"Superman (2025)" Just What We Needed

    Yes, I did go impulsively watch Superman with my sister after seeing everyone talk about it online. And no, I don't regret it for one second. This movie has to juggle with being so many things at once, and it achieves at pretty much every one of those goals as well as you can in a two hour runtime, it's seriously impressive. Now, it's by no means perfect, but I think in this current state of superhero movies, it's exactly what the genre needed, and I think James Gunn has set the DCU up perfectly to steal the crown from marvel. Basically any and all fears about the film have been assuaged for me, and I just can't understate how fantastic this film is, and how hard I'm rooting for it to succeed. 

    First of all, let's start with Big Blue himself, because I think this is the perfect characterization of Superman, or pretty close to what it could/should be. He's idealistic, he is the embodiment of hope. He's a little naive, but that's perfect. He's still young into this whole superhero career, but he's not constantly brooding, or feeling like some dark evil force in the universe. After all, why shouldn't the strongest superhero of all time feel like he can and should do as much as he can to save as many people as possible. When the people look up and see him he should inspire them, that's all his character is about. And I can't lie when those children put his symbol up in the sky, it sent chills down me, it was perfect. He's a bit sappy and a bit of a softy, but it's Superman, you don't want him to be hip or trendy. I was skeptical when they announced David Corenswet as Supes, but I think the way he was written was exactly how Superman to be.

    

    Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think this Supes is perfect, I do think there was some things that could be improved. Firstly, I do think that Corenswet has some times where he just sounds a little flat in terms of acting, just a little bit more emotion would have been nice in my opinion. Also, this film has a really hard time with this whole power scaling issue, which of course will always be precarious in a film involving Superman. I think Ultraman basically being just as strong as him is fine, especially considering his origins (spoilers), but when i left the theatre, other people who watched it with me complained that he wasn't powerful enough, and I agree. 

    Really, this film tries hard to make sure it doesn't feel too easy for Supes, and I think for the most part it does that well, it doesn't usually just go for brute strength beating him. Even still, you have to admit that his only real feat of strength is when he demolishes all of the "raptors?" who hardly show up, and it becomes a bit of a superspeed CGI fest. Perhaps instead just taking away the Raptors, and having it feel like Superman really beat the hell out of Ultraman would have been better in my opinion.

    Which of course brings me to Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, who honestly impressed me more than I thought. Of course, a lot of people liked Jesse Eisenberg's tech bro Lex from the previous regime, and I thought it had some compelling points too, but I'm glad they didn't try so hard to make sure people felt like he was some villain who had a point, or was tragic. Lex is all about ego, he thinks he can be better than Superman, he just hates him with a passion, and I'm glad they just leaned into it. I suppose you could call him one-dimensional in the sense that he never changes, but that's kind of the entire point, his issue is that he's unrelenting, he refuses to change or bend in the slightest. 

    On the whole "wokeness" or themes in the film. Yes, I think they're laid on pretty thick, like it feels so obviously a reference to Israel-Palestine, even if the filmmakers claim it isn't. Same could be said for the whole "illegal alien" thing too. Honestly though, I think it's what the superhero genre needed. I'm so tired of all the dark and edgy bullshit that came with the 2010's and superhero movies. Having a movie be this colourful, this hopeful, really reminds people that these characters are meant to be ideals. They're not supposed to be warped by these people trying to use them to push their own agenda's, they're ultimately trying to save as many people as possible, and bring about as much good as they can, even if they make mistakes along the way.

    Speaking of  trying to do as much as you can even if there's mistakes, this film also serves an important purpose as the introductory film to the DCU. While it isn't perfect at that, I think it does a good job of having enough references to satiate the hardcore comic fans, while also establishing that Superman isn't the first hero, and he certainly isn't the last, and that there's this whole world already out there just waiting to be explored. It's not super dark and grim, they talk about property damage but it isn't focused on that much, it's just what happens when you have so many villains running amok out there. I thought that they made Mr. Terrific feel really cool, especially as someone who isn't just there to be smart. I also was pleasantly surprised by both Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. I guess I shouldn't doubt the bowl cut. I mean I wish they were more fleshed out, but this combination of hero's surprisingly works.

    I must admit though that this film has to juggle doing a lot of things at once, and sometimes a part of me did wish they gave some more room to let things breathe. The slowest part of the film is by far the beginning, when Clark and Lois have that interview, because it's basically exposition hiding in plain sight to explain why Clark is where he is at the moment. Soon after that things escalate pretty quickly and never let up. The whole paid superhero vs freelance superhero thing isn't touched upon really, the whole conflict between the two countries is also not touched upon, the whole US imperialism aspect is also not touched upon, and he hardly spends time as Clark Kent after that. That's not to say I wish they touched upon all of these. But I would hardly say that the film really ties up loose ends, it just sort of leaves them there dangling, cleaned up enough that no one really complains. I wouldn't call it pacing issues exactly, just that it juggles with a lot, and it's a delicate balance that I could see other people really complaining about.

Final Score: 85/100

    But it's a superhero movie so whose complaining that hard? I can't lie this movie was so hype and it lived up to everything I wanted and more. I think it's that good. It might be my movie of the year but I think that says something about how often I watch modern movies (which is never). Either way I'm really excited to see where the DCU goes from here. What about something involving the flashes, like a Wally and Barry mentor-mentee thing. I wouldn't mind that to be honest, I think it would be good. Either way bravo James Gunn, it really felt like he nailed the Superman-Lex combo, and after that it was easy for everything else to fall in line.