Superman (2025)

James Gunn’s Superman arrives with serious expectations hanging over it, mostly because it’s trying to bring back one of the most familiar figures in modern mythology. Most directors would run screaming from this job, but Gunn approaches it like someone who actually understands both the cultural weight and the psychological depths of the character. What we get is, in my view, the best Superman film yet made. Not because it does anything revolutionary, but because it finally remembers what made the character matter originally.

David Corenswet makes a strong impression in the title role. Yes, he fills out the costume nicely, but what really works is the careful emotional balance he brings to Superman. He doesn’t play the character as some godlike being trying to fit in with the mortals, or as a messiah weighed down by destiny. Instead, he gives us a man who’s thoughtful, genuine, and quietly struggling with the fact that great power and great responsibility don’t come with operating instructions. His Clark Kent feels less like a disguise and more like the real person at the centre, someone wrestling with impossible expectations.

Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane is equally well-handled. She’s intelligent, driven, and thankfully not just there to be rescued. Her scenes with Corenswet have real spark, built on what feels like genuine respect rather than forced romantic tension. The supporting cast does solid work, though some characters get a bit lost when the action sequences take over. Gunn keeps things moving at a good pace and maintains a consistent tone throughout. There’s a sincerity here that could easily feel naive in the wrong hands, but he handles it with enough self-awareness to make it work.

Visually, the film knows what it’s doing without showing off. The camera work flows well, moving from quiet moments in Smallville to those sweeping shots of Superman in flight that actually look majestic. Unlike previous versions that went for either grey bleakness or glossy artificiality, this Superman uses warmer colours. It looks like a world you’d actually want to save.

What really lifts the film, though, is its thematic ambition. Gunn has put together a story about moral clarity during confusing times, with a hero who rejects both despair and flag-waving. There’s a thread running through about power and perception, about how heroism gets interpreted differently depending on where you’re standing. In this sense, Superman goes beyond character study to become commentary on public trust. The film connects with current anxieties about media manipulation, failing institutions, and the suspicion directed at even the most transparent figures. In this world, truth is slippery, and virtue often gets mistaken for foolishness.

But the film never turns into a lecture. It stays grounded in character, using Superman’s alien origins not to isolate him, but to explore how being different might actually help connect people rather than divide them. There’s a subtle philosophical undertone throughout, something like the moral humanism of Enlightenment thinkers, whose optimism survived history’s cruelties, though perhaps with a few dents.

Of course, not everything soars. The story loses some of its structural tightness in the final act, where spectacle starts to overwhelm the emotional arcs. There’s also the inevitable inclusion of a few wink-nudge moments designed to set up future films. Harmless enough, I suppose, but the film might have felt more relaxed without them. Still, these are minor complaints about an otherwise graceful piece of work.

It’s rare in contemporary cinema, particularly in big-budget comic adaptations, to find a film that believes so completely in goodness without irony. This Superman is a hero defined not by unstoppable force, but by principled restraint, and that’s precisely what makes him relevant. As cinema, the film feels substantial without being self-important, emotionally sophisticated without becoming melodramatic, and politically aware without preaching.

In the end, Gunn has managed something rather unexpected. He’s made Superman feel urgent again. In an age where cynicism is so often mistaken for insight, that may be the most heroic achievement of all.

And honestly, making someone look dignified in a cape and tights might be the real superpower here.