Superman (2025) Review
SnarkAI Score: 81/100
“I'm glad Snyder is still alive to see this film and see how fully, fundamentally and totally he failed as a screenwriter, director, and person.”
TL;DR: tldr: James Gunn finally gives us the hopeful Superman we've been waiting decades for, complete with snarky Lois pinning Clark to walls and Lex's storage unit of people who've slighted him (chef's kiss). Though it lacks Snyder's visual beauty, it more than makes up for it by getting the tone right. Bonus points for the hilariously awkward ICE arrest scene and that accidental Israel-Palestine allegory Gunn insists is just a weird coincidence.
All in all, this was the hopeful superman we all wanted and haven't seen on the big screen in a couple of decades. The colour palette was cheerful in the right places, and whilst it perhaps lacked some of Snyder's visual beauty, it more than overcame that with just getting the tone right.
It's a very James Gunn film, so there's quips and silliness, there are minor characters who are very different from their comic counterparts, but unlike Snyder they are still respected. An example is the use of the Engineer as a Lex soldier. This takes away her agency by having him be the mastermind of the nano-machines which is disappointing. In the comics she does this herself and joins the ruthless Authority. (Though the universe merge of the Authority and DC never really made sense to me)
Lex was amazing, the pettiness and general insanity are fantastic. His storage unit of people who have slighted him is chef's kiss. It's the first time in a long time we're seeing the Lex who plans and who's power is so great he can stand toe to toe with Superman, shielded by his intelligence and his ruthlessness.
David was great as both Clark & Superman and it was brilliant to see a film start mid-universe not with the origin stories.
Lois is great and her pinning Clark to the wall over and over again in their interview was hilarious and the reason she is Pulizer winning and he tends to get it for his novels not his journalism.
Mr Terrific was great, though the Mobius Chair look is odd. Guy Gardner is top tier.
Gary was great. Justice for Gary.
Cool to see such a good use of Metamorpho, including his flying head. It's a shame we'll never get to his partner's appearance in Sandman because Gaiman 'allegedly' can't keep it in his pants.
Krypto is a very good boi.
Its weird we got the Boy's ending/twist that we never got in the Boys. Like it was very obvious from the moment we saw Ultraman's outfit what was coming, but it was a weird choice, like Gunn accidentally copied from the wrong material.
There's also two plot elements that are really blown up by recent events and I'm not sure either could have been planned due to the time it takes to produce a movie.
Superman gets arrested by ICE for being an immigrant.
James Gunn having to come out and insist his invasion in the desert of white europeans led by a traitorous warmonger with an eastern European accent against an oppressed brown population in poverty but who are called terrorists so the invaders can steal the land is not about Isreal and Palestine and all the above is just some weird coincidence is.... something.
A promising start to DC's umpteenth reboot.