Superman (2025) is the first DC universe movie under the direction of of James Gunn, who directed the greatly popular Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The movie stars David Corenswet in the title role. It also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Superman/Clark Kent’s love interest, and Nicholas Hoult as Superman’s arch-nemesis Lex Luthor.
The plot, without spoilers, is that Clark Kent, aka Superman is a super powered alien from another planet and the mixed reactions he receives from Earthlings. Some trust and admire him because of all the people he saves, and some fear and distrust him because of his almost godlike powers. Meanwhile, two fictional countries, Boravia and Jarhanpur are at the verge of war. We learn that just prior to the events portrayed in the opening scene in the film, Superman intervened to stop Boravia from invading its neighbor. This causes some people to question his motives. Who is he to unilaterally decide what happens in international affairs? Why does he get to decide which wars are just, and which are not? Predictably, the media has weighed in and much of the movie is about two ideological camps battling it out in social and mainstream media. Mega genius supervillain, Lex Luthor has found a way to exploit the resulting public division to his own ends.
The movie has both good and bad things about it. Let’s start with the good… The script is good. You’re not getting Shakespeare, but it’s passible for a comic-based action flick. The VFX are good. When it comes to CGI, there’s always something that can be improved, but nothing that detracts from the film itself. The main characters are interesting, and don’t really deviate from their comic book origins. There’s not much room for tinkering with the main characters and villains of an institution such as Superman, and Gunn respects that. All of the hero’s and villains that predate the creation of this movie follow their established power sets and motivations. The secondary characters of Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Guy Gardner Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) are interesting and play important supporting parts, mostly as comic relief. The character of Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) isn’t given much to do, so is much less developed than the others. The Justice League in this universe appears to be newly formed, and is just known as the “Justice Gang” throughout most of the film. Their presence does provide a counterbalance to Superman’s more serious tone.
The plot is pretty standard for a superhero movie: The hero must overcome seemingly impossible obstacles and learn to work with others as a team to defeat the bad guy and save the world from annihilation. The plot is so standard, that by the third act, the audience can predict fairly accurately what will happen next. Gunn does at least make the more predictable plot points interesting by how the characters actually handle them.
Real-world division has sparked some controversy about the film. Thanks to some misreading of modern Western culture, Disney and Marvel especially have created an environment where the general moviegoing audience is highly sensitized to anything remotely “woke” or pushing what they see as a foreign political agenda. There is no evidence of any overt LGBTQ+ or racial agenda being pushed in Superman. The main message of the movie seems to be a biting commentary of the state of the media today, and how people are being divided by media-driven narratives. The film is pretty direct with its criticism of social media, and has a very unique take on the real-life “bot” phenomenon that pushes phony, media generated outrage. The movie is really an indictment on our self-absorbed selfie culture where there is no such thing as “bad” publicity. It’s a bit satisfying to see this since the social-criticism is well-deserved, but the movie at times gets a little too obvious making this point.
The real problem are some very simplistic portrayals of the two nations in conflict at the beginning and later again in the story. The two fictional nations at the heart of the story, Boravia and Jarhanpur are cartoonish caricatures of nations. Though both counties are supposed to be in Eastern Europe, Boravia seems to be a conglomerate of several real countries, (Russia and Serbia come to mind first). Makes sense, but somehow its neighboring country, Jarhanpur seems to be a caricature of several South Asian countries, namely India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan with completely different languages, cultures, and ethnicities from each other. While what we see of Boravia seems fairly modern, Jarhanpur is depicted as being barely out of the stone age. Somehow, the conflict between humans, superhuman aliens and interdimensional beings seems more plausible and leaves one’s suspension of disbelief more intact than this mismatch between two nations on earth. Without spoiling anything, these cartoonish portrayals of two countries is singularly eyeroll inducing. Gunn could have made the two countries peers or near-peers in technology and culture, two rivals perhaps without affecting the plot, but he chose not to. The urge to make one more effort at social commentary, he could not resist.
Despite its hits and misses when it comes to social commentary, Superman (2025) gets it mostly right. The story and characters are all something comic book readers can identify with. It does not mess with the mythology from the DC comics source in any meaningful way. The VFX are enough as to not be distracting, and are actually quite well done in places. Gunn in his directorial debut in a DCU project tells a good, if not at times, predictable story. It’s a good reintroduction of the Superman team and the Justice League that can serve as a basis for further films. While not a masterpiece like Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, it is entertaining. Three and half out of fives stars. At least one star is deducted for its lazy treatment of geopolitics.
Liberty Relearned 