwell Lord (who is played by Gunn's brother no less) is financially backing this Justice League. This film made a point to show Lord at the end of the film as one of the first detractors to say, "I told you so" when Luthor was exposed to be the rat that we all knew him to be from the start. After that character's abysmal portrayal in live-action in the DCEU by Pedro Pascal in Wonder Woman: 1984, it felt lazy to put him in the drivers' seat as the guy who is footing the bill for the Justice Gang (and he's paying for that Hall of Justice Superfriends-inspired base of operations that they are living in too?) in this continuity without any background nor context to fill in the gaps. Readers, feel free to correct me, but isn't Maxwell Lord the guy in a ton of stories in DC Comics where he is depicted more as a shady individual or a flat-out villain to most heroes in the same vein as Lex Luthor? Seems strange to have him as the benevolent backer to these heroes. 

I have to wonder how comic book fans feel about the Engineer making her live-action debut in this film, especially after Gunn made it a point that he was reading The Authority comic books for inspiration. She had absolutely no ties nor distinction to that group/organization and was merely positioned as one of many pawns at Luthor's disposal. She even mentions that she gave up her humanity to have those nanomachines that he developed injected into her body to grant her technomancer abilities. A part of me felt like her presence justified having another super-genius on the heroes' side to aid Superman and counter her in the form of Mr. Terrific. That is until she laid out Mr. Terrific during the film's climax and Superman was left to deal with BOTH her and Ultraman on his own - at least until Krypto showed up. On top of that, Luthor's plans to expose Superman's message from his parents doesn't work in the least without her help. Don't forget that she is the person that spots where Superman lands at the start of the film and discovers the Fortress of Solitude's location. Without that information, he doesn't get the pivotal tool(s) to make his plans go off without a hitch and complete his smear campaign to discredit Superman.

That mere coincidence comes off as careless in regard to Luthor's planning when everything else he did was in absolutes, without any margin for error. For someone so intelligent, I cannot fathom an oversight like that to be left open to chance like that. It's not enough to fault the entire film for, but it's a glaring omission that eerily reminds me of how The Joker left so many things to chance in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, whereas if they went any other way, his entire plan would have gone sideways. 

From the first fight between Superman and the Hammer of Boravia, Eve is painted on the surface as some vapid, self-absorbed influencer, who is more interested in snapping selfies instead of taking any interest in Lex Luthor's work. In reality, she has been establishing her own insurance policy in terms of bringing Lex Luthor down from within his inner circle in the event that things turned sour. It shows the viewers that Eve isn't so vain and infatuated with Lex that she ignores his villainy and actively does something to expose that what he is doing is wrong. The story goes out of its way to show that she is someone with morals and good ethics, which isn't the norm to a lot of these women who are traditionally tied to the hip to Lex Luthor in a lot of these mainstream adaptations. 

Speaking of the finale, it came down to reuse of the most redundant and recycled trope of the superhero genre to date - the mirror match. Superman vs. Ultraman - AKA his genetic (yet inferior) clone. During the entire film, I was sitting in the theater saying to myself that Ultraman had to be either Bizarro or some random clone as the only palatable explanation that Lex Luthor, the Engineer, and Ultraman were able to get into the Fortress of Solitude without any resistance to the Fortress' countermeasures and security until they got inside. Once Ultraman got knocked around enough to expose his "wannabe Winter Soldier" look of this iteration of Superman, that's when I groaned audibly in the theater. To say that James Gunn has been priding himself and boasting on social media that he's going to avoid all of these tired tropes and patterns that made people bored and sour on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Expanded Universe before this, he went and did the #1 thing that even I'm sick of seeing in these live-action superhero films - the redundant superhero movie climax ending in a mirror match where the hero has to face off against someone with similar or identical powers. I get why it's done - mostly to save on the special effects budget to render two of the same model/character with the same power set instead of two vastly different powers to create effects for. For the case of this film's narrative, it makes sense too, but I don't have to like it. We did get a kaiju battle and few other out of the ordinary feats from Superman in this film, but boy, did this film's climax come off as lackluster when it came down to your typical mirror match in one of these films. I didn't care for it in Ant-Man between Scott Lang and Yellowjacket, really didn't care for it in Black Panther between T'Challa and Killmonger, and merely just put up with it in Blue Beetle between Jaime Reyes and Carapax when that was the last film of the previous administration of the DCEU. 

That being said though, I wouldn't be surprised that Ultraman returns in a sequel as Bizarro after his near-death experience on the other end of that black hole. 

The film opens with Superman crashing into a crater, conveniently near the Fortress of Solitude located at one of Earth's poles. This film never takes the time to distinguish which one, but that's neither here nor there. Superman's condition is a result of a thrashing at the hands of a metahuman calling himself "the Hammer of Boravia", who is actually being controlled by Lex Luthor while Ultraman is piloting/wearing an armored exosuit. Later in the film, Superman mentions to Lois Lane that he noticed that the Hammer of Boravia was "faking" an accent, but the thing I never understood from their two encounters was that Superman never thought to attack the drones surveying and monitoring their fight. On top of that, if Ultraman was an exact clone of Superman, how was he able to beat him that badly if they were evenly matched? Mind you, this guy beat the piss out of Superman to the point that he actually bled. Kryptonite wasn't in use nor was some sort of red sun radiation, so that was a little jarring to me. Was it strange to anyone else that no one ever questions nor brings up the Hammer of Boravia again, especially after Superman got beaten up thoroughly by this guy who showed up out of nowhere? It's not like Lex Luthor let everyone know that Ultraman and the Hammer of Boravia were the same person. It's just one of those things that the audience knows, Superman had his suspicions, but it's never explicitly stated that this detail was made public knowledge. 

I think it would have been more interesting to have swapped out Ultraman/the clone for Metallo to explain the thrashing that Superman was receiving in this encounter, but that's just me. He could have been easily written into this film as another of Luthor's experiments/volunteers like the Engineer. Once again, that's an extremely minor nitpick, but it would have alleviated the need/necessity for the mirror match in the climax of this film. 

There's a few things that I found bizarre by the end of this film. I thought it was in good conscience of Superman to convince the Justice Gang to get involved with the conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur since those innocent civilians were going to be caught in the middle while he dealt with the crisis in Metropolis, but I doubt that Superman would have approved of their methods - specifically Hawkgirl killing their leader. The Justice Gang had no qualms about not killing those soldiers and their leader in the least and it's insane that this film goes above and beyond to express that is not the means that Superman approves of in terms of his brand of heroism, but these actions are okay at the end of the film. It comes off as tone deaf in terms of the overarching theme from the rest of the film. Lives were saved, yes, but at what cost? They abandoned Superman's morals (all life is precious) just to usher in an American-branded superhero team (there's no way around this symbolism) throwing their weight (and power) around unchecked in a foreign country as a show of force. How does that look to the rest of the world - even after the information was exposed that Lex Luthor was in bed with Boravia in exchange for half of Jarhanpur's territory? I hate to bring it up again, but it echoes the same message as the Justice Society showing up in Kahndaq to "apprehend" Black Adam in Black Adam (2022), yet doing nothing to stop the criminal organization Intergang who were oppressing the residents there. These American-branded heroes only show up when it is convenient for them to save face, express a show of force, or to show up as a military deterrent. In 2025, that's a dangerous message to convey to tell people that is okay when clearly it's not. 

Superman had the right message in his interview with Lois Lane earlier in this film, something that is oddly never brought up again - Superman was there to save lives - not to represent any country but just because it was the right thing to do. What was the Justice Gang there for? Just because Superman told them to when these same heroes were the ones who didn't want to get involved in anything - even clearing his name - to begin with? Get the fuck out of here with this logic. The only person who did take action was Mr. Terrific, so I'm dying to hear how did that conversation go when all of this was said and done. This film never brings up the interview between Lois and Superman again for some bizarre reason, when it was one of - if not the best - displays of Superman's morals in this film. No one in these films never wants to ask Superman these hot button questions, but this was so on the nose to the point that even Clark/Superman was getting frustrated and angry about having to defend his actions. We as an audience deserve to know where Superman stands, especially when this film goes out of its way to hammer it into our heads again and again that he is the best of us and the most human of us all. 

This same goddamn film showed us in the opening sequence that there are consequences for every action. Superman showed up in Boravia and they "retaliated" by sending their own branded hero in the form of the Hammer of Boravia. Lex Luthor was behind that of course, but it's the same message. What is going to stop other countries from sending their own metahumans to issue their own brand of justice in other countries? It's the same excuse to resort to an escalation of force that every country uses to have their own brand of nuclear missiles on standby since everyone else has them for their "defense". It's that same "an eye for an eye" mindset that makes the entire world blind to the pending chaos that they are justifying without thinking about the consequences about these actions. 

(Shrugs) Maybe I should give James Gunn the benefit of a doubt and suggest that he did this intentionally just to have this play out over the course of the next few films and television projects. 

At the same time, I could see where Gunn's train of thought might be heading with this iteration of Supergirl. He can't have both Superman and Supergirl as these two "perfect" beacons of hope. It would make her feel like she's stepping on Clark's cape so to speak and leave her feeling like a gender-swap copy cat. That's a label that a lot of female superheroes have to combat against a lot as is, and it would be an unnecessary burden to place onto this young actress' shoulders. This cameo could be a means to paint her as immature and flawed right off the bat, thus giving her room to grow and to learn to be a better heroine in her own film - all while bringing Krypto along for the ride.

I thought these two moments in the images below were on the nose in terms of meta/social commentary through this narrative. And before people say that comics and superheroes were ruined once they got "woke" or too political, then that just tells me right there that you never understood these characters at all. Every single superhero and comic book is a byproduct of the culture and individuals who created them. Superman was created by two Jewish immigrants, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. This film is by no means an in-your-face commentary on the current situation concerning immigration in America. What this film is truly about is humanity and how one's environment can shape them into the person that they become no matter where they came from. By the end of this story, we learn that Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El came from an imperialistic world that sought out for him to conquer this planet and act as it's ruler. Instead, he chose to be its protector and savior instead - all thanks to the care, love, and nurturing upbringing from his adopted parents in Kansas. And for the record, the Kents legally adopted Clark when he was an infant, so I don't know where this illegal alien/immigrant talk comes from outside of jokes from non-comic book fans. 

(Laughs) As a Southern native myself, I had to laugh at the portrayal of the Kents in this. I thought Gunn went at it a little too hard in this depiction, almost to the point where I was convinced they were byproducts of in-breeding before adopting Clark. All jokes aside, this level of "southern hospitality" is definitely where I can easily see where Clark learned his morals and that all life is sacred. 

The biggest takeaway of Clark's identity crisis is this: the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are. It's exactly like what happened with Goku in Dragon Ball. He was sent to Earth to conquer it like the rest of his alien warrior race, but he chose to be Earth's greatest protector and continues to do so to this day in those stories. 

"That is where you have always been wrong about me, Lex. I'm as human as anyone! I love... I-I get scared. I wake up every morning and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other and try to make the best choices I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human. And that's my greatest strength." - Superman

This quote RIGHT THERE is all that anyone ever wanted out of a live-action Superman. The beautiful irony that an alien who was raised on our world is more human anyone else on Earth. All weekend and during this following week of the premiere screening as I have been reflecting on this film, I have read reactions to hearing this quote where people have bawled their eyes out since it hit them so deeply. 

That's why I consider James Gunn a MASTER at this terminology that I have exercised and described in this review as "manipulative imagery and messaging". For better or worse (this film definitely leans towards the latter for positive reactions/reception), Gunn knows how to communicate his messages so powerfully that many audiences can unamiously see where he is coming from and resonate with it.

Closing Thoughts

Everything that I have mentioned up to this point since the start of this review were the icing on the cake in terms of what I had a problem with in terms of when this film was over. This was by no means a "bad/awful" film. It wasn't a bad comic book movie either. I actually AGREE with what many people are saying: it was like watching an episode of Superman: The Animated Series or an actual Superman comic book brought to life. It's just not what I was looking for in terms of a modern Superman film. And with James Gunn at the helm, this film did nothing to ease my fears and concerns about his direction and vision going forward. He still litters these DC Comics projects full of obscure and lesser known characters to justify hiring his family members and friends to fill those roles. At the same time, these characters cog up runtime with little to no explanation of where they came from, why they are here, or why with no one outside of the hardcore comic book fans would care that they are there to begin with. He could get away with that in the Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel Studios since that team was as obscure as you could get and no one was going to object either way no matter what he did. With Peacemaker for DC, that character was so much of a deep cut that you couldn't go wrong with it. Same goes for his version of the Suicide Squad after David Ayer's version went belly up following Warner Bros.' corporate meddling. Anything that DC did in comparison to that train wreck was an improvement in that regard. 

For everything that I have cited that I had a problem with, I think I should take the time to applaud this film for what it does right and to distance itself from what came before it. 

First of all, the visual aesthetic is a welcome change from Nolan's gritty, dark tones to emphasize the more optimistic, bright, and positive outlook for this iteration of Superman. This Superman screams and bleeds hope and radiates genuine goodness and positivity to the point that you feel like you're watching an episode of Teletubbies from the bright, vibrant colors used. At the same time, it echoes the color palette typically used in Superman comics. And that is what a lot of people describe this film as a comic book come to life, down to a lot of the finer details and depictions of these characters. I don't find it so "comic booky" to the point where it is campy like Batman '66 or corny, but there were a lot of moments where they would do something serious and that one bad joke would ruin the mood and I would throw my hands up while watching in the theater. Regardless, this film has a lot of charm that is so infectious to the point where I can easily see why people are falling in love with it. 

That change in tone is definitely a powerful statement to make in terms of establishing this new DC cinematic universe under James Gunn. This establishes right off the bat that he's not going to go for another dark, brooding take for these characters like Zack Snyder before him. For fans of the Snyderverse, that's not going to sit well with them, but for everyone else looking for a win for DC in any regard, especially in the landscape of people who are constantly saying that "the MCU is dead" or "people don't care about superhero movies anymore", this is a welcome breath of fresh air. Some people just want to go back to the days when they can take all of their entire family to one of these films and allow everyone to enjoy themselves. This is essentially what they wanted and they got it. I can't knock people for buying into that. We live in troubled times currently where you don't know when or where is the next shoe going to drop in terms of things going from bad to worse in this world, whether you're worried about politics, world relations, financial struggles, trouble at the workplace, unemployment, managing your health, or even just making sure that you have a roof over your head and food on the table. 

The cinematography in a lot of scenes are simply jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring. I think a lot of people are going to be going back and forth arguing about whether or not the flight sequences are better or worse than the ones in Man of Steel, but I thought those were shot well and gave the sensation of speed that is heavily desired in those moments. 

Last but not least, this film gave a lot of people something that they haven't seen in a very long time - hope. No matter how you feel about this movie, this gave comic book fans hope that Hollywood hasn't run out of gas in terms of letting these creatives really cook and get these comic book adaptations right without any corporate meddling like we saw that tainted the DC Extended Universe before this film. I think that's a great thing. As a result, this film has made a lot of people highly optimistic about this new DC Universe going forward and that's giving them a lot of great good will to bank on to propel their cinematic universe forward. I won't knock this film for that in the least.