Superman (2025)

Just came back from seeing Superman, and I really enjoyed it! It wasn't perfect, but it was at least a huge 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 again. 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. 
• I adored that he seemed like a real guy. A person. Who had interests, had a personality, 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. 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 down that route as well, but thankfully not. Clark should choose to be Superman because he can and wants to, and whatever Jor-El and/or Jonathan wants should only play a small part. "Gunn’s Superman isn’t a born king or a reluctant god. He’s a man trying to do the right thing." (source). 
• Both Martha and Jonathan being alive – yesssss, I love this. 
• The soundtrack was georgeous. I was veeery 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 with this movie 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 actually be "the most powerful being on planet earth" before we see him beaten, 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 from 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, 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 felt kind of shoehorned in. It looked great, but it happened so fast, and I feel like getting there didn't feel earned, or... It just suddenly happened. Like someone said, "And 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.