James Gunn's Superman updates the legend without destroying it

By Jim Bray
September 25, 2025

Has James Gunn saved the DC comics universe with his new Superman film?

Maybe. I do know that I liked it a lot more than I had feared (I feared I'd hate it, and I didn't).

Good Superman movies are hard to find. It can be argued, I suppose, that some of the Supes that have come along since 1978's exquisite Richard Donner version were okay, but every one of them have left me cold. I had practically given up on seeing a good Superfilm again.

Until this one. Oh, it isn't as good as the Donner/Christopher Reeve/Gene Hackman version, but it doesn't suck. And it also uses that old film as its launching point, kind of, and is chock full of nice homages, from the design of the Fortress of Solitude, the title credits, many music snippets, and even some character names (for example, Eve Teschmacher and Otis Berg were Luthor's sidekicks in the 1978 version, though the new actors can't hold a candle to them – and to be fair their roles are comparatively insignificant to the 1978 version).

And the movie mostly eschews political correctness and "wokeness", with the most blatant bit being the casting of a black Perry White, which I actually thought was quite funny even though he doesn't have a lot to do.

This Superman movie accepts the Donner canon for the most part, though it's obviously set many decades after that version. In fact, we learn near the top that Superman has been pursuing truth, justice and the American way (though we never hear that spoken) for decades now and at rise he has just suffered his first defeat.

We find him in a bloodied huddle on the Antarctic snow, perhaps near death, and he whistles desperately for his superdawg Krypto (an idea I thought sucked until I remembered that I'd seen the darn dawg in the comic books so long ago that I'm surprised I could read back then).

Krypto saves him, of course, or this is would have been a 10-minute movie, and he returns to his life as Clark Kent, dogged reporter for the Daily Planet. Except that this Clark Kent (played well by David Corenswet) doesn't just pine for co-worker Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), they've been in a long-term relationship – and she knows all about his secret identity.

It's kind of neat to see that the secret identity is really Superman, not Clark. Clark is the guy's main persona but he also happens to be a "metahuman" with special powers. There's a great joke where Lois points out that someday someone is going to figure out who he is in reality, despite him putting on glasses.

And Corenswet does a really nice transformation between when he's Clark and when he's Superman. In the supplements, he pointed to a great scene from the Donner version when Reeve, fresh from flying Margot Kidder's Lois around Metropolis (the "Can you read my mind" scene) decides – then chickens out – to tell Lois who he really is – as one of the key influences for his performance. And he's spot on, both in the acknowledgement and his performance.

Superman/Clark is a good guy who does good and wants the best for the world. But in today's world there are forces at play who don't want to see good triumph and who, for whatever reasons, question Superman's motives. In an interview he gives to Lois, she goes at him from the left side of the spectrum much the way the "legacy media" and a bunch of out-of-control judges are trying to prevent president Donald Trump from doing the job Americans elected him to do.

So, we have second guessing, issues of "due process" and the like. He's all "I was saving lives" while she spouts stuff like "but did you do it the right way?" It's almost as if writer/director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) used MSDNC transcripts as a source of inspiration.

Or kind of reminiscent of The Incredibles, when Bob Parr saves a wannabe suicide and gets sued. "I saved your life," Mr. Incredible says, to which the twit accuses him of "ruining my death." No good deed goes unpunished, it seems.

Then there's Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, who's fine but isn't given much chance for the type of scenery chewing Gene Hackman was handed in that old screenplay). He's what the Left would call an oligarch and he wants Superman emasculated because he threatens his plans for war and mayhem. So, he manipulates public opinion to paint Superman as a bad guy out for world domination – proving that even in some Hollywood movies the Left (represented here by Luthor as a Bill Gates-type of rich person it's okay for commies to love) loves to project.

Luthor, after accessing the Fortress of Solitude, finds part of a recorded message from Supe's Kryptonian parents telling him why they sent him to earth. Alas, it's a truncated message but Luthor's minions manage to salvage the unseen rest of the message, or so they say, a message which seems to indicate that Jor El and Lara sent him to Earth to dominate, not to serve.

I'm surprised he didn't accuse him of being able to see Alaska from his house.

This strategy throws Superman's reputation and his life into disrepute and sets up the rest of the movie, where he has to find his true self and still beat the bad guys.

This time he's helped along somewhat by other metahumans, including a Green Lantern named Guy Gardner (deliciously played by Nathan Fillion) and another couple of superheroes who collectively call themselves the Justice Gang (maybe they need a few other heroes to become a League…).

There's a lot more to it, but suffice to say I enjoyed this Superman film despite its flaws. It's the classic Superman hero, but he's living in a world in which a jaded and manipulated public doesn't really deserve such heroes. So, yeah, it's a documentary…

James Gunn does a nice job, though there are some "Gunnisms" throughout, mostly during action scenes that almost feel as if he used the same storyboards he had in "Guardians 2". But overall, it works and I'm glad it does. I still prefer the Donner version, but if this is a first step in creating a DC Comics "universe" a la Marvel then I'm interested in seeing what comes next.

Before that, I plan to watch this one again, and this is the first Superman movie I've said that about since the Donner masterpiece – which I've seen hundreds of times, theatrically, on VHS, on DVD, on Blu-ray, and now on a (disappointing, alas) 4K disc.

When Zach Snyder was busy destroying the DC universe, the picture quality of the discs was always good, but I never cared for the rather dark overall look of most of them. Gunn fixes that mostly, though the "pop off the screen" look you can get from a great 4K disc (or even a great Blu-ray) isn't there. Overall, however, the picture is bright and sharp and colourful, with nice depth and detail.

The default Dolby Atmos track, which is backward compatible to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, is darn good. There's also a Dolby Digital 5.1 track for those who can't play lossless soundtracks. I used the down converted Atmos track and found it meaty, very involving, and nicely dynamic.

Extras are pretty good, too, though they're stuff onto the same disc as the movie. They start off with about an hour's worth of "Adventures in the Making of Superman", which is surprisingly meaty in its own right. It's a pretty comprehensive "making of" featuring plenty of cast and crew reminiscences, including writer/director James Gunn (who's the real star of this supplement), actors Coronswet, Brosnahan and others, costume designer Judianna Makovsky, production designer Beth Mickle, director of photography Henry Braham, producer Peter Safran, and a slew of others. It's well worth seeing.

"Breaking News: The Daily Planet Returns" looks at the design and populating of the famous fake newspaper (see, it IS a documentary!), while "Lex Luthor: The Mind of a Master Villain" is pretty self explanatory.

"The Justice Gang" is a little more substantive than the previous two extras, featuring screen tests, makeup and hair application and the like. "Paws to Pixels: Krypto is Born" is also self explanatory. "The Ultimate Villain" looks at Luthor's Ultraman creation, from design to special effects, and "Icons Forever: Superman's Enduring Legacy" is pretty well what you'd expect – though that doesn't mean it isn't worth watching. Far from it, at least if you're a Superman geek.

"A New Era: DC Takes Off" points out the new direction for Superman, "Kryptunes: The Music of Superman" sees composers David Fleming and John Murphy talking about their contributions enhanced by recording session footage on the Eastwood Stage at Warners and some scenes from the finished film. I liked how they incorporated some of John Williams' classic themes to the new score.

Finally, "Krypto Short: School Bus Scuffle" is an animated short about – yeah, the dog. I wonder if the dog got paid in Krypto currency.

James Gunn's Superman is far from a perfect film and falls appreciably short of the Richard Donner classic. That said, Gunn has done a good job of updating the hero for today's cynical world and I look forward to seeing it again, as well as seeing what Gunn has in store for us next.

I just hope his "Superman 2" or whatever the end up calling it, doesn't start the downward spiral of Superman movies like the Donner/Lester Superman 2 did.