Disney is f***ed. James Gunn’s confident, colorful and comedic first entry in the DC Universe (DCU), “Superman” (2025), is a perfect blend of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Superman’s thirties are hitting him (David Corenswet) like a brick of kryptonite as he finally contends with daunting challenges, newfound vulnerabilities and the truth about his past. With Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) posing a threat to him, Krypto (CGI, Jolene & Ozu), ordinary people and the fabric of the universe, can everyone do their part to save each other? Will the real villain be stopped?
Finally, a cinematic Lois and Clark able to fill the iconic shoes that Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve wore. I went into “Superman” a bit Superman’ed out. There have been so many in my lifetime alone, and while each (Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavil and Tyler Hoechlin) brought out something different in their take on the man of steel, Corenswet may be the first since Reeve that feels like a real three-dimensional character, not a living, breathing platitude. This Clark Kent/Superman feels alien, wholesome and simple in the multiple senses of the word. A bit like Ethan Hunt, he cannot bear for anyone to die, but his oversimplification of his raison d’etre is a glaring blind spot to how his good intentions can be viewed with a jaundiced eye. Cue Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan, who may be my favorite after Kidder and just overtakes Erica Durance, who was more talented in the role than she was given credit), his smarter half, who throws cold hard truths as a wakeup call to warn him of the dangers that lie ahead. Lane is not a damsel in distress but saves her boyfriend in a multitude of ways. Thank God that Gunn understands momentum and skips the tedious tension of Clark hiding his real identity from his girl Friday.
Gunn also is a master of emotional manipulation. Even if you understand that he is deliberately reaching into your chest and squeezing your heart, it still works. The ungovernable Krypto was a concern because “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (2023) may have permanently wrecked my mental health, and nowadays, everyone needs fewer stressors, not more, but Krypto is the secret weapon of “Superman.” Almost each character loves someone, and in one evacuation scene, people are clinging to their pups, their turtles and their kids. Krypto clings to Superman, and Superman returns the favor less frequently, as needed. Gunn also understands how to simultaneously make people disgusted with villains and root against them while also sympathizing with them. When Superman surrenders himself for questioning and finds himself imprisoned in a pocket universe with no rights, the inmates are craven and turn on each other but are also depicted as scared people who just want to see the sun again and get returned home. People are not always their best selves under dire circumstances, but they still deserve care.
Even Lex Luthor gets this treatment during his all-consuming, multi-front campaign to kill the alien with Lex using the pronoun “it,” which has multiple layers of significance today: dehumanization of the other, xenophobia, transphobia. Hoult is quite deft at playing villains that you can hate and root against without forgetting their humanity. In the end, though he seems like the puppet master pulling the strings, Gunn proves that he is not done using comic book stories to inject criticism of the real movers and shakers on the world stage whether it is various governments using a private actor to obscure their own devious actions or the media’s kneejerk reaction to rip people apart instead of engaging in the rigorous investigative journalism that Lane and her colleagues do at the Daily Planet. When “Superman” ends, like “The Suicide Squad” (2021), the individual culpability of each person who contributes to making the world a worse place is never erased, but they are also ordinary people getting swept away with excitement as if they were watching a videogame instead of living, forgetting that the danger is just outside their window and drawing closer. It is a real “Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957) situation where only a few realize the impact of being on the wrong side of history. As they awaken to the impact of their actions and how it threatens them, their change of heart happens in fits and starts, gradual while gaining momentum. Still the real villains remain hidden and unbothered, unaffected as long as the one in the spotlight is not them.
The casting is perfect. Come for Superman, stay for Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). Literally because there are post credit scenes. Gathegi got shortchanged in “X-Men: First Class” (2011), but the DCU more than makes up for it and gives Gathegi a chance to prove how terrific his character is. He has the best lines, great fight scenes and the best tech. As part of the Justice Gang, which includes Green Lantern, Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), they act as metahuman foils to Superman with different motivations, ethics and willingness to help their friend. Again, it is nice to finally see Superman have friends that he does not have to lie to. Look what happened to Chloe after that experience. She joined a cult!
It is too bad that “Superman” is coming out after “Jurassic World: Rebirth” (2025) because it could have been a model for rebooting a franchise without feeling like reheated, still frozen, stale leftovers. Gunn strikes the balance between paying homage to Richard Donner’s “Superman” (1978) in terms of aesthetic and using John Williams’ score as the foundation but embraces the formula that he has been perfecting throughout his career in making three-dimensional, relatable characters in fantastic circumstances, establishing credible personal dynamics and world building in a grounded way reminiscent of our own world.
While “Superman” as a story has flaws, especially in the first act, unlike Zack Snyder’s DC Extended Universe (DCEU), it does not lose momentum or, if you are lucky, have only one to two solid acts before it descends into mind numbing nonsense. Snyder gave “Dawn of the Dead” (2024), a remake better than the original, and “300” (2006), but his DCEU was bloated, angsty, drab and uneven. No revisionist history on my watch: “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) was excruciating, and at its worse, Snyder’s DCEU was torturous to watch. It was rare to get a consistent solid installment.
Now that Gunn has the opportunity of a lifetime to not be part of a universe, but the mastermind, Gunn is a man who knows exactly what he wants to do with the DCU and has the visual skills to pull it off. He makes chaos cinema look good and not frustrating and obfuscating. His interpretation of the story feels fresh as if it is the first time around and not as heavily structured and planned as it probably is. It is full of surprises and delight, something that the MCU is losing. At some point, the MCU decided to be full of tortured, brooding heroes, and now Gunn is flipping the script with his earnest, naïve immigrant underdog story where maybe keeping conflict simple, no lives lost, is the only policy to have.
