Supplanting Superman: A Faltering Reboot in Search of First Principles

I think, therefore I am offered René Descartes a rock on which to build a metaphysics. Superman 2025 was supposed to give James Gunn an equally unshakable cornerstone for a fresh DC universe. Instead, the film looks around for a footing, finds none, and sinks beneath the silt of its own ambitions.

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From the first scene it is clear that Gunn wants relevance more than resonance. The script darts after every modern anxiety, social media pile-ons, algorithmic propaganda, proxy wars, yet never lingers long enough to let any of them speak. Each reference is hurriedly name-checked, as if the director were waving a bingo card of current events, hoping the audience will mistake topicality for depth. The result is a Super suit stuffed with newspaper headlines, not with the muscular moral certainty that usually animates the Kryptonian.

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The dissonance grows louder whenever Clark opens his mouth. This is a Superman who already wears the famous crest, but whose worldview remains half-baked. He is asked to juggle cosmic threats and geopolitical crises while still nursing parental abandonment wounds, an emotional recipe that belongs to a Smallville farmboy, not a protector of Earth. Watching him stumble through crises feels less like mythic drama and more like James Gunn splashing action figures in a bathtub, complete with plastic sounding quips that never quite break the water’s surface tension.

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Actual BTS of James Gunn directing on set

Gunn’s vaunted “punk-rock” edge turns out to be a softly looped guitar riff announcing itself as hardcore. The soundtrack literally labels the hero a Punk Rocker, which only reminds the viewer that genuine rebellion does not need a tag. Likewise, the film’s gestures toward diversity read as sincere bullet points rather than lived experience. A single Middle-Eastern bystander is drafted to absolve American militarism, Latino villains appear to balance the casting ledger, and Hawkwoman flits across the frame like a note from the producer’s inclusion rider. Representation should feel woven into the world, not stapled to it.

When the plot finally twists, it snaps instead. A late game revelation, goofy enough for a throwaway episode of Justice League Unlimited, lands with a clang here because the surrounding script has promised gravitas. The scene that follows, Superman recuperating inside a holographic womb of parental memories, collapses any lingering illusion of heroic maturity. It is Superbaby, swaddled in sentimentality, not Superman shouldering the cosmos.

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Yet even misfires can spark briefly, and Superman 2025 boasts a few genuine embers. Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern gleams with sly confidence, stealing every shared frame. Mr. Terrific, carried by an actor who understands intellect as charisma, anchors a parallel plotline that almost justifies its screen time. The cameo from Supergirl, sardonic, volatile, promising, crashes in near the credits like a comet foretelling better celestial bodies ahead. These moments remind us what a cohesive ensemble could accomplish were it guided by a script that trusts its own characters.

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Unfortunately, the DNA of this reboot is already compromised. Gunn tries to graft the irreverent spark of Guardians of the Galaxy onto a mythos that thrives on earnest grandeur. The transplantation fails; stupidity that felt charming in the Marvel corner feels alien here because the hosts are different species. Guardians could wink at its own absurdity because its heroes were ridiculous by design. Superman can wink only if he first convinces us he is capable of tears.

For viewers seeking the steel in Man of Steel or the ethereal ache of All-Star Superman, this iteration will bruise more than it lifts. It is not irredeemable, pizza is still pizza, and a cape caught in the wind still stirs something primal, but it is a slice so smothered in fashionable toppings that the taste of dough and cheese never reaches the tongue. Gunn, newly anointed as DC’s architect, might yet refine his blueprint, but the foundation he has poured here is already spider cracked.

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lol, not in this universe.

Until the next re-re-reboot, the truest big screen (or small screen) Kal-El remains animated in 2011, racing against a dying sun while trying to father a child he can never hold. If you need reminding why the emblem matters, cue up All-Star Superman and feel gravity again. This new film has forgotten the weight, and so it floats away.

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Lucas.
Lucas.
 · 07/16/2025
Interesting perspective. You always bring something fresh to your reviews. I've heard a lot of positivity about this new Superman, but it's interesting to hear that it didn't hit the mark for everybody. I still need to watch it to form my own opinion.
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Charlie'sMovieMoveIt
Charlie'sMovieMoveIt
 · 07/15/2025
Agree agree. I found it difficult to criticize it as it wasn't necessarily a lousy movie and it had some merits, but it just felt so wrong as a DC movie. Some fans say Gunn honestly adapted the original comic, I never read the comic so I'm not sure, but it still felt wrong even compare to the 1978 movie.

Now to bounce off your point, I guess it was the feeling of "wanting to serious but ended up trying to be serious" made me felt "incapable". That's not a superman thing. That is a Lex Luthor thing. (By the way, his character was so inconvincing in this movie. Being one of the most clever man in DC universe, he can be jealous, but he was too easy to be swallowed by hate.)
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Ishika
Ishika
 · 07/15/2025
I cant get over that Bts pic. If you want real Sean Gunn, watch him as Kirk on Gilmore girls.
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