When Warner Bros. and DC announced they were getting James Gunn to helm all future DC Superhero movies, I will admit I was elated with the news. I know he’s a big comics book fan, unlike Zack Snyder, who was the fan of the wrong kinds of comics for superheroes. But, as time passed and I really started to think about it, I had some concerns. Although he absolutely gets what makes a superhero a superhero, I just wasn’t sure if he was right for some DC heroes like Superman and Batman as they do have a certain tone that I wasn’t sure he could do right. James Gunn loves to add quite a bit of humor to his films so that got me a bit worried. Was he the right person for the job?

Well, since I just watched Superman, his first entry to this grand universe of DC films, I guess I have my answer. It’s a whole lot of “yes”… and quite a bit of “no”.

Now, I know Superman isn’t out in all territories. So, as what we generally do here, this review will be a SPOILER FREE review. I will only be discussing things that were seen in the trailers and the teasers. Anything outside of them won’t be talked about. So, yeah. SPOILER FREE review incoming!

Superman takes places several years after Clark Kent has taken on his superhero persona. Although there have been other heroes with superpowers who have came before him, most people believe Superman to be the most powerful and most trustworthy of them. However, after he stops two foreign countries from going to war through force, some, not all, turn a more unfavorable eye towards Superman. And Lex Luthor has a plan to exploit this opening.

Now, if you read that summary, it’s a little vague and it’s meant to be as, like I said, this is a SPOILER FREE review. In fact, after I just typed that up, I’m not really sure it really encapsulates the film’s overall gist but it’s the closest I can get without really revealing anything. There is a whole lot to this than just that. But I actually do think it’s one of the movie’s greatest strengths and weaknesses. There is a very interesting plot involving the war Superman stopped and Lex Luthor’s overall scheme but, at the same time, it does feel needlessly complicated. This is your first DC movie, James Gunn! You could’ve eased us into things a little bit better!

The acting of the main stars are really, really good. David Corenswet‘s take on the Man of Steel is precisely how I would believe Superman should act. He’s not someone who is high-and-mighty and isn’t conflicted about using his powers as that’s what makes him different from the rest of us. No, this Superman knows he should use his powers for good because, well, it’s the right thing to do. He strives to do good because he can. And David Corenswet does a masterful job of showing that version. Rachel Brosnahan is simply perfect as Lois Lane. She manages to come off as the street-smart as well as just plain smart investigative reporter for the Daily Planet she should be. The two have pretty good chemistry together so it makes it so much easy to believe that Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane have a relationship with each other.

As good as those two are, I do think Nicolas Hoult‘s performance as Lex Luthor just edges them both out as the top actor in Superman. I just love how two-faced and smarmy he manages to make Lex Luthor here. But even with that, I can buy that the general public can’t see him as a bad guy despite all of the terrible things he does behind the scenes. I also do have to give a shoutout to the special effects people who did Krypto. It turns out, while they did have a dog actor on set, most scenes involving Krypto utilized CGI. While there are times when you can kind of tell the dog really isn’t there, they just did an incredible job on making him seem real enough that you buy into the illusion.

Now, these three (human) actors aren’t the only performers here but, honestly, there are just too many characters to keep up, which does limit a lot of their screen time and, sadly, as they hardly get any real screen time, it’s hard to really judge if they’re good. The only ones that do get some significant time on screen are Maria Gabriela de Faria‘s The Engineer, Nathan Fillion‘s Guy Gardner, Edi Gatheji‘s Mister Terrific and maybe Skyler Gisondo‘s Jimmy Olsen and Sam Sampaio‘s Eve Teschmacher. If you’re thinking I forgot to mention Isabela Mercer‘s Hawkgirl here, you’d be wrong because I honestly think Jimmy Olsen and Eve Teschmacher have more screentime than one of the other superheroes in this movie!

Now, I do like how Superman was put together overall. It’s just that I have issues with some of the pieces James Gunn decided to include in the package. For one thing, the movie is paced beautifully. While I still contend there are just too many characters, they are introduced slowly throughout the film’s 129-minute runtime. Additionally, there’s always something happening that helps you stay focused on the screen. Even the quiet moments are done in a way to keep you invested.

The action scenes are also well thought out for the most part. The fight scenes can get a bit chaotic but you’re still able to follow what’s going on generally. However, I will say some of them do come off as rather anticlimactic by the end as there are some points when Superman would just do something with super-speed or something so you get the general idea of what happened but you never really see what happened.

I do have a couple of major issues with Superman. One is a reliance on humor. Don’t get me wrong. This is a superhero movie and I do like there to be some jokes here and there. But James Gunn does tend to get a little overboard with the silliness early on. It does ease up once things do get a little more serious but the “joke-y” moments when Superman is trying to save people from dying gets really grating.

Also, why are the people of Metropolis soooooooo stuuuuuupiiiid? I mean, it’s not really a spoiler as there are many trailers and clips where you can see Superman desperately fighting against something monstrous. Yet the citizens of the city want to gawk around the battle area and film the action with their cameras? And they’re not even at somewhat of a safe distance! They’re right there in the middle of it trying to take a better picture! I don’t care if Superman is the Man of Steel and you believe he’ll save you! Why take the risk, you goddamn idiot?

In a way, I guess these idiots does inadvertently make the movie feel, well, hopeful. And that’s what Superman should be about: hope. Superman is supposed to be this beacon of positivity that when things are terrible at the time, will turn out all right in the end. James Gunn seems to understand this and he managed to put that into his Superman movie. There’s never a feeling of hopelessness and it does make you root for Superman, both the character and the movie itself, to succeed.

Finally, despite me loving the pace of the movie, the plot is both haphazardly written and predictable. Although I did say there is something interesting happening on the screen all the time, that doesn’t mean there’s some good connective tissue that connects everything together. You just kind of go with the flow of what’s happening. There are also supposed to be a couple of big reveals but, even if you don’t know your comics, you’ll be able to tell what’s going to happen next.

In the end, I will say I did enjoy James Gunn’s first ever Superman movie precisely because he does nail the tone of what a Superman movie should be. I do recommend you go to your local theater and watch it there and not wait for it to go to streaming as I do believe some of the more impactful scenes would be lost on a TV screen. However, while I really liked the movie, I can’t say I loved it. It’s not going to blow your mind and make you believe James Gunn is saving the superhero genre or anything like that. I’m just saying it’s a really good superhero movie. Sometimes, that should be enough.

Have you seen Superman (2025) yet? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!