So, I just watched Superman (2025). I had the thought, in part because they played a trailer for Ick, starring Brandon Routh, that I've been doing this long enough (*cough* off and on *cough*) to have been able to write immediate post-theater thoughts now for five different Superman-centric movies spread across almost twenty years.
Oh crap, the 20th anniversary of this blog was two and a half weeks ago. I meant to set a reminder. Hey, would it surprise you that in the two decades since I started writing here, I got an ADHD diagnosis?
What was I saying? Oh right, Superman. It was good. Not perfect, but, like, really good. Almost everything I disliked feels like nitpicking. And having gone through the Superman film opus a couple of times now, I'd eventually landed on the position of "they've never made a truly good Superman movie." I was literally just telling my mom yesterday that the best Superman movie was Superman III, a position I have argued for (and against) on this very blog.
And I will reserve final judgment until a second watch, but Richard Pryor may have just slid down the slope to second place. Spoilers after the jump.
Those absolute maniacs did it, they remade Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
If you don't have a photographic memory for lore about random blogger facts last mentioned twelve years ago, Superman IV was my childhood favorite Superman movie, because it had an actual costumed supervillain in it, even if Nuclear Man wasn't exactly Brainiac or Mr. Mxyzptlk. And while viewing it through a (slightly more) critical adult lens has allowed me to see its many flaws, I think there's a lot of potential in a story where Superman intervenes in international conflict in a way that will, simply and undoubtedly, save lives, only to have Lex Luthor take advantage of the complexities of international relations (where, frequently, saving lives is not a primary motivation) and concerns about Superman's overreach to enrich himself (and take down the Man of Steel in the process).
And it sure seems like James Gunn and the crew saw that same potential, because that's the core conflict of this movie. But more than that, the villain of the piece is Ultraman, who (as it turns out) is, like Nuclear Man, a clone made from a strand of Superman's hair. There's even a sequence of Superman weakened and changed due to radiation poisoning.
The plot is built around an international conflict modeled on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but which naturally resonates with the assault on Palestine, intentionally or not. Superman intervenes to stop the invasion, while Luthor pulls strings to make it happen, apparently because he's profiting from it (though in typical Luthor fashion, his plans are considerably more complicated). This structure allows so much exploration of these characters and concepts in ways that feel efficient, and some of that is down to the film trusting its audience to not need a Superman origin story, but a lot of it just comes down to finding core concepts for each main character that allow them to work in all these different conflicts. Superman is constantly trying to save lives and find the best in people, but he also gets frustrated and has a temper. Lois is constantly a thorn in everyone's side, but worries that it interferes with her relationships. Lex is constantly ten steps ahead of everyone else, but has no regard for anyone but himself. And so we get to see Superman behave in all these different contexts, not just fighting a kaiju or a supervillain, but getting grilled by Lois on his actions and butting heads with the other superheroes over their methods and his secrets. We get to see Lois taking charge and being a journalist, but also being out of her depth in these dangerous superhero scenarios without ever being a damsel in distress. We get to see Lex frequently on the verge of success but foiled because compassion isn't even a factor in his equations except as a weapon to use against Superman.
It shows such a profoundly good understanding of the characters, and that's without getting to the more minor roles like Mr. Terrific (who is...fantastic) and Jimmy Olsen, who make the most out of every scene they're in. And Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner is pretty pitch-perfect (though I always imagined Guy having a much higher pitched voice).
The performances are great all around; I was unfamiliar with Corenswet prior to this, but he does a great job as a young, folksy, very down-to-Earth Superman. His performance isn't as earnest as Hoechlin's or as awkward as Quaid's. He's like a little more exasperated, a little less formal version of Daly's Animated performance. It's not hard to imagine this Superman occupying the same universe as Gunn's Peacemaker, and not just because of the Cena cameo. It's Marvelesque in a way that feels very post-Crisis and a little New 52 if I could say either of those things without them sounding like insults.
Hoult's Luthor is an all-timer, switching between calculating, menacing, and practically gleeful in a way that feels like Gorshin's Riddler might have been part of the study materials. And while I'd been just a teeny bit skeptical of how Brosnahan's Lois would shake out, she's truly amazing in the role, bringing that fast-talking Sherman-Palladino series experience to Lois's dialogue in a way that makes her feel like an unstoppable force.
So what about the bad? Well, they say "shit" an awful lot for a Superman movie, and while I don't actually have any issue with a plot where Krypton kind of sucks actually and Jor-El and Lara sent Kal-El to be some kind of ruler or invading force, dropping in a bit where they want him to marry many Earth women and build a harem so he can repopulate Krypton is kind of gross. In that same vein, Guy Gardner making a bunch of green plasma middle fingers is a great moment, even very much in character for Guy, but feels out of place in a movie called Superman.
Though, at least according to some of the stuff I've heard, it's not far from what Zack Snyder allegedly had planned for the whole "Kryptonian codex" subplot in Man of Steel.
There are a few places where characters are clearly written and performed in a particular way because it works for a gag, and that's not wrong in and of itself, but I think it does hurt Ma and Pa a little to start the film portraying them as backwards hicks with accents that sound a lot further south than Kansas. Similarly, Supergirl shows up at the very end as a sloppy drunk, purely for the joke of Supergirl being a party girl, and that feels shitty (and maybe a smidge misogynist). They also really should have done more with makeup and hair to make Supergirl and Sapphire Stagg distinct from each other, because both appear for very short scenes and look very similar (and Sapphire isn't named), such that it felt like maybe Supergirl had been hooking up with Metamorpho.
Ron Troupe appears! He gets name-dropped! He doesn't speak a single line of dialogue, and that's kind of annoying. Steve Lombard gets several moments, let Ron have one. Also, Perry is chomping on a cigar constantly, and while it's never apparently lit, I'm not sure you can do that indoors, Chief. Come on.
Hawkgirl screeches like a hawk. A lot. It's...a choice.
I would have appreciated if Hawkgirl hadn't killed the Boravian president at the end. The moment that rings perhaps the most hollow is when Superman is talking with Lois while the Justice Gang battles an interdimensional imp in the background. It's a good scene for some character work and drama and working out some of the next beats, but Superman handwaving his inaction by saying that "they [the other heroes] have it handled" doesn't really work when we've seen that their way of handling things causes unnecessary property destruction, puts people in danger, and likely results in unnecessary death. It would be nice to see the other Justice Gangers have their own change of heart, even a temporary one, even "I'm only doing this because Superman asked," as a further illustration of his influence. And then she could have just dropped him into a cactus, surrounded by authorities or "enemy" civilians, paying off moments from earlier in the film.
But...that's kind of it? I don't really have any other significant complaints, and those feel pretty minor. None of them are as significant as "the hero kills the villain" or "god the first act drags" or "this movie feels like it was made with actual contempt for its audience," which are all issues I've had with other Superman films. I liked it. I'm going to buy the soundtrack. I want to see it again.
I'm probably not going to see it six more times in the theater like I did with that movie nineteen years ago. I have a lot less free time to do crazy stuff like that now.
Okay, other minor things worth mentioning:
- When the Engineer's nanites are crawling over Superman's face and invading his orifices, there's a close-up on his eyes as the nanobots creep inside, and I swear that's an intentional callback to the scene in Superman III.
- The first person named in the "special thanks" list was Chuck Austen and I sure would like to figure out why that is.
- I'm not going to grumble about Metamorpho having slightly different powers in the movie than he does in the comics. I'm not!
- Michael Ian Black's character, Cleavis Thornwaite (clearly modeled on Tucker Carlson), doesn't seem to be a deep cut DC character, which is kind of interesting, since there's at least a couple of similar characters (G. Gordon Godfrey, Dirk Armstrong, even Morgan Edge or Jack Ryder) who could have filled that spot. It's not like they weren't pulling some obscure characters; according to the credits, post-Crisis clonemaker Sydney Happersen was one of Lex's main henchmen, and so were some Guy Gardner: Warrior villains.
- Otis is here, and his last name is "Berg." Very nice.
- I mentioned that John Cena appeared as Peacemaker, which raises some interesting questions about DC film/TV continuity that almost certainly will not be addressed. We've definitely got a different Rick Flag than the one that Peacemaker killed in The Suicide Squad. I guess he's credited as Rick Flag, Sr., so I suppose they could be trying to imply that 60-year-old Frank Grillo is 45-year-old Joel Kinnaman's dad, that's not impossible. Just weird.
- Also, jeez, I hope I look half as good at 60 as Frank Grillo does. Holy hell, man.
- Superman says "gosh" and "darn" a lot, and it's very endearing.
- Oh! Superman's last speech, to Luthor. It's very conversational, not the kind of lofty, sometimes preachy/idealistic speeches we often get from Superman in those moments. I liked it. It was a nice change of pace without feeling out of character, particularly for this version of Superman.
- Lois being into punk, and being kind of gatekeepy about it, feels very on-brand. Just a lot of good little character moments, honestly.
Anyway, it was good. I hope they make several more. Maybe they'll redo Superman III next. Fingers crossed.
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