Superman (2025)

Superman 2025 is the long-awaited debut film of the DC superheroes cinematic universe, helmed by James Gunn who has the heavy responsibility of creating a new superhero franchise that seeks to rival Marvel Studios. In many ways, this movie served as a major report card for the franchise after many months of questions from fans about its future success, projects and direction. More importantly, it will not avoid the direct comparisons with the previous Superman that used to be embodied by Henry Cavill, where some people may either find easy or difficult to move on from. But make no mistake, Superman 2025 is a start of a new era. It brings a new approach to storytelling and character visualization, as well as bold moves to incorporate many different heroes into the story without delay.

               I am still a huge fan of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013). I really liked Henry Cavill as superman, coupled with Hans Zimmer’s epic soundtracks that never fails to bring any motion picture to peak life. I also liked how it was serious and brutal, unlike other modern superhero movies that tend to be goofier or without stakes. After I watched Superman 2025, I can definitively say that this is indeed a very different approach (and perhaps much needed at that) to the saturated superhero genre. I do feel this movie was very true to its source material because the color palette is diverse, the costumes look comic book-y, and all sorts of settings and references like Fortress of Solitude, Krypto, Hall of Justice that are accurately depicted to the tee. These kinds of features are very hard to come by, especially when movies nowadays are instead trying to ground fantasy to realism. Most importantly, it is also a fun movie. James Gunn has an excellent track record of making fun movies due to his overall hip hop style, bold colors, incorporation of 80s rock, and striking a fine balance between funny and seriousness. And his approach is evident in this Superman movie as well, which was once again executed very well.

               Despite these points, I have a few minor gripes about this movie. First, I don’t think Superman’s origin story should have been left out. Though I understand this was purposeful on James Gunn’s part because he feels it’s all too familiar with the general audience already, I felt I did not have the chance to watch this Superman’s upbringing specifically. Yes I know he is an alien orphan from Krypton. Yes I know he was raised by human parents in a distant farm. But how did these experiences shape the ideals and actions of the Superman I was watching on the screen? I thought it was maybe a mistake to omit some of these parts because I left the theater without a true connection to David Corenswet’s embodiment of Superman. He was cool and all, but I can’t say I am captivated by his character and looking forward to seeing him in the next movie. Secondly, Superman 2025 was clearly made to cater towards kids, who the vast majority I truly doubt knows Superman’s backstory. Yet, the choice to omit the backstory from the movie is clearly made with adults in mind. So it made me confused at times because I am watching this very childlike movie but at the same time I am supposed to know backstory information that I may only know as an adult. Thirdly, I found this version of Superman erring on the side of silly and childish. I am more used to the suave, cool, and slightly more stoic image of Superman that I have maintained in my mind for many years, which come from many animated series like Justice League, as well as Man of Steel (2013), Superman Returns (2006) and some of Christopher Reeve’s Superman (1978). In this movie, Superman comes off more callow with emotional outbursts and goofier gags with Krypto. He doesn’t seem to have his cool rhythm which again, may be intentional in order to set up his future growth into the steadfast hero I am more used to. As far as this version goes, however, he certainly looks the part but the energy wasn’t consistently there for me.

Overall, Superman (2025) did a solid job as its first entry to the new DC Cinematic Universe. It ticked every box of a classic comic book movie, but the conflicting tones and new take on the character slightly drags it down to a movie that neither disappointed nor impressed me. Can it be both childish and catered towards adults? Absolutely. But I personally just much preferred the approach of Man of Steel (2013), where it was a complete Superman story from his birth and had a consistent tone of grittiness and epic action. Despite that, I would certainly rewatch this for Nicholas Hoult's exellent performance as Lex Luthor and admiring the color palette of this comic book world. Plus, I have always liked James Gunn’s directorial approach and I believe he knows what he is doing to build a great franchise. Though I am looking forward to what this can lead to, I am more tempted to let a movie be a movie for the day. Let’s not worry about how a 10 year franchise will shape up. Let’s not get too critical about what may happen in the future based on a present work.