A thread to discuss the movie!
Here’s a review from Deadline:
Superman (2025 movie) – SPOILERS INSIDE!!!
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I’m avoiding spoilers so I’ve only glanced at some reactions and reviews. It all seems to be quite positive so far which is good. Looking forward to seeing it on Friday.
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Yes, the reviews look mostly very positive.
They said the tracking for this was for a $130 million domestic weekend opening (although Warner Bros. and DC claim $100 Million), but now Forbes has added this:
(Update: projections have now risen to $200 million for opening weekend).
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Just watched it. Probably my favourite superhero movie in at least a decade.
I’m gonna have to see this one in cinemas again.
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When writing about the movie on a swedish board, it suddenly came to me that Superman does NOT change during as part of the story. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Every scriptwriter in Hollywood have read the same manual for how to write a good script, and part of that is that the hero has to change to overcome the obstacles. In the old days, this was not the case. James Bond never changed in any of the movied (before he was played by Daniel Craig), and of course, in the comic books, Superman is the same at the start and the end of each story.
This Superman did not change. That’s how an iconic hero should be handled. He overcomes the obstacles by being himself, not by changing!
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When writing about the movie on a swedish board, it suddenly came to me that Superman does NOT change during as part of the story. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Every scriptwriter in Hollywood have read the same manual for how to write a good script, and part of that is that the hero has to change to overcome the obstacles. In the old days, this was not the case. James Bond never changed in any of the movied (before he was played by Daniel Craig), and of course, in the comic books, Superman is the same at the start and the end of each story.
This Superman did not change. That’s how an iconic hero should be handled. He overcomes the obstacles by being himself, not by changing!
I disagree, and I think the scene at the end with the parents video shows this.
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When writing about the movie on a swedish board, it suddenly came to me that Superman does NOT change during as part of the story. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Every scriptwriter in Hollywood have read the same manual for how to write a good script, and part of that is that the hero has to change to overcome the obstacles. In the old days, this was not the case. James Bond never changed in any of the movied (before he was played by Daniel Craig), and of course, in the comic books, Superman is the same at the start and the end of each story.
This Superman did not change. That’s how an iconic hero should be handled. He overcomes the obstacles by being himself, not by changing!
Really, the change should occur in the origin story. A decision is made where they elevate themselves to the heroic level. That becomes the new baseline. Subsequent stories may have them question themselves or the world around them, but that new baseline holds true.
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When writing about the movie on a swedish board, it suddenly came to me that Superman does NOT change during as part of the story. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Every scriptwriter in Hollywood have read the same manual for how to write a good script, and part of that is that the hero has to change to overcome the obstacles. In the old days, this was not the case. James Bond never changed in any of the movied (before he was played by Daniel Craig), and of course, in the comic books, Superman is the same at the start and the end of each story.
This Superman did not change. That’s how an iconic hero should be handled. He overcomes the obstacles by being himself, not by changing!
I disagree, and I think the scene at the end with the parents video shows this.
That doesn’t mean he has changed. He is still the same man, fighting for the same ideals, but he does it because his Earth parents taught him to do it, not because his Krypton parents told him to do it. (Like Todd said — he questions himself, but stays true.)
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This really didn’t work for me unfortunately.
It feels like a film only Gunn could make – in the sense that if anyone else turned in a movie like this that was so fundamentally lacking in story essentials (like plot, character, or a point) then it wouldn’t even make it to cinemas in this form and would have to be massively reworked.
What it felt most like is a sketch show, a series of moments that don’t come together to really amount to anything at all. It’s as though Gunn had about seven different possible concepts for what his Superman movie could be, and instead of picking one he decided to make them all at once. So it ends up a total jumble of ideas, lots of which rub up quite awkwardly against each other.
There are a couple of moments of humour that work – the late gag between Metamorpho and Guy got a big laugh with my audience – but for the most part the humour fell very flat and my (full house) cinema was almost entirely silent throughout.
And betting so much on the charm of a slightly wonky CGI dog was a bad decision, I think. Depite trying so very hard, constantly, throughout the movie, they just couldn’t convince me to invest in Krypto.
I felt similarly about Mr Terrific. It was like somebody typed “breakout supporting character” into a generative AI. All the elements were there, but the execution was totally soulless and free of energy or personality. And his big fight scene felt was almost like a parody of Gunn’s superhero movies, and felt like it went on forever.
There were lots of other smaller choices that didn’t work for me, too. Characterising Jonathan and Martha Kent as such yokels felt really off and kind of insulting. And having so many supporting female characters be ditzy-but-attractive airheads felt really weird – the whole Jimmy Olsen subplot was a total clanger that again didn’t land like they wanted it to.
Also, why cast Wendell Pierce as Perry and then waste him like this? Baffling.
A couple of positives: I thought Lois was perfectly cast, maybe the best version on screen since Kidder. She was excellent and frankly deserved a better movie than this. That early scene in the apartment where she interviews Superman was a standout moment for the movie. As things went on I found myself wanting to go back to watching that film instead.
Similarly, Hoult as Luthor was really good and gave it his all. It felt very fitting to have this take on him be a thin-skinned egotistical psychopath who seeks to align himself with governments and control the world through social media, and who thinks he can do anything he likes just because he’s unspeakably rich. Thank god there’s nobody like that in the real world.
I also enjoyed the Peacemaker cameo, which got the biggest reaction of the night with my audience.
Also, I actually ended up quite liking the twist with Superman’s birth parents – not initially, but once I thought about it. It creates a nice conflict that forces Superman to choose his own values in a way that ends up reinforcing his connection to his adoptive home of Earth rather than his birthplace of Krypton, which I thought added a nice, thoughtful extra dimension to the “immigrant story” take on Superman. Again, I wish that had been more fleshed out as an idea rather than just feeling like one more tossed-off piece of many.
I also quite liked that the movie presented a very colourful, populated cartoon universe that wasn’t afraid to toss in weird comics concepts like fifth-dimensional imps and giant monsters and Superman robots. Skipping the origin is fine, having other heroes around is fine, I just wish that it was all supported by characterisation that you could really get your teeth into – because when it came to supporting heroes like the Justice Gang, there just wasn’t anything to get hold of in terms of personalities there. It felt like this new DCU had suddenly skipped to the 17th movie rather than the first, and was having all these characters just turn up for the sake of it, rather than because the story had anything interesting to say about them.
As for Corenswet, he wasn’t terrible but wasn’t outstandingly great either, he was just a guy in a Superman suit who mostly looked the part. I think the script served him poorly by having so little Clark Kent in it – he’s almost always in his Superman persona – and I wish I could have seen him have more of an opportunity to actually show us his grounded humanity, rather than just telling us he liked punk rock, or whatever all that was about.
But overall, I thought it was a real mess of a movie that had fundamental problems and was on a par with previous flops like The Flash – so I confess I’m finding myself baffled by so much positivity around the movie.
I think people really wanted Gunn to kick off this new DCU with a bang, and there’s been an insane around of hype around it, so I think box office success is guaranteed.
But for me this was a real dud, and under any other filmmaker I think the reaction would be quite different. I feel like Gunn has been dining out off the back of Guardians 1 for years now, and there’s still a lot of goodwill there, but it’ll be interesting to see how this movie is remembered once the dust settles and we have a bit more distance from it.
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Just seen it. I loved it! All 3 of us did (me and my brother took my mom).
Krypto was the star of the show for my mom, would’ve been a bit too much dizzying action for her without him.
She also commented “this is my kind of Superman” (wholesome).All the actors worked very well, especially Hoult as Luthor and Brosnahan’s Lois Lane.
Edi Cathegi could have almost stolen the show.
Corenswet looks and acts like a proper Superman, I wouldn’t have changed a thing about him.
Very well done casting.So yeah, I think a lot will like if they make their way to the theatre.
Pretty sure a good first weekend is guaranteed, and now they can truly commit to the new DCU.
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overall, I thought it was a real mess of a movie that had fundamental problems and was on a par with previous flops like The Flash…I
First off, love you man.
Second, yeah, like any movie or anything, there will be differences of opinion.
And thats okay.Third, the Flash comment.
No, this was so much better than that from any angle.
Flash didn’t have a vision, took leftover breakfast remnants from four plates, and figured if something tasted like bacon they would eat.
Nope.Gunn at least has a vision.
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Third, the Flash comment. No, this was so much better than that from any angle. Flash didn’t have a vision, took leftover breakfast remnants from four plates, and figured if something tasted like bacon they would eat. Nope. Gunn at least has a vision.
That’s fair, I see a slightly more coherent vision for who this version of Superman is.
But for me, what it has in common with the Flash is that both seem to be a jumble of ideas, with pacing and structure that’s all over the place, very little in the way of meaningful characterisation, videogame-CGI action sequences, and DC deep-cut references that have been included seemingly for their own sake rather than because they actually add anything to the story.
Superman is the better movie, but it’s close for me.
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What hurts is viewers who go back to the Reeves movies up to now have seen where some things were done better in the previous movies.
Lex has a team of tech experts in front of computer panels and drones fighting Kal-El using fight code numbers. He also has control of social media and algorithms for anti Superman propaganda and somewhere along the line he managed to clone Kal El.
And Superman is way too passive and reactionary to everything. Gets his ass kicked in the opening battle and does little. Lex always scheming is like Wile E Coyote to Road Runner, but Lex is smarter and one of these days… Do something Kal El! Counter scheme! You have the tech, you have your Fortress of Solitude to design things! He was too soft, a wuss…
The Justice gang only has 3 members? (Four by the end anyway).
Well DC owns Wildstorm, so the movie had the rights to use the Engineer like that. (I might never forgive DC for what they did to the Authority).Kal El is an immigrant, but Lex sees him as an alien an “it” and promotes that in algorithms. He benefits from a war and wants it to happen. Lex has his own storm troopers and a pocket universe that he uses as a prison to round up and “disappear” people he didn’t like, people who helped Kal El, people who disagreed with him, ex girlfriends, etc.
But give Mr. Terrific his flowers for helping Lois. 🤣
Next: The FF
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I generally liked it.
A few too many characters talking in pure exposition early on, far too little Perry White, a weirdly old looking Jimmy Olsen and a weird take on Supergirl all dragged it down a bit.
But I liked Corenswet as Superman, Brosnahan was as fantastic as I expected as Lois, the Justice Gang all worked better than I feared and Krypto was fun. Superman has never been more relatable as when having to deal with his unruly dog.
I’m ambivalent about how the Kents were portrayed, but I thought the twist on Jor-El and Lara was interesting. I wish it had more relevance towards the end, Superman having to publicly talk about and disavow it rather than it getting seemingly disregarded when Lex was exposed though.
edit: oh and did anyone else think Corenswet as unmaked Ultraman looked remarkably like Brendan Fraser?
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I generally liked it.
A few too many characters talking in pure exposition early on, far too little Perry White, a weirdly old looking Jimmy Olsen and a weird take on Supergirl all dragged it down a bit.
But I liked Corenswet as Superman, Brosnahan was as fantastic as I expected as Lois, the Justice Gang all worked better than I feared and Krypto was fun. Superman has never been more relatable as when having to deal with his unruly dog.
I’m ambivalent about how the Kents were portrayed, but I thought the twist on Jor-El and Lara was interesting. I wish it had more relevance towards the end, Superman having to publicly talk about and disavow it rather than it getting seemingly disregarded when Lex was exposed though.
edit: oh and did anyone else think Corenswet as unmaked Ultraman looked remarkably like Brendan Fraser?
Yes, he did look like a young Brendan Fraser!
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I’m ambivalent about how the Kents were portrayed, but I thought the twist on Jor-El and Lara was interesting. I wish it had more relevance towards the end,
I feel like it became more relevant again at the end, with the closing scene showing Superman watching footage of his Earth parents rather than his Kryptonian parents as he did at the start. It showed how he’d made an active choice in who to follow and who to look up to for moral guidance and was turning away from his birth parents and their intentions – part of the idea of him making his own way and choosing his own values in a new world, in a way that ties into the “immigrant story” take that Gunn was weaving in.
Yeah, that was good, I meant more with the general public. Even just something to suggest that everyone dismissed it as a lie put out by Lex along with all the other stuff.
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Yeah, that was good, I meant more with the general public. Even just something to suggest that everyone dismissed it as a lie put out by Lex along with all the other stuff.
Yeah that’s true. There’s lots of examples throughout the film where you don’t really get much sense of how the people on the ground understand what’s going on (like the giant black hole opening up). In a packed film maybe there just wasn’t room.
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It was fine. A definite 5 or 6 out of 10 film.
There were bits I liked. Bits that made me smile. And a moment or two that I loved.
There were equally bits I disliked (I could have done without every single one of the Justice Gang) and one bit I hated (and I’m really surprised that more people aren’t losing their shit over that – it was much worse than the neck snap in that movie, to my eyes).
But, Corenswet was pretty likeable in the role, and Krypto wasn’t as annoying as I expected.
Like I said, it was fine. I certainly wouldn’t be averse to seeing a sequel. But, it’s Superman. It should have been epic. It wasn’t.
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The whole harem thing. Unnecessary and incongruous with the rest of the film – “mum, what’s a harem?”. Gunn trying too hard to be edgelordy.
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Eh, I’m with Vik on this. The whole idea of Superman being sent to Earth by his parents to take loads of wives and father as many children as possible with them is icky at best for Superman, but especially for a take that’s meant to be brighter and more all-ages than the last version.
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Eh, I’m with Vik on this. The whole idea of Superman being sent to Earth by his parents to take loads of wives and father as many children as possible with them is icky at best for Superman, but especially for a take that’s meant to be brighter and more all-ages than the last version.
Ah, fair enough. I reckon even Snyder wouldn’t have tried that.
Snyder would have shown the harem in slow motion.
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Eh, I’m with Vik on this. The whole idea of Superman being sent to Earth by his parents to take loads of wives and father as many children as possible with them is icky at best for Superman, but especially for a take that’s meant to be brighter and more all-ages than the last version.
Ah, fair enough. I reckon even Snyder wouldn’t have tried that.
Snyder would have shown the harem in slow motion.
Whereas Gunn saved that for Cat Grant.
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“mum, what’s a harem?”
Why honey, it’s where a man has serveral girlfriends. Not the toughest get out.
It’s a pretty strange thing to get upset about. I thought you were talking about the clone murder.Well the clone’s clearly not dead. It will be back as Bizarro in a future instalment. There’s nothing to get upset about there.
The harem added nothing. Absolutely nothing. Sending Kal here to conquer the world was already sufficient to tarnish his reputation and that of his Kryptonian parents. Why go a step further to imply sexual assault and slavery in an ostensibly kids film? It was a pointless and gratuitous detail.
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Saw it a few weeks ago and have been pleased to see the positive reception generally – not because I need the superhero-industrial complex to thrive but because I think the world is better when Superman, a good Superman, is a prominent cultural figure.
I enjoyed it well enough (and Alaine really liked it, which is great) but it’s likely not something I’ll watch again and that’s fine. One thing I did appreciate about it (and I’m not sure it’s entirely intentional) is that it feels like an issue or three of a long comic run. It’s like picking up your first Superman comic and it happens to be issue #134 with a few storylines already in train and you just rolling with it.
Krypto I loved, I really did tear up a bit every time he featured, and the highlight was maybe the quiet scene of Lois and Supes chatting while the Justice Gang fight the imp in the sky in the background.
The acting was all good to great except for the Engineer – very VERY bad!
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Saw it yesterday, and pretty much loved it. I’m at the complete opposite end of Dave here, I thought it had a very clearly structured plot, well thought-out motifs and characterisation and it managed to pack in all of this world-building and character introduction without getting too clunky and with very good action scenes in a way that the movie never lost steam and just breezed by. The humour worked well for me, too, there were several moments that had me laughing out loud (e.g. the garage door and the Justice Gang fighting Mr. mxyzptlk (or something?) in the background while Supes and Lois have their conversation. Also particularly loved the Mr. Terrific fight scene, I could’ve watched that forever.
I also liked the basic conflicts for Superman that he struggles with, and the basic approach to the character, which is pretty much the opposite of Snyder: While Snyder’s movies emphasised Superman’s superiority and his alien-ness, this one emphasises his humanity.
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Also I thought it was too bloody, lots of people died in the movie.
Actually, I don’t think anyone did apart from the falafel guy and possibly Ultraman. The, uh, flying guys… what were they called? They were shown to be moving after Supes shot them out of the sky, and it was also shown that Metropolis was evacuated before the rift came. That leaves falafel guy, and his death was actually a very big deal. His death was probably too dark (also in the way it was staged) and that and the way some of the action was staged was probably a little too violent. I mean, Superman didn’t need to be PG-13, I think it could easily have been just PG with very little changes. If Gunn could’ve held back on those tiny things, he’d have had a wider audience and that would probably have been better, given that the general vibe of his Superman is actually very kid-friendly. I mean, stuff like him saving the girl, checking that everybody is okay in the building during a fight, saving the woman in the car and hyperbolically even saving the bloody squirrel, all that showed the brighter, more innocent Superman that Gunn wanted and that would probably have been clearer if Gunn had been able to check his b-movie violence sensibilities (which I love) a bit more.
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Another one that should probably have been handled differently in a Superman movie.
Nah, it’s a dictator. Death’s the best way to deal with them. And what, we’re afraid of offending dictators now?
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And what, we’re afraid of offending dictators now?
Martin, if you want to talk about how the US Senate and Congress are tiptoeing around Donald Trump, save it for the Politics & Current Affairs thread.
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Another one that should probably have been handled differently in a Superman movie.
Nah, it’s a dictator. Death’s the best way to deal with them. And what, we’re afraid of offending dictators now?
We didn’t throw Ratko Mladic from a tall building. I thought it was kind of out of whack for a Superman movie, especially one that was supposed to be more light hearted. More an Authority thing.
Odd choice. I still enjoyed the movie though.
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Nah, it’s a dictator. Death’s the best way to deal with them. And what, we’re afraid of offending dictators now?
For a Superman movie, I think it’d have been a stronger image to see Supes delivering the guy to The Hague for trial. It’d also have been a better ending for that whole arc, given the interview at the start of the movie and everything – having Hawkgirl finish that line of conflict was kind of a cop-out. And dropping him to his death was more along the lines of Gunn’s Peacemaker sensibilities.
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I think it’d have been a stronger image to see Supes delivering the guy to The Hague for trial.
And then showing the US military unit stationed in the Hague to break anyone they don’t want to see justice doing their thing…
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I won’t complain when the Authority movie shows them blowing up and hacking into little pieces dictators, pedos and animal abusers.
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That’s the thing, isn’t it? The killing-the-dictator bit would’ve been fine in an Authority movie. Fits a Superman movie far less well.
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I watched Superman yesterday and I mostly enjoyed it. But there’s this legendarily bad movie called Samurai Cop, and one review of it described it as being made by aliens who had never seen a movie, but had one described to them. And there’s so many shots in this movie where I asked myself why James Gunn decided to point the camera there (or composite that CGI, you know what I mean). In ,any cases I get what they were going for, especially the focus on everyday people as Superman keeps them safe, but it’s strange angles, focusing specifically on pets, when he chooses to break away from the action, all those shots where the camera is spinning around. Just an odd-looking film.
But also a lot of fun. Superman, Lois, Luthor and the Justice Gang were all great, the rest of the cast got less to do but all did a good job, a lot of the action was fantastic. The last act was flabby as all hell and unfocused, the rift was mostly ignored while Superman and Mister Terrific fought Ultraman and The Engineer, with Luthor and his office/ship of cronies falling in and out of foous. dropping the rift and just having Superman having to return to Metropolis because Ultraman and the Engineer were threatening the city or something would have reduced the complexity
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