Superman

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: B+

            Superman is one of my most anticipated movies of the year because I grew up reading Superman comics and, for the love of God, I just wanted to see a good Superman movie released during my lifetime. I don’t want a dark, gritty Superman. I want the Superman that I grew up reading about: a lighthearted symbol of hope and eternal optimism.  Superman Returns was fine, not great, but I wanted something that approached the original Superman and Superman II that I watched on television a thousand times as a kid. It is a difficult character to do nowadays, when everything is supposed to be so dark and cynical and everyone sees political motivations in everything, and I wasn’t sure if this character could ever work again for modern audiences. But then James Gunn was hired to direct and I’m happy to report that, for the most part, Gunn has delivered. Superman is the best and most Superman-y movie since Superman II.

            In a sense, this is a difficult movie to review because it has the pace of a runaway freight train. This isn’t an origin story and thank God for that. We don’t ever need to see the origin of Superman, Batman or Spiderman ever again (if you are the one person on Earth that doesn’t know the origins of those characters, then I apologize). Superman opens with some text explaining that super-powered people have existed for centuries, Superman appeared three years ago and he lost a fight for the first time three minutes ago. That’s it. We are off to the races. There is no origin for Superman. Clark and Lois are already dating. Lois knows that Clark is Superman. We are passed all that shit. It is just fucking go.

            And that approach and speed will likely be a big dividing point for people in their response to this movie. As someone that grew up reading the comic books, I was completely on board with it. Many critics have said this, but this may be the most comic book-y comic book movie ever made. It feels like picking up a random issue of Superman or Action Comics where there is already a story in progress and you are just along for the ride and have to fill in the blanks for the issues that you missed. That doesn’t seem like a great approach for a film, but I do appreciate that it does recreate that experience of picking up a comic.

            The plot is actually pretty simple, it is just done in a fairly disjointed way and at a breakneck speed. Lex Luthor, as always, is jealous of Superman and wants to take him down. To do this, he creates a series of challenges for him and recruits a bunch of enemies for him to fight, from a giant monster to a clone to a disaster destroying Metropolis. There is a lot of shit going on in this movie, but that is basically the plot.

            While the plot is simple when you break it down, there are a lot of characters in this. Like a lot of characters. Let’s start with the titular character, David Corenswet as Superman. I thought that he was fantastic. There hasn’t been a bad big screen Superman (just bad scripts) and Corenswet continues that tradition. He brings back the “aw shucks” boy scout style of Christopher Reeve while still being imposing. He doesn’t get much screen time as Clark Kent, but those scenes are fantastic. For a generally lighthearted movie, he does convey a sense of moral quandary. He is convinced that what he is doing is right, but he has just enough doubt imbued in him by everyone else that there is a sense of struggle and soul searching. Christopher Reeve will probably always be my favorite Superman (be it because of nostalgia or quality or most likely a combination of both), but I loved what Corenswet did here and I look forward to seeing him in the role again.

            When we do get Clark Kent, that is when Lois Lane really shines and Rachel Brosnahan knocks it out of the freaking park. As with Superman, we have gotten some great Lois Lanes over the years, but Brosnahan is immediately my favorite and that is saying a lot. Warner Bros. ultimately cast the two leads by having the three finalists for Superman and Lois read scenes together and then picked the pair with the best chemistry and, goddamn, was that a good idea. These two are great together. Their chemistry and bickering as a couple are spot-on and the interview scene early in the movie is probably the best Lois-Clark moment in a movie since the first movie (and it might surpass anything in that). As with Corenswet, I want to see Brosnahan in this role for years. Her supporting characters at the Daily Planet (including Jimmy Olsen and Perry White) are also great in their limited screentime. They legitimately feel like a group of co-workers and I wanted to see more of them working together on a story. And we get Jimmy Olsen as an actual character, not a random person that gets shot in the head. So that’s a nice change from the prior series of movies.

            Nicholas Hoult is also great as Lex Luthor, but he didn’t quite nail it as much as Superman and Lois for me. While he is certainly more Luthor-like than some other, um, recent performances, I would still like him to be more stoic and continually menacing; he is a bit more petulant than I would like. That being said, he is responsible for the couple of jarring tonal shifts in the film. One moment, it is a fun romp. The next moment, Lex is executing someone. That’s Luthor for you. But I think that Hoult was a good choice, I just want him to become a bit more of the calm genius in the future.

            The other heroes are also well done and work within the narrative since the movie establishes that superheroes are not a new thing in this world. The movie also wisely chooses supporting heroes (Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific and Metamorpho) that aren’t exactly A-listers that will distract from Superman. The standouts are Guy Gardner and Mr. Terrific (who gets one of the best action sequences in the movie), who are both very much like their comic book source material and could be fun characters going forward.

            In the negative column, this movie really does throw a lot of shit at you. It is paced like a comic book, drawing inspiration from stuff going back to the 1950s, and it could use some time to breathe. The plot is sparce, but you almost don’t realize it because of the sheer goddamn speed of the thing. I would have liked some more quiet moments for the characters to get a deeper understanding of these people and their dynamic. The interview scene with Lois and Clark is one of the best scenes in the movie and, amidst all of the giant monsters and chaos, the movie would have benefitted from a few more moments like that. I want a longer conversation between Superman and Luthor. I want to know more about the relationship between Superman and the other heroes. I want to see more of Lois and Jimmy. I also don’t want a 3-hour movie, though, so hopefully these things will be expanded upon in future films.

            It is a cliché’ to say a movie is like a roller coaster ride, but, damn, Superman is like one of those magnetically-launched roller coasters. You don’t even go up a hill, you just sit there and then you are suddenly going 120 mph.. I would like to see more character development and quiet moments in future movies, but this is the closest that a movie has ever come to creating the experience of picking up a random issue of a comic. I was on board with it, as was the little boy (probably around 6 years old) sitting next to me in the theater that was jumping up and clapping with a big smile on his face. Good for you, kid. Your joy brought me joy. Superman isn’t supposed to be sad and grey. He is supposed to be a beacon that brings a smile to a kid’s face. This movie does that and I aint angry about it.

Image by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_(2025_film)#/media/File:Superman_(2025_film)_poster.jpg