Superman

Official Australian release date: 10/7/25. Viewed: 10/7/25.
Director: James Gunn
Actors: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Superman’ is a proper reboot, not the 9^th film in the franchise, and almost serves as a sequel to the original 1978 film. This film is up there with the original and ‘Man of Steel’, and possibly even better. That’s mostly down to Clark/Superman being played by Corenswet, who plays him excellently – not too cocky, not too serious, not too goofy. We meet him fully-formed, in his early 30s – this is not an origin film – and facing his first defeat, retreating to the fortress of solitude (which is done well), were we meet Krypto the dog, who has more screentime than I expected!

Behind the attack on Metropolis/Superman is obviously Lex Luthor (Hoult), who leans hard into the obsessive jealously and egotism, as well as a side of deranged, sometimes a bit over the-top. The Clark colleagues/friends are all well cast – Lois (Brosnahan), Jimmy (Gisondo), Perry (Pierce), Guy/Green Lantern (Fillion), Hawkgirl (Merced) and Mr Terrific (Gathegi). Because there’s so much happening and quite a few action scenes, not everyone gets a lot of screentime, with Clark’s parents Martha (Howell) and Jon (Vince) almost redundant. After the set-up, we get to see Lex’s full plan to discredit Superman, with Clark having to overcome something he can’t physically fight.

There’s a bit of “pocket universe” don’t-think-too-much-about-it stuff that’s standard in comic book films and doesn’t necessarily help anything, but the score is great, including the homage to Williams’ original, and as expected from Gunn, the soundtrack is great, with just a few great uses of songs that are not too well-known, but will become future classics now. Not too long at 2 hours, there’s some touching moments, especially with the fake countries that aren’t too dissimilar to the real world. Maybe not as much of a revelation as the first ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, this is still a really well-put-together action adventure film. I’m here for the sequels.

Overall: Optimistic, enjoyable take, with a great cast

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars