The plot: When Superman gets drawn into conflicts at home and abroad, his actions are questioned, giving tech billionaire Lex Luthor the opportunity to get the Man of Steel out of the way for good. Will intrepid reporter Lois Lane and Superman’s four-legged companion, Krypto, be able to help him before it’s too late?
This new superman movie was So Good.
Pros: This film felt a true comic book come too life. I like the effects & its aesthetic of the film. It delivered on my favourite superman and Lois Lane pairing I ever seen. Nicholas Hoult was great as Lex Luthor. It’s does humanised superman a lot more of. I never got bored chewing its runtime. I ended up like the newest side characters and how they were balanced out in the film and the main plot was simple to understand.
Cons: The film at times can get overcrowded. The new music other than the classic theme and the new theme playing wasn’t that engaging. I expected more from Hawkgirl and The Daily Planet and post credit-scene was quite lame.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Directed by James Gunn
Produced by Peter Safran, James Gunn
Screenplay by James Gunn
Based on Characters from DC
Starring: David Corenswet; Rachel Brosnahan; Nicholas Hoult; Edi Gathegi; Anthony Carrigan; Nathan Fillion & Isabela Merced.
Edited by William Hoy, Jason Ballantine, Craig Alpert
Cinematography: Henry Braham
Music by John Murphy, David Fleming
Production companies: DC Studios, Troll Court Entertainment, The Safran Company
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast:
- David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman:
A survivor from the destroyed planet Krypton who lives on Earth as a superhero. He hides his identity at his day job, working as a journalist for the Daily Planet in Metropolis.- Corenswet also plays Ultraman, an armored clone of Superman created by Lex Luthor.
- Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane:
A reporter for the Daily Planet who is a colleague of Clark, and “isn’t so sure about him” and needs to be convinced about being in a relationship with him. - Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor:
The CEO of LuthorCorp and the arch-nemesis of Superman, who hates Superman for having the power to do everything but not aligning with Luthor’s own beliefs. - Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mister Terrific:
A superhero and inventor who uses a variety of high-tech gadgets to fight crime, and is a member of the Justice Gang sponsored by Maxwell Lord. Gathegi described his character as an “atheist who believes in justice”, and said Holt found meaning in “knowledge” after experiencing the death of his wife. - Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason / Metamorpho:
An archaeologist and superhero who can “transmute elements in his body into various forms”. He becomes a member of the Justice Gang. Carrigan said it was refreshing to play a superhero after previously portraying the Batman villain Victor Zsasz in the television series Gotham (2014–2019). He felt that he could bring some “authenticity and truth” to the role by comparing Metamorpho’s concerns about his abilities to Carrigan’s own alopecia. - Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner / Green Lantern:
An abrasive galactic peacekeeper in the Green Lantern Corps, and a Justice Gang member, whom Fillion described as a fearless, overconfident jerk. - Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl:
A superhero with wings and various melee weapons who is a Justice Gang member. She is reincarnated from an alien, retaining her memories and past trauma with a grumpy demeanor.
Additionally, Skyler Gisondo plays Jimmy Olsen, a boyish young photographer who is Clark and Lois’s closest colleague, while Sara Sampaio plays Eve Teschmacher, Luthor’s assistant and girlfriend who is secretly also involved with Jimmy. Wendell Pierce plays Perry White, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. Pierce said that White is “always grumpy” because Luthor had an affair with Perry’s wife, and that Perry’s second child may actually be Luthor’s; Pierce said Perry’s “driving force” throughout the film is wanting to “get to” Luthor in light of this. Pierce asked his friends for information on the character because he did not read comic books growing up. Other staff at the Daily Planet include Beck Bennett as reporter Steve Lombard; Mikaela Hoover as columnist Cat Grant; and Christopher McDonald as reporter Ron Troupe. Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell respectively play Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark’s adoptive human parents. Vince and Howell studied tapes of the parents of The Howard Stern Show personality and Charred Walls of the Damned drummer Richard Christy to develop their Kansan accents in the film.
María Gabriela de Faría appears as Angela Spica / The Engineer, an ally of Luthor whose abilities come from nanotechnology built into her body and has “an edge”, ahead of a planned film about the Authority, the team that she is a member of in the comics; Zlatko Burić appears as Vasil Ghurkos, the President of Boravia who is a political ally of Luthor; while Terence Rosemore and Stephen Blackehart appear as Luthor’s henchman Otis Berg and Luthor’s assistant Sydney Happersen, respectively. Frank Grillo reprises his role as A.R.G.U.S. director Rick Flag Sr. from the animated DCU series Creature Commandos (2024–present); Milly Alcock has an uncredited cameo appearance as Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El / Supergirl ahead of her own film, Supergirl (2026); and John Cena has an uncredited cameo appearance as Christopher Smith / Peacemaker on a news show, mocking Superman, ahead of his role in the second season of Gunn’s DC series Peacemaker (2025). Gunn’s brother Sean appears as tech billionaire businessman Maxwell Lord, the head of LordTech who funds the corporate-sponsored Justice Gang. Sean said they ignored past depictions of Lord when creating their version, including Peter Facinelli‘s portrayal in the Arrowverse series Supergirl (2015–2021) and Pedro Pascal‘s in the DCEU film Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).
Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan portray Superman’s Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, in a sequence where a recorded message of theirs is played back as Superman heals. Alan Tudyk, Grace Chan, prior Gunn collaborators Michael Rooker and Pom Klementieff, and Gunn’s wife Jennifer Holland voice the Superman robots, who aid Superman at the Fortress of Solitude; the former four respectively voice “Four” (nicknamed “Gary”), “Twelve”, “One”, and “Five”, while Holland is uncredited. Christopher Reeve’s son, ABC News correspondent Will Reeve makes a cameo appearance as an on-the-ground news reporter. Michael Rosenbaum voices one of Lex’s Raptar guards. Dog actor Jolene stood-in for Clark’s superpowered dog Krypto, whom Gunn described as a “not-so-good-good-boy”. The character was primarily created with visual effects, and was 3D modeled after Gunn’s dog Ozu.
I highly recommend watching this film in cinemas.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Ryan Balkwill:
Resident film reviewer,
Level Best Art Cafe