Superman is a 2025 superhero action movie based on the character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. It is rated PG-13 for language and violence and is appropriate for most ages.
The Good
Lois and Clark. David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan were perfectly cast as Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane. They capture the comic book version of the characters perfectly and have great chemistry together on screen. Whenever these two are on screen together, the movie works so well and I was totally engrossed in it. And fortunately, they have a lot of screen time together.
Guy Gardner. Nathan Fillion somehow perfectly captures the misfit of the Green Lantern Corps. He looks and acts the part perfectly. If only the costume were comic book accurate I'd have nothing but praise.
The Bad
Sloppy Writing. This movie feels like a direct-to-video sequel to the 1978 Richard Donner Superman film. The story was a lot of sound and fury with little substance. Nothing had time to develop. The problems were solved too quickly and too easily. The characters were pretty shallow except for Lois & Clark. There were way too many current fads inserted into the movie (social media, politics, etc) that won't age well.
Lex Luthor. Nicholas Hoult is a great actor. Unfortunately, the way the character was written was not good. Luthor was too controlled by his ego and too short-sighted to be a real threat or accomplish anything very large.
Perry White. Perry White is the generic token minority in power every movie has. And as such, he is completely superfluous to this film. If his character were removed, I doubt anyone would noticed. This was a missed opportunity to create a memorable character.
Justice Gang. Other than Guy Gardner, the other superheroes were uninteresting and unnecessary. Mr. Terrific was used as a plot device to solve impossible problems quickly and easily. Sloppy writing.
Action and Special Effects. The action and special effects were the generic video game action and special effects you see in every movie from the past 20 years. Poor cinematography, uninteresting choreography, and nothing memorable or special. I found the scenes to be kind of boring. This is Superman--the special effects and action should be mind blowing making me go "Wow!" every five minutes. But instead it looks like just another action movie.
Overall
Superman (2025 film) feels like a direct-to-video sequel to the 1978 Richard Donner Superman film. The story was a lot of sound and fury with little substance. Nothing had time to develop. The problems were solved too quickly and too easily. The characters were pretty shallow except for Lois & Clark. There were way too many current fads inserted into the movie (social media, politics, etc) that won't age well.
David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan were perfectly cast as Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane. They capture the comic book version of the characters perfectly and have great chemistry together on screen. Whenever these two are on screen together, the movie works so well and I was totally engrossed in it. And fortunately, they have a lot of screen time together.
The action and special effects were the generic video game action and special effects you see in every movie from the past 20 years. Poor cinematography, uninteresting choreography, and nothing memorable or special. I found the scenes to be kind of boring. This is Superman--the special effects and action should be mind blowing making me go "Wow!" every five minutes. But instead it looks like just another action movie.
This movie is entertaining to watch, but won't be a classic. I give it 3.5 out of 5 boxes of popcorn.
