‘Superman’ (2025) movie review: James Gunn’s DC retool is the best Superman film in 35 years

The Man of Steel returns to the screen for a delightfully vibrant comic book adventure in Superman, opening in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. After the dour Zack Snyder films, a Bryan Singer misfire, and campy Cannon sequels, this is the DC superhero’s best transition to the big screen since 1980’s Superman II—big, bright, and bombastic, with a welcome focus on a colorful cast of characters that resonates with its comic book roots, backed by fresh performances and terrific production design that creates a tangible Metropolis. There’s only one thing missing here: an interesting story.

Blessedly, 2025’s Superman forgoes the usual origin story and opens in the midst of the superhero’s latest battle and first defeat, three years after announcing his presence to the world. Days earlier, Superman (played by David Corenswet with a sly sense of self-awareness) had inserted himself at the front lines to prevent an armed conflict between the fictional nations of Boravia and Jarhanpur; now, a mechanized warrior calling itself the Hammer of Boravia has pummeled Supes from Metropolis to Antarctica.

But Superman is not alone: letting us know exactly what kind of movie this is, Krypto the Superdog—a medium-sized white mutt wearing a red Superman cape—comes to his rescue and drags him to his Fortress of Solitude. There, robot caretakers led by Four (voiced by Alan Tudyk) quickly nurse him back to health using the power of the sun and his parents’ soothing words, which were sent along with him to Earth when he was a Kryptonian infant—but which were fortuitously cut off mid-transmission.

Back in Metropolis, it’s quickly revealed that Lex Luthor (a scene-stealing Nicholas Hoult) is actually controlling the Hammer of Boravia. Supes returns, but is pummeled into submission once again before the Hammer flies off into the night. The warning is clear: stay out of international conflicts. But Luthor has ulterior motives.

What does Luthor want? He has defeated Superman in the first five minutes of this film, and has more opportunities to kill the Man of Steel in later scenes. But his real plan is to, uh… defeat him more? By convincing the world that he’s evil? By the end of the movie, Luthor is simply trying to pummel Superman into one final submission with the Hammer of Boravia once again. But why does Lex Luthor want to defeat Superman?

This might not be the right question to ask in Superman. Lex Luthor is bad, and Superman is good, and that’s all the backstory needed for the pages of a comic book, or a 1940s serial, or a TV cartoon. But we ask for a little bit more in a movie, and there’s a reason why characters like Batman and Spider-Man have been successfully brought to the screen in multiple iterations over the past few decades while the most famous superhero of all struggles to make the transition. Superman is boring.

And despite all the razzle-dazzle that writer-director James Gunn brings to the table here, he can never overcome that lack of intrigue in his protagonist or interest in his central conflict. Even by dressing it up in distressingly modern parable, with the alien ‘immigrant’ Kal-El detained by Luthor’s paramilitary group and carted off to a sketchy foreign prison in a “pocket universe.” It’s wild that this years-in-production blockbuster could be so relevant to contemporary events—but behind it all, the central good-versus-evil story offers little new.

Gunn’s story touches upon some of the themes explored by earlier films: the US government (represented by Frank Grillo‘s Rick Flag Sr.) struggles with how to manage this powerful metahuman, while Supes himself has a subtle Last Temptation of Christ-like crisis of conscience. But while this film is an improvement in most other regards, both of these themes were explored better in Snyder’s films (and much better in the Prime Video animated series Invincible). Still, a climactic scene featuring Ma (Neva Howell) and Pa Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince) pushes the right buttons.

But by and large, instead of Clark Kent it’s an array of colorful supporting characters who grab our attention: Superman is supported, at various points, by the burgeoning Justice Gang, which includes the poorly-coiffed Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), the arrogant Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and the vicious Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced). With minimal screen time, each of these superheroes conveys the kind of character complexities that Superman sorely lacks.

Then there’s the newsroom of the Daily Office, which gets scenes of actual journalism so compelling that we wish they were the focus. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) cobbles together the big story nailing Luthor with the aid of the plucky Jimmy Olsen (a perfectly-cast Skyler Gisondo) under the eye of editor-in-chief Perry White (an under-utilized Wendell Pierce). Beck Bennett and Mikaela Hoover also feature in memorable characterizations.

Enough praise can’t be given to the presentation of this comic book movie, which is bold and bright and places all these extraordinary characters in the forefront; one can’t help but compare to the recent Thunderbolts*, which—while not poorly filmed—was drenched in drab blues and grays and gave its protagonists nondescript costumes. Most modern blockbusters try to obscure their special effects for the sake of realism; even last week’s Jurassic World Rebirth hid its dinosaurs—the reason people come to the movie—in bushes, underwater, and through murky fog. But Superman lets the production design, costuming, and visual effects shine—and includes a surprising amount of practical effects, to boot.

An original score by David Fleming and John Murphy cribs liberally from the classic Superman theme for the original 1978 film, but it’s too much of a tease: we constantly hear John Williams’ first few notes, but the score never delivers his culminating crescendo.

Will 2025’s Superman reinvigorate the DC cinematic universe after years of superhero fatigue? While it may not reach the highs of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy or The Suicide Squad, it delivers something that has eluded Superman films for decades: a confident tone, vivid world-building, and a genuine love for the source material. Gunn understands the operatic absurdity of Superman—aliens, robots, secret fortresses, and super-pets—and leans into it with sincerity. It’s not a perfect film, but it might be the best a Superman movie can get.