(may contain spoilers)
Douban rating: 6.7
Director: James Gunn
Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi
Douban Comments: “I attended an early screening of the film at a film festival promo event. To get straight to the point: I’d give it a 7 out of 10.
Director Gunn promised to bring us a brighter, more hopeful Superman, and he delivered. The movie borrows a lot of elements from the comic All-Star Superman.
Pros:
- The chemistry between Superman and Lois Lane is really good.
- If you enjoy the humor and comedy style of Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ll probably like this too.
- There’s a big final fight scene that’s similar to the hallway fight in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. That part alone made the ticket worth it for me.
Cons:
- Costume design: same old complaints, nothing new to say.
- Some of the CGI looked really bad, honestly hard to watch at times. Think of The Flash (2023) as a comparison.
- The whole movie feels a bit like a ‘Pro max’ version of Superman Returns, but packed with too many Marvel-style jokes from Gunn.
If you’re a DC fan, it’s definitely worth checking out. This is just my personal opinion.”
“An old-school superhero film enters a new world, cartoonish, humorous, and refreshingly direct, only to be deconstructed through a modern lens, revealing that perhaps it was always meant to be this simple.
In this way, James Gunn completes a kind of tonal migration from Marvel to DC. Drawing from his early roots in Troma-style B-movie chaos, he’s developed a surprisingly versatile storytelling formula: whether or not there’s a clear main character, there’s always a colorful ensemble of side characters built around punchlines, crude jokes, edgy violence, ironic banter, cute creatures, and so on. It feels like a blend of genre-driven Hong Kong cinema and low-budget cult films, and strangely, it works.
At a time when the superhero genre has bloated itself to the edge of collapse, teetering on the verge of absurdity and exhaustion, this seemingly irreverent return to basics might just be a real way forward. Especially for Superman, a cultural cornerstone who, under Zack Snyder’s vision, had already been pushed to the limits of modern reinterpretation.
Is this a conservative step back, or a bold step forward? Gunn’s anti-hero pocket universe seems to have swallowed the very manifesto of modern superheroism. Now, DC’s future looks far more uncertain than Marvel’s, not just in a worrying way, but also in a hopeful one.”
“5.5/10 – A disappointing reboot.
I’ve never been the target audience for James Gunn, and once again, his out-of-place jokes undercut every potentially meaningful moment. Any narrative tension is completely drowned in a flood of cheap gags and exaggerated close-ups, leaving no room for genuine emotional connection. You were asked to make a fairy tale for adults, but instead you made children’s literature?
From the lead actor’s performance to the way the characters are written, everything feels clumsy. I see no signs of mature storytelling, and not a single character stands out.
The CGI and costume/set design are jarringly inconsistent, as if the characters and backgrounds were rendered on different layers entirely. It’s hard to believe in the story when the visuals themselves feel so disjointed.
The only remotely impressive aspect was the first-person or near first-person flight shots, which offered some brief sensory excitement. But even that is nothing new at this point.”
“It’s actually pretty fun, and totally relatable, even if you haven’t seen any previous versions. All the essential elements are there: big set pieces, solid effects, great action. The hype moments really deliver 100% satisfaction.
What’s more, the story adds some thoughtful touches, exploring Superman’s humanity and how he becomes Superman. So alongside the excitement, there’s real emotional warmth too.”
“A rookie version of a god among men.
The experience is… subtle. Nothing particularly stunning or memorable, but not bad either. This new Superman feels like a fresh graduate stepping into the real world, naive, sincere, even a bit fragile.
His godlike qualities are brought fully down to earth, making him more relatable, but in doing so, some of that divine allure is inevitably lost.”
