Superman

Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Superman. Spoilers ahead! Fun Fact: In the comics, Ultraman is an evil alternate universe counterpart of Superman and the leader of the evil alternative justice league named the Crime Syndicate. This film came out in 2025 and stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult and was directed by James Gunn. So without further ado, let's get right into it.

Superman tells the story of Clark Kent, who is trying to live up to what his birth parents wanted from him, to help the humans of Earth, which he learns from a message that is damaged. Lex Luther complicates things by showing the full message and casting doubt on Superman. Superman must learn how his alien heritage and human upbringing coexist and how to show people he’s there to help.

Superman is an action-adventure superhero film. It has similar vibes to Blue Beetle, My Adventures with Superman, or Spider-Man.

When I heard James Gunn was going to be one of the CEO’s of DC, I was so excited, and then they announced he would direct the first film in their project, I was even more excited. James excels with these superhero projects by making the viewer feel a connection to the characters while also still enjoying the action. He also excites me because he uses characters that aren't frequently used in film or TV or talked about. In this film, we obviously get Superman, who isn't some random character, but then he throws in the Justice gang, which includes the Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, Mr Terrific, Michael Holt, and Hawkgirl, Kendra Saunders. Then you have people like the Engineer, Ultraman, Rick Flag, Supergirl, and Maxwell Lord. Some of these characters might be familiar to some, but many don't get their chance to truly shine, and I think that’s where James Gunn excels, giving these characters a chance to shine a little bit and let people fall in love with them.

The beginning of the film gives us like 3 sentences to set the stage. I like that the film did this, considering they didn't do a whole prologue on Krypton exploding, and instead throws you right into the story with some useful knowledge.

David Corenswet plays Clark Kent, aka Superman. Physically, he has the look, and when he was acting, he was able to show why Superman is so loved worldwide. I loved to see his passion for doing what he felt was the right thing and trying to help everyone that he could, as long as their intentions were good. The lack of cursing and the corniness of some of his statements really made it feel like he was actually from a small town in Kansas. I love how the film also showed that even with all his feats, he cannot be everywhere at once and sometimes needs help. When he calls on other heroes to help or when Lois is talking to them, they seem more like his friends than his coworkers, which I thought was cool to show because, at the end of the day, they are all trying to achieve the same goal and would cross paths.

Superman is known for being nearly invincible, and I loved that the film showed from the beginning that while he may not die from some of these things, it doesn't mean he can't get really hurt. In the beginning, he is fighting the hero of Boravia. He is almost taken out, which we later learn is because it’s a clone of him in an enhanced suit, then The Engineer almost suffocates him, which was great to show another way he could die. Then, obviously, we see the most notable way to kill Superman, kryptonite. I think it's great to show how he is nearly invincible, key word nearly, but also that he feels pain, so he may need time to recover. They even show what that recovery looks like in his fortress, where he has some cool robots that help him get better by focusing the sun on him to ensure he can heal quickly. I loved seeing him heal and how that, too, can be painful, but in the end, he comes out ready to head into battle again.

They nailed Superman's parents living in a rural area, and how different that is compared to the city. Life is just much slower than the city, and they show that his parents live a life that is more relaxed and not just go go go like the city, and treasure their time, but also it seems like they are a bit old-fashioned. It's evident when Clark calls them and his mom puts them on speaker phone and is yelling into the phone, and then when we go to the house, his room is like a time capsule, but also they just seem as low tech as possible. I felt this was a more realistic interpretation of his parents and growing up in the rural areas vs the city. Even though Clark listened to his birth parents' message over and over, the Kents were his parents who raised him and made him who he was. I love how his dad reminded him that he is not destined to be his parents and that children should chart thier own path which made Clark realize he was beating himself up too much about something he couldn’t control but also that his adoptive parents taught him how to value life and to be a good human so he didn’t need to worry about whatever people thought he would do because of his birth parents message because he was not a conqueror but instead a helper. I love how he started the movie healing while listening to his birth parents, and by the end, he switched to his adoptive parents.

I love Lex Luthor being very smart, but not physically strong, and obsessed with Superman. By the time of this film, we know he has examined Superman's fighting, knows the general location of his fortress, runs a company, has created a stable pocket universe, and has created a clone of Superman. They do a good job of showing how selfish he is by his willingness to risk lives to get some land, which honestly isn't very surprising for a billionaire, because I like to think that you don't make that much money by being morally sound. His battle with Superman is very much brute vs brains, and while Superman can be scary with his strength, Lex knows that he cares more about being a hero, so he won't actually hurt him, or it would prove that Lex has been right about him being the enemy. I thought this was a great portrayal of Lex to show how smart, influential, and crazy he is.

Lex has two super people he uses a lot, the Engineer and Ultraman. The Engineer has nano-bots infused with her, which she uses to create some cool weapons, and I loved her fighting style. She’s part of The Authority, which is a superhero team that will also get a film, so I’m excited to see her come back, and I can tell she will make the jump to being a hero. Then you have Ultraman, who, in the moment, I forgot, is the name of the evil alternate Superman, so his reveal was a huge shock to me. He doesn’t say anything but listens to Lex’s commands and almost took out Superman til Superman outsmarted him and sent him into a black hole. He is the reason why Lex could get into the Fortress of Solitude because he has Superman’s DNA. At first, I was like maybe he will create the Crime Syndicate in another universe that he gets to via the black hole, but what I think might happen, which would be exciting to see, is him somehow becoming Bizarro.

Also, it must be pointed out that there is a small cameo by Michael Rosebaum as one of Lex’s raptor guards. The name may sound familiar because he was Lex Luthor in the TV show Smallville.

Rachel Brosnahan plays Lois Lane, and this might be one of the best portrayals I have seen of the character. They nailed how even though she has no powers, she will run into harm's way for either a story or to figure out how to help Clark. I feel like in the past movies they showed her working at the Daily Planet to show she was a reporter, but every other scene showed her as Clark's love interest and didn't balance the two well. I think in this film, they balance it way better, showing how she and Clark are heading for the same goal, but he's doing it as Superman and she's doing it as reporter Lois Lane, and really brings down Lex. Rachel was perfect for this role because she was able to bring the intensity that Lois brings out in her reporting in order to get answers and work with people like Jimmy Olsen to get the answers they need, even if it's through unconventional methods. You could really tell she had a love for reporting, how she wanted to help, and why she is one of the best reporters.

Skyler Gisondo plays Jimmy Olsen, and every scene with him was funny because he was trying so hard to help Lois, but that meant communicating with an ex and agreeing to stuff he really didn't want to do. I loved how he helped Lois with her story, even though she didn't have much and even though he got what he believed was crap, Lois put together a puzzle that proved it wasn't. It was funny to also see Eve go completely crazy over Jimmy and how she was so scared to break it off with Lex because of his prison in the pocket universe, but she really did not like that man. I do wonder what will happen with them since she surely didn't forget everything he promised.

Anthony Carrigan portrays a character I never really expected we would get in live action, Metamorpho. He can transmute elements in his body, and originally, Lex is using him so that he can make kryptonite to weaken Superman, and he is only doing it because Lex is holding his son hostage. When Lex kills an innocent in front of him, he feels an immense amount of guilt and decides to help Superman, and this scene shows how powerful he could be and also how smart he is. His powers would be useless if he knew nothing or the bare minimum about elements, but he actually knows a lot, and we get to see that when he replicates what a sun would be like to get Superman back on his feet, so that he can save his son. It was cool to not only see him on screen but also see how his powers are very useful in a variety of situations, and in the end, he found some friends who will help him use them for good.

The Justice Gang, who are filled with familiar heroes, had a great intro, but at this stage are in the superhero game partly to help, but also partly to get paid, since they are bankrolled by Maxwell Lord, who is played by Sean Gunn. There is Guy Garner, who came up with the awful name and is a Green Lantern portrayed by Nathan Fillion. I actually knew who Guy was and wasn’t that excited because i think he’s one of the most annoying characters and is so full of himself and after the movie he’s still not one of my favorite character but the film did a good job of still making hm annoying but making it more comical and gave him some redeeming qualities. Then you have Kendra Saunders, played by Isabella Merced, who is the current reincarnation of Hawkgirl, who loves a fight but also seems to think the team is kind of dumb. I loved seeing her in battle, and she was so badass ass, and when she did her hawk screech, I was losing my mind cause it was so cool. I love how the dictator said she wouldn't drop him, and she did, which seems very on brand for Hawkgirl, like she is a hero, but don't tempt her with a good time. Then you have Mr Terrific played by Edi Gathegi, who is super smart and has these T spheres that can do plenty of things, but also he is a skilled fighter if he really needs to get his hands dirty. I love how Mr. Terrific's knowledge rivals Lex’s and how he is willing to help Lois when no one else wants to, and he is very confident in his calculations. Mr Terrific is like one of those heroes, too, that you would not think could hold his own in a fight, but in this film, they show that with his mind, he can most definitely take out some big hitters if he truly puts that mind to work. He has this calmness to him that really makes you feel like he has control of the situation, but when he starts freaking out a little in the end, when the world, you know, is splitting, you realize that it's something he doesn't have control of. The gang works together and gets the job done, but outside of that, there seems to be little else they have in common.  They are staying in the hall of justice, which is being built, so I'm interested in the future of the Justice Gang.

Krypto was such a fun addition to the movie, and I love how they treat him as a super-powered dog, not as a dog that has the intelligence of a human. He doesn't understand when not to jump on an injured Clark, when not to fetch the t-spheres because they aren't toys, or make the fortress of solitude a mess, but he does know how to throw people across the room when needed. It was funny to see Clark interact with him and try to keep him calm, but of course, he has so much energy. One great plot twist was finding out that he wasn’t actually Superman's dog, but he is Supergirl's dog, and Milly Alcock makes a cameo at the end to come pick him up, and he pounces on her due to excitement.

One thing I love is how they have multiple big companies in this film. There are so many big billionaires in the DC universe, and so it's nice that they didn't condense them down to one, but instead they show how Maxwell Lord lowkey has beef with Lex, and they mention another billionaire named Stagg, who in the comics is the reason Metamorpho is like that. I'm glad they mention these, which may not be important now but will be later, and to also show that this isn't a universe where there is just one big company, there are many big billionaires up to no good.

The movie has political undertones, but so does nearly every other comic book, and it is really up to the viewer to make the connections. Superman is not only an immigrant, but he is a refugee, and in this film, one of the underlying stories is that he is trying to stop the forceful removal of the Jarhanpurian people by the Boravians. I saw people rightfully comparing it to the Genocide happening in Palestine, but it's not exclusive to that; you can see similarities between what the film was showing and most genocides that were forcing people to move off their land, killing and abusing natives for no other reason than someone else wanting that land. This can be seen with the holocaust, the genocide that happened in the Americas with the indigenous people, the Assyrian genocide, or the Rohingya genocide, to name a few. When the writers write these comic books and the directors make these films, there is a lot of influence from the real world. If you are shocked that the film showed Superman as an immigrant and a refugee and how people looked down on him because of that, then that's on you for failing to do your research and limited understanding of history. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Superman would be an immigrant and refugee because the men who created Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, were born into families that were refugees and emigrated to the US. Movies like this aren't necessarily mimicking current events, but sometimes the storyline just fits because history seems to be cyclical, and unfortunately, sometimes art imitates life. So basically what im saying is that all the people that say things are too woke which typically seems to have racist, sexist, homophobic, or abelist undertones, needs to do more research on some things because you sound very uneducated talking about films like this were they are reiterating things that are bad like genocides, nativist or anti-immigration, Xenophobia, apartheid, and sometimes billionaires. If you have more in common with the villains in movies like this, then you need to do some unpacking and realize that you may be on the wrong side of history and need to take some pointers from Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, or anyone opposing Lex or Vasil. One thing i think Superman tries to reassure you on is that you have more in common with the person standing next to you than the billionaire who has no interest in seeing you succeed or the politician who just wants to use and abuse their power and not make much change so maybe start doing some independent research like Lois Lane and you may uncover the truth and can help put a wedge in these peoples plots. Superman will always be political, along with so many other heroes, and this film is just highlighting that.

My favorite part of the movie was the conversation between Lois and Clark where she interviews him. Clark had been interviewing himself as Superman, and Lois challenges him and says let her interview him, which doesn't go well for him. It was a great scene to show that journalism isn't always about making the interviewee feel comfortable, but sometimes you really need to ask questions in a way to catch your interviewee off guard and get them to answer truthfully. For Clark, he gets frustrated because he knows what he is doing is right, but doesn't want to get caught in the bureaucracy of it all. The scene is tense and ends with him leaving, but it shows how complicated superhero life is. They truly want to help, and they do, but sometimes people value process over lives, which Clark is understandably irritated about. Lois approaches this not trying to attack him, in my opinion, but asking questions that other people would ask, but also kind of foreshadowing how later in the movie, people would be scared of him after his parents' message gets leaked. You can always say so many things about yourself, but there are things that others may see that might be different, and Lois is asking these questions that others are asking and really seeing how he would answer them, because at the end of the day, the world doesn't know much about Superman. It was a great scene seeing the actors spar with each other, and it really had me on the edge of my seat.

Superman is a great superhero movie filled with a great cast and a very interesting story. While Superman isn't one of my favorite heroes, I'm glad to see this take on the story and to also be reintroduced to some characters that haven't had much time to shine in past projects. This made me excited for the DC universe and what is cooking with their next projects.