Superman (2025) Review: Best Film in the Genre Since The Dark Knight!
Superheroes are stronger, faster, and more powerful than humans. With those credentials they would most likely be characterized as “better” in many ways. Being able to fight villains and save people gives them an advantage over those of us who are “normal.” This is often what superhero films display through the characterizations of their heroes and the overarching stories that are told. Just as older films used to bank off of the “damsel in distress,” having male heroes save them, superhero films tend to use the same convention, that us humans are the ones in distress needing to be saved by a hero.
Related – “F1” Movie Review: A Visceral Celebration of Racing!
Superman is a tale as old as time. An alien from the planet Krypton is sent to Earth in an effort to save him from the destruction of their civilization. His spaceship lands in Smallville on Jonathon and Martha Kent’s farm where they raise him from a baby through adulthood. Being the strongest lifeform on Earth, Superman’s story is decades upon decades long, having had him fight every monster and villain under the sun.
It is easy to say that Superman’s greatest strength must be his speed, his strength, or his outrageous powers, right? What creator Jerry Siegel and James Gunn have in common is their shared answer as to what Superman’s greatest strength is: his humanity. James Gunn’s film is a return to form in the superhero genre, beginning the new DCU exactly where it started, with our favorite man in a red cape, Superman.
With his origin story being established early on, we can get straight to the action. Or, lack thereof, because Superman (David Corenswet) has just been defeated for the first time by the Hammer of Boravia, a powerful villain from the country of Boravia at war with another fictional country Jarhanpur. After stopping a possible war between the two countries, Superman has spawned controversy over his involvement in foreign affairs without authority from the US government. Being dragged back to his Fortress of Solitude by his trusty dog Krypto to recover, he returns to his job at the Daily Planet as his alter ego Clark Kent.
With beloved notable characters like his girlfriend and coworker, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), charming Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), and the hated Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). James Gunn has nosedived straight into the pages of a comic book. Superman is able to perfectly balance the overall world of the comics while implementing a fantastic emission of the week film entry. Gunn has created a flawless script for new and original fans that explore otherwordly evils and evil humans that perfectly resemble two opposing, yet complementary, sides of Superman.
Superman has always been political in its examination of a man operating by his own rules to make the world a better place. This is met with pushback from the United States in an effort to contain him as a weapon and to identify whether he is a danger to Earth or a super addition. Here, James Gunn has used the original concepts of Superman to examine issues that have plagued our world for centuries, not to mention in our modern world today. By staying true to the image of Superman, the film is able to make a strong statement about where we come and whether that should dictate how we can change the world.
On a technical level, Superman is out of this world. Utilizing new Stabileye Nano technology, the camera is used to intimately follow Superman’s actions in a way that feels like the audience is moving with the character in a weightless and breathtaking manner. It is a fantastic addition to action films, such as Superman, that allow audiences to fly with the hero and be knocked down with him too. As a result, James Gunn directs the film masterfully, showing his ability to use his talents in any format or rising technology.
Composer John Murphy is able to beautifully reimagine the iconic Superman theme that feels in line with the original, while upping its scale to match the intensity of Gunn’s iteration of the film. Nothing is more classic than Superman’s costume and Judianna Makovsky’s designs David Corenswet’s suit to mirror the vibrant nature of Christopher Reeve’s suit while creating a slightly darker appearance that makes it feel perfectly suited for Corenswet and the dark nature of the film. This is displayed through its combination of optimism that Superman embodies.
That being said, James Gunn has already established his more comedic and goofy screenwriting abilities with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. He is a master of comic relief. However, Superman is a slight departure from his usual style, possessing a more serious tone as it relates to real life scenarios.
Instead, he opts for more charm to replace clever quips that give Superman his “straight as an arrow” characteristics while allowing David Corenswet to deliver a side of Superman that blends comics and his own love for the character. Superman is the best film in the genre since 2002’s Spiderman and The Dark Knight. It gives us a glimmer of hope, that even when those in power seem to possess it all, it is humans who can wake up everyday and do good to create a world that is worth living in.
So yes, having super abilities to fly and lift buildings off the ground is amazing but Superman has always shown us that the greatest superpower of all is the humanity we all possess to make the world a better place.
‘Superman (2025)’ Rating – 4.5/5
- Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Review: An Electric Sci-Fi Comedy! - February 20, 2026
- Wuthering Heights (2026) Review: An Underwhelming Spectacle! - February 19, 2026
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Review – A Solid Sequel! - January 21, 2026
Pingback:Kingdom (2025) Review: Frustratingly Uneven! - Just for Movie Freaks
Pingback:Eddington Review - Just for Movie Freaks