Movie Review – Superman
Director: James Gunn
Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Isabela Merced
Year: 2025
James Gunn played it safe. That’s. Not what I expected from James Gunn.
Superman is the launch of DC’s new cinematic universe. After years of the Snyderverse and its aftermath, Gunn gets to start fresh. Clean slate. New cast. New continuity. He could have done anything with that freedom.
What he did was make a very competent, very safe, very adequate Superman movie.
David Corenswet is good as Clark. He’s got the physicality — the guy looks like he was drawn by Curt Swan — and he sells the earnestness. When Superman says he believes in humanity you believe that HE believes it. That’s important. That’s harder than it looks.
Rachel Brosnahan is a solid Lois Lane. Sharp, determined, funny. She and Corenswet have chemistry. Their scenes together work.
Nicholas Hoult plays Lex Luthor as a tech billionaire type which is the obvious modern update and Hoult commits to it. He’s clearly having fun being evil. Some scenery gets chewed. It’s fine.
The action is fine. The plot is fine. The humor lands more often than it doesn’t. There’s a third-act fight in Metropolis that’s impressively staged.
Everything is fine.
And that’s my problem. After the operatic excess of Zack Snyder’s version, after years of DC being a mess, I expected Gunn to come in with a VISION. A take. Something that would make people argue about what Superman means in 2025. Instead we got a competent crowd-pleaser that makes no enemies and takes no risks.
The movie is scared to be weird. Gunn’s Guardians movies were weird. The Suicide Squad was weird. Even Peacemaker had an edge. This Superman is smooth and frictionless. It’s designed to not alienate anyone and in achieving that goal it fails to truly excite anyone.
The Superman versus Braniac stuff is. Look. It’s superhero action. Punching. Flying. Laser eyes. We’ve seen it before. The movie doesn’t find new ways to show us what Superman can do. It just shows us competent versions of things we’ve already seen.
There’s a moment near the end — Superman giving a speech about hope — that should be the emotional peak. Corenswet delivers it well. The music swells. It’s. Fine. It’s a fine moment. But I didn’t tear up. I didn’t feel anything move in my chest. I just watched it and appreciated the craft.
Maybe that’s enough. Maybe after years of chaos DC just needs competence. A foundation to build on. A Superman people can agree on.
But I miss the ambition. Even when Snyder failed — and he failed a lot — he was reaching for something. Gunn isn’t reaching. He’s holding steady.
My rating: ★★★☆☆
