'Superman' film review: Buoyant, exciting and clunky summer comic book romp
Hopeful, idealistic and entertaining, 'Superman' (in theaters everywhere July 11) soars into cinemas in an exciting, if cluttered, reboot of DC's movies.
In short: While Superman (David Corenswet) attempts to prevent a war, he must also deal with the fallout after his Kryptonian heritage is revealed to the world. Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion, and Isabela Merced also star.
As always, this is a spoiler-free review - so this review will not reveal any cameos or surprises. Just know that this 2025 iteration of 'Superman' is the first in a rebooted DC slate of movies, so it is disconnected from all previous DC movies. And in following with the Marvel Studios tradition of extra scenes, fans waiting around after the credits will be treated to two additional short scenes.
Writer-director James Gunn's script jumps right into a world full of superheroes, intergalactic monsters and where Superman is already known for his heroic feats. This mercifully saves everyone the ordeal of sitting through yet another rehash of Superman's origin story: in this movie, Superman exists and is already entrenched as an unassuming reporter at The Daily Planet.
Whereas Zack Snyder's 'The Man of Steel' was more akin to a (poorly executed) gritty angle on Superman, Gunn has taken a vibrant and heartfelt approach that has more in common with brightly colored, lightweight and fun comic books than some monochromatic, weighty and gritty graphic novel. Simply put: it's fun. It's a romp of a summer blockbuster, packed with great action sequences and compelling characters. It's escapist without sacrificing heart. It's science fiction with moments that feel eerily prescient and timely.
David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult are pretty great as the iconic trio of Superman, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor.
The fact that Corenswet's Superman can unironically drop 'gosh' and 'golly' without immediately diving into pure cringe speaks to how genuine and uncorrupted this version of Superman is realized. Previous Superman movies focused more on the idea of Superman, but this movie allowed Corenswet's performance to focus more on Kal-El's deeply ingrained humanity. 'Superman Returns' and 'Man of Steel' framed the iconic hero as a nigh all-powerful being on the level of a savior - Corenswet's Clark Kent is just a humble man raised to do the right thing and trying to do the right thing.
Brosnahan isn't just some damsel in distress or sidekick here - if anything, this version of Lois Lane is first and foremost a plucky and whip-smart reporter, and Superman's love interest second. She gets to revel in Lane's feisty banter and sharp intelligence. While the best on-screen iteration of Lex Luthor remains the version from 'Superman: The Animated Series' - Hoult's take on Superman's archnemesis taps into that version's pure xenophobia and cold-blooded assuredness.
Although the individual parts of 'Superman' are pretty great - the overall final product is cluttered and messy. And honestly, if this plot was as cleanly executed as Gunn's clarity of tone and tenor, then Gunn's 'Superman' would rank among the very best comic book flicks. But every film is the totality of storytelling - and 'Superman' is a clunky and uneven story.
The film's most glaring issue is simply that the stakes and actual plot is unclear - until almost the very end of the movie's approximately two-hour runtime. That means, for most of the runtime, the audience has no clear idea of where the story is going. This is because 'why' the story is happening at all is the script's big secret until the final scenes. And aside from Superman himself, it’s not even clear exactly how or what is danger here. Not know who is in danger and from what is a major problem for any movie - but ‘Superman’ is content just broadly hinting that Luthor is bad and anyone and everything is at risk from everything from kidnapping and murder of individuals, all the way to city-wide destruction.
'Superman' is kept afloat by the basic awareness that even casual movie fans know that "Lex Luthor is a bad guy." And he does bad things. If anything, this movie underplays the fact that Lex Luthor isn't just Superman's enemy - he's committing war crimes, felonies against normal citizens and even engages in atrocities against animals. But Luthor's actions coast on casual fans knowing "Luthor bad" - and this movie does almost nothing to justify his actions. And what's worse: Gunn's script backs into Luthor's actions. The movie uses Luthor's complex machinations and schemes first and foremost ... then eventually gets around to his internalized motivations in the film's closing moments. Had his actions been more informed by his motivations, then Luthor's inherent menace and threat would have made his actions/plot choices all the more villainous.
This is not an isolated case - Gunn's script is needlessly messy. For example, it's one thing for any 'Superman' story to fill The Daily Planet newsroom with stalwarts like Lois, editor Perry White and boyish photojournalist Jimmy Olsen. And to be fair, each of them a small moment to affect the plot (although arguably White's contribution is superfluous and Olsen's bit could have been worked into Lane's reporting) ... but the script just throws in the Daily Planet's gossip columnist, sports reporter and some other news reporter ... for no particular reason. The bro-tastic sports jock reporter might have as much screentime and dialogue - if not more - than Jonathan Kent ... Clark Kent's father ... who fundamentally has a more critical role in Clark's existential conflict about his identity.
Superman has several Kryptonian robots in his Fortress of Solitude when one would have sufficed. The billionaire backed 'Justice Gang' exists merely to depict how normalized superpowered heroes are in this world - and not enough of an effort is made to contrast the Gang's isolationist policy of non-intervention differs from Superman's "act first, ask permission later" policy when it comes to saving lives. Eve Teschmacher and Otis - characters whose only real place in the Superman lore is almost exclusively limited to previous film adaptations - are shoehorned as weak homages to previous movies or equally thin characters who nudge the plot forward.
Final verdict: Love the tone and love the performances in James Gunn's 'Superman' - but the story's poor organization and execution are a form of Kryptonite, weaking an otherwise fun and exciting comic book flick.
Score: 3/5
'Superman' opens in theaters nationwide July 11. The action adventure has a runtime of 129 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence, action and language.
