Movie Review: SUPERMAN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: July 11th, 2025 / 02:04 AM

SUPERMAN movie poster retro | ©2025 DC Studios

Rating: PG-13
Stars: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Anthony Carrigan, Alan Tudyk, Maria Gabriela de Faría, Skylar Gisondo, Wendell Pierce, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell, Zlatko Buric, Sara Sampaio, Bradley Cooper, Angela Sarafyan, Dinesh Thyagarajan
Writer: James Gunn, based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster
Director: James Gunn
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: July 11, 2025

Fun (and a subject matter-appropriate sense of enormous responsibility) has returned to the SUPER-verse. Without naming names, there have been recent versions of Superman which, in their apparent lack of concern for collateral damage and Superman’s general attitude, were not the Kal-El most of us had come to know and love.

Director/writer James Gunn, working from the iconic DC Comics characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, takes us back to basics with this new SUPERMAN. For an extra-gratifying change, Gunn does this minus an origin story or heavy exposition.

Gunn, whose previous credits include the enjoyable THE SUICIDE SQUAD (not to be confused with the earlier, grimmer SUICIDE SQUAD) and the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY trilogy, knows not only his comics but his comics fans. He assumes correctly that most folks in the theatre have a least a passing acquaintance with Superman lore, and we’ve already seen multiple dramatizations of Clark Kent’s youth, arrival in Metropolis and more. Time for some new adventures!

We get a brief onscreen catch-up – it’s been 300 years since metahumans first appeared, thirty years since Superman (the first known extraterrestrial metahuman) arrived on Earth as a baby, etc.

Superman has just, for the first time, lost a fight. His victorious opponent calls himself the Hammer of Boravia. Superman took it upon himself to prevent Boravia from attacking the neighboring nation of Jarhanpur, which saved innumerable lives but has generated a lot of controversy. Should an alien with superpowers be single-handedly making decisions about international affairs, no matter how positive the outcome?

This and other philosophical matters flow through SUPERMAN, without ever becoming pretentious. There is romance, there is humor, there is some tragedy, and a whole lot of all kinds of action in the service of genuinely suspenseful how-the-hell-will-he/they-get- out-of-this situations.

In broad strokes, Superman learns something jarring that threatens to affect his self-concept, while dealing with the increasingly dangerous machinations of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), whose technology can punch holes in space and dimensions.

SUPERMAN retro movie poster retro | ©2025 DC Studios / Warner Bros.

Gunn gives Luthor some grounded reasons for his hatred of Superman that go beyond the customary megalomania and “Curses, foiled again.” He also provides Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) with not only a sharp, questing mind but sequences of full-blown heroism.

Corenswet is wholly up to the task of playing Superman and Clark Kent. He is at once passionate but wholesome rather than suave, with a humanity that just makes him seem braver. Hoult delights in Lex’s arrogance but still finds a source of deep pain in the character, and Brosnahan is deft with all aspects of Lois.

There are plenty of characters from other DC titles in large and small roles here, plus (shown in the trailers, thus not a spoiler) Superdog Krypto. To make a slight complaint, the dog is often played by CGI rather than a flesh-and-blood canine. This is undoubtedly for reasons of safety and to keep a real dog from fear and discomfort, and certainly special effects are preferable to distressing an animal. However, there’s a bit of an uncanny valley issue with Krypto’s eyes on occasion.

Among the rest of the cast, Edi Gathegi impresses as a perpetually annoyed but powerful hero, and Nathan Fillion ably makes his preening character smarmy yet eventually cool. Anthony Carrigan is touching, and Alan Tudyk is an excellent choice a character who imagines he’s less emotional than he is.

Skylar Gisondo gets to bring out both the determined and flummoxed sides of Jimmy Olsen, while Wendell Pierce is a much less blustery, more grounded Perry White than we usually see. Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell are perfect as, respectively, Pa and Ma Kent. Maria Gabriela de Faría is fully committed as a physically versatile Luthor ally.

Gunn regulars Sean Gunn, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, and Pom Klementieff also appear, along with at least one other whose real name would be a spoiler. Briefly, they’re all terrific.

This SUPERMAN is propulsive but thoughtful, often funny but not silly, eye-popping but personal. Most of all, it has the ethos of kindness that most viewers associate with Superman in the first place. It is engaging and ultimately pretty joyful.

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