All through each onscreen incarnation of the Man of Metal, there’s a rhythm we’ve come to anticipate. Superman discovers his powers. He hides in plain sight as Clark Kent. He saves lives. A villain finds him—Zod, Luthor, possibly one thing worse. He’s almost defeated. Then there’s a twist, or an help, and he saves the day. James Gunn’s Superman takes this actual trajectory, and it’s honest to ask: Do we actually want one other adaptation?
Arduous reply: Sure. As a result of beneath the overstuffed plot and clashing tonal shifts, there’s one thing heat and human on this reboot—one thing that will get nearer than most to what makes Clark Kent particular. The Reeve-Kidder spirit lingers right here, reimagined with care by David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan. Gunn’s movie could wobble, nevertheless it walks away with its coronary heart intact.
And oh, the canine.
Superman: A Hero in Progress
To Gunn’s credit score, the movie skips the compulsory crash touchdown and Smallville farm boy sequences. As an alternative, a decent opening narration lays out the timeline: 300 years since metahumans have been documented, 30 years since a Kryptonian landed on Earth, and simply 3 minutes in the past, Superman took his first main loss. That loss—courtesy of an engineered menace from LuthorCorp—propels the plot ahead. No origin story. No pearls falling within the alleyway. Simply Clark Kent, already a fixture in Metropolis, balancing his job on the Every day Planet together with his tasks as Earth’s strongest immigrant.
We’re launched to a seasoned Superman (Corenswet) who’s been publicly energetic for 3 years, secretly courting his colleague Lois Lane (Brosnahan), and battling the load of his twin identification. Their relationship, already in full swing when the film opens, turns into one of many movie’s smartest subversions. Gone is the outdated “Will she determine it out?” routine; as an alternative, we get an actual couple with actual pressure—playful, romantic, and generally exasperated with one another. It’s trendy with out being cynical.
In the meantime, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), a coldly obsessive tech-industrialist, is laying the groundwork for a large-scale geopolitical scheme. Hoult’s Luthor isn’t the theatrical villain of outdated. He’s a simmering presence, chilling in how ordinarily despotic his ambition feels. He’s turned his obsession with Superman right into a full-time enterprise, going as far as to create Ultraman, a genetically engineered nemesis designed to weaken public belief within the Man of Metal. One in all his most insidious plots includes manipulating Superman into defending Jarhanpur, a growing nation, towards its warmongering neighbor Boravia—thereby portray the hero as a rogue actor interfering in sovereign issues.
These concepts don’t all the time land, but they’re daring nonetheless. Gunn reveals us a world that’s caught between reverence and suspicion towards its strongest protector. The stress comes not from kryptonite, however from the murkiness of world politics and public belief.
Sight and Sound, Power and Pressure
On a technical stage, Superman is commonly dazzling. Henry Braham’s cinematography brings again shade and readability to the DC Universe—a welcome break from the grayscale murk of previous entries. Daylight filters via home windows. The Fortress of Solitude glows with cosmic surprise. And Metropolis lastly seems like an actual metropolis as an alternative of a digital gray-box. Braham’s visible language is brighter, extra optimistic, and pairs properly with the emotional tone Gunn tries to strike.
The rating, composed by John Murphy and David Flemingresists the simple temptation of pastiche. There’s no direct carry of the long-lasting John Williams fanfare, however the spirit lingers in sly orchestral nods—particularly a sharp-11 chord development that may delight those that know music principle. The music evokes heroism with out leaning too arduous on nostalgia, a nice line that’s expertly walked. And whereas I nonetheless admire Hans Zimmer’s existential bombast in Man of Metalthis rating returns a type of playful the Aristocracy to the sound of Superman.
Gunn’s screenplay is the place the polish begins to fade. For all his expertise in balancing ensemble casts and weaving coronary heart into style materials, he nonetheless struggles with overexplaining. Characters discuss an excessive amount of, and never all the time with objective. A bit of exposition goes a good distance, however right here it pours in buckets. Dialogue too usually turns into lore dumps, and the pacing suffers because of this. The runtime barely crosses two hours, but it feels longer than it ought to.
Nonetheless, there are visible pleasures value noting. The Superman robots—voiced by a refrain of acquainted Gunn collaborators—add wit and heat. The motion sequences are cleanly staged, if generally weighed down by heavy CGI. There’s actual momentum in how the movie strikes, even when the narrative itself lurches.
“Who’s a Good Boi?”
Luckily, Krypto the Superdog shouldn’t be a throwaway gag. He’s not simply within the movie to maneuver plush toys on the merch desk. As an alternative, he’s the guts of the movie in his personal shaggy approach. Modeled partially after Gunn’s personal canine Ozu, Krypto blends slapstick chaos with quiet affection. His scenes provide comedian reduction, certain, but in addition emotional anchoring.
There’s a second—blink and also you would possibly miss it—the place Krypto lays his head beside a wounded Superman, refusing to depart. It’s not milked for drama, nevertheless it lands. In a movie about legacy, loneliness, and the impossibility of being every little thing to everybody, Krypto is the uncommon character who asks for nothing. Simply presence. Simply love. If that’s not tremendous, what’s?
However he’s additionally hilarious. Krypto barrelling via henchmen, proudly holding up Superman’s cape, or zipping previous Justice Gang members like an overeager intern hopped up on loyalty—each look is a scene-stealer. Gunn provides him simply sufficient persona to matter, with out anthropomorphizing him right into a speaking sidekick. His loyalty isn’t simply comedian reduction; it’s a mirror for what Superman himself provides the world: uncomplicated, tireless love.
Within the chaos of warring ideologies and increasing cinematic universes, Krypto grounds the movie. And someway, he earns the ultimate picture of the film—not Superman hovering above Earth, however a canine, tail wagging, eyes alert, ready for the following name to motion.
Corenswet and Brosnahan: Outdated-Faculty Magic
By way of all of it, the movie’s emotional engine runs on the chemistry between Corenswet and Brosnahan, and so they ship one thing that feels lived-in and earned. Watching them on display took me again to a weekday afternoon, post-kindergarten, the place I sat cross-legged in entrance of a boxy TV watching on VHS Christopher Reeve taking Margot Kidder on that now-iconic flying date. That second was pure film magic. I didn’t anticipate to really feel something like that once more.
However Corenswet and Brosnahan come shut. Their Clark and Lois spark, not simply as lovers however as co-workers, rivals, and ideological foils. Their relationship has friction, wit, and most significantly, respect. Brosnahan performs Lois with each steely resolve and heat. She’s sharp however by no means merciless; she admires Clark’s optimism however challenges his worldview. She’s not written as a token “robust feminine character” however as a girl together with her personal arc, her personal doubts, her personal ambitions.
Corenswet, for his half, is the shock of the movie. He doesn’t attempt to do a Reeve impersonation, however he borrows the posture. The grace. The quiet command. His Superman shouldn’t be all the time serene—he yells, he loses his mood, he doubts. However that messiness makes him extra endearing. The very best Superman tales have all the time reminded us that his biggest energy is empathy. Corenswet makes you imagine it.
Pacing Woes and the Value of Growth
Even so, Superman is riddled with flaws. Tonal shifts swing like a pendulum. One second we’re watching a charged political thriller, and the following we’re in screwball territory with the Justice Gang bickering like they’re at Thanksgiving dinner. The shifts aren’t seamless, and in a film with this many characters, seams matter.
Gunn is a maximalist by nature, and right here that intuition will get in his personal approach. There’s simply an excessive amount of happening. Some characters—like Wendell Pierce’s Perry White and Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho—are given the define of an arc however by no means the total sketch. Whereas Hoult’s Luthor seems like an enchanting idea, it doesn’t really feel like a accomplished character. We glimpse his trauma, his ego, his eerie calm, however we don’t stay with him lengthy sufficient to really feel the dread he might encourage.
James Gunn’s kickoff to the DC Universe is a combined bag in depicting the hero. However capturing the person? That half’s SUPER.
In the meantime, the Justice Gang is a combined bag. Nathan Fillion’s Man Gardner is delightfully obnoxious, and Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific emerges as a possible fan favourite—cool, composed, and ethically pushed. However Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl is disappointingly sidelined, diminished to shrieks, grunts, and exposition.
World-building will get in the best way of the human story. Gunn clearly desires to put tracks for future DCU entries, introducing characters like Angela Spica/The Engineer and teasing Supergirl. Nevertheless, these scenes usually really feel parachuted in, interrupting the move as an alternative of enhancing it.
The Alien as Everyman: Immigration and Hope in 2025
There’s a scene in Superman that’s simple to write down off as corny: a bunch of youngsters rallying round a crudely drawn Superman image on a makeshift flag. They plant it into the filth, and the gang—bizarre individuals, bystanders—start chanting his identify. It’s on-the-nose, nearly embarrassingly earnest. And but, it may be the clearest thesis assertion of the movie.
Gunn leans into the symbolism of Superman as an immigrant—not as a footnote, however as a story core. Right here’s a personality who doesn’t simply arrive from one other planet; he’s continually reminded that he doesn’t belong. And nonetheless, he chooses kindness. In a time when xenophobia is as soon as once more cresting, when immigration coverage is on the entrance web page of each newspaper, Gunn’s movie makes the quiet however potent argument that it’s the outsider—the alien—who greatest understands what it means to belong.
This metaphor has all the time been a part of Superman’s story, however right here it resonates with renewed urgency. The concept that somebody not born on Earth might turn into its biggest protector, its most revered citizen, is a robust one. Particularly in 2025, amid one other wave of nationalist rhetoric and border fearmongering, this iteration of Superman doesn’t retreat into neutrality. He defends the displaced. He listens to the powerless. And when requested who he fights for, he doesn’t flinch.
Sure, the flag scene is blunt. However so are the occasions we stay in. And generally, particularly in superhero tales, earnestness is a advantage.
‘Superman’: Rebuilding the Delusion
There’s no clear approach to reboot a personality this mythologized. Each inventive resolution can be measured towards what got here earlier than. For me, the 1978 movie nonetheless reigns supreme in its simplicity and earnestness. However this new take improves on some longstanding points. It provides Lois and Clark precise romantic pressure. It reveals a Superman who will be indignant with out being monstrous. And it dares to recommend that kindness doesn’t must be boring.
Gunn doesn’t reinvent the wheel. In a approach that’s weirdly refreshing, he lets it wobble. Within the course of, he additionally lets it roll towards one thing heartfelt. This isn’t essentially the most constant Superman movie, nor essentially the most tightly scripted. However with Corenswet and Brosnahan main the best way, it might be essentially the most emotionally trustworthy one in many years. Superman, right here, isn’t a god amongst males. He’s a person studying what sort of god the world wants him to be.
And sure—the canine is nonetheless the most effective half.
A self-described cinephile who can’t cease speaking—and writing—about movies. Paul additionally moonlights as ghostwriter and editor for just a few memoirs. He presently resides within the Philippines.