{"id":49829,"date":"2025-07-08T22:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T22:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49829\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T22:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T22:35:11","slug":"superman-review-this-migraine-of-a-movie-is-superhero-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49829\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman review \u2014 this migraine of a movie is superhero soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The question has tormented comic book fans for months. How will this new, rebooted and ninth Superman movie<\/a> of the modern era \u2014 a series that started with Christopher Reeve in 1978 \u2014 approach the central character, now played by the TV star David Corenswet. Will he emphasise the folksy energy of Reeve while battling a series of near-invincible alien beings? Will he be a slightly bland smoothie like Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, negotiating a romance under the shadow of apocalyptic threats from Lex Luthor? Or will he be a moody battler in the Henry Cavill mould, struggling to find a character amid garish CGI pyrotechnics and tediously protracted fight scenes? The answer, alas, is simply yes. Yes to it all.<\/p>\n

And so Superman has indeed returned in a maximalist migraine of a movie, directed and written by the Guardians of the Galaxy veteran James Gunn, a film-maker also charged here with launching a new \u201cuniverse\u201d of DC-sourced movie adventures. Good luck with that. Gunn approaches the nerdosphere\u2019s most celebrated property like a giddy amnesiac who has missed the precipitous rise and fall of multi-character Marvel superhero movies and is instead stuck somewhere in the early 2010s. Nor has he apparently seen the recent Marvel instalment Thunderbolts, a genuinely delicate film about mental health that ended five \u201cphases\u201d and several billion dollars of lycra-clad mayhem with the tacit acknowledgment that comic book bombast was dead.<\/p>\n

Superman begins in medias res with a battle between Corenswet\u2019s hero, a mysterious masked villain called Ultraman and a mutant female villain called the Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria). Both baddies are controlled remotely via series uber villain Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult with the kind of screen-chewing, jugular-busting intensity that suggests his only directorial notes were \u201cMore! More! More!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 James Gunn: Some people will take offence at my new Superman<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Luthor is furious with Superman for interfering with a lucrative military conflict between the fictional warring neighbours of Boravia and Jarhanpur. These nations are variously coded in newsy exposition as either India and Pakistan or Russia and Ukraine until, in a sun-scorched sequence near the end, we witness a skirmish that has unfortunate, and deeply uncomfortable, echoes of an IDF incursion into Gaza.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on Planet Overkill a giant lizardy thing is about to crush Metropolis too, but thankfully Superman is joined by his super-dog Krypto (breed: CGI) and a friendly team of Avengers-lite superheroes called the Justice Gang, including Nathan Fillion\u2019s Green Lantern and Isabela Merced\u2019s Hawkgirl. Fillion, mugging broadly in a bowl cut, is presumably awaiting a DC Studios spin-off and plods dutifully through some \u201cironic\u201d genre gags that would\u2019ve been cut from even the weakest episode of the TV satire The Boys.<\/p>\n

\"USA<\/p>\n

Corenswet battles to save Metropolis again in the latest adventure<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Read more film reviews,<\/b><\/a> guides about what to watch <\/b><\/a>and interviews<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile (yes, we\u2019re still on meanwhile), Luthor is experimenting with an atomic collider that has accidentally torn asunder the fabric of the universe and created an all-consuming black hole. This is the cue for some enervating \u201cfifth dimensional\u201d sequences that are very Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and ultimately suggest that some kind of AI for blockbusters has masticated and then vomited out the narrative lowlights of almost every superhero movie since the first Iron Man.<\/p>\n

There are glimmers of intrigue, as well as quirks and curios. Rachel Brosnahan performs miracles with her threadbare Lois Lane, making you wish for more than the paltry scenes she\u2019s given with Corenswet (a serviceable turn). There\u2019s a handful of callbacks to the Reeve era, including the title font, as well as a belaboured running gag about office gofer Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) being irresistible to women. Plus, in this world, the power of the broadsheets is unassailable. They can stop war, instantly, with a single headline. And they can alter the fate of the entire universe. Turning back time and creating better superhero movies? If only.
\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606\u2606
12A, 129min<\/b>
In cinemas from Jul 11<\/b><\/p>\n

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Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture<\/a> to read the latest reviews<\/p>\n