by Anthony O'Connor

Year:  2025

Director:  James Gunn

Rated:  M

Release:  10 July 2025

Distributor: Warner/Universal

Running time: 129 minutes

Worth: $13.75
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced

Intro:
… flies well enough but it never quite soars.

It’s bloody hard to get Superman right, apparently. We know this because the ratio of hits to misses very much favours the latter. The best cinematic representation of Big Blue belongs to director Richard Donner with either Superman (1978) or Superman II (1980), both films fully embracing the cornball optimism that made the comic book character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster resonate so strongly with so many. Since then, we’ve had Bryan Singer’s limp, forgettable Superman Returns (2006) and Zack Snyder’s grimdark, cynical Man of Steel (2013) before the DC Cinematic Universe imploded and was rebooted by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad).

Superman (2025) is essentially the first cab off the rank for the new status quo of DC’s cinematic offerings and, while it gets a lot right, it also misses the mark in key areas.

Superman tells the story of Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) who, when we first meet him, is trying to recover from an offscreen clobbering. A dreaded wall of text tells us that Supes has been out and about in Metropolis for three years and in that time has become a beloved icon. Quite why this exposition needs to be delivered in such a clunky way is never clear, but it gives the viewer the feeling of having to play catch up for the entire first act.

Turns out Superman is being messed with by jealous psychopathic genius, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who is mucking around with geopolitics, dimensional rifts and creating metahumans of his own. This causes problems with Supes’ public perception, his relationship with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and may just place Metropolis itself in peril.

This looks like a job for Superman!

The first word that comes to mind with Superman is “overstuffed”. This is a film that has to introduce (or reintroduce) audiences to Superman, give us a taste of his friends and family, set up the various other metahumans that populate the narrative like Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), make us understand who this new version of Lex Luthor is and what powers he commands and explain the political underpinnings of the war between the fictional nations of Boravia and Jarhanpur. Oh, and there’s Krypto the superdog, a canon-busting bit of business involving Supes’ Kryptonian heritage and at least two giant blobby monsters to be punched and ignored respectively.

Put simply, it’s a lot. Far too much, in fact, for a 129 minute film to address satisfyingly, so some aspects work much better than others.

What works? Well, the film is bright and cheerful, bringing a colourful aesthetic to the character that feels much more appropriate than anything we’ve seen on the big screen in yonks.

David Corenswet turns in a decent performance as Supes, although the script (and possibly reshoots) make some of his behaviour a little inconsistent. Nicholas Hoult is clearly having a blast as Luthor, putting his own stamp on the role and the action in general is solid, Gunn showcasing an ability to make CGI punch ups feel somehow weightier than most of his peers.

On the downside, the chemistry between Lois and Clark isn’t exactly setting the screen on fire, which makes a pivotal relationship feel undercooked. The pace is also breakneck to the point of whiplash, with tonal shifts and new characters being introduced at a bewildering pace. And that all important feeling of optimism and hope, that sense that someone with the power of a god has decided to protect humanity no matter what? It only comes in fits and starts, and never to the degree of the Donner originals or the All-Star Superman comic by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, which was allegedly a major inspiration for Gunn.

Superman isn’t a bad film. Whole sections of it are loads of fun. It’s fast, funny, full of nice little touches. James Gunn directs with style and enthusiasm, but the shortcomings in his script suggest that perhaps his talent – which undoubtedly involves teams of snarky misfits who succeed despite the odds – was not a great fit for the Superman mould. DC needs this movie to be an unmitigated hit, a four-quadrant success, a good old-fashioned blockbuster that will thrill families and adults alike. And from that perspective, Superman flies well enough but it never quite soars.