Tim Shen

As a longtime fan DC fan, I was eagerly anticipating James Gunn’s new reboot, but what we got was a chaotic, tonally confused mess that discarded its mythic story for quips, political jokes and rapid-fire worldbuilding to set up future films. The film opens with a painfully lazy minute-long subtitle crawl over generic Arctic B-roll. The movie is mostly “telling not showing” (in the clumsiest way possible) and has little to no visual immersion. What’s the central struggle? Kal-El is sent to Earth to form a harem and rule humanity. None of the characters, hero or villain, are introduced, explained, or developed. The film execute a chaotic name drop, but without emotional investment, they feel like trivia cards. Superman himself goes through zero growth. He starts perfect, stays perfect, and ends with no arc or meaningful struggle. It’s hard to root for a god when he never bleeds, doubts or learns. The CGI is shockingly subpar for a 2025 blockbuster – grainy, rushed and several notches below Man of Steel (2013), which looked better over a decade ago. Scenes abruptly cut off, conflicts aren’t resolved, and there’s constant tonal whiplash, going from heartfelt to making jokes about alien politics and saving squirrels. It’s not funny enough as a comedy, not daring enough as a drama, and certainly not profound enough to do justice to the Superman canon. Disappointing across the board and a total failure to serve as a new beginning for DC.