Review Detail

James Gunn’s Superman isn’t a bad movie. It’s a confused one. A bright, hopeful reboot weighed down by the very cinematic universe it’s trying to ignite. It so desperately wants to be the light that saves the DCU that it forgets to just be a movie. What we got instead was a film that’s brisk, likable, and strangely hollow, a hero running faster than his own shadow.

David Corenswet looks every bit the Superman the comics promised, clean-cut, genuine, and just earnest enough to make you forget about the cape for a second. His Clark Kent feels like an actual reporter: slightly awkward, often uncertain, but quietly noble. Rachel Brosnahan, as Lois, crackles with newsroom wit and real human curiosity. Their chemistry is the film’s best defense against its own narrative chaos. And yes, Krypto’s presence adds just enough warmth to remind you that Gunn still knows how to make you care about oddball sidekicks.

The movie tries way too hard to cram in too many characters, storylines, and universe setup all at once. Within thirty minutes, we’re juggling alien skirmishes, political crises, Justice League cameos, and a half-dozen name-drops. Gunn wants to create a living, breathing DC universe, but I don’t think he was able to achieve that. 

The geopolitical subplot should’ve given the story weight. Instead, it deflates it. Superman debates the meaning of power and hope, but the movie seems afraid to pick a side. What’s left feels like a presentation on heroism with beautiful cinematography.

Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is another near-miss. He’s neither chilling nor charming, just oddly calibrated. You sense the film wants him to be unforgettable, but he mostly comes off as a villain.

Visually, Superman has moments of awe. The early rescue sequences, bridges, trains, and a brief shot of Clark hovering in the sunlight capture a sincerity that blockbuster cinema has almost forgotten. But as the action scales up, the emotion shrinks. By the finale, the usual digital storm takes over: glass, lightning, noise. The geography is lost, and with it, any sense of wonder.

There’s a genuinely good movie buried inside this one, quieter, smaller, more humane. It peeks through whenever Clark, Lois, and Jimmy share a frame. But just as it surfaces, another subplot barges in, waving a franchise flag.

Critics have been kinder than I am; Rotten Tomatoes has it floating above 80%, and audiences seem content. And I get it. It’s fun. It’s fine. But Superman should be more than fine. Gunn’s film feels like a rough draft of sincerity, a bright smile, a heavy head, and a heart that deserved more breathing room.

I’d give this a 3 on 5. It was a hopeful mess, charming in pieces, forgettable as a whole. The man of steel deserves a movie with more soul than scaffolding.