Superman is a comic book movie that's not only based on the DC Comics' hero, but it's also the second reboot to the character and the first film in the DC Universe. Production was handled by DC Studios, Troll Court Entertainment, and The Safran Company with Warner Bros. Pictures doing distribution. The movie is written and directed by James Gunn.
The story is, after getting involved in a war between two neighboring countries, Superman maybe a inspiration but that action has also made him a controversial figure. And nobody has taken advantage of this fear then Lex Luthor. Lex plans to not only kill the Man of Steel, but but break his spirit first. Now, Superman must not only defeat Lex but show the public he is a hero.
Initial Reaction
Now since the day I heard James Gunn was gonna be involved, I've been very wary of him and his style of filmmaking. Something I wrote about not too long ago. Then when waiting for the movie to arrive I reviewed the previous movies, gave my thoughts on the newest suit, and the comics that influenced it. And now, here we are.
Cons
There's the humor. Jeez, I can't remember the last time I've been in a theater and surrounded by so much silence. Nobody was having a fun time with these jokes and stuff, myself included. And what really infuriated me especially was how James said on Threads (remember this site? The supposed thing that was gonna kill X/fka Twitter?) one of his many influences for his movie were Superman stories like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Superman for All Seasons, and the criminally underrated Superman: The Animated Series. Well were those influences James? Guess all of the comedic bullshit I saw are saying otherwise. Then there's the pacing to this. This is a supposedly 2hrs and 9min, but it didn't feel like that. Now some of you are probably wondering why should that be a complaint? Shouldn't that be a good thing? And you'd be right, but the reason I'm seeing it as a negative is because we barely get a moment to breath. Going by memory I think there was one, maybe there were two scenes where we slow down. But the other parts just go by a breakneck speed.
Middle Ground
Firstly there the tone. I found this movie to be a very similar situation to a previous James Gunn film, that being Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3. Both have a stories with some very serious elements to them and those are the best parts. But sadly there overshadowed by all of the stupid goofy crap. But even if you can ignore that, the world building isn't all that great. Having not doing an origin story and having an established Superman is a good idea. That what was the same route Matt Reeves took with his Batman film not too long ago. But with characters like Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mister Terrific just being thrusted in here and some Superman mythos also thrown in, unless you've read quite a lot of comics like I have, you're gonna be left wanting more context. Then there was the CGI. Now the CGI on Krypto, that was pretty good. A lot of time was put into him. Even the kaiju looked good as well. But there was CGI that just wasn't good, one example being Superman holding a baby while trying to fit his way out of pocket dimension. Then lastly there's the action. Now I did enjoy some scenes. There was some action that was pretty good, like Superman fighting both Ultraman and The Engineer that was fun. But some action scenes are brought down because of Gunn's directing choices and a lot of frenetic editing.
Pros
So is there any positive thing to this? Yes, the cast. They did put in a lot of good effort in their performances despite the material not understanding if it wants to be serious or over the top.
Superman (2025) truly was James Gunn's time to not only challenge himself as a director, not only give the DCU a big spectacular beginning, but also had the chance to shut a lot of his critics up. But sadly he just continues to stay in the same rut he's been in. Having said that, do I hate this movie? No, there's just somethings I don't like. Am I gonna be a shill for this? Ha! Not in this lifetime. I think the movie's just okay. It's not gonna be something I'll watch back to back like previous Superman movies, it's just something I'll occasionally watch.
My final rating is, Okay.
So yeah, if you are planning to see this, just take your time. You really don't have to get to the nearest theater asap. That's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, Jul 14th, for A Look Back at review of Happy Gilmore. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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