So I saw the new Superman film, and I ended up enjoying it more than I expected. Not only did James Gunn successfully do a return to form for the titular character, but the rest of the cast was solid in their own right, the vibes felt perfectly comic-booky, and most surprising of all Nicholas Hoult finally gave audiences the Live-Action Lex Luthor performance. What do I mean by that? I mean that Hoult is not only the most comic accurate iteration of the character in Live-Action, but his performance was goddamn phenomenal.
Luthor is pretty much the villain of the film, being responsible for the controversy surrounding the Man of Steel along with the various foes that try to kill him (The Kaiju, Engineer, and Ultraman in particular). His plan in this film is pretty much a Hackman-esque scheme, reaping the spoils of a foreign war so he can own some land, but it's not his ultimate goal. His goal is pretty much "Kill Superman" and the reasoning behind that is boiled down to xenophobia and envy. Despite the fact that it's never outright said, it's pretty fcking obvious that Lex hates Superman for not only being this all-powerful alien that is not only beholden to no government, but for also helping others without some type of catch. We never get a deeper dive into the reasoning behind his hatred, but this factor of that reasoning is undeniable, believable, and it is in line with what usually contributes to Luthor's hatred for the Kryptonian.
Not only that, but Lex in this film is so goddamn loathsome. Not only did he engineer a smear campaign against Superman, but he also has a whole prison pocket dimension, harmed Krypto, sent a Kaiju out to distract Superman, killed an innocent man while interrogating Superman, started a foreign war all for the purpose of land development (and drawing out Superman), created Ultraman who was basically a Proto-Bizarro, opened a black hole under metropolis, and he just did a lot of petty shit in addition to all of that. He's easily the most active Luthor out of all the Superman films, which honestly makes him pretty easy to hate even which says a lot. If anything it makes the moment where shit goes wrong for him feel so satisfying.
Limited or not, Nicholas Hoult was a goddamn amazing Lex Luthor and I hope that we see more of him in Gunn's DCU. His only real issue is being a much grander villain in a very limited role, yet at the same time this is still the most comic accurate iteration of the character in Live-Action. In short, this man is definitely in the Top 3 Lex Luthor Adaptations of All-Time.
