Movie Time: Superman (2025)

 It's....  MOVIE TIME!!!

On Sunday, we absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see the new Superman movie written and directed by James Gunn.

I was way too invested that this would be a good movie. My self esteem, my value as a human being, my very reason for living was dependent on this.  

For a long while, I practiced ambivalence about this latest cinematic outing about my childhood comic book super hero icon. I could take it or leave it. Eh, who cares?

Then those trailers with Krypo the Superdog started popping up and ...

I CARE!  I CARE!  I CARE!  I CARE!  I CARE!  

Please be good!

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaasse!  

Early returns were encouraging.  

Rotten Tomatoes scores for critics (85%) and audience (95%) were a vast improvement on previous DC films.   

Reviews were mostly positive.

Well, mostly.  Some reviewers were less than kind wondering if James Gunn had course corrected too much from the darkness of Zack Snyder's reign of gloom and doom.   

So we went forth and I'm really hoping this Superman will be good.

Krypto, at least, better damn well hold up his end of the deal.

It's up, up and away we go!  

No long ponderous scenes of a young Clark Kent standing in a Kansas wheat field contemplating the significance of his destiny.

Nope, this movie begins "in medias res" with Clark having been in action as Superman for about 3 years now. 

And he's getting his ass kicked.

The ass kicker in question is called the Hammer of Boravia, a super powered warrior sent by fictional European country in retaliation for Superman's involvement in their internal affairs.  

The Hammer is actually a metahuman called Ultraman who was created in a lab by Lex Luthor.

Luthor? Boo! Hiss!  

It's all part of a plot by Luthor to get rid of Superman once and for all.  

In the intervening 3 years since his debut,Superman has become a beloved icon as a champion for all that is good.

Luthor, discovering Superman's hidden Fortress of Solitude, finds information that will undermine all of that. 

Manipulating this information through a massive propaganda effort, people are seeing Superman not as their champion but their conqueror.  

Thankfully not everyone has abandoned the Man of Steel. Like Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen at the Daily Planet looking to expose Luthor for the evil son of a bitch he is. 

And even other super heroes like the infamous "Justice Gang".

And a certain super powered dog. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Dept.

Skyler Gisondo plays Jimmy Olsen and I'm thinking I know this guy from somewhere. DING! He was Eric from the late lamented Netflix zombie comedy series Santa Clarita Diet. One might say his role on that show was the "Jimmy Olsen" to super zombie Sheila Hammond.

And there's a cameo by a reporter who looks a lot like former iconic Superman Christopher Reeve. It's his son Will who is a reporter in real life.

The "I Would Like a Word With You, Movie Director Person" Dept.   

Mr. Gunn, your revival of Clark Kent's glasses having hypnotic powers as originally posited in "The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis!" from Superman Vol. 1 #330?

Are you frickin' kidding me? REALLY?!?!

Obscure Batman villain Spellbinder is up to some fuckery with the citizens of Metropolis so Superman does his own super hypnosis on Metropolis to keep them from being hypnotized.

Suddenly, everyone can see that hey, Clark Kent is Superman!

It seems that Clark Kent's glasses, made from glass in Kal-El's rocket, cause Superman's super hypnosis to induce people to see Clark Kent as a completely different person, not just Superman wearing glasses.

This idea was suggested by a reader, editor Julius Schwartz liked it and told writer Marty Pasko to write a story around it.

A story that Pasko himself (God rest his soul) absolutely hated and so did the rest of fandom. And it was never, ever referenced again.

We all agreed this never happened.

Then James Gunn decided this was a good idea?

Really?  

And to make matters worse....

Guy Gardner knows about this?!?!

I really must protest, Movie Director Person.  

As for the movie itself...

As one reviewer I saw online put, "This movie should not work. But it does."

And I will concur with that. Yeah, this movie is stuffed to the seams with maybe too much stuff going on but I was able to keep up with it and it all does serve the story.  

In addition to Superman, we need to spend some time with Clark Kent. And...

• Lois Lane (the perfectly cast Rachel Brosnahan with all her Mrs, Maisel snarkiness) 
• Jimmy Olsen 
• Steve Lombard 
• Cat Grant 
• Perry White
• Ron Troupe (yep, he's there)  
• Martha Kent
• Jonathan Kent  (I appreciated their genuine rural Kansas folksiness and their wisdom) 
• Green Lantern Guy Gardner (the always entertaining Nathan Fillion with a god awful but sadly comics accurate bowl cut)
• Hawkgirl
• Mr. Terrific  (Edi Gathegi comes so close to stealing this movie)
• Metamorpho (a remarkably comics accurate version) 
• Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult is so good at being bad) 
• Eve Teschmacher (no matter the franchise, Luthor always makes the mistake of underestimating Miss Teschmacher)
• The Superman Robots (Alan Tudyk is on point as Robot #4 or as he prefers to be called, "Gary")  
• Krypto the Superdog (Krypto does indeed damn well hold up his end of the deal!)  

Oh my God! That is a lot to keep up with and that's not everybody.  

Perennial James Gunn player brother Sean Gunn has a cameo as Maxwell Lord.

And the bit at the end with Supergirl as a drunken party girl (well, that's new).  

And there's more!  

But it all comes together in a cohesive whole that is thrilling, action packed, heart warming and heart wrenching, tragic and funny. 

Yeah, the geopolitics of Luthor's scheming to start a war between 2 countries so he can be grab some land to be King of the Tech Bros... that's a bit muddled.  But as Luthor himself says, the war is NOT the plan. Killing Superman is the plan and the war is just a step in that process.  

(And the comparisons to the current Israel/Gaza mess are inescapable and distressing in that we have no real world Superman or even a Justice Gang to help save the day.) 

While there is a lot to build on to set forth a new beginning to a DC Extended Universe, James Gunn's Superman delivers a movie with a definitive beginning, middle and end.  

I really enjoyed this movie and would like very much to see it again.