There Was Nothing Super About Superman

Less than 24 hours after seeing and hearing Colin Blunstone perform at the Somerville Theatre, I returned to the venue to watch Superman.

I should have stayed home.

It was a last-minute decision to see Superman. I've seen all of the Superman reboots so I figured I would see this one as well. There was also the natural desire to get out of the house on a Saturday night.

A bit of background is in order. The very first movie I ever truly remember seeing in a movie theatre was when I saw the original Superman: The Movie when I lived in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1978 when I was 6-year-old. My Dad was on sabbatical that year and spent that year on the West Coast before returning to Thunder Bay the following year.

Seeing Superman: The Movie was a transformative experience for my senses in both sight and sound. Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent along with that of Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, respectively, made a deep and lasting impression. The special effects did not get in the way of the story. Whatever charm and humor Hackman brought to Luthor, the demarcation of good and evil was clear and unambiguous. 

The part of Superman which has stayed with me for nearly half a century is when Superman has to stop two nuclear missiles and finds Lois Lane dead in her automobile. His grief starts slowly and softly but then grows into a crescendo of unbridled rage as he screams into the stratosphere. Superman is momentarily stopped by Jor-El (as played Marlon Brando) forbidding him to interfere with the course of humanity. But he also hears the voice of his Earth father Jonathan Kent (as played by Glenn Ford) telling him he was put on Earth for a purpose. Superman then turns back time and finds Lois alive, well and in a typically bitchy mood and could not be happier about it.

Superman: The Movie set a very high bar. It is remarkable there have been three reboots of Superman in less than 20 years. I saw both Superman Returns and Man of Steel in 2006 and in 2013, respectively. Both Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill acquitted themselves well in the titular role though their portrayals were derivative of Christopher Reeve. Of the two films, I preferred Man of Steel. Kate Bosworth left me cold as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey's performance of Lex Luthor made me think of Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers franchise. Amy Adams was a much better Lois Lane in Man of Steel and her interactions with Jor-El (as played by Russell Crowe) were interesting. Chris Meloni also had a small role as an Army colonel who comes to realize that Superman is not our enemy.

While neither Superman Returns nor Man of Steel measured up to Superman: The Movie, they had their merits. I cannot say the same of James Gunn's interpretation in 2025. Christopher Reeve's interpretation of Superman was a better version of ourselves and someone to whom we could look up. David Corenswet's interpretation renders Superman into a far lesser figure. Indeed, in the final line of the movie, Superman says, "Sometimes I'm a real jerk."

There's really nothing super about Corenswet's Superman. For the majority of the film, he is made to look immature, weak, whiny and pathetic. Lois Lane and even Jimmy Olsen (played by Rachel Brosnahan and Skyler Gisondo, respectively) are presented as stronger characters. Nicholas Hoult's portrayal of Lex Luthor is generic and paint-by-numbers. Most of the film's fight scenes look like a glorified video game. 

Worse of all, Superman descends into anti-Semitic caricature as the plot is centered around the backlash against Superman stopping the nation of Boravia invading Jarhanpur. It becomes clear that Boravia is meant to represent Israel while Jarhanpur is meant to represent the Palestinians. The leader of Boravia, Vasil Ghurkos (as played by Zlatko Buric) is a one-dimensional madman intent on eliminating the people of Jarhanpur and appears intended to represent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They did everything but put a hook nose on Ghurkos and eat the blood of children.

I would hate to think that a 6-year-old child would see this version of Superman and view as their introduction to movies on the big screen and be etched into their memory for decades to come.

Of course, there will continue to be Superman movies because there is always money to be made. While Superman will make money, it shall not age well as it is will become a relic of the immaturity of Millennials and Gen Z and their preoccupation with social media to the exclusion of the real world. Whereas Superman: The Movie will endure for generations to come.