We went to the drive-in on a perfect summer night, which is always an experience in and of itself. They lean into the retro, the graphics pure 1957 and ambient music pre-1980. We watched kids clamber in the playland under the screen, and the sunset in the sky to our left, just before the projector started. Trailers included one for the 50th Anniversary return of Jaws to the big screen. I might have to see that.
We came, of course, for Superman (2025), another piece of the past fighting to remain part of the culture.
This latest attempt to put the Man of Steel onscreen and reboot the DC cinematic universe begins with a superhero, beaten in battle, falling to earth and crashing in the Antarctic snow.
An old friend will come to his rescue.
It's three years after his debut. Superman faces an international conflict,* a scandal amplified by online malfeasance, a crisis of identity, and life-threatening opposition from Lex Luthor, Luthor's allies in a hostile foreign nation, and a bizarre antihero with all of the Man of Steel's powers. Fortunately, he gets a little help from his friends, and, you know, he's Superman.
It's a highly entertaining movie-- but it could have been a lot better.
When this movie hits the mark, it really hits the mark. This is Superman in a way that other recent incarnations never have been. This incarnation features a nearly-perfect cast and an understanding of these characters. Superman (David Corenswet) is the world's most powerful boy scout. Lois Lane (the marvellous Rachel Brosnahan) is an intrepid reporter whose relationship with the hero feels plausible. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is the world's most evil techbro, a genius whose ego feels challenged by the existence of metahumans. He also considers Superman's ethics a weakness to be exploited.
The film addresses serious issues, but it remains, first and foremost, a comic book, with bright colours, over-the-top action, and a predominantly light tone. It's the default DC universe translated to the big screen in a way that even a mostly superior Superman, the 1978 film with Christopher Reeve, never tried to achieve, and the Zack Snyder fled from, into grim darkness. This film shows us a world where superheroes exist, otherworldly incursions should be expected, and the most powerful hero has a super-dog, Krypto.
Of course he does.
The other heroes play key roles. I will complain shortly about the film's clutter, but the nascent Justice League-- they cannot agree upon a name-- are engaging, entertaining, and hilarious. Nathan Fillion is spot-on as the Guy Gardner version of the Green Lantern, while Edi Gathegi's Mr. Terrific may be the best character in the film. Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl needs some work, but she does demonstrate clearly that not all superheroes share the same ethics and standards. I would see a movie just about these guys. It's like watching a group of overgrown kids trying to set up a secret club, except they actually have superhuman abilities.
Unfortunately, the film does not stop with them. Jimmy Olsen gets a plot that seems ludicrous even by this film's comic-book standards and, worse, it undercuts Lois's role. Metamorpho turns up and, while the depiction is good, it adds an unnecessary plot thread. Yes, it's affecting and hints at Superman's true power, but it gives Superman too little to do at that point in the movie. This confrontation with Luthor would work far better, in the context of the film, if Metamorpho had been removed and dropped into the forthcoming cinematic Gunniverse in some other film. The film definitely would have been improved overall with reduced clutter, fewer subplots, and more time to develop the relationships. Too much of the heavy lifting gets left to the actors.
While the movie does not quite live up to the trailer, it has a fresh, energetic approach and enough high notes to make it worth seeing. The mess becomes a problem at times, but this film comes the closest a movie ever has to the experience of finding an old comic when you were a kid about a character you knew, and then encountering guest appearances by characters you didn't know and references to a previous issue that you didn’t read, but you just kind of went on, eyes wide, like, "hey, this is cool!" The movie recreates that well enough, and it shows what the default DCU would look like. Whether that's the best choice for a movie, much less a cinematic universe, remains an open question, but this Superman gives us reasons to hope.
In the present era, that may be enough to ask from a night at the drive-in.
Written and directed by James Gunn
Cast:
David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor
María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer
CGI as Krypto
Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher
Dinesh Thyagarajan as Malik 'Mali' Ali
Wendell Pierce as Perry White
Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard
Neva Howell as Ma Kent
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent
Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant
Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen
Zlatko Buric as Vasil Ghurkos
Martin Harris as Boravian General
Rudy Quintanilla as Reggie
Bradley Cooper as Jor-El
Angela Sarafyan as Lara
Sydney Happersen as Giovannie Cruz
Bonnie Discepolo as Ms. Jessop
Terence Rosemore as Otis Berg
Natasha Halevi as Amanda Marie McCoy
Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.
James Hiroyuki Liao as General Mori
? as Ultraman /
The Justice... Uh... Gang....
Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mr. Terrific
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner / Green Lantern
Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl
Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason/Metamorpho
Superman Robots
Alan Tudyk
Grace Chan
Michael Rooker
Pom Klementieff
Mostly Amusing Cameos:
Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El
John Cena as Peacemaker
Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord
Note:
*Regarding online charges (good faith and otherwise. I'm looking at you, MAGA-media and the more fanatical Snyderbros) that the film is anti-Israeli/antisemitic, the foreign war that figures into the plot features (1) a long-standing DC fictional country that serves here as a generic stand-in for the kind of global chaos that would challenge the ethics of superheroes, if they existed, (2) an unprovoked invasion that far more closely resembles the Russia/Ukraine situation (and the aggressors are expressly coded as eastern-European) than anything unfolding in the Middle East, and (3) Spoiler-not-really-a-spoiler the involvement of a certain arch-enemy of Superman’s in the conflict.
Incidentally, the movie features a goofy but pointed jab at online toxic fandom.