You are warned, there are definitely spoilers for Superman ahead!
James Gunn’s Superman, which opened this weekend as part of the 2025 movie schedule, is dominating the box office, but in the movie, Superman (David Corenswet) himself does not exactly dominate his enemies. In fact, starting with the opening scene, Superman is usually getting his butt kicked throughout the film. While I think Superman is great and a very solid start to the newly rebooted DC Universe, I did get a little frustrated as I watched, wondering just who was the most powerful superhero in this movie.
The first image we see of Superman, as it was with the trailer, is the Kryptonian lying bruised and bloody in the snow somewhere near, but not in, his Fortress of Solitude. Earth’s yellow sun heals him quickly, but as the title card says, this is the first time the Man of Steel has lost a battle.
It’s a great beginning, and I was immediately drawn in, but somewhere towards the middle of the film, I started to get really annoyed at how often Superman got his butt kicked by the villains. First by “The Hammer of Boravia” (who we later find out is actually Ultraman, played also by Corenswet), then later by Lex Luthor’s newly formed “Authority” led by Ultraman and The Engineer, played by María Gabriela de Faría (Superman has a great female cast).
He also has a rough go of it in Lex Luthor’s jail when he is debilitated by Metamorpho’s ability to turn into kryptonite. Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) gets the better of Superman while he’s in the cell, not by laying hands on him physically, but by roughing him up emotionally, while Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) does the physical bit. All in all, it’s a pretty rough movie for Superman.
Meanwhile, The Green Lantern is Seemingly Untouchable
While Superman is taking his lumps throughout the superhero movie, The Green Lantern, played wonderfully by Nathan Fillion, walks through disasters and battles with nary a scratch. He is unflappable and seemingly untouchable by any of the many enemies he faces throughout the movie. He’s even cocky about it.
This all leads me to wonder just who the real superhero is here? Superman is, for lack of a better term, human, throughout, while Lantern is unstoppable. He always knows what to do, and he saves Superman on more than one occasion, not to mention saving the people of Jarhanpur along with the other members of the “Justice Gang.” Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) both have their moments saving Superman, too. Even Kryto the dog saves Supe at one point.
This is all to say that while I did really enjoy the movie, and I think writer and director James Gunn nailed the tone of a great Superman story, it really started to bother me that Superman was never really “super” until the very end of the film. Gunn’s relaunch of the DCU is off to a great start, and I can’t wait to see Milly Alcock in Supergirl on the 2026 movie schedule. Her cameo was aces!
