Honest Thoughts: Superman (2025)
Alright, so having seen it twice the past few weeks; first with friends on its release day and a second time a week later, I can just say this is already my movie of the year.
This whole film is just a love letter to Superman and the comics in general in terms of story and tone, giving great time not just to Clark, but to the side-casts too. If you literally adapt this into a multi-issue comic, it will still have the same tone throughout and having some great shots that can be seen as comic panels.
David Corenswet did an excellent job as Clark showing the hopeful and caring nature of him that just shows why he's a great hero. Not because of the powers, but his humanity and caring about all life, from the kaiju attacking Metropolis to even a small squirrel about to be in the impact zone of said kaiju attack. Clark's whole journey throughout the film about him thinking he was sent here to do good thinking because his birth parents sent him to Earth and sent him the damaged message before Clark finding out about the true meaning behind it and deciding that he's doing good because he knows it's right thanks to the Kents is some amazing stuff. His ending speech he gives to Luthor is honestly one of the best Superman moments in DC films imo.
Nicholas Hoult as Lex is an amazing performance and one of the best portrayals of Luthor, being up there with Brown's performance in the DCAU and Rosenbaum's in Smallville. Lex is literally the best villain for a story like this, where Clark is best of humanity while Lex is the worst of it: capitalistic, manipulating, envious, narcistic, and only out for himself and finding ways that only benefit him. Above all that, the sheer despise he has for Superman is hilarious to see. And seeing everything fall apart for him with his expression being a mix of sadness and anger is just perfect for a character for him. Can't wait to see what will happen with him next, especially as he's heading to Belle Reeve in the ending.
Massive shoutouts to Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific who, as other people put it, "someone who knows they're the smartest man in the room and hates it." A great performance that has people loving him especially in the fight sequence with Five Years Time. It's also great to see Gathegi get the respect he deserves in a superhero film after his performance as Darwin in X-Men: First Class.
Honestly, the whole cast is great from Lois being critical on Clark about what he's doing and the impact it's causing while still caring about him and its great to see her have a hand in taking down Lex, to Jimmy being a ladies-man who I didn't see coming and having some good moments. The entirety of The Justice Gang is great like Guy being a jerk who people love to hate Fillion did a great job there too and Hawkgirl just hating Guy and being a real one by dropping Ghurkos from the air. Metamorpho is also good here in the short time he's in the movie and I'm glad to see another lesser-known DC character make the spotlight.
Sidenote: please check out Al Ewing's six issue run on Metamorpho that came out last year and ended a couple of months ago, it's hilarious and is a tribute to the silver age if you enjoy stories in that era.
One last character I want to mention is Ultraman in how Lex just treats him, despite being Lex's biggest weapon against Supes, has Ultra just flick on light switches and holding donuts for him. It's just funny yet also sad at the same time. It will be interesting to see him becoming Bizarro in a future entry since Gunn is doing the clone origin on Bizarro, like in the post-Crisis and Superman: The Animated Series continuities.
Last thing I want to say about it is that its a miracle that a story like this being released at a time like this with Isr- I mean Boravia being led by Neta- I mean Ghurkos invading Pale- I mean Jarhanpur while being aided by a US billionaire and having someone representing the general public being against this invasion while said invasion supporter is the current president. Just goes to show you the importance of Superman in a time like this.
Gunn's first film for the DCU is a great start that is just a love letter to Superman and what he represents. If you haven't seen it already, please do so, you won't be disappointed. I mean, it has Krypto in it, that's already a massive draw!
