Review: Superman (2025)
Obviously, we have to start with Krypto. Krypto is, to be clear, a very good boy. He's a little shit, in the way that every adorable fuckup of a dog is. But he's also a good boy. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of this review. He's digitally modeled after James Gunn's dog Ozu (fittingly, the most upsetting director in world cinema), who is also a little shit, as well as part-Miniature Schnauzer. As we all know, Miniatures Schnauzers are the best dogs. You can definitely see Krypto's Schnau side with his adorable salutatory dance (i.e., pouncing on an injured Superman. Krypto is James Gunn's best character since the rat girl in The Suicide Squad, the best digital character since Andy Serkis' Caesar, and thus the greatest special effect of the decade. I came into this movie excited to see Krypto, and I got Krypto. Judging exclusively by that standard — the only one that really matters — Superman is the most successful movie ever made.
The rest of the movie is perfectly enjoyable. Corenswet is a serviceable Superman and Clark Kent (two very different skills), and Brosnahan achieves the impossible by vying with Kidder for Cinema's Best Lois Lane. Clark being a complete dumpsterfire of a journalist who needs to be told how off-the-record comments work is a nice touch, as is Lois being absolutely killer at her job (you know I squealed at the digital voice recorder and the "pressing three buttons to publish a story" moment). There's definitely a sense of mashing Reeve's Superman with Snyder's Superman villains, and scrambling to find a new identity for these movies. Which is sort of the point, I suppose — faffing about, kicking off a new 2,000-part franchise, and hopefully allowing for more fucking around than the MCU ever has.
James Gunn's movies are usually flipbooks of ideas, and Superman is no exception. A lot more could have been made of the Els' imperialist tendencies and Superman's own messianism. Janet has been talking about the theology of Superman for a day now, and it really makes me wish James Gunn had done more with that idea. Regardless, the movie works. Seeing this in IMAX was a good idea. It's nice that they built a decent superhero movie around Krypto. Krypto is all that matters in life and art, but he deserves a functioning film.