Superman 2025 - A Super Cast Saves the Day

Just saw the new 2025 Superman movie and, though I probably need to see it at least once more to form a proper analysis and review…here’s my quick take of a film I hoped would finally return the world’s first superhero to his former prominence and glory.

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So, it was good. Better than I dared expect, actually. That’s the good news.

But it’s also a weird film that’s tasked with an almost impossible burden, being the creaking trunk straining beneath a sweeping canopy of branches that will be director James Gunn’s great reset of the DC Universe. It’s a feat even a God-like alien would find intimidating.

But Superman tries. And, amazingly, mostly succeeds despite having to multitask multiple plot threads, characters, dangers, and the undergirding lore and mythology that will serve DC/Warner Bros.’s future films. There’s the eponymous titan himself, of course—the do-gooder Superman who might have finally met his match against Lex Luthor’s new band of superpowered cronies. There’s also Krypto the Superdog. Lois Lane. Jimmy Olsen. Ma and Pa Kent. Mr. Terrific, Guy Gardner, and Hawkgirl of the so-called Justice Gang. Metamorpho (called Element Man here), a villain/victim forced to do Luthor’s bidding. And those are just the primary participants.

The movie, in short, could (should?) have been longer to better buoy its many storytelling responsibilities. As it stands, the film’s titular star hovers just shy of being swallowed by the black hole of his supporting cast. And Superman, by all accounts, deserves better. Much better.

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And some have claimed just that: Superman, less than providing the story’s chief point of focus, is more the lead of an ensemble cast. He's still the shiniest ball. Still the brightest torch. But still just another blade lost amidst another dozen spinning swords.

Fortunately, such gripes are at least somewhat overblown; I was pleasantly surprised that Supes still retains the vast majority of the film’s screen time. If anything, it’s the secondary stars that feel short shrifted. Jimmy Olsen, for instance, is barely there…until he suddenly is in the second hour, while Perry White and much of the Daily Planet staff are largely absent until the finale.

Some have also criticized the movie for being too silly, too jocular, too James Gunn—essentially Guardians of the Galaxy converted into a Superman tale. But this, too, I found unconvincing. Sure, there’s humor…anything would seem funnier next to Zack Snyder’s dour Man of Steel from 2013. But more than being “silly,” it’s really just being “silver.” Silver, as in, being akin to the “Silver Age” of comics in which stories were allowed to be whimsical, flamboyant, and a little weird—happily free from the normal, physical constraints of the real world. Krypto, a nigh-invulnerable, high-flying dog, is indeed ridiculous…but in all the right ways. Superman was never about realism. It was about morality. Duty. Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

Which brings me to the one real complaint I do have.

Superman is supposed to be larger than life. And, above all else, he’s an American invention. An American hero. One can’t have Superman without America. It’s why, say, a Chinese Superman doesn’t make sense; he would be fundamentally different from his American counterpart. Why? Because Chinese values aren’t American values. And Superman was created to not just be the ideal man, but to represent the best of humanity…the physical manifestation of America itself. Because America’s love for freedom, for autonomy—its promises of equality and opportunity—constitutes the very code by which Superman acts. By which he lives. By which he chooses to save and fight and stand as that pillar of Heavenly light.

But James Gunn’s Superman diminishes the Myth somewhat, basically distilling Superman into being the quintessential nice guy who does his best, who tries to do right. And that’s fine—I’ll take this well-meaning if sometimes floundering Superman over the darker opposite we’ve been given before—but it still leaves me yearning for the Superman I know from the old comics I used to read, from the Christopher Reeves movies I once watched, from my own dreams of what the perfect “Superman” would really be.

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Nonetheless, go see Gunn’s Superman. It’s still the best cinematic take on the character we’ve gotten in decades. And the movie, if not perfect, at least preserves Superman’s good nature. Leaves him personable and likable. And keeps him poised for fulfilling that unspoken promise…that, if not now, someday he’ll master the ideal we all wish to achieve.

To be selfless. To be honorable. To sacrifice--to even die--for friend and stranger alike.--D

Here, Supes takes aim at a giant Kaiju stomping the city. Although the creature's Luthor's "pet," its true origin is never really explained...a tendency the movie unapologetically rolls with.

Superman isn't flying solo in this universe. Mr. Terrific (top) and Guy Gardner (bottom) are just a couple of the many superpowered "metahumans" co-existing in this outlandish world.

The cast is excellent, with a sharp-tongued Lois and a zealous dog that steals the show. Clark also has a nice moment with good ol' (but surprisingly hickish) Pa Kent.

One complaint: Once a certain revelation is made, the public turns on Superman a little too quick, a little too vehemently, a little too at once.

Which Superman is best? They're all different, with some more capable, powerful, and/or manly than others. The Animated Series, however, still has the best Lois. (Incidentally, Superman 2025 lacks a good scene in which Supes catches/rescues Lois Lane. Is a man saving his lady now considered too anti-progressive?)