For a long time, it felt like Hollywood had forgotten what Superman actually is. The Snyder era gave us a brooding, conflicted Clark Kent who snapped necks and stared moodily at the horizon. Audiences were told that a modern Superman needed to be dark, complicated, tortured. And then James Gunn came along, made a Superman movie about hope and decency, and reminded everyone why this character has endured for nearly ninety years.
Superman (2025) is the best DC movie in over a decade. Let’s talk about why.
David Corenswet: The Superman We’ve Been Waiting For
The casting of David Corenswet was met with cautious optimism when it was announced, and the finished film obliterates any remaining doubt. Corenswet doesn’t just wear the suit well — he inhabits Clark Kent in a way that makes you understand, maybe for the first time on screen, why the disguise works.
His Clark is warm, slightly awkward, genuinely funny, and achingly earnest. He cares about people not because he has to, not because some trauma demands it, but because that’s who he is. That’s who the Kents raised. When he helps someone — not a world-ending crisis, just a regular person having a bad day — the film doesn’t treat it as small. It treats it as the whole point.
And when the suit goes on, Corenswet shifts into something else entirely. There’s a stillness to his Superman that communicates enormous power held gently in check. The flying sequences are the best in any Superman film, full stop — shot with a sense of genuine joy that makes you feel the wind.
Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane Is Finally a Full Character
Lois Lane has been underwritten in Superman films for forty years. Rachel Brosnahan fixes that completely. Her Lois is brilliant, driven, occasionally reckless, and never once defined solely by her relationship with Clark. She has her own story, her own stakes, her own arc — and her dynamic with Corenswet crackles with real chemistry built on mutual respect rather than just romantic tension.
The film’s treatment of the Clark/Lois/Superman triangle is the cleverest it’s ever been handled on screen. Without spoiling how Gunn handles it, the resolution feels both surprising and completely inevitable — like a puzzle snapping into place.
Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor: Charming, Terrifying, Perfect
Nicholas Hoult was always going to be interesting in this role. What nobody quite anticipated was how funny he’d be — and how that humor would make him more sinister, not less. His Lex Luthor is a tech-billionaire visionary type, the kind of man who gives TED talks about human potential while quietly engineering disasters for personal gain.
Hoult plays him as someone who genuinely believes his own propaganda. He doesn’t hate Superman because Superman is powerful. He hates Superman because Superman is good — because Lex has built his entire worldview on the premise that nobody is truly good, and Clark Kent walking around being sincerely decent is a personal affront to his philosophy.
It’s the most psychologically interesting Luthor we’ve ever gotten, and the film takes his ideology seriously enough to let it land as a real argument before dismantling it.
The Supporting Cast: Building a DCU Worth Caring About
One of Gunn’s smartest moves was populating the film with DCU characters who feel lived-in rather than shoehorned. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner is a delight — brash, petty, and somehow lovable — and his scenes with Superman have an odd-couple energy that leaves you wanting a whole movie about just the two of them being annoyed at each other.
Isabela Merced brings genuine warmth and complexity to Hawkgirl, hinting at a mythology that goes deep. Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific is understated in the best way — a genius who doesn’t need to announce it. And Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen is legitimately one of the funniest characters in any superhero film in years.
None of these feel like setup. They feel like people. That’s the difference between Gunn’s approach and the approach that sank the DCEU — he builds the world through character, not through post-credits teases.
Krypto the Superdog Deserves His Own Film Immediately
This is non-negotiable. Krypto is perfect. The film uses him sparingly and wisely, which only makes every scene he’s in hit harder. There is a moment in the third act involving Krypto that will absolutely destroy you emotionally, and it works because Gunn has made you genuinely care about a CGI dog in a cape within about four minutes of screen time.
That’s craft. That’s storytelling. Give Krypto a movie, James.
What Gunn Gets Right That Everyone Else Got Wrong
The core thesis of Superman (2025) is simple: goodness is not weakness. Every film in the post-Nolan era of superhero cinema has been quietly embarrassed by this idea — as if sincerity is naive, as if a hero who is genuinely, straightforwardly good is somehow less interesting than a tortured antihero.
Gunn rejects this completely. His Superman faces real cynicism — from Luthor, from the media, from a public that doesn’t quite trust something that seems too good to be true — and he doesn’t waver. Not because he’s simple, but because he’s thought about it and chosen. The film earns its optimism by taking the opposing argument seriously first.
The action sequences are spectacular, with a third-act confrontation that rivals anything in the MCU for scale and stakes. But the moments that will stick with you are quieter: Clark sitting with his father in Kansas, talking about what it means to be responsible for power you didn’t ask for. Lois watching Superman from a rooftop, seeing him for the first time as something other than a story. A small child in Metropolis looking up at the sky.
Does It Set Up the DCU Well?
Yes — and crucially, it does so without sacrificing itself. The film is complete. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The seeds planted for future DCU projects feel organic rather than obligatory. Gunn has clearly mapped out where this universe is going, and the roadmap is enticing: a Supergirl film, a Batman reboot, The Authority, Green Lantern Corps, and more.
But none of that matters if the foundation isn’t solid. Superman (2025) is a solid foundation. It’s the kind of film that makes you excited about superhero movies again — not just this franchise, but the whole idea of them.
Final Verdict: A New Classic
Superman (2025) does the impossible: it makes you believe, for two hours and seventeen minutes, that one man’s decency can change the world. David Corenswet is magnificent. James Gunn has delivered his best film. The DCU has its Superman.
Go see it. Then go see it again.
Rating: 9/10
