A journalist in Metropolis embarks on a journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent. A film by James Gunn, starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
SUPERMAN
300 years ago, the first superpowered beings, known as METAHUMANS, appeared on Earth, ushering in a new era of GODS AND MONSTERS.
30 years ago, an extraterrestrial baby was sent to Earth in a spacecraft and adopted by Kansas farmers Martha (Neva Howell) and Jonathan (Pruitt Taylor Vince) Kent.
3 years ago, the baby, now grown, announced himself as Superman, the most powerful metahuman of all, while secretly working as journalist Clark Kent (David Corenswet) at the Daily Planet in Metropolis alongside Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Cat Grant (Mikaela Hoover), Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett), and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), with Perry White (Wendell Pierce) as editor-in-chief. Only Lois knows Clark’s true identity.
3 weeks ago, Superman stopped the country of BORAVIA from invading JARHANPUR, sparking controversy around the world. 3 hours ago, a metahuman called the HAMMER OF BORAVIA attacked Superman in the city of METROPOLIS. 3 minutes ago, Superman lost a battle for the first time, falling from the sky and crash-landing in Antarctica.
Injured and immobilized, Superman whistles for Krypto, who swoops in to rescue him. Krypto drags him to the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman’s robots quickly place him in a medical chair and restore his strength using concentrated solar radiation.
While in the Fortress, Robot #4 (voiced by Alan Tudyk) plays a recorded message from Superman’s parents to comfort him. The holographic projection features Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan), who speak lovingly of their son, Kal-El. They recount the destruction of Krypton and their decision to send him to Earth, where he could grow up to do good. However, the rest of the message is too damaged to restore.
Meanwhile, the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) tracks Superman to Antarctica and watches as he flies off to confront the Hammer of Boravia. As she moves in the opposite direction, she discovers Superman’s ice castle descending into the ice. Though she insists she can drill down to investigate, Lex demands she return to base immediately.
Superman returns to Metropolis to fight the Hammer of Boravia but is defeated again, proving no match for his opponent who receives real-time commands from Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), watching from his control room at LuthorCorp. It’s revealed that Lex has studied Superman for years, developing over 2,500 countermeasures for every possible scenario. He predicts Superman’s every move before Superman even makes it.
At the Pentagon, Lex Luthor pitches the Defense Department on hiring his elite metahuman team called PlanetWatch, which consists of Ultraman (the most powerful being on Earth), the Engineer (whose nanite-infused blood allows her to reshape her body into any form), and a squadron of advanced Raptor Guards. He argues they’re the only ones capable of taking down Superman. General Flag (Frank Grillo) opposes Lex’s plan, pointing out that Superman stopped the war between Boravia and Jarhanpur. Director Crawley (Tinashe Kajese) questions Lex’s ulterior motives, noting that Boravia spent over 80 billion dollars purchasing weapons from LuthorCorp in the past two years, making Lex the biggest profiteer from the war. Secretary of Defense Mori (James Hiroyuki Liao) remains skeptical. Without concrete evidence of Superman’s malicious intent, he insists that targeting Superman is too dangerous and not worth the risk.
After work, Lois finds Clark in her apartment cooking dinner to celebrate their three months of dating in secret. Lois teases Clark that if he keeps interviewing himself as Superman for his articles, people will eventually figure it out. Clark casually suggests that he should let her interview him instead. However, when Lois begins asking serious journalistic questions, the interview quickly turns into a heated argument. Clark becomes upset and storms out.
In Antarctica, Lex Luthor, his girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio), Ultraman, and the Engineer locate Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Though the structure is biometrically keyed to Superman’s DNA, the massive gates slide open without resistance. Once inside, the Engineer swiftly destroys all of Superman’s robotic defenses and captures Krypto.
Lex orders the Engineer to hack into the Fortress’s computer system, hoping to uncover something he can use to convince the world’s military leaders that Superman is a threat that demands immediate action. As she sifts through the data, the Engineer stumbles upon a damaged message from Superman’s parents, and manages to restore the missing fragments.
Meanwhile in Metropolis, Superman teams up with the Justice Gang, a metahuman group consisting of Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), also known as Green Lantern, Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), to battle a gigantic monster that Lex created as a diversion.
While Metropolis citizens celebrate after the monster is slain, Lex broadcasts Jor-El and Lara’s message to the world during his live interview with Sphere news reporter (Lawrence Gilligan), which includes the second half of the message that the Engineer recovered. To Superman’s shock, the recovered portion reveals that his parents sent him to Earth, calling it a planet of weak minds and spirits, so he could rule over it as the last son of Krypton. His mother urges him to take as many wives as possible to pass on Kryptonian genes so their legacy will live on.
The public turns against Superman exactly as Lex intended. When Superman realizes that Lex could only have gotten the message from the Fortress of Solitude, he races back there, only to find everything destroyed and Krypto missing.
Furious, Superman storms into Lex’s office, demanding to know where the dog is. Lex puts on an elaborate act of innocence, pretending he has no idea what Superman is talking about. Worried that Krypto might be in danger, Superman decides to turn himself in, hoping it will lead him right to Krypto.
Because of his powers, the government hands over authority to PlanetWatch to detain and interrogate Superman. He’s taken to a prison in a pocket universe, a self-contained space outside normal reality, created by LuthorCorp. Inside, Superman is rendered powerless as Lex forces Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) to synthesize Kryptonite, using Metamorpho’s infant child as leverage.
With Superman out of the picture, tension escalates as Vasil Ghurkos (Zlatko Buric), President of Boravia, sends his military troops to invade Jarhanpur, claiming they’re liberating the Jarhanpurians from a tyrannical regime, a claim that is entirely untrue. Meanwhile at the Daily Planet, Lois tries to figure out how Lex Luthor is connected to everything that’s happening. According to her findings, Boravia only paid $1.6 billion for $80 billion worth of LuthorCorp weapons. The numbers don’t add up, and Lois is determined to find out why.
Lois pieces it together, realizing that Lex is deliberately neutralizing Superman to prevent him from interfering with the Jarhanpur invasion. She shares her theory with Jimmy Olsen, frustrated that she can’t reach Superman and knowing the government will never reveal where they’re holding him. Jimmy texts his mysterious source and receives a message saying that Lex is holding Superman in a pocket universe.
Determined to find Superman, Lois visits the Justice Gang asking for their help. However, Guy Gardner refuses to get involved in breaking a federal prisoner out of jail. He also reveals that Superman wears Hypno-Glasses, which make his face appear different in people’s minds so they don’t recognize his real identity. Fortunately, Mister Terrific agrees to assist. Using his nanobot GPS trackers, which he’d secretly injected into Superman’s bloodstream, he manages to trace Superman’s last known location before he disappeared.
The concept of Hypno-glasses first appeared in Action Comics issues #32 and #33 in 1940, where it was suggested that Clark’s glasses were made from the windshield of his Kryptonian spaceship and could amplify his super-hypnosis powers. Unlike ordinary glasses, these special glasses are said to have hypnotic properties that subtly alter how others perceive Clark, making him appear as a different, less imposing person and effectively hiding his true identity as Superman. This idea was further developed in 1978’s Superman #330, which explained that Superman subconsciously used his super-hypnosis, aided by the glasses, to create the illusion of a separate identity.
Look up.
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A film by James Gunn, starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
Written and directed by American filmmaker James Gunn, SUPERMAN marks the first film in the new DC Universe (DCU) from DC Studios. It is the second reboot of the Superman film series, following the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) films that ran from 2013 to 2023.
While Superman is undoubtedly one of the most popular and iconic characters in DC Comics history, with several actors bringing their own interpretation to the role, I find James Gunn’s version to be my favorite iteration of the character.
The story strikes a perfect balance between lighthearted and heartfelt moments, and David Corenswet brings a natural charm that makes the character feel quirky, entertaining, and fun, which is exactly how Superman should be.
Despite being the most powerful being on the planet, this version also explores the concept of loneliness, showing us an alien who’s simply trying to find his place among humans.
Nicholas Hoult delivers a powerful performance as Lex Luthor, bringing new complexity to the infamous villain. Every time he appears on screen, he commands complete attention and seems to hold all the cards, making him appear almost unbeatable.
SUPERMAN deserves to be seen on the biggest screen you can find. It’s probably the only Superman film that I actually want to watch again.
SUPERMAN premiered at the TCL Chinese Theater on 7 July 2025. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 11 July, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
