Review: 'Superman' Gives America's Man of Steel Back to the Jews
James Gunn's colorful, cartoonish relaunch justifies itself despite overly broad dialogue and periodically weightless spectacle by putting America's most iconic superhero on the right side of history.
Superman
- 2025/129 minutes/rated PG-13 for “Violence, language, and action.”
- Written and directed by James Gunn
- Produced by James Gunn and Peter Safran
- Starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Anthony Carrigan, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell, Wendell Pierce,
Skyler Gisondo, Beck Bennett, Mikaela Hoover, Christopher McDonald and Sara Sampaio
- Cinematography by Henry Braham
- Editing by William Hoy and Craig Alpert
- Music by John Murphy and David Fleming
- Opening the week of July 11, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
I do not care whether James Gunn’s Superman becomes the proverbial Iron Man in Warner Bros.’s second attempt at crafting a DC Comics cinematic universe. I care a little less about, beyond the overall health of the still-struggling theatrical ecosystem, whether this third Superman reboot since 2006 becomes the kind of all-quadrant, globally popular success story that has eluded the character since Richard Donner’s Richard Lester’s Superman II 44 years ago. WBD’s recent winning streak with more aspirational titles, such as Sinners and F1, should make it that much less of a big deal whether they can succeed in the very same branded superhero genre that currently has Disney drowning in proverbial quicksand. And I sure as hell don’t care about giving oxygen to disingenuous Nazis pretending to be shocked that Kal-El is an undocumented immigrant.
God, we had a chance to nip this shit in the bud ten years ago instead of treating #BoycottEpisodeVII, outrage over female-only Wonder Woman screenings or the number of onscreen American flags in First Man as legitimate points of debate. Putting aside all the external noise that threatens to make the 129-minute, $225 million feature film almost irrelevant outside of serving as a launch pad for SEO-driven discourse, how is this latest Superman movie? It’s an enjoyable, three-star action fantasy that nearly drowns itself in weightless spectacle at the expense of its characters. However, the “Egad, Superman’s gone woke because... immigration!” news cycle might be a sneaky way to temporarily distract from the film’s somewhat more progressive and inflammatory politics. It’s not quite as explicit as listening to Superman smash the KKK, but it somewhat “goes there.”