Superman (2025)

Just came back from seeing Superman, and I really enjoyed it! It wasn't perfect, but boy was it an improvement on past movies. I bought a Superman shield popcorn bucket, and giddily cradled it the entire way home. Dunno what I'll put in it, but I want it on my desk. Aaah, it feels so nice to be this excited about new Superman content. I'm waiting a day or two to start watching the rest of the Sandman to give myself adequate time to geek out over this first.

Yay

• I love how this was completely unapologetically a comic book movie.
• I didn't spot any jokes at their own expense, or anyone acting uncomfortable with the source material. Perfect, that's the way to do it.
• Sigh, fiiiine, the trunks worked in this movie. They didn't stand out. 
• He had a personality! A personality, omg. I adored that he seemed like a real guy. A person. Who had interests, made jokes, and so on. 
• I loved, LOVED Jonathan talking to Clark on the bench. "What you wanted the message to mean is the most important thing" or something like that. YES. YES. 100%. Clark's choice is all that matters. "Gunn’s Superman isn’t a born king or a reluctant god. He’s a man trying to do the right thing." (source). I personally hate the "Jor-El sends a messiah his son to save us" angle, and was a bit sceptical at first when this movie seemed to go for that approach as well. Jor-El should have no say in this, and Clark should choose to be Superman because he can and wants to.
• Both Martha and Jonathan being alive – yesssss, I love this. 
• The soundtrack was georgeous. I was sceptical of using the John Williams theme, but it was changed enough to work here. I'm hearing it in my head as I write.
• The fortress rising from the ice looked SO COOL, omg. 

Nay

My main issue was that Superman felt a tiny bit like a supporting character in his own movie. He was definitely front and centre all the time, but man did he get his ass kicked. I know it's hard to find believable opponents for a character like Superman, so I understand why they did this, but I think the problem is that this is where the movie starts. I really missed experiencing that feeling of awe at Superman being Superman that I love so much, before he's beaten. We hadn't seen him be "the most powerful being on planet earth" first, and because of that this felt more like a "let's beat up Superman" movie rather than a Superman movie. He had some cool fight scenes (I think the biggest dopamine hit I got was in the stadium fight), but man, it was nowhere near enough. 

If I could have made changes, how about he just spends the first half+ of the film struggling a bit to get back to 100% because of kryptonite etc, but then when he finally does, then have way more cool Superman moments than we actually got. Gimme a sequel, gimme a sequel, I want to see my boy do more awesome things.

I wasn't too keen on Superman's speech to Lex in the end about being human. It sounded a bit too scripted sounding, and in our faces. That's the message of the movie, sure, but let us come to that conclusion from the events in the movie, maybe.

Eh

• The scene of Superman saving the girl that we've seen in trailers many times didn't quite feel natural in the setting. It's a bit hard to put into words what I mean, but it felt a bit shoehorned in. Looked great, but it happened so fast, and I feel like getting there didn't feel earned, or... It just suddenly happened. "Aaand right here: Iconic rescue moment"
• Krypto was ok. Didn't love or hate.

Other thoughts

Man that was grim, trying to suffocate Superman with nanites. I got Worm vibes during many parts of this story. Didn't quite catch how he managed to beat that attack. 

Since I now see everything through mum glasses:

• The kaiju reminded me of my toddler as it ran off when it was still tiny (RIP kaiju 😢)
• Metamorpho being forced to create kryptonite to torture Superman with because he needed to protect his baby son was painful to watch. 
• The loving montage of family clips at the end was <3 <3 
• "Parents aren’t here to tell their children who they’re supposed to be" or something like that - this resonated with me.

Speaking of glasses: Hypno glasses! Really? Eeeh, I guess? I can accept that kind of explanation for the Clark Kent disguise in a movie that's this over the top I think.

Looking forward to this being available to buy online. Then I'll rewatch it a million times and add further comments, most likely.