Spoiler-Free Review
I’ve watched Superman twice now, and it was one of the best cinematic experiences I’ve had in a long time.
I’ve become increasingly disillusioned and apathetic towards the superhero genre and movies based off of existing franchises over the past few years, particularly so the post-Endgame landscape of superhero movies. Much has already been said about the disappointments Marvel had put out in Phases Four and Five, and the abrupt dissolution of the DCEU led me to believe that superhero movies were to be reminisced upon, rather than loved in the moment. The announcement that Henry Cavill would never play Superman again was a difficult blow, and I resigned myself to the reality that my generation’s greatest live-action Superman would never act again.
Consequently, despite the optimism surrounding the appointment of James Gunn as the architect of the DCU, I was largely apathetic to the discourse surrounding Superman. I went into the movie knowing that Superman and probably Lex Luthor would be in the movie, and that was about it. I’d heard good things from friends, but had zero expectations.
I could’ve set my expectations to the sky and Superman would’ve soared above them. The opening crawl alone completely set the stage for intrigue, size and scale, reminding me of what it felt to be in the steady hands of a tried-and-tested superhero filmmaker.
In the aftermath of the Snyderverse Superman, much of the discourse online was that Superman was a sort of Mary Sue character; impossible to write for on account of his immense power. Gunn quickly puts this notion to rest by challenging Superman in the same way that the comics have challenged him for decades: pitting his values, beliefs and very sense of being against the forces of evil, envy and corruption. The paradox of Batman and Superman is pertinent here: The greatest Superman and Batman antagonists are nothing more than men, corrupted and twisted by envy and rage. Though the film delves into multiverses and superpowered heroes and villains, the ultimate antagonist is Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, who like Heath Ledger’s Joker before him isn’t after money, or power, or fame, but out of the genuine belief that the world would be better without the most powerful heroes.
For a story about a man much larger than life itself, it remained surprisingly grounded, telling a gripping, resonant human story of the Man of Steel. Superman stories of the past have focused on him learning his powers, his origin story, his journey towards becoming the iconic superhero that’s decorated the imaginations of generations for nearly a century. Gunn trusts that we, the collective consciousness of mass media already know these things about Superman, and instead focuses on the aspects of the Last Son of Krypton that make him as human as any resident of Metropolis. Gunn’s Superman gets angry, frustrated, filled with self-doubt. He loves and he feels and he cares - he’s the best of us but he’s always one of us. David Coronswet assuaged any doubts that he could fill the shoes of the Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill with a Superman that reminds us that we can still navigate life with unbridled hope and unabashed belief in everyone. Our path might be unclear, we might falter, get beaten down and betrayed, but for 129 minutes we were shown that truth, justice and the American way still has a place in our world today.
Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane was also a breath of fresh air, bringing to life a complex woman who’s the perfect foil to Superman. The consummate reporter, she’s spent her whole life questioning and doubting in everything around her. In Superman she finds someone who’s so assured in his belief of humanity, and the interplay between her beliefs and her love and faith in him creates wonderful tension and character development throughout the duration of the film. This iteration of Lois is smart, resourceful, capable, and a damn good reporter. Her interactions with Superman are the high watermarks of the film, and she truly brings out the best in herself and Superman at every turn.
Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor was so compelling that though I never agreed with him (and who could, it’s Lex Luthor), I empathized. Here’s a man, an unimaginably wealthy and intelligent man but ultimately just a man, grappling with the reality that metahumans born stronger than him have captured the hearts and minds of the world. The insatiable envy that made him into one of the most powerful men alive simultaneously renders Superman fundamentally incompatible with his worldview. The abject unfairness of him simply being born better eats away at Luthor’s very being, causing him to lash out and craft the schemes that he does in the film. Hoult grounds this concoction of bubbling rage and enmity in a performance that steals every scene he’s in. We knew Hoult was a strong superhero actor from his performance as Hank McCoy in X-Men, but he’s taken his game to a whole different level with Superman.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The below review contains a full synopsis and detailed discussions of every scene of Superman.
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The Opening: A Vulnerable Superman
The opening scene immediately foreshadowed and set the stage for the rest of the film. In a matter of minutes, we’re shown the world of Superman and all of its most important players. I usually dislike text crawls, as they’re often a form of lazy exposition, but when done well they can immediately envelop an audience into the urgency of the story. The most famous example of this is of course the Star Wars opening crawl, which immediately and effectively illustrated that the events on screen is a snapshot of time in a lived-in, real cinematic universe. Metropolis is a real city with real people in a real world, with the conflict and tension of the film a brief glimpse into this world of complex characters, heroes, and monsters.
Lois: “He’s a dog!”
Superman: “Yeah, and he’s not even a very good one. But he’s out there, alone - and he’s probably scared”
We open on a Superman battered, beaten and bloodied, showing us that he’s not invulnerable and every fight has tension and real consequences. We’re also introduced to Krypto, who captured the hearts and minds of all. By far the most adorable character put to superhero film, he’s a focal point of the action and a joy every time he comes on screen. We’re shown the Fortress of Solitude and the solace of Superman’s parents’ message, which provides him clarity and purpose. This sense of grounding is both resonant and alien: the consistent human search for meaning against the idealization of what we could be if we knew why we’re here.
Superman returns to the fray and we see the result of Lex Luthor’s maniacal, obsessive envy: The Hammer of Boravia, a supervillain who can best Superman through a series of thousands of potential moves, directly controlled by Lex himself. Despite Superman’s best efforts, he’s defeated, with local Malik reassuring him that the public will take care of him. Superman transforms back into Clark Kent, from which we can see his other life as a reporter for The Daily Planet. The classic Superman story incorporates a tremendous amount of will they, won’t they quasi-Miraculous Ladybug drama of the secret identity, but this is immediately quashed as it’s revealed that Lois and Superman/Clark Kent have been together for about three months.
The Interview Scene: Unflinching Questioning vs Unwavering Belief
The interview scene between them is a masterclass of filmmaking, as neither perspective is objectively correct and the fractures between Superman and Lois is a microcosm for the disconnect between Superman and humanity. The medium of a recorded interview provides the perfect backdrop for a disagreement that on the surface is about the ramifications of superhero vigilantism, but really highlights the stark differences between Lois and Superman. Each question has the plausible deniability of good reporting, yet underscores the fundamental differences between Lois and Superman’s worldviews. Superman stands for truth against lies, justice against injustice, and the American way against chaos and disorder in a world that seemingly can’t accept that, contrasted against a Lois Lane who questions everything, yet her belief in and love for Superman and what she believes to be right grounds her quest for objectivity. The conflict ratchets up and up until it explodes, not with a bang but the tiniest whimper as Superman walks out.
Lex Luthor: Why are you the way that you are?
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor unleashes a massive kaiju onto Metropolis to distract Superman while his team, including Ultraman and The Engineer to infiltrate The Fortress of Solitude with the goal of finding evidence to turn the world against Superman. Some critics point to this as a plot hole in the story: Why would Lex care about finding dirt on Superman when Ultraman is stronger than Superman and could easily kill him, if that’s all his motivation is? But that’s the key.
Lex Luthor could’ve killed Superman a dozen times over, but the envy that drives him would never have allowed Superman to die a martyr, a tragedy to be mourned by the world for weeks and months. Luthor needed to be seen as the savior of humanity, protecting the world against the tyrannical evils of Superman. He needed to be venerated with the name of Superman desecrated and cursed by history.
The Justice Gang vs Superman: A Juxtaposition of Metahumans
During this kaiju fight we’re introduced to The Justice Gang. Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, and the Guy Gardner iteration of Green Lantern. This introduction is classic James Gunn by every definition of the term, with eclectic characters, interspersed humor and a general understanding of how the other metahumans in this universe interact with Superman. This scene also attracted criticism from other reviewers, as some argued that the humor was misplaced and the insertion of the Justice Gang overstuffed the film. I’m inclined to disagree on both accounts. I’m mostly indifferent on the humor, as the tension of the scene wasn’t really its purpose. Rather its objective was to highlight what differentiated Superman from other heroes, and how he worked with the Justice Gang. This was conducted masterfully, with the central themes of Superman’s abject moral purism against the world’s moral pragmatism shown in his desire to treat the kaiju humanely and saving even a squirrel. Empowered by his parent-driven purpose, he sees a right and wrong in everything and always strives to be virtuous.
When his why to live was a lie, how does he?
-A bastardization of Nietzsche
This comes crashing down with the release of the enhanced, complete message from his parents, revealing that they wanted him to colonize Earth and rule over it, as he was superior to humans. This was another area of the film that I had some issues with, as what seemed like the entire world turned against him despite over three years of him saving countless lives. It could be argued that this simply was his perception, as it had been shown earlier in the film that he was sensitive to what people thought of him, but it’s nearly impossible for people to agree on anything, let alone something as controversial as Superman’s apparent true purpose as Earth’s subjugator. There are millions of people who deny climate science, COVID, the moon landing and a round Earth, so a more realistic depiction of the reaction to the message would’ve been a civil war, with massive arguments between Superman’s supporters and detractors.
I don’t know how I feel about Superman’s parents telling him to lord over Earth and to take as many lives as possible, as my understanding of Superman’s parents was that they were good people who wanted Superman to help people. I’m not well-versed enough in the comic books to know whether this is a canonical reality in any of the iterations of Superman as a character, but it felt a bit contrived in the film. I appreciate it as a narrative device, for Superman to have to question everything about his purpose on Earth, but it did feel kind of convenient for Luthor to just happen to stumble upon it.
Superman Confined
Additionally, the joke about the Justice Gang name felt a bit childish and fell flat at times, but their response to the news felt very real and genuine, with a brilliant performance from David Coronswet in conveying the betrayal he felt, not just from humanity but from his own parents. This manifests in the first display of uncontrollable rage towards Lex Luthor when he discovers he’s taken Krypto. A different hero might’ve threatened him to within an inch of his life, but Superman insisted upon turning himself in and attempting to prove that he meant no harm to humanity, hopefully finding Krypto along the way. This conversation with Lois is extremely impactful despite being a smaller scene: one person still believes in him and still cares very deeply about him, with Superman’s confession of love at the end one that we as the audience knows she reciprocates, but she just can’t say it yet. The romantic tension and chemistry is palpable, and Gunn manages to show so much between them while saying so little.
I appreciated the role of the US government in this film: usually there would be a gung-ho government guy who wants Superman locked up and is on Lex Luthor’s side the whole time, but all the leaders are levelheaded and make reasonable, understandable decisions based on the information presented to them.
To Pocket Universe or Not to Pocket Universe
Much has been said about the pocket universe as rendering the central conflict of the film irrelevant in scale and stuffing unnecessary complexity and multiversal shenanigans into the film. I’m largely indifferent as it had a lot of hallmarks of stereotypical, classic superhero villain monologue where it’s revealed that Lex Luthor is holding captured political prisoners, personal enemies, an army of monkeys spreading misinformation online (hmm, I wonder if James Gunn is trying to tell us something…). Metamorpho’s power-scaling also seems all over the place, but the nature of the conflict in this film meant it didn’t really matter. It’s worth noting for future films in the DCU though, as it seems he’s ridiculously overpowered.
Him changing his mind after Superman said he could save his son was also a bit convenient, but given his characterization as generally unstable it fit the character. The murder of Malik was surprisingly poignant, with Lex’s general disinterest and Ghurkos’ gleeful chants. Here we see that not all of Metropolis has forsaken Superman, with his idealism inspirational to Metropolis citizens as it is to the audience. This broke both Superman and Metamorpho, and it showed how even Superman couldn’t save anyone, and sometimes you’re powerless to intervene at all.
Mr. Terrific and Lois and Krypto
Meanwhile, Lois, concerned about the fate of Superman sought out the Justice Gang, all of whom were unwilling to help except for Mr. Terrific. I really liked Mr. Terrific: he was a great straight man to the comedy of the film, and the scene where he takes out the soldiers guarding the entrance to the pocket universe was prime James Gunn ripped right out of Guardians of the Galaxy: an old rock song choreographed to maximize the style of his heroes. There are certain hallmarks of the superhero genre that you appreciate simply because they’re fun. Not every moment has to be a reinvention or an innovation: superhero movies made a bajillion dollars at the box office because you smile when a bunch of faceless goons are taken out in style.
The breakout scene was class: no real tension, no real conflict because of the undercutting humor, but they escaped and Krypto was a joy to watch the whole time. This scene is also likely to win the hearts of the masses as Metamorpho’s son and Krypto dialed the cuteness factor to 11. The foreshadowing of the resolution of the final conflict was also very well-done, and what was clearly shown + delineated throughout the film were his strengths and weaknesses.
Superman, I do think we’re in Kansas again
Superman and Lois’ return to his childhood home, and the interactions between himself and Ma/Pa Kent was a tried-and-true moment of clarity after self-doubt in the Hero’s Journey archetype, but executed well. Pa Kent describes how the role of a parent isn’t to instruct the child on how to behave, but to provide tools and frameworks for them to make good and bad decisions on their own. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” We’ve seen this interaction play out time and time again in countless stories, but to see it in Superman is like putting on a comfortable pair of leather boots: it’s a comfortable path that ensures us that we’re on the right track.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
We then see all of our plot threads collide in a chaotic third act. For our antagonists, Lex Luthor has tore a rip into the fabric of the universe and the world is going to end, Boravia has invaded Jarhanpur. Lois Lane and the rest of the team at The Daily Planet are trying to expose Luthor’s scheme to take half of Jarhanpur, and Superman is trying to save as many people in Metropolis as possible before the rift kills them all.
The scene of the impending Boravian invasion was the most tear-jerking moment of the film for me. The small boy raising the handmade Superman flag, the chants for Superman while facing down an insurmountable army - it evoked tears and reminded me of the power of film to reach an audience of tens of millions and make them feel something. It’s been so long since a film has told a story unapologetically of hope, optimism and triumph in the face of evil, and is especially important given the bleakness of the world today. Though Superman is wrapped up in Metropolis, the Justice Gang, alongside Metamorpho is able to intervene on the side of Jarhanpur, and the giant green middle fingers of Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern was among the funniest parts of the film - Nathan Fillion is a national treasure. Hawkgirl killing Ghurkos was also an interesting contrast to Superman, who wouldn’t even kill a squirrel. The stage is set for a conflict where Superman doesn’t kill a dangerous supervillain, leading to disagreements between himself and other metahumans.
Heroes and Villains
Meanwhile in Metropolis, Superman is getting attacked by The Engineer and Ultraman. He’s completely enveloped and suffocated by the nanites from the Engineer, and at the last minute decides to go out of the atmosphere and then come crashing down. I wasn’t really sure how this was going to do anything or how it would help him defeat them, and the movie wasn’t too clear on it either. This was an area where I would’ve preferred more commentary or some way of showing why this move worked, because I struggled to comprehend how Superman survived this.
Regardless of this, the two main speeches from both Lex Luthor and Superman were absolutely brilliant and absolute cinema. Luthor’s speech of envy was a wonderful insight into Luthor as a character, and explains everything as to why he is the way he is. His mind simply can’t reconcile the fact that someone could be born better and stronger and more beloved than him, as his arrogance has led him to believe that Superman is a cheater, with Lex deserving the glory and adulation that he receives. Superman’s response that he isn’t just an alien but someone who is scared and confused and filled with doubt. He persists anyways in a human fashion, because ultimately he didn’t choose to be Earth’s tyrant: he chose to be human. While there wasn’t much nuance, it completely fits with who he is and what he stands for.
The end credits to the tune of Punkrocker flashing scenes of Superman’s childhood with Ma and Pa Kent was another that evoked tears. Those were his true parents, and they taught him how to live and how to be a good man. I loved every second of this moment and it reminded me of how Gunn can weave the heart into an action comedy featuring men in spandex.
Final Thoughts
The representation of the Boravian-Jarhanpurian conflict was extremely compelling, not for any narrative purpose but for the allegory between itself and the Israel-Palestine conflict. A larger, US-allied nation supplied with billions in weapons from the United States spreading misinformation about its true intentions invading a smaller, physically and economically devastated nation with questionable leadership in the past populated primarily by people of color: hmm, I wonder where I’ve seen this before? If Superman existed in the real world, one could piece together which side he would be on. I was shocked that a mainstream blockbuster Hollywood film would consciously or unconsciously delve into this, but I felt it was handled thoughtfully without compromising the integrity of the movie.
I loved this movie and if Sinners wasn’t released in the same year, it would be my movie of the year. The humor was misplaced at times, and there were a couple of plot holes, but I couldn’t more wholeheartedly endorse Superman: a welcome return to movies that inspire us to be more than who we are. Because a hopeful, joyous attitude towards life and our world is the true punk rock.