Superman (2025) rewatch

Superman is out on digital! Time for a rewatch! Because of toddler reasons, this took place over a few evenings.

First night, 16.08:

• I love the pacing and the buildup of that opening text. Love the repeat of 3s. However, "3 years ago, the baby, now grown, announced himself as SUPERMAN, the most powerful metahuman of all" didn't feel right. I'm sure it's just the way this had to be worded, for brevity, but i reads as "hi, I'm Superman, the most powerful metahuman of all". Lol. This falls into the category of "I dislike any sort of hint that he names himself Superman". Big nono. Someone else should name him that. It's too grandiose of a name for someone to give to themselves. 
• Love the visual and the sound of the fortress coming out of the ground, and the way it rotates later! Looks so cool.
• Love the look of his hair. Apparently David's hair curls like that naturally. Nice.
• "He landed somewhere around here". Ahaa, so that's how they find out where the fortress is. I couldn't remember that after watching the movie in the cinema the first time.
• Not too keen on "golly". It stands out too much among other "normal" dialogue in the movie. "What the hey, dude" though, that one I liked.
• The robots tell him he's only at 83% of power. One of my biggest issues with this film on first watch was that we didn't get enough Superman at 100% power. Wonder how I'll feel this time around. Let's add some, maybe one to three fire emojis every time he does something awesome, and see how it looks at the end.
• Speaking of robots – it's a bit too goofy that he calls them "superman robots". Goes with the naming thing I mentioned above.
• 🔥🔥🔥 That flight sequence after he leaves the fortress! I love itttt. The wind in his hair! The music! The sonic boom! The barrel roll just because flying is awesome. Not entirely sure how I feel about the fish eye-ish view, and it's over too damn quickly! But this scene gets my heart racing for the few seconds it lasts. There's not nearly enough of this kind of stuff until right near the end of the movie.
• "Maybe you shouldn't have done that thing in Jarhanpur, Superman". There's that fine line that all writers have to walk with Superman. To what degree is he allowed to "mess up" before his existence and trust from the public can no longer be justified. Fascinating topic. 
• About the Clark disguise: Steve Lombard sort of bullying Clark a little bit, Clark goofing with Jimmy... This is a "not the real him" take I can sooort of stomach I guess? He's doing a bit as Clark, to a degree, but there's some personality in there. Not just "erm, erm, erm, uuuuh, golly mzz Laaaane, I'm the lamest person on the plaaaanet". 
• Omg, it's Jimmy those two girls in the Daily Planet are squee-ing over and going "he's so hot", I thought it was Clark in the cinema.
• Oh, he actually does the deep voice for Clark <3 I guess he can talk however he wants as Clark then, that's good. Less of an act, just clumsing it up a tad. Like Superman & Lois.
• 🧯 (fire extinguisher): That "the most powerful being on planet earth" line from the trailer was apparently about Ultraman, not Superman. Nooo. I wanted more moments of awesomeness for my boy himself. Even if Ultraman is a copy, that line wasn't about the real deal, and so I'm disappointed. 
• 🔥 It's very cool making Superman the only alien (that's known at least) on earth.
• Kinda funny that they're discussing needing to deal with Superman while Ultraman is there. Oh, strong enough to beat Superman, cool cool cool, no worries about that.
• ❤️ Yaaaaay chemistry between Lois and Clark!

Second night, 17.08:

• I kinda wish Clark would have handled that interview better. It wasn't too bad. But still.
• Someone in a podcast mentioned that it was completely unnecessary for The Engineer to flip over and reform her body the way she did inside the fortress. It was just done to show off what she can do with her powers, but it just looked unnecessary and goofy. Would have looked great in the middle of a proper dynamic fight, not just to move up to a very low platform.
• I'm definitely noticing the exposition a lot more this time around. "I know, Lex, that's why I sacrificed my own humanity to get rid of it". Hmm.
• Again: Awww, at the poor little kaiju :< It didn't deserve to die like that. Superman was right.
• 🔥 The flight bit where he's flying to dodge the fire from the kaiju!

Third night, 18.08:

• Him saving the girl was a great looking scene, but I still feel like it came out of nowhere. It's just a vibe I'm getting from it. It felt slapped on like a sticker. The transition into it from the previous scene didn't feel natural. "And here we need an iconic moment".
• Superman walks away in shock/anger after hearing about his parents' message, and nobody runs scared? Someone throws a can at his head? Hmm. Seems like a dumb thing to do to "the most powerful metahuman of all".
• I love that he walks away instead of flying away. Makes him seem more human. Good choice.
• "There's no way that message is fake". They're really hammering this one home... it's a bit awkward. Wish they'd left it more open to interpretation.
• "But the message is authentic" - jeez, again! Yep, this could just have been left open/just having people believe it, and it wouldn't have been so clunky.
• "The fake message" – "it's not fake" – LOL, shut up!
• 🔥 at him bursting into Lex's office
• ❤️ Hands him a mug of cocoa by the handle, he takes it by the bottom
• "I can't make a sun, only kinda like a sun". Okaaay, so what does he make? They never say. And how is what he makes big enough to give Superman his powers? ("Hey kid...")
• I hate "babies in danger" kind of humour. I didn't like it before I was a mum, and I can't stand it now. Thankfully this wasn't as stupidly gratuitous as in the Flash.
• Ma and Paaaa ❤️ Love them.
• He looks so much like Superman it's unreal.
• 🔥🔥🔥 "Your choices" — yessss, this is my favourite bit in the movie, and I can't believe it got covered this well in a Superman film. It's his choice to be Superman. His. Choice. He just FEELS like Superman, someone who wants to be Superman. Who hasn't been forced into it. His mum and dad are proud of him for what he's doing. It's amazing. It feels so right.
• 🔥 Floating in the sun/dust after saving that woman in the car. See, this one I like, because you can justify this as not "aura farming" because he's probably hanging around for a sec to check on her.
• 🔥🔥 First bit of the stadium fight until he's talking to the engineer. Love the sound of the heat vision.
• 🔥🔥🔥 Omg yessss, when he's attached to the engineer by the arm, and briefly uses her as a weapon to fight Ultraman with. There we go, that's the kind of awesomeness I wish we got more of. It's a bit more violent than I'm used to seeing from Superman, but it's so good. The angry determination as he lifts off horizontally! And continues to fight like that. Very creative use of flight in fighting. 
• Holy shit the nanite suffocation attempt was intense. That would have freaked me out if I watched this as a kid. I'm reminded of that one scene in Batman Beyond with Inque. THAT was a core memory–but that's a whole other story.
• "No, Angela, unsheath, he's the only one protected" – I still don't get this bit. What happened? How did he get free of the nanites? Was it just because she got knocked out? How come he got all the nanites out?
• 🔥 At the justice gang getting inspired by Superman and showing up to help in Jarhanpur
• 🔥 The fight finally turns after Superman gets to fight without Lex directing Ultraman
• 🔥 The quietly triumphant slow hover 
• 🔥🔥 Vs the raptors - minus one point for the tooth flying, not a fan. 
• 🔥🔥 We get to have cool red glowy eyes superman JUST because the eyes are powering down while he's angry, not because he's threatening someone
• Dang, ok, Superman just drops ultraman in the black hole, but it seemed kind of like self defense to me. He didn't get the chance to try to save him.
• 🔥 The "quit messin around" scene - this got a fire just because I love Superman getting to talk and act like this in a movie. Some personality!
• 🔥🔥 Getting to punch Lex, that face
• Love mr. Terrific's sauntering and deadpan face.
• The "That's where you're wrong, Lex"-speech 100% didn't work. I like what they're trying to do, but it didn't feel like a natural, spontaneous outburst. It's like he's shouting "here's the moral of the story!" at him. Show, don't tell.
• What was the deal about Ron Troupe? He must have had a couple of scenes cut I think. He's named as they get into the craft to escape, but has absolutely zero scenes for the rest of the film?
• ❤️ The flying kiiiiss
• ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ The end scene with the family videos. I'm a punkrocker, yes I am...