July 17, 2025 – While there were probably superheroes before Superman, he was my first superhero growing up, both in the movies and on TV. It is good to see him back in a movie that features his human side.

An alien from the planet Krypton, who just happens to be exactly like a human, except for all those superpowers, has never made any sense at all, but it sure does make Superman relatable. This latest reboot of the franchise emphasizes Superman's (played by David Corenswet of “Pearl”) humanity. This interpretation is aided in no small part by the addition of a pet Kryptonian dog named Krypto. Nothing is more human than having to deal with a cute, lovable, but annoying pet dog who won't behave.

The movie opens with Krypto dragging an injured Superman back to the Fortress of Solitude where he is aided by a team of Kryptonian robots. Superman was injured in a battle with the powerful minions of supervillain Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult of “Warm Bodies”).

Superman is not alone in his fight against the evil machinations of Lex, however. He has allies in his fellow members of the Justice League of America (called the “Justice Gang” in this movie). The other Gang members are Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion of “The Suicide Squad”) Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi of “The Harder They Fall”) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced of “Dora and the Lost City of Gold”).

Things go south for Superman when Luthor invades his Fortress of Solitude and learns something about his original mission to Earth that causes the public (and some allies) to turn against Superman (with the aid of disinformation spread online by Luthor). Soon afterward Superman is cast into a prison inside a “pocket universe” created by Luthor, who has access to ridiculously advanced technology.

Can Superman escape from this prison, and rescue Krypto from the pocket universe as well, before Lex Luthor's mad schemes cause worldwide destruction? Can he win back public support? He does get some help from his girlfriend, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan of “Patriots Day”) and from Mister Terrific. Lois Lane, in turn, gets some help from Jimmy Olson (Skyler Gisondo of “The Social Dilemma”) by way of Lex Luthor's girlfriend, Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio of “Shadow”). Superman also gets some valuable guidance from his Earth parents, Jonathan (Pruitt Taylor Vince of “Constantine”) and Martha (Neva Howell of “Greedy People”) Kent.

Some critics call this a corny throwback to earlier films like the 1978 Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve, but that's not the way I see it. This film has more moral ambiguity and the bad guys are more evil and menacing in this new Superman movie. While this is lighter in tone than Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, it strikes a better balance between drama and comedy than a lot of other superhero movies. That is one reason it seems to have a more contemporary tone than the 1978 Superman movie.

Director James Gunn (“ Guardians of the Galaxy” movies) has certainly left his fingerprints all over this film, which shares a lot of story features with his earlier films, like the balance of comedy and drama and how it shows the difficulty of getting a team of headstrong heroes to work together. I would like to see more of this team of superheroes. It shows a lot of potential. This movie rates a B.

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