‘Superman (2025)’ Review

Stars: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, Maria Gabriela de Faria, Wendell Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell | Written and Directed by James Gunn

Recently appointed as the executive overseer of Warner Bros’ new DC Universe (effectively the DC equivalent of Marvel’s Kevin Feige), writer-director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) delivers a smash hit straight out of the gate with this new Superman reboot. With a terrific cast, a pitch-perfect tone, some fabulous production design and a Superman-savvy script that makes some intriguing choices, this is Warner Bros’ best DC movie for quite some time.

The first of Gunn’s intriguing decisions occurs immediately, as the story begins in media res, leaving the Man of Steel’s origin story to a series of cleverly structured captions, as a wounded Superman (David Corenswet) crash-lands in the Arctic, near the Fortress of Solitude, three minutes after losing a fight for the first time. We are quickly introduced to Krypto the Super-dog (whose every appearance is an utterly delightful running gag, with a brilliant pay-off) and a team of helpful Superman Robots (one of which is voiced by Alan Tudyk), who patch Superman up before the main plot gets underway.

It turns out that, in order to save thousands of lives, Superman has intervened in a war, stopping an imminent invasion. This has been exploited by genius tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who has parlayed his influence in the US government into getting permission to take Superman down. At the same time, Lex is busy trashing Superman’s reputation online (the details of which constitute another of the film’s best jokes), giving the Son of Krypton a serious crisis of confidence, which isn’t helped when Lex gets hold of a hologram message from Superman’s Kryptonian parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan), which appears to suggest he’s on Earth for world domination purposes.

Fortunately, Superman has a few allies, chiefly in the form of the Daily Planet’s Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) – who already knows his secret identity and has been dating Clark Kent / Superman for three months – and a trio of “metahumans” calling themselves the Justice Gang, namely Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced). But will they be enough to help him fight back against Lex?

Gunn is clearly a long-standing Superman fan, and his excellent script effectively cherry picks from multiple sources, including the previous movies, the TV shows, the animated series and the comics – on that note, listen out for a brilliant, comics-accurate explantation of Superman’s Clark Kent “disguise”, a lovely throwaway joke. He also makes some intriguing additions of his own to Superman lore, which seem genuinely shocking in the moment, but ultimately have the clever effect of tying Superman more closely to Earth.

Crucially, Gunn understands what makes Superman work as a character, so what we get here is a more relatably human take on the Man of Steel – he’s flawed, he makes mistakes, he’s most decidedly not invulnerable, and he’s also capable of being shaken by self-doubt. The script also introduces a complex political situation and explores the ramifications of superheroism within a recognisable (if not explicitly familiar) geo-political conflict, giving the audience a lot more to chew on than we’ve come to expect from previous superhero movies.

Gunn’s direction is exceptional throughout, both in terms of capturing the right tone (broadly speaking, it’s the successful Marvel formula of action, emotion and character-based humour) and keeping things moving at a decent pace. There are, to be fair, a LOT of elements to juggle in the movie, but they are all in service to the main story, and Gunn does a terrific job of keeping all the balls in the air, so to speak.

Perhaps the most important lesson Gunn has learned from previous Superman movies is that casting an unknown in the role pays enormous dividends. It was the case with Christopher Reeve (still the screen’s best Superman) back in 1978 and it’s the case here too with David Corenswet, who nails both the Clark Kent and the Superman aspects perfectly. More specifically, he captures the joy of being Superman and the inherent goodness of the character, but he also gives him a slightly goofier aspect than we’ve seen before and it’s enormously endearing.

As for the supporting cast, Brosnahan delivers what is comfortably the best screen iteration of Lois Lane since Margot Kidder, and she generates palpable chemistry with Corenswet – the scene where she interviews Superman in her apartment (and doesn’t pull her punches, because she’s not just Superman’s girlfriend, she’s also a brilliant journalist) is one of several highlights. Similarly, Hoult makes a formidable Lex Luthor and there are entertaining turns from Fillion, Merced and Skyler Gizondo as Jimmy Olsen.

However, the unexpected stand-out is Edi Gathegi, who comes close to stealing the entire movie as tech genius superhero Mr Terrific, a character who might be largely unfamiliar to audiences, or at least audiences who never watched the Arrowverse TV shows. At any rate, it’s a delightful performance, and his character gets a pleasing amount of screentime to boot.

In terms of the action, Gunn creates a satisfying variety of super-fights that showcase various superpowers without feeling too samey. He also finds different ways to make Superman actually vulnerable in several of the fights, which is something that was missing from the previous reboots.

The film is further heightened with some delightfully colourful production design work (and lighting choices) that feels like the action has popped off the comic book page, as well as a terrific soundtrack from David Fleming and John Murphy that incorporates bits of the classic John Williams score at exactly the right moments.

That’s not to say that Superman is entirely without flaws. For one thing, there’s a key scene missing towards the end that feels conspicuous by its absence. Similarly, anyone who’s essentially a newcomer to the world of Superman may well find the film a little hard to follow, in terms of who everyone is, even if the script does its best to keep everyone up to speed.

Similarly, die-hard Superman fans may well be a little put out at the characterisation of Clark Kent’s mum (Neva Howell) – decidedly unlike all previous iterations of Martha Kent – but a note-perfect central scene with Jonathan Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince) more than makes up for it by essentially crystalising the themes of the entire movie. The only other real flaw is that Gunn resorts to a tediously familiar bit of world-threatening VFX for a sense of tension towards the end, and it’s a shame the film couldn’t have dug a bit deeper and found something else.

In short, this is an absolute treat for Superman fans, presenting an exciting take on the character that feels fresh and satisfyingly familiar at the same time. Here’s hoping the future instalments of James Gunn’s DC Universe are as much fun as this.

**** 4/5

Superman is in cinemas everywhere now.