Superman (2025)

Superman’s arch enemy, Lex Luthor, is determined to eliminate him once and for all. But can he?

Superman. He’s iconic, right? He’s been played by so many actors over the years, most notably Christopher Reeves, and yet this most recent iteration seemed fresh. And that’s in no small part due to the cast. Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) is Lois Lane. Wendell Pierce (Elsbeth, Amazon Prime’s version of Jack Ryan) is her boss at The Daily Planet. The list goes on, but mentioning all of them here might take up the rest of the review.

The movie may be one of the most recent at the box office, but its themes were a familiar tale as old as time. One more name drop just to say that Nicholas Hoult’s — along with the writer’s and costume designer’s, of course — take on Lex Luthor seemed to be a combination of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Musk because Luthor is an obsessive, xenophobic technocrat, and Bezos because he’s bald. Much cuter than Bezos in real life, though. Obviously.

Luthor is obsessed with ridding the world of Superman just because he’s an alien. Which, while actually a fact, isn’t quite fair, because Clark Kent grew up on Earth, and he wants nothing more than to help humanity, though he may cause some collateral property damage in the process.

The visual effects were solid. That is to say, green screen or whatever other effects the movie may have used aren’t glaringly obvious. But the cutest visual effect was Krypto, Superman’s dog. He may not be the best behaved puppy, but he comes in clutch when Superman needs him. Fun fact: Krypto isn’t completely CGI. James Gunn, who directed the movie, used his dog to do motion capture.

Go see this before it leaves theaters, if it’s possible. It doesn’t disappoint.