I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Hiring Zack Snyder to direct Man of Steel was a catastrophic decision. I get how it might’ve made sense on paper at the time, and it still isn’t the worst decision in WB’s history (The tax write-offs, anyone?), but it has to be in the top five. In retrospect, Snyder and his team did not get the character, and it became immediately apparent that this wasn’t the team to give us the uplifting and inspiring Superman we needed. This only became more apparent when the filmmakers and studio execs went forward with Batman v Superman, charging ahead with blind arrogance, a hundred percent confident that this grimdark Frank Miller portrayal of the characters was what we wanted to see. Then they floored the pedal right into a brick wall.

It took a generation to clean up the mess, and there’s still quite a bit of lingering debris to this day. And while we were flushing out the Snyderverse dregs, Marvel Studios completed their historic Infinity Saga and they’ve been visibly flailing for want of direction in the time since. That’s not to say the post-Endgame MCU films we’ve gotten have been uniformly terrible, nor do I think the MCU can or should meet their meteoric highs of the 2010s anytime soon. Even so, it’s a bit of serendipity that the DCU is getting a do-over with all their most iconic characters intact on the shelf, at a time when some of Marvel’s most iconic characters are either played out (the founding Avengers) or finding their way back through other studios (Spider-Man is still partially tied up at Sony, the X-Men still have to get in the game somehow, Blade is stuck in purgatory, we’ll see what happens with the Fantastic Four, etc.).

So here we are with Superman (2025), the opening salvo from the new DC Studios under the leadership of Peter Safran and writer/director James Gunn. And right off the bat, it was obvious that Gunn/Safran knew perfectly well everyone needed this movie to be a hit and WB/DC had nothing to lose. We know this because the filmmakers did the smartest thing anyone could do in such a situation: They went as big and outlandish as they possibly could.

Sure, we’ve got Superman and Lois and Lex Luthor and all the expected mainstays. But then they threw in Krypto, Mr. Terrific, Guy Gardner, Metamorpho, Hawkgirl, and more. A movie with Superman front and center, but with other superheroes in the supporting cast, who’d have thunk? Oh, and Krypto in a mainline Superman film that isn’t an animated one-off — even today, that’s borderline unthinkable.

“One of our strategies is to take our diamond characters — which is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman — and we use them to prop up other characters that people don’t know.” –James Gunn

“To build those lesser known properties into the diamond properties of tomorrow.” — Peter Safran

Hell yeah. That is brilliant and necessary and I’m here for it.

With all of that said, it’s always important to manage expectations. I know everyone expects this to be a massively successful world-conquering smash, but let’s be real. This movie doesn’t need to be the greatest ever, it just needs to be better than Man of Steel. It doesn’t need to be as good as a whole megafranchise in itself — no two-hour movie could possibly be that good on the first chapter, let’s be real — it just has to make us all excited for what comes next.

I know it isn’t saying much, considering how low that bar is, but the film certainly clears it.

First of all, Superman (2025) and Man of Steel are both founded on the same question: How Superman — a character rooted in moral simplicity — can function in a modern and morally complex world. Especially considering that Clark was raised as a human, and he’s dealing with a world that only sees him as an alien threat. There are a number of reasons why Gunn’s approach works better.

For instance, Man of Steel featured that infamous scene in which young Clark rescues a bus full of kids. And Pa Kent suggests that “maybe” Clark should’ve let those kids die rather than compromise his secret identity. It’s insulting and absurd on its face.

Contrast that with this movie, which opens shortly after Superman (here played by David Corenswet) rescues a nation from an invasion by a neighboring force. And the entire human race is debating over whether Clark should’ve let all those people die instead of trampling on national sovereignty and international law. It’s the same basic moral dilemma, but the scale is so much larger that it becomes far more complex and it actually works here.

The bad news is that this dilemma progressively loses steam with each new revelation to show that the invading dictator (played by Zlatko Buric) really is a four-color genocidal shithead far worse than even Superman himself had initially thought. And the subplot is resolved with a character clearly and explicitly taking action that Superman never would. (Seriously, it’s in the dialogue and everything.) Not to take away from the bold and ingenious statement that “genocidal dictators are bad”, but it directly undercuts the protagonist and everything he stands for if this massive problem is ultimately solved by “heroes” who run counter to his nonviolent and compassionate example.

Another notable difference is that we don’t waste time recounting the origin story everyone already knows. Instead, a series of title cards helpfully inform us that metahumans have been around for about three hundred years (more room to explore in the other films, no doubt), which means this is all taking place in a world where superpowered individuals are more or less an established and accepted fact of life. But Superman — the most powerful known metahuman, and the only known alien — has only been around for three decades and he’s only been superheroing for three years. Nice that we get to hit the ground running, instead of treading water and waiting for Superman to develop into the paragon we all know and love (looking at you, Henry).

Even better, this film staged an elegant and streamlined conflict with Clark’s Kryptonian side, giving Clark a reason to doubt himself and the rest of the world reason to fear him. I’m loathe to go into details, but if you’re familiar with the recent “My Adventures With Superman” series, they took a page from that particular book and the film is better for it. Oh, and we get Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan to cameo as Clark’s birth parents, which is a neat little bonus.

But what about Clark’s adoptive parents? Well, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell try to walk an extremely fine line in their portrayals of Pa and Ma Kent. The goal was to portray them as good and simple elderly rural folk without going over into comic relief caricature. I’m not entirely sure they succeeded, but the effort is admirable regardless. If nothing else, Pa Kent’s big inspirational speech to Clark is a showstopper.

Speaking of which, we have the Daily Planet crew. They’re spread on way too thick. Wendell Pierce is barely present as Perry White. Beck Bennett and Mikaela Hoover are so unfunny and do so little that their characters may as well not even be there. The only two Daily Planet characters who make any sort of impact are of course Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo). And even then, Lois has to borrow a super-advanced airship that she’s miraculously capable of piloting, just to be everywhere she’s needed in the plot.

As for Jimmy Olsen, he’s given a comical romance arc with Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio). The joke is that Eve is a vapid and shallow social media addict and Jimmy wants nothing to do with her except for whatever dirt she has on Luthor. Here’s the problem: There’s no good reason why he should be so utterly revolted by her. And I don’t want to hear that she’s a mindless ditz, Eve is clearly shown to be braver and smarter than everyone gives her credit for. She’s hot, she’s into Jimmy, she’s offering all the dirt on Luthor he could possibly want, the guy’s a hopeless idiot for trying to turn her down. This doesn’t work.

Which brings us to our main villain. Nicholas Hoult clearly understood the assignment and plays to the cheap seats while playing one of pop culture’s all-time definitive archvillains. But what’s interesting about this Superman/Luthor pairing is in how much it overlaps the best Batman/Joker pairings: Luthor isn’t the archnemesis because he’s the strongest or even the smartest possible threat against Superman. Luthor is the archnemesis because he is the greatest possible spiritual threat against Superman. He is an existential threat to Superman, in that his very existence is a threat to everything Superman believes and fights for.

In Hoult’s hands, Luthor embodies the destructive power of humanity’s fear and greed, and how easily that power can be harnessed for ill intent. As long as Luthor exists, Superman will never completely be at home on Earth or welcome among the human race. But if Superman ever kills Luthor or allows Luthor to die, it would be Luthor’s ultimate proof of everything he ever said and believed about Superman, and thus his ultimate victory. Also, if Luthor can be this pissed off with Superman over hypothetical disasters and perceived abuses of power, imagine how pissed off all of humanity could get if Supes actually did anything wrong.

Luthor controls the money, he controls the politicians, and he controls the media. He is thus ideally positioned to wield humanity itself as a weapon, hitting Superman exactly where he’s weakest. This naturally means that Luthor has a variety of human and metahuman flunkies, but I’m sorry to report that none of them are worth much of any note. There’s the aforementioned Eve Tessmacher, and the enigmatic Ultraman works well as a physical embodiment of Luthor’s intellect, but that’s about it. With all due respect to María Gabriela de Faría and all her work in the fight scenes, she’s really only playing an amorphous blob of pixels.

And then we have the other side of the coin: The nascent “Justice Gang”, comprised of Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific (respectively played by Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, and Edi Gathegi. These guys are the polar opposite of Superman. They may be superheroes, but humanity trusts them slightly more because they are all at least native Earthlings. Also, they have a corporate sponsor (Maxwell Lord, played in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo by Sean Gunn), to hold them accountable. Superman works alone, the Justice Gang works as a team. Superman goes out of his way to protect all life, and the Justice Gang is more tolerant with regard to political violence and collateral damage.

With Luthor and the Justice Gang both, there’s a unified recurring sentiment: “Superman can’t save the day — I want to be the one to save the day! He can’t be the toughest and most handsome, most beloved hero on Earth, that should be me!” The one crucial difference is that when the chips are down, Luthor proves he would be the one to destroy the world, rather than wait around for Superman to destroy it.

Incidentally, the standout of the Justice Gang is easily Fillion, here given ample room to tear it up as an unrepentant heel. I’m sorry to say that Gathegi doesn’t make quite as big of an impact, given the character’s stoic and dispassionate nature, but at least he gets a lot of screentime and impact on the plot. The filmmakers are clearly invested in promoting Mr. Terrific as DC’s next big “black empowerment” hero, and that’s admirable. Unfortunately, as a longtime fan of Isabela Merced, I was disappointed to see that she got stuck playing the straight foil to Guy Gardner, but at least she gets to tear it up in a few action sequences.

On the subject of tearing things up, let’s move on to Krypto. You know the hyperactive puppy that only wants to play around and chew everything up? The excitable dog that’s always so happy to see you, they’ll refuse to sit or heel while they jump for joy all around you? Imagine if that dog had Superman’s powers. That’s Krypto. And the filmmakers are banking hard on Krypto as a likeable character. Trouble is, Krypto is such a handful that a little of him goes a long way. That gets to be a serious problem when Superman leans on him so heavily to get out of so many scrapes. And the CGI on him is uneven, which only gets more noticeable the more times he shows up onscreen.

Even so, he fares better than Superman’s robot assistants. They’re voiced by Alan Tudyk, Alan Rooker, and a handful of other recurring Gunn collaborators. And they all get scrapped in the first act. Barely worth discussing at all.

Incidentally, we do get a last-minute cameo appearance from Milly Alcock’s Supergirl. She’s, uh… not at all what I expected. I’ll be fascinated to see how this particular take plays out next year.

Let’s see, is there anyone else I’m missing? Oh, yeah — Clark and Lois.

First of all, unlike every other iteration of the character that I’m familiar with, this is a Lois Lane who is never once put in any position of mortal peril and needs to be rescued by Superman. Hell, it’s Lois who comes to Superman’s rescue at one point. That’s damned impressive and long overdue for a mainline Superman movie.

Secondly, as sincerely and completely as Clark loves Lois, she refuses to let herself be won over so easily. She wants to like him, but Lois still has a great many valid questions that need answering with regard to Clark’s motivations and methods. Yet in the end, it’s Clark who needs her help, and he in turn gives Lois the inspiration to accomplish great feats she never would’ve thought possible otherwise. In summary, their relationship works surprisingly well as a metaphor for Clark’s relationship with humanity in general.

What I love about this portrayal of Clark Kent is that the filmmakers clearly understood Superman’s greatest fear: Being wrong. The best portrayals of Superman clearly understood that power magnifies accidents, and Superman lives in perpetual fear of making some mistake or oversight that gets people needlessly killed. The previous filmmakers tried to address this by forcing Superman to kill someone. That was the stupid choice.

By contrast, Gunn and company made the smart choice and openly acknowledged the character’s fallibility. Clark states outright that he isn’t all powerful, much less all-knowing, and he’s perfectly capable of making the wrong decision based on whatever faulty information he had to work with at the time. And in its own counter-intuitive way, that fallibility might actually be reassuring because it means that he really is only human in his own way.

Moreover, even with the understanding that mistakes could be made and there could be harmful adverse consequences down the line, Clark still makes every possible and sincere effort to do the right thing and make the best available choice. Just like anyone else, he can only do the right thing and hope the consequences will sort themselves out. That’s a highly inspirational message, and a brilliant fit for the character.

At this point, it should be abundantly obvious that this movie is overstuffed. There is a lot going on here, and the filmmakers took every possible shortcut trying to cram 150 minutes of plot into 120 minutes of screentime. In point of fact, it feels like the deep cuts in the DC roster were primarily made in the interest of finding the obscure DC character with whatever power set the plot needs in the moment. For one example, I refer back to the aforementioned Mister Terrific airship that conveniently allowed Lois Lane to get wherever she needed to go. But easily the most egregious case in point is Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) who is only here because he can literally materialize whatever the plot needs out of thin air.

Naturally, because there’s so much going on here, a lot of characters are given precious little in the way of development or screen time. But it speaks to the strength of the cast — and to James Gunn as a writer/director — that every last supporting character in this movie leaves a memorable impression. Sure, I complain about how The Engineer wasn’t really a character so much as a threatening blob of pixels, but damn if de Faria didn’t play to the camera for all it was worth.

Unfortunately, the action is hit and miss. Sure, it’s fast-paced and fun to watch, but the geography can be tough to keep track of with so many characters flying around. In particular, there’s a sequence involving a stream of antimatter and it’s jarbled nonsense from start to finish. I was also unhappy with Mister Terrific’s big action sequence, shot from Lois’ point of view. It’s all amazing in theory, but the angles and editing are all wrong and it’s all shot through a red color filter that does no favors.

I’m also disappointed to report that the music left me nonplussed. In a movie that’s all about starting fresh and building a brand new DC cinematic megafranchise, I don’t think that repurposing the original John Williams theme was the right move. I might add that Clark and Lois have a running “punk rock” motif that doesn’t remotely fit, and Gunn’s characteristic needle drops are nowhere near as effective as we’ve come to expect from him.

On a final miscellaneous note, Gunn is taking us back to basics with the post-credit scenes. Nothing during or after the credits except for a couple of cute throwaway gags. A nice little bonus for those who stick around, but nothing you’d regret missing out on.

I will absolutely agree that Superman (2025) is the best Superman film we’ve had since Christopher Reeve, but it’s worth taking a moment to remember how pathetically low that bar really is. The film is aggressively overstuffed, cramming far too many characters and too much plot into too short a runtime, which inevitably leads to undercooked characters and a gossamer plot. Lucky it’s James Gunn fooling us all into thinking that so much razzle-dazzle is anything substantial, because there are precious few other filmmakers who can consistently pull that illusion off so well.

Ultimately, this movie had to deliver a Superman who could be relevant and uplifting in modern times, lay the foundation for an ongoing megafranchise, and do all of the above without distracting from a fun and breezy summer blockbuster. On those terms, in spite of all the movie’s flaws, it absolutely succeeds.

By all means, go see the movie, but keep your expectations in check. Though honestly, when it comes to big-budget films that get hyped up to the moon and back for years in advance, realistically managing your expectations should be a good standard policy across the board.