In light of the recent release of the Superman movie directed by James Gunn, I decided to go watch it.

The recent disappointments in comic book superhero movies, such as Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Ironheart” as well as DC’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”, have caused expectations among fans for the genre to be extremely low.

“Captain America: Brave New World” brought in $400 million worldwide. Those numbers might seem solid, but satisfaction rates were dramatically low.

Meanwhile, Marvel completely dumped “Ironheart” onto Disney+ after receiving massive backlash due to the insufferable main character and her barrage of insults toward Tony Stark.

While DC did okay with Zack Snyder’s last movie, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”, bringing in $434 million worldwide, it marked the final DC film Snyder would be involved in. Many viewers said the movie was okay—nothing amazing.

So, I thought there wasn’t much to lose with “Superman”, a movie that wasn’t supposed to be an origin story, but rather a story about a younger Superman.

Personally, I never liked Superman. I always thought the character was too perfect. “Oh, his only weakness is a crystal that doesn’t even exist on Earth anymore!” It never seemed like good character writing.

That was also a big reason why I preferred Marvel growing up. The Snyderverse DC movies were gritty, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe was more kid-friendly—or at least as kid-friendly as a PG-13 movie could get. I thought Superman was a bad character because there was no lesson to learn from him. He was considered a perfect being.

Now flash forward to June 13. I had been—surprisingly—begging my dad to go watch it with me. Like I said, I used to hate Superman with a burning passion. But from the trailers, I got the sense that this wasn’t going to be the kind of Superman movie I was used to.

This movie took everything I thought I knew about Superman and flipped it on its head. It turned Clark Kent into a real character, rather than just Superman’s alter ego. David Corenswet completely stole the show with how he portrayed Superman as an emotionally intelligent, righteous man who genuinely wants to see the good in people and help those in need.

To everyone complaining about the comic book-accurate suit, this is a quote from Corenswet that I believe sums up the thought process of the suit beautifully. 

“The problem with the trunks is that they look kind of silly. So you can try to make them not silly. James [Gunn] I think was very pro trunks, but was struggling to find a way to not make them look silly. My contribution, I think, was to say, “What if the point is that they look a little silly?” He doesn’t wanna look cool. He wants to be Clark Kent. He wants to be the normal, bumbling guy just barely fitting in at work. There’s a piece of that with Superman as well. And the trunks are just a way of saying ‘I’m not too cool. I don’t take myself too seriously. Come say hi, come laugh at me. Who cares? I can take it.’…” 

Moving on to the other characters, Krypto is an absolute joy to watch on screen. Even though he was fully CGI, he felt like a real dog. I loved that they modeled him after James Gunn’s own dog, Ozu. The scene where Krypto jumps on Superman was actually based on videos of Ozu jumping on Gunn’s cat. The CGI team used those videos and transformed them into animation. That level of detail in Krypto’s animation was great to see and Superman’s breakdown after Lex Luthor stole him felt completely valid.

Lex Luthor is a top-tier hater and I loved Nicholas Hoult’s portrayal of him. You can tell that Luthor has deep-rooted, generational beef with Superman. Hoult nailed what I believe is a very comic-accurate personality for the character.

After the movie, my mom and I were talking in the car. She didn’t understand why Luthor was crying at the end. I explained it like this: he gave off major Jeff Bezos vibes—a greedy businessman who only holds power when the media and public are on his side.

He had no true power. His money came from sponsors and public support. Without the government or people behind him, he was nothing. So he cried out of anger. I appreciated that the movie didn’t just portray Luthor as a villain, but as a man—a spoiled toddler who didn’t get his way. Hoult made that character human.

Gunn not only managed to make a non-origin reboot of Superman, but he also introduced new characters without diving into overly long origin stories. Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific were introduced in a way that was compelling and set them up to appear in future films.

In this universe, Green Lantern is Guy Gardner—an absolute tool. Hawkgirl is a brutal fighter, the total opposite of Superman. She’s aggressive and throws herself into battle, while Superman is more calculated and careful, especially when it comes to protecting civilians.

There’s a scene in the second half of the movie where Hawkgirl grabs the president of Boravia, Vasil Ghurkos. He laughs in her face, saying she won’t kill him. She simply says, “I’m not Superman,” and drops him. His death isn’t shown on screen, so maybe he’ll come back—but it seems unlikely.

Mr. Terrific is this sarcastic, brilliant guy who moves the plot forward while delivering some of the film’s best jokes. He was my favorite of the three.

I appreciated that Gunn managed to fit all of this in without making it feel crammed. Some people complained that there were too many characters and too much happening at once, but I disagree. I think the film struck the right balance of giving these new characters space while still letting Superman be the star.

Lois Lane was another highlight. I love that she was portrayed as smart and strong—never the damsel in distress. She challenges Superman and questions his motives. Early in the film, there’s a scene where she interviews him as Superman and pushes back on his actions, asking about the legal consequences. Clark breaks his calm demeanor and snaps, “People were going to die!”

Someone online said, “Superman is a firefighter, not a cop.” That really stuck with me. Superman doesn’t think about legality when saving people. He acts on instinct because that’s who he is—someone who saves lives no matter what.

Lois never backs down and continues to challenge him throughout the film. She understands that good intentions don’t always equal good outcomes.

There’s a beautiful speech Superman gives to Luthor at the end, where he says that even though he’s Kryptonian, he’s still human—because he makes mistakes and doesn’t always know what to do. But he keeps going. “That’s being human.” Clark Kent isn’t just Superman. He’s not some brooding figure like Henry Cavill’s version. He’s someone who gets hurt, who trusts easily, who can be vulnerable.

I loved the portrayal of Jonathan and Martha Kent. I know some people didn’t like how “Southern” they were, but honestly, they just seemed like good people. They weren’t scholars teaching Clark about Kryptonian history or science. They were his “Ma” and “Pa,” raising him on a farm with good morals and love. Martha’s accent might’ve been a little exaggerated, but Jonathan sounded pretty normal. I hate the stereotype that Southern accents mean someone is stupid. I know plenty of smart people with strong accents.

Martha and Jonathan Kent looked and felt like a real, average American couple. You don’t need a tragic backstory to make a compelling character. These days, it feels like angst is the default—someone dies, there’s abuse, there’s trauma. But Superman doesn’t need all that. His growth comes from learning and adapting, not from pain.

In the beginning, I said I hated Superman because he was too perfect. But this movie proves he isn’t. He gets hurt. He bleeds. He cries. That’s also why I never liked Snyder’s Superman—we never saw any real emotion from him besides anger.

James Gunn knew exactly what he was doing with this movie. Superman may not be perfect, but it’s an incredible restart for the DCU.

While I was hoping for it to be a good movie, I never expected to walk out of the movie theater with a smile on my face.