The Incomplete Guide to Superman in 2025

In which Elliot discovers Superman and Vanessa reminisces about Smallville

Superman (2025)

By Elliot Wengler

I have to preface all of the following by saying that I have no nostalgia for Superman. I have no love, no affection, barely any interest in the character. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the seminal 1978 movie, Superman, as directed by Richard Donner, but I think it was with only one eye on the small telly on a Sunday afternoon as a kid. I have no particular memory of it.

To go further, I didn’t watch Man of Steel in the cinema either. I think the only one I’ve seen in the cinema was the god-awful Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, in the O2 Cineworld’s ‘Superscreen’. It made more of an impression when some attendees behind us wouldn’t stop talking, then smoking weed, I had a quiet word with security, they asked which screen I was in, I confirmed it was the one showing BVS:DOJ (as no-one called it), and they said “Can you blame ‘em?” At least the vandals left.

It is with this lack of any investment in the character, world, or franchise, but a determination to avoid spoilers, that I went to see James Gunn’s new Superman in a West London shopping centre Vue on its first Saturday afternoon. The room was packed, including a bunch of kids decidedly too young for a James Gunn film. Given just how much he pushed what he could put into a 12A with his Guardians of the Galaxy films, I was fascinated to see how this was going to play out. What followed was the cinematic experience of a generation.

Superman is a triumph. It soars with a colour palette so vivid and varied, I’m confident I saw new colours for the first time. It dazzles with idea after idea, never dwelling on one riff or theme for too long, perhaps worried that we’ll get bored, when, actually, with imagery this vivacious and powerful, how could any one not enjoy the hell out of this thing?

I think I felt something I hadn’t felt since… Star Wars: The Force Awakens at midnight in 2015? Maybe it was even more emotionally powerful than that. Let’s go for it. This is the most exciting and daring blockbuster since The Dark Knight.

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy reinvented cinema for a generation, and created a mould of gritty believable drama that influenced almost every superhero film since, none quite matching the elegance of balancing intense drama and charming character pieces of this originator.

Superman made me cry eight times. It was that damn powerful. Hopefully you’ve forgotten the trailer, if you’ve seen it, as it beats the audience over the head with the sheer desperation for approval that this new iteration needs. Going in blind is perfect, as the plot races through its character setups with aplomb.

All I’ll say is that Clark Kent has been active as Superman (David Corenswet) for a few years, but has recently gotten himself into some controversy for intervening with a fascistic nation invading its neighbour. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is driven to utterly destroy Superman, has been plotting for years, and finds out some killer information allowing him to bring Superman into custody with a veil of legitimacy. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and her Daily Planet colleagues investigate.

The choice to set the story in media res means that we immediately see Superman in a state of intense vulnerability; as we’re told, he has just lost his first battle. It’s a move as canny as showing us the Empire capturing the Tantive IV in the opening minutes of Star Wars: A New Hope to let us know that this Superman is powerful, but entirely defeatable. It immediately changes the stakes.

The chemistry between Corenswet and Brosnahan oozes off the screen, and the subsequent courtship between Kent and Lane is both more interesting and fraught than previous iterations. In a sequence where Kent agrees to an on-the-record interview as Superman for her, they’re both playful with each other whilst clearly fighting to control the agenda. It speaks to real relationships where the power dynamic is unbalanced.

Lately, hero movie ensembles feature fewer characters from the hero’s ‘civilian’ life, often relying on more ‘colleagues’ or antagonists to fill out the casts, due to their power to push the plot along. Superman’s cast also features such metahumans, such as Luther’s creations, Ultraman and The Engineer. The otherworldly Justice Gang, featuring Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mister Terrific (Edi Gethagi), are there to throw even more batshit superpowers around.

However, to say it relies on these types of characters is incorrect, as normal humans at the Daily Planet get their moment too. Particularly Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen gets to shine. A less elegant film would have compressed these characters into one, but James Gunn finds the time for everyone to not just contribute to the story, but the world.

Speaking of characters, a quick shout out to Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, who is terrifying: a clear mix of the openly villainous billionaires of our real world, at times terrifying with imposing physicality, but mostly slithering around like Musk and Bezos and a bit of Steve Jobs.

Not all of it makes sense. Actually, not a lot of it does. There’s a chase down a river made of protons and black holes ripping reality apart according to the needs of the plot. Bits of it have a Rick and Morty-level of science and characterisation, hoping that the speed at which you’re being dazzled stops you asking just how anything works. However, none of it messes with the emotional ride that Gunn leads us through.

I’ve seen some writeups calling it messy in places. However, if it is messy, I didn’t notice. I was too swept away. I believed that the man could fly, that Luthor could build his vortexes to pocket universes, that journalism could hold power to account. I believed that a dog could fly. I now believe in Superman. I believe in movies again.

Superman is available to see in a cinema of your choice.

The Incomplete List of Favourite Smallville Villains

By Vanessa Burke

As a mediocre nerd, and person who lived abroad, I wasn’t much of a comics reader growing up. However, when Smallville first graced the screens of RTL, I saw something that would get the parent’s stamp of approval, and more contemporary than Lois & Clark. As such, please find below an incomplete list of my favourite villains Superman has had to face over his teenage (and later adult) years.

Brainiac

Played to perfection by the versatile James Marsters, this borrows a lot from his more famous portrayal of Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, exuding charisma and danger simultaneously. His calculated approach to opposing Superman was exciting, as this role of intellectual villain had been long vacated by Lex Luthor.

Jason Teague

A firm CW favourite, Jensen Ackles brought to life a new character, which tried to tie together both Superman and Clark Kent’s life, by getting involved with his first love, Lana Lang. On the hunt for the mythical Stones of Power, which turned out to create the Fortress of Solitude, he invited a soapy atmosphere, which was fitting for a story-of-the-week show, and got an appropriate send-off, dying in a meteor shower.

Alicia Baker

A teen drama needs some romance with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, which Sarah Carter capably took on. From obsessing over her romantic rivals for Clark’s attention, to single-mindedly pursuing him by threatening his life, she ticks all the boxes for a return ticket to Belle Reve. After her spell there, she sadly fell to a serial killer, but created a ripple in sharing Clark’s secret with his bestie Chloe.

Darkseid

This characterisation fell on the shoulders of several actors on the show, due to Darkseid’s proclivity for possession, or in the form of a dark cloud of smoke or as a flock of ravens. Still, the absolute otherworldly, insidious menace was clear, and the stakes of the show grew massively beyond the initial cornfields of Kansas.

Lex Luthor

While some of the arcs he goes through are truly comparable to soap operas, no amount of amnesia, secret clones, and more, can erase the throughline of a son set up to fail to impress his crueler father. While Lionel Luthor may have not gone to the same dastardly lengths as his son, the ultimate insult was his later preference of Clark, sealing Lex’ fate as a relatable villain.

Who do you want to see cast in the new DC Universe? Who could take on these significant characters that a whole new franchise needs to be built on? Let us know in the comments.