{"id":251902,"date":"2025-07-09T22:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/251902\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T22:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:39:12","slug":"supermans-woke-reboot-blasted-by-critics-amid-immigrant-hero-row-as-negative-reviews-slam-charmless-flick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/251902\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman&#8217;s &#8216;woke&#8217; reboot blasted by critics amid &#8216;immigrant&#8217; hero row as negative reviews slam &#8216;charmless&#8217; flick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>James Gunn&#8217;s Superman reboot has been met with a barrage of negative reviews from critics who have branded the film &#8220;pointless,&#8221; &#8220;cluttered,&#8221; and a &#8220;migraine of a movie.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian awarded the film just two stars, with reviewer Peter Bradshaw describing it as a &#8220;dim reboot&#8221; featuring David Corenswet playing the Man of Steel with &#8220;square-faced soullessness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Times was equally scathing in its two-star review, with Kevin Maher calling it an &#8220;indigestible mush&#8221; and suggesting Gunn approached the project &#8220;like a giddy amnesiac who has missed the precipitous rise and fall of multi-character Marvel superhero movies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Irish Times delivered perhaps the harshest verdict, describing the film as &#8220;utterly charmless&#8221; and &#8220;as funny as toothache.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"52219\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"0f3ee43fcc65c41a426d1255f7c86052\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%205588%203845'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/superman-s-david-corenswet.jpg\" width=\"5588\" height=\"3845\" alt=\"Superman's David Corenswet\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Superman&#8217;s David Corenswet at the London photocall ahead of the film&#8217;s premiere <\/p>\n<p> PA<\/p>\n<p>The controversy extends beyond the film&#8217;s artistic merits to its political messaging, with Gunn facing backlash for describing Superman as &#8220;the story of America&#8221; and comparing the character to an &#8220;immigrant&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I mean, Superman is the story of America,&#8221; Gunn told The Sunday Times of London. &#8220;An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld accused the filmmaker of operating with &#8220;a woke shield&#8221; and being out of touch with American sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>Kellyanne Conway, former Trump adviser, criticised Gunn for using cinema to push ideology, stating: &#8220;We don&#8217;t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"0e60b\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"56fb433b108b49ee495564cdc0187569\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201053%20642'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752100751_155_superman-s-david-corenswet.jpg\" width=\"1053\" height=\"642\" alt=\"Superman's David Corenswet\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Superman&#8217;s David Corenswet leads the DC adaptation<\/p>\n<p> DC<\/p>\n<p>Critics have taken particular issue with the film&#8217;s tonal inconsistencies and overcrowded narrative.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Clarke of The Irish Times noted that &#8220;rarely has an actor appeared in virtually every scene of a film while barely being in the thing at all,&#8221; criticising Corenswet&#8217;s limited portrayal of Clark Kent.<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Times&#8217; Amy Nicholson described the plot as &#8220;impatient but entertaining enough,&#8221; whilst noting that Gunn&#8217;s script makes Superman &#8220;a little stupid&#8221; who &#8220;gets beaten senseless again&#8221; after rushing back into battle before healing.<\/p>\n<p>Empire&#8217;s Sophie Butcher complained that &#8220;the final act sinks into CGI chaos, with an unsatisfying climax, an eye-roll-inducing reveal, a restlessly intermittent tone, and an insistence on prioritising things and people we don&#8217;t really care about over core characters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The film&#8217;s departure from traditional Superman values has drawn sharp criticism from multiple reviewers.<\/p>\n<p>Bradshaw questioned the repetitive nature of superhero films, asking: &#8220;How many more superhero films in general, and Superman films in particular, do we need to see that all end with the same spectacular faux-apocalypse in the big city with CGI skyscrapers collapsing?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>LATEST FILM NEWS: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"1c487\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"678ae86cab0b125b3386aeaeba320491\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201345%20897'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/superman-director-james-gunn.jpg\" width=\"1345\" height=\"897\" alt=\"Superman director James Gunn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Superman director James Gunn sparked controversy with his comments about the film&#8217;s &#8220;immigrant&#8221; themes<\/p>\n<p> PA<\/p>\n<p>The Irish Times&#8217; Donald Clarke lamented the absence of humanity in the film, noting that &#8220;excising the story of Superman&#8217;s arrival on Earth, his courtship of Lois and his evolution as superhero doesn&#8217;t just deprive the film of useful structure; it also deprives it of vital humanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Conservative commentator Chris Stigall argued that DC Comics had abandoned Superman&#8217;s traditional motto, suggesting &#8220;the hard left couldn&#8217;t have an iconic superhero actually standing up for the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"03768\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"f6dd898a1e78b5ff7eea7d467369f2f0\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201129%20637'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nicholas-hoult.jpg\" width=\"1129\" height=\"637\" alt=\"Nicholas Hoult\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Nicholas Hoult is playing Lex Luthor in the movie<\/p>\n<p> DC<\/p>\n<p>Despite the overwhelmingly negative reception, some critics acknowledged positive elements within the film.<\/p>\n<p>The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s David Rooney admitted the film felt &#8220;lumpy and overstuffed,&#8221; though he praised it as &#8220;fun, pacy and enjoyable, a breath of fresh air sweetened by a deep affection for the material.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Brosnahan received particular praise, with Empire noting she was &#8220;spiky and engaging as Lois, breathing life into a role with minimal dimension otherwise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gunn recently dismissed concerns about box office expectations, telling GQ: &#8220;They hear these numbers that the movie&#8217;s only going to be successful if it makes $700 million or something and it&#8217;s just complete and utter nonsense.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The film, which reportedly cost $225 million to produce, opens in UK cinemas on Friday, July 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gunn&#8217;s Superman reboot has been met with a barrage of negative reviews from critics who have branded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[4781,77,3063,3943,512,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-251902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-celebrity","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-sgg","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114825682447873895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}