برچسب: Superman

Introduction

James Gunn’s Superman has finally soared into theaters. Thus, ushering in an age of Gods and Monsters for filmgoers and DC fans. This is the first film since the announcement of James Gunn and Peter Safran as the heads of DC Studios and their seeking to establish the cinematic universe and expand its cadre of characters. Not one to dip a toe but rather dive right in, Gunn’s script opens up Superman’s world in a manner like none other.

Synopsis

Superman opens by explaining that metahumans have existed alongside humanity for three centuries. Superman himself has been active for three years. The film begins, just as its trailer does. A battered Superman crashes in the snow near his Fortress of Solitude, relying on the rescue by Krypto the Dog to aid in his recovery. This theme will be repeated throughout. But, as anyone who’s ever referred to a rescue animal as their savior, its familiarity is understood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox8ZLF6cGM0

Discussing Superman is difficult. The film is burdened with more story to tell than the name suggests. The laundry list of characters seems burdensome from the outside. But once engaged in the film, everything seems to coalesce nicely. Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced), and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) form a Justice Gang that is sponsored by billionaire Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn).

Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) employs both the Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria) and the mysterious Ultraman, along with an army of Raptor guards. There’s even a captive kaiju that starts adorably small and ends up adorably large. The world is made up of the familiar and the imagined, with locales such as Delaware and Kansas referenced alongside fictional countries Boravia and Jarhanpur. If that’s not enough for you, there’s even a pocket dimension courtesy of LexCorp featuring an ant-proton river and a black hole.

All this is to say that Gunn has done for live-action Superman what no other director or writer has ever had the foresight to do. Rather than bring Superman into our world and offer some metacommentary on what we can learn from an alien on our Earth, we are brought into Superman’s world to see his Earth through his eyes.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I’m speaking, of course, of the comic book world. The one where heroes and villains clash constantly without geopolitical constraints tying their hands from week to week. Gunn’s world is colorful, with binary characters that don’t go gray when a life is taken as a result of conflict. Grand speeches hold equal impact alongside earth-shattering punches.

James Gunn heard the criticism that Superman Returns (2006) was boring. So, he made this film as loud and colorful as possible. His film shares more DNA with a comic book or cartoon than Bryan Singer’s muted slogfest. When Superman tunnels through the rock beneath the foot of a kaiju during a huge fight sequence, he seems more like Bugs Bunny than Henry Cavill.

The central conflict of Superman’s character draws more from My Adventures with Superman (the wildly popular and successful animated series currently airing on Adult Swim and HBOMax) than any prior live-action iteration of the Man of Steel. Superman himself is purely good. While Lex Luthor is patently evil. It’s an easy film to digest in terms of its meditations on right and wrong, causing a sold-out crowd to applaud when Luthor gets his comeuppance.

Some might see the cartoonish nature of some of the action sequences, especially those featuring Krypto as a force of nature, to be a weakness. But this viewer disagrees. I appreciated the celebration of Superman’s funny book origins and embrace of the magical realism that makes a universe like DC exist in such a singular fashion. The scope of Superman’s world is massive, and it’s clear that the stage is set for adventures that promise to push beyond the limitations of what came before.

Super Cast

David Corenswet plays Clark Kent and Superman with sincerity and playfulness. He embraces the otherness of the character without the tortured loneliness. Rachel Brosnahan endeavors to ground the proceedings with her interpretation of Lois Lane. Her character speaks truth to power regardless of fear or ignorance. Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific is the true standout. He delivers a detached performance as “the smart one” of a team of super-powered metahumans.

Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho is underutilized but ideally positioned to return larger and more entrenched in further entries. Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is thoroughly unhinged. He is demonstrating a threat not just to Superman but to the entire world.

Supporting roles offer, again, binary sketches of two-dimensional characters. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner is largely a walking punchline, as is Beck Bennett’s Steve Lombard. Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince demonstrate Clark’s singular resolve to be a force of good as Martha and Jonathan Kent. This is proof of the nurture versus nature argument presented by stories like this or Mark Millar’s Red Son.

Conclusion

I’ll admit that I was equal parts excited and nervous about this film going into it. The marketing push has been so ubiquitous that I found it difficult to go in completely blind. But I knew, regardless, that this film wouldn’t be judged solely on its name. It’s called Superman, but its role is to establish a broader DC Universe for the new direction of the Studio. As a fan of Superman, the character, I was concerned that the hero would be sidelined or minimized. I can confidently say that is not the case.

This film is about Superman (and Krypto). However, it manages the heavy lifting of its broader purpose by setting the character in a world that more closely resembles his comic book iterations than any version before. Gunn didn’t build the DC world around Superman, like Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon attempted through Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Rather, he set Superman in the DC world. That, to me, is the masterstroke of 2025’s Superman that makes the film a success on all fronts and a hero of James Gunn.

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