Superman Soars To Box Office Glory

And a full SPOILER reaction to the film itself

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, wait, it’s…a Box Office Hit! James Gunn’s DC universe kickstarter is set to bring in close to $130 million its opening weekend after breaking records in Thursday previews gross according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This going to be a full SPOILER review of James Gunn’s Superman (2025) so make you sure you’ve either seen the movie already or are someone very unlike me who doesn’t care to be spoiled if you read on (or watch the YouTube version linked below)!

The new Superman is everything I needed it to be and, I think, everything DC needs it to be to start a new Cinematic universe. Gunn makes some interesting choices with the narrative structure and the character focus and your mileage will vary on some of those choices, but overall this is a crowd-pleasing film that most people will enjoy very much.

Tonally, I think it’s a breath of fresh air for Superman. James Gunn tries to strike a balance in between the classic comic book silliness of Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) and the modern world of cynicism, the “realism” of Batman Begins and the Batman wannabes of the Snyderverse. He mostly succeeds in doing that.

The film is really funny, like all of James Gunn’s movies, and I know this because I saw it with a crowd of about 200 people and there was lots of laughter in that crowd, even some clapping—haven’t seen that in a while. A lot of people were skeptical of the Krypto the dog addition and how that would work in live action but people love dogs. I think it was an absolute hit. At the end, when Krypto turns Luthor into his chew toy, my crowd was jubilant.

One of the big sticking points for many people will be how the movie starts in medias res: Kal-El has been on Earth for a while, and he’s not alone – there’s a whole host of metahumans there with him. In typical James Gunn fashion, many of them are more obscure or at least not your go-to choices for a live-action depiction. You’ve got Mr. Terrific, Hawk Girl, and Metamorpho. He’s already been Superman for a few years, he’s already with Lois Lane and she even knows his secret identity!

I may be in the minority here but I like this choice, especially after rewatching all of the previous Superman films this past week. I don’t need to see Krypton’s destruction or Ma and Pa Kent pulling a baby from a crater and thinking, “finders keepers.” The biggest criticism the DCEU got was moving too quickly, never taking the time that the MCU took with Phase 1 to establish these characters individually before bringing them together but for some reason this “well, we’re here now” approach doesn’t bother me at all.

James Gunn has recently come out and said that his DCU will be closer to Star Wars than what the MCU did, and by that he meant it will be a series of separate stories set in a connected universe – he’ll be less concerned about getting bogged down in play-by-play continuity.

The best thing this movie offers, and I think the most important for moving forward, is the cast. David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan are a stellar Lois and Clark, but the entire supporting cast, from Jimmy Olsen to Lex Luthor, are dripping with chemistry and charisma. I do think we could have used more time with Lois and Clark – maybe we didn’t need another origin story but I would have liked to have seen these versions of these characters meet and grow to love one another. However, they do so well with the sparse romantic material that they’re given.

I was grateful we didn’t get a third iteration of Lois where she’s a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist that, for some reason, can’t spell. No shade whatsoever to Parker Posey!

Isabella Merced as Hawkgirl and Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific were crowd favorites at my screening. Deservedly so. Mr. Terrific probably has the best fight scene in the film, when he’s shielding Lois outside the entrance to the Pocket Universe while Superman is captive. He’s slinging his balls around T-Bagging everyone.

We don’t get much of the Justice Gang, outside of Mr. Terrific, just classic Nathan Fillion quips and Isabella Merced flying around screaming as Hawk Girl, but it’s enough of a promise for the future for me. I loved when Hawk Girl murdered that guy – like bitch I’m not Superman; that’s James Gunn telling the audience that this Superman has a code, but this universe will still have some edge, some bite.

There’s a lot going on in this movie, and many people will argue too much, especially for the first movie, but there’s a very simple core character arc for Clark Kent himself in this film that I thought was very effective.

I hear a lot of chatter online, mostly from Snyder bros, about how weak this version of Superman is. He’s not enough of an Alpha! I think it’s important to see our protagonist struggle, it’s interesting to see conflict that’s external as well as internal, but it also makes perfect sense. He’s fighting himself! It’s a clone, how can you watch the whole movie and still wonder why he got his ass kicked. It’s also a good metaphor that may be a bit on the nose, but he spends the film rocked by this realization that his parents, his idols, sent him there for purpose at odds with his core beliefs. Does that make him a bad person? Does that undo his goals, shatter his sense of identity?

The very last scene of this film is such a good ending. You get one final belly laugh from the brilliant Alan Tudyk (Gary) and then the tears flow from a very simple bookend and the credits roll. Gary says, just like at the beginning, that it comforts him to see is parents but instead of Bradley Cooper’s Jor-El it’s Ma and Pa Kent, his literal found family, the true source of his morals and outlook. I cried like a baby Kal-El.

I’m not sure what to make of Jimmy Olsen being pursued by every attractive woman in Metropolis but, I’ll be honest, it made me chuckle.

We only get the tiniest glimpse of Milly Alcock as Supergirl and (more honesty) I don’t know much about that character. I never read the comics or watched that show but I LOVED whatever it is that she’s doing, I can’t wait to see her movie.

All in all, I think, even if you don’t vibe all the way with James Gunn’s style or like the aesthetic (I completely understand anyone who thinks the movie doesn’t always look the best) you’ll likely still be sold on these characters and seeing much more of them in the future, which is the main goal of this movie. I really, really liked it.

Thanks for reading – maybe that’s the real punk rock.

For more of my work on YouTube, try my top ten favorite movies of the year so far:

Or our recent interview with Dichen Lachman from Severance on the Streaming Things Podcast: