Christopher Reeves was such a Boy Scout its hard to see anyone really fill that role out in quite the same way. But James Gunn managed to find his Clark Kent with up and comer David Corenswet, and thereby bank the hopes of what will almost certainly be a new massive superhero film franchise on the shoulders of a relatively unknown. But even that doesn’t feel like the biggest risk that was taken in making Superman (2025).

The story has been told so many times at this point the entire origin is glossed over. Superman exists in society from the jump. People know him and other superheroes exist. Skipping through the “boring bits” is a necessary evil at this point in super hero films due to the barrage of them that exist. It’s a smart move, even if it means throwing a lot at your audience very fast and just hoping they can hang on through the torrent. Characters are introduced, relationships are explained, and stakes that occurred before the film began are rifled off at break neck pace.

It’s impressive for a movie that clocks two hours and nine minutes to be this full of so many characters, threads, and set pieces while never quite managing to overwhelm. It does get close to overwhelming, but it manages to steer itself back to a human centric story, surrounding Clark Kent’s desire to be a good person. The central thesis of the film is that hope is a revolutionary action. Believing in good is raging against the status quo. As Clark and Lois are having a discussion on punk music she puts him on blast for listening to Top 40 pop rock. He is after all, a complete dork, incapable of coolness. But his belief in people sets him apart. He believes in the arrogant Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, (Nathan Fillion) to the point that he shares with him his secret identity, he believes in his insanely misbehaved superdog Krypto, he believes that if you listen to your heart we all know the answer to the questions plaguing mankind, and his super power is his ability to act on that.

It’s an achingly charming take on the hero, and Corenswet wears the cape well at every turn. It’s enough charm even, for the studio to have centered the major conflict of the film around a war between two fictional countries that Superman stopped without approval from either side, or the United States government. In the film, this action is being torn apart online, and in the press, to the point that even his girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) is asking him pointed questions about it. One of my favorite bits is that the evil Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) has a team of monkeys writing hateful twitter comments, flooding social media with anti Superman sentiments. A thousand monkeys with a thousand type writers after all. But in the conflict itself lies the biggest risk of the film as the parallels of this conflict almost beat for beat resemble the Israeli-Palestinian conflict currently occurring on the occupied West Bank in Gaza. For a major blockbuster to even hint at the idea that a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine being what Superman would want is jaw dropping, and a bold move from Gunn and his writers.

The war is largely being funded by Luthor as he attempts to bribe the occupying country into giving him half of the land they are attempting to seize in order to further his cult of personality. He also just really hates Superman and wants him dead, losing his grip as he gets closer and closer to his end goal. Hoult’s performance is a top tier piece of the film, and it makes sense as Lex is often a scene stealer in the Superman franchise. One performance I did not see coming was that of Edi Gathegi playing Mr. Terrific, a member of the Justice Gang that occasionally works alongside our caped hero. Mr. Terrific’s dry line delivery and matter of fact approach give Gathegi the most to do, and let’s him have the most fun doing it, possibly out of the entire cast.

There are a smattering of nits I can pick, I would’ve loved more time with Ma (Neva Howell) and Pa (Pruitt Taylor Vance) Kent, who were both wonderful. Lois and Clark’s relationship gets a few key scenes but I can always use more Lois on screen. The film has A LOT, and I mean A LOT, going on, potentially too much. But it manages to keep it light and breezy in a relatively short time frame while fitting in some heady topics about how to be a good man. Many have done worse with the character, with the genre, and with film writ large.

4/5