The box office is blowing up, audiences are raving, and Superman looks like it’s going to be the mega-hit the DCU needs to kick off its new era under James Gunn.
After seeing the film yesterday, I’m fully on board.
I don’t know where it will stand overall in the pantheon of dozens and dozens of superhero movies over the years, but there is little question in my mind that this is the best dedicated Superman movie we’ve ever gotten, and David Corenswet, its relatively unknown lead, is the best Superman we’ve ever had, at least with Gunn’s script behind him.
I was too young for some Supermen and too old for others for them to shape my view of the character. My Superman was Tom Welling in Smallville and Clark’s myriad of animated series appearances, and that’s what I feel Corenswet brings to life here. It’s not just about the generalized concept of “hope.” It’s about the core of the character established over the years, beginning with Reeves. That was attempted to be replicated with Brandon Routh in his film. As I said, I loved the Smallville era (both Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult also said that the show shaped their time with their characters). Most recently, the unfortunately overlooked Tyler Hoechlin did an excellent job with Clark in Superman and Lois.
But Corenswet is the best, and this is the best Superman film. It is very tough to battle nostalgia if we’re talking about the Reeve films, particularly the first two. But the first one aired a decade before I was born, and I just connect with this latest one, fifty years later, on a higher level. Superman Returns was a decent stab at the character, but it missed the mark.
As for the all-consuming Henry Cavill debates and comparisons, I’m not anti-Cavill or Snyder in general. I think there is a time and place for a darker look at Superman, and I don’t begrudge the attempt. I like Man of Steel quite a bit, and Cavill is about as picture-perfect as you get in terms of the look of the hero. But both that film, and to a greater extent, Batman V Superman, failed the character and the actor, despite some cool moments and visuals. 2025’s Superman, new tone or not, is just a better film.
It’s a comic book; it’s the animated series brought to life. The “aw shucks” version of Superman here, but extremely emotionally charged at times, is a stellar rendition of the character. His dynamic with Lois has more chemistry than we’ve ever seen (much of that due to the also-excellent and perfectly cast Rachel Brosnahan), and his instantly harrowing rival with Lex is among the character’s best (much of that due to the also-excellent Nicholas Hoult).
This Superman is about saving, not destroying. One of my favorite moments of the film involves Clark desperately zooming around, attempting to prevent a monster from smashing into nearby buildings as the Justice Gang show little regard for such things. He’s saving little girls, dogs, squirrels, he even wants to save the monster. It’s a moment that “gets” Superman, and feels in sharp contrast to the blunt instrument of Cavill, most recently.
A hotly debated moment (spoilers) will be the extreme change of Kal-el’s parents revealing that they did in fact want him to conquer Earth and “breed” (ick) more Kryptonians there after their own planet died. It’s a very sharp change from almost all of the source material, but in this film, it paid off both in terms of a narrative turn that shaped the entire conflict and then a gratifying final moment where Clark embraces his “true” parents, the Kents, and realizes that he’s been shaped by both them and his own choices, as his father said. I’ll take some comic alterations to produce a better film if need be.
If the film has issues, I don’t think it’s with Clark. I don’t think the Daily Planet stuff was explored well enough. I thought Eve was so over the top it was a bit distracting, even if this is a comic brought to life. The Ultraman reveal felt like it both was and was not meant to be a secret, which created an awkward dynamic of whether we’re supposed to actually be surprised or not.
But the flaws are not enough for me to demote the movie below any of the other Superman films. Again, all Supermen owe a debt to Reeve. I do not hate Cavill’s version. But this? This was something special, and if it’s at all indicative of where Gunn’s DCU goes from here, we should all be very excited.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy
