Superman
Writer + Director ~ James Gunn
Writers ~ James Gunn
Superman created by ~ Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster
2025, USA
Stars ~ David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult
No origin story here. In fact, there could have been one or two prequels before this point, detailing Lex Luther’s growing grudges and plans, Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s (Rachel Brosnahan) romance and revelations, even the kidnapping and coercion of Metamorpho. Instead, Gunn wastes no time dropping us in midway through a fight that Superman has lost. In fact, the film spends a lot of time and is pretty good at making Superman vulnerable-adjacent. The first images we see of him is beaten and dabbed bloody. David Corenswet as Superman-Clark may have the looks and disarming charm, but where he doesn’t have the extra smooth cocksuredness of Christopher Reeve, he has a Twenty-First Century “I’m just doing my best”.
Mostly, it is obvious everyone is having a ball. There is an unmistakable party vibe to Gunn’s superhero romps, even as laced with darkness as they are. Actually, ‘Superman’ is markedly lighter than his earlier imaginings, deliberately brighter and positive in tone whilst still having a little time for the horror of war and vulnerability. Superman can be, as ever with superheroes, accused of fascistic and imperialistic dogma, but I tend to see superheroes as a wish-fullfilment for the disenfranchised. As Superman was created by two Jewish nerds in the late Nineteen-thirties, how else were they going to punch Nazis? There’s room in the film for debate in how Kal-El’s good deed-doing is just as dogmatic and potentially blinkered as his opponents accuse, because there’s self-awareness; even The Justice Gang's more mercenary nature keeps his ethos questioned. We have Homelander and Omni Man to express our distrust and deconstruction of an invincible paragon. But ultimately it chooses Superman as the myth that we need – even with flags.
Gunn unashamedly posits super-heroes as a force for good to call on in warzones whilst the bad guy is a money mogul destroying the world from his own pettiness. Lex Luther (Nicholas Hoult) is obviously modelled on the Elon Musk type, rich beyond imagination and unable to placate his own ego, playing at war and interdimensional black sites for his own perceived grudges. The analogies can’t be missed and pleasingly roused the wrath of the anti-woke types who have no understanding of the character’s origins and meaning. It’s not subtle. But there is again attention to the casting to give Luther’s team flickers of individuality, cheering on his success at besting Superman as they might a pal’s game-playing, elevating them above just mindless minions.
Gunn is here for the comics fans that already know their stuff, and everyone else will catch up quickly. Fan service is satisfied by taking namechecking John Williams’ original score, by utilising lesser-known characters – Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) is fearsome with that battlecry, Mr Terrific (Edi Gathegi, very cool and beguiling facial markings; Fantastic was taken) – as well as taking serious-ish the absurdities – scene-stealing Krypto the superdog, Metamorpho (an emotionally pained Anthony Carrigan), Guy Gardener (Nathan Fillion; Gunn loves a lunkheaded, slightly misguided but ultimately good hero). As underwritten as Hawkgirl and Metamorpho may be, there’s the feeling that there’s other films happening with them elsewhere, that they have fuller stories that we’re not seeing (oh, Metamorpho has a family?). Gunn will make room for kaijus, and pocket universe black sites too but he knows how to root in the small stuff. The early Lane-Superman interview is where the film truly locks in after leading with the super-stuff. And in terms of giving and sidestepping a lot of exposition, the scene where Lois goes to the Justice Gang for help only to have Gardner spill the beans on Superman’s secrets is a masterclass, conveying so much under the guise of a funny interaction and goes down so smoothly you hardly realise the work it’s doing. Or he’ll make sure the Justice Gang is battling an interdimensional being while Clark and Lois are having a heart-to-heart.
Typical of Gunn, ‘Superman’ is overstuffed but always fun and light on its feet. It cracks along at a breathless pace, offering new details right until the very end (red suns make you drunk!). It is daft and heartfelt, committed, and lands its humanitarian anti-ego message with an almost naïve clarity totally befitting its hero. Perhaps it’s not up with the top-tier superhero flicks, but it’s colourful pell-mell entertainment and certainly demonstrates that a desaturated palette is not needed to get your points across.
