Superman (2025) – movie review

James Gunn did it again! (He made another amazing superhero movie)

Alessia Vannini ♡

Jul 11, 2025

Index

Film Profile
Introduction
Review
Conclusion

Film Profile

Title: Superman

Release year: 2025

Film length: 2h 9m

Director: James Gunn

Writers: James Gunn, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster

Stars: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, María Gabriela de Faría, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, Mikaela Hoover, Zlatko Burić, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell

Introduction

I’ll start by saying that I’ve always been that kind of Marvel fan that would despise DC in principle. However, with Joker: Folie à Deux premiering at Venice International Film Festival last year, I started watching DC movies and so far I’ve seen Todd Phillips’ Jokers and the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve. I still haven’t watched any of the DCEU films to this day (but I’ve been told by basically everyone who have seen them that I’ve spoken to that it’s really not a big loss) so I have reduced terms of comparison. Anyway, I wanted to check this one out because it seemed promising and because I’m a big fan of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Turns out he did a magnificent job with this one!

Review

The cast is great all around, with the charismatic David Corenswet taking up the role of the all-time famous Superman / Clark Kent. I must say that he’s really a spot-on casting choice and that he truly nails it in that blue suit, red cape, and eventually suit and glasses. It’ll never not be funny to me that people don’t recognize Clark when he’s not wearing the glasses!

In addition to David, there are some other standouts like Rachel Brosnahan in the guise of the brave Lois Lane, Slyler Gisondo as the funny Jimmy Olsen and the silly members of the Justice Gang: Mr. Terrific, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, respectively played by Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion and (the stunning) Isabela Merced.

As far as side characters are concerned, my personal favorites were Jonah Lees — who has recently played John Lennon in the movie Midas Man — as a member of the Luthor Corps and my beloved Pruitt Taylor Vince in the role of Clark’s earthly father — and who gained my heart wholly in Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Legend of 1900.
Unmissable is also the small cameo of the ever-present Sean Gunn, the director’s “little” brother.

There would be other actors playing small roles that I would like to mention but I’m not fully convinced whether I’d fall into spoilers or not, so I’ll keep it shut just in case.

A notable mention goes to the adorable and funny Krypto — that takes inspiration from James Gunn’s dog Ozu — a puppy who’s a true force of nature, much like his owner…

jamesgunn

A post shared by @jamesgunn

Naturally, I haven’t forgotten about Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor. I adore Nicholas as an actor and I’m still not over the fact that I got the opportunity to meet him a couple of times in Venice last summer. Personally speaking, I think that he did a really great job with his portrayal. Either way, as much as I’d want to avoid it, comparing him to Gene Hackman comes inevitable to me. Judging his performance alone, one could not do anything but praise him, but if compared to Hackman, I’d say that Hoult’s Lex Luthor has lost a bit of that charm and sassy energy that the OG had, in order to simply become the epitome of evil.

Plot-wise, Lex Luthor — always fixated on destroying Superman — presents himself as a kind of peacemaker (or perhaps warmonger?) to the U.S. government in the context of the war between the two nations of Jarhampur and Boravia.
Speaking about the actor who plays Boravia’s President, Zlatko Burić, I must say that he’s really got a talent for playing men that are a true pain in my assholes.

For as exaggerated as it may seem, the absurd invasion of Jarhampur taken out by the Boravians felt a bit too realistic and too similar to another war that is currently happening in our real world. In that sense, Lex Luthor — who plays an intermediary in the whole situation — doesn’t go that far from that authoritarian and corrupt leading figure brought to life by Mark Ruffalo in Mickey 17, if you get what I mean…

Even though some people have told me that when you find yourself praising the cinematography of a movie it means that the story itself didn’t give you much to talk about — statement with which I disagree, also because I’ve previously tackled the film’s plot as well — I would like to give a round of applause to the amazing photography of this movie and to the astounding vibrant and saturated coloring. Gosh if I love a movie with a good color grading!

I did enjoy the original soundtrack as well but I must say that it’ll never be as iconic as John Williams. I mean, can you even top that man?

Conclusion

Superman is undeniably a great movie: engaging and packed with action. James Gunn has always been — at least in my eyes — warranty of entertainment so my expectations were already pretty high. Despite that, to keep the balance in equilibrium was my personal prejudice against DC, so the fact that I genuinely enjoyed that came quite as a surprise. Am I actually giving a chance to DC movies??

So far, it might be my favorite DC film.

P.S.: I still haven’t watched Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy… please don’t hate me, I will make amends soon.