Superman

Our Verdict on Superman

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT: This review contains detailed plot analysis and reveals key story elements.

James Gunn handed America's oldest superhero symbol a progressive megaphone and pointed it at every culture-war flashpoint of the moment - immigration, media distrust, foreign intervention - and then had the audacity to make a movie with genuine emotional power underneath all of it. Superman (2025) is the most ideologically complicated blockbuster in years: a film with a traditional heart beating inside a very woke press campaign. The question isn't whether Gunn injected political messaging. It's whether the good old-fashioned heroism survives it.

The film opens in medias res, bypassing the origin story entirely. Superman (David Corenswet) has already been operating for three years. He's just prevented the nation of Boravia from invading its neighbor Jarhanpur - an intervention that immediately kicks off an international controversy. Enter Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), a Musk-adjacent tech billionaire who resents Superman's existence on principle: why should humanity bow to an alien when it has its own potential for greatness? Luthor deploys Ultraman - a metahuman Hammer of Boravia - to defeat Superman publicly, then retreats to Antarctica's Fortress of Solitude to steal Krypto the Superdog and uncover the full content of a Kryptonian message Clark's robots had been playing in edited form.

That message is the film's turning point. Jor-El and Lara, in the portion Clark never heard, explicitly instructed their son to conquer Earth and restore the Kryptonian bloodline through many wives. Luthor broadcasts it to the world. Superman is immediately declared public enemy number one. A right-wing talk show host named Cleavis Thornwaite (Michael Ian Black) leads the media charge, stoking xenophobic panic about an alien with conquest DNA. Superman, rather than fight the mob, voluntarily surrenders to the U.S. government - which promptly hands him over to Luthor. Clark is imprisoned in a pocket dimension alongside Metamorpho, drained of his powers by Kryptonite, and left to watch Luthor's schemes unfold.

Freed with the help of Luthor's own abused girlfriend Eve Teschmacher and Jimmy Olsen, Superman returns with a full heart. He teams up with the Justice Gang - Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, and Hawkgirl - to stop Luthor's final gambit: an interdimensional rift meant to tear Metropolis apart. In the climax, Krypto (the real MVP) physically breaks Luthor's arm, Superman defeats Ultraman, and Mr. Terrific seals the rift. The resolution is emotional rather than mechanical: Clark visits the Kent farm, hears Jonathan's quiet wisdom about free will over genetics, and replaces the Kryptonian recording with a montage of his human parents. He is not what Krypton made him. He is what Kansas built.

Trope Analysis - VVWS Weighted Scoring

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

• Authenticity: High=0.7, Moderate=1.0, Low=1.4
• Centrality: Low=0.5, Moderate=1.0, High=1.8

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity (1-5)	Authenticity	Centrality	Weighted Score
Gaza/Boravia geopolitical allegory (US-backed aggressor)	4	Moderate (1.0)	High (1.8)	7.2
Immigration-as-primary-metaphor (press-confirmed by Gunn)	3	Moderate (1.0)	High (1.8)	5.4
Anti-conservative media caricature (Cleavis Thornwaite)	3	Low (1.4)	Moderate (1.0)	4.2
Institutional betrayal - U.S. government surrenders hero to villain	2	High (0.7)	Moderate (1.0)	1.4
"Truth, justice, and the American way" deliberately softened	2	High (0.7)	Low (0.5)	0.7
WOKE TOTAL	19.0

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity (1-5)	Authenticity	Centrality	Weighted Score
Chosen identity over conquest - Clark rejects Kryptonian directive	5	High (0.7)	High (1.8)	6.3
Kent adoptive family as moral center and source of heroism	4	High (0.7)	High (1.8)	5.04
Self-sacrifice - voluntary surrender to government	4	High (0.7)	Moderate (1.0)	2.8
Traditional romance - Clark and Lois: love with moral accountability	3	High (0.7)	Moderate (1.0)	2.1
Classical masculine heroism - strength joined to moral restraint	3	High (0.7)	Moderate (1.0)	2.1
Loyal companionship - Krypto as family and hero	2	High (0.7)	Moderate (1.0)	1.4
Moral courage under pressure - optimism as strength, not naivety	3	High (0.7)	Low (0.5)	1.05
TRAD TOTAL	20.79

Score Summary: WOKE 19 | TRAD 21 | Margin: +2 TRAD

Woke Trap Assessment

NOT A WOKE TRAP - BUT READ THE FINE PRINT.

This film is not bait. James Gunn hasn't disguised a progressive lecture inside a conservative-coded package; he's done something more interesting and more honest. The traditional core - Superman choosing Kansas over Krypton, the Kent family as moral anchor, self-sacrifice over self-interest - is genuine and deeply felt. The progressive messaging is also genuine and openly signaled. Gunn told The Times of London that Superman is "an immigrant story" and "the story of America." He couldn't bring himself to say "the American way" in interviews, replacing it with "all those good things." These aren't dog whistles buried in subtext; they're positions Gunn has publicly argued.

Where it gets complicated: the film's most explicit woke content - the Boravia/Jarhanpur conflict widely read as a Gaza analog, the Thornwaite caricature, the immigrant framing - sits alongside genuine traditional storytelling that earns its emotional payoff. The traditional and the progressive content coexist in real tension, and the traditional elements win the scoring column if not the press cycle. Conservative viewers who can roll their eyes through the allegory and the cheap talk-show parody will find something worth watching. Those who cannot should know exactly what they're walking into.

Creative Team At A Glance

• Director/Writer: James Gunn - progressive public persona, more balanced filmmaking track record; this is his most politically explicit project
• Lead Producer: Peter Safran (DC Studios) - business-oriented, no strong ideological signal
• Superman: David Corenswet - physically faithful, emotionally precise; the most classically Superman casting since Reeve
• Lois Lane: Rachel Brosnahan - sharp, credible, the relationship works
• Lex Luthor: Nicholas Hoult - smarmy, menacing, the best Luthor in the DCU era
• Justice Gang: Edi Gathegi (Mr. Terrific), Nathan Fillion (Green Lantern), Isabela Merced (Hawkgirl) - all canonical DC characters faithfully cast
• Verdict Prediction (Pre-Release): MIXED, moderate confidence - confirmed by final product
• Fidelity Casting: FAITHFUL - core characters cast close to source material; no race-swapping of established characters

Director Ideological Track Record

James Gunn is the most complicated figure in the culture-war conversation about Hollywood. He's neither a propagandist nor a neutral craftsman. He's a filmmaker with a populist sensibility and a progressive political identity, and the gap between those two things has defined his career.

The Twitter Incident (2018): Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by Disney after old tweets joking about pedophilia, rape, 9/11, and the Holocaust were surfaced by conservative activist Mike Cernovich. Gunn had been a vocal Trump critic, making him a ripe target. He accepted responsibility, was eventually reinstated by Disney, and delivered GotG Vol. 3 in 2023. The episode clearly hardened his antipathy toward the political right - a fact visible in the Cleavis Thornwaite character, which reads like personal payback dressed up as satire.

Filmography Assessment:

Film	Year	Ideological Signal
Slither	2006	NEUTRAL - B-movie genre exercise
Super	2010	TRADITIONAL-LEANING - morally conservative on violence
Guardians of the Galaxy	2014	NEUTRAL/TRADITIONAL - found family, emotionally sincere
Guardians Vol. 2	2017	TRADITIONAL-LEANING - fatherhood, sacrifice, Yondu's death
The Suicide Squad	2021	MILDLY WOKE - U.S. government as villain, antiauthoritarian
Guardians Vol. 3	2023	MODERATELY WOKE - anti-eugenics, animal rights themes
Superman	2025	MODERATELY WOKE - immigration allegory, anti-conservative caricature

Pattern: Gunn's films reliably entertain and carry emotional sincerity. His progressive leanings intensify with each project but have not yet collapsed into full-blown propaganda. Superman is his most ideologically deliberate film, and the one where the gap between press persona and film itself is most consequential. The film is better than the press tour. The press tour is worse than the film.

Ideological Tendency: MODERATELY WOKE in public persona. MIXED in executed filmmaking.

Adult Viewer Insight

Conservative adults should go into Superman (2025) clear-eyed about what they're getting. The film is not the "SuperWoke" disaster its pre-release controversy suggested, nor is it the culturally neutral superhero epic some defenders have claimed. It is, accurately, a mixed bag - and the mix is genuinely interesting.

What Gunn gets profoundly right: David Corenswet's Clark Kent is humble, earnest, courageous, and in love. He's not tortured. He's not ambivalent about doing good. He believes in people and acts on that belief at real personal cost. Jonathan Kent's speech about free will determining identity more than genetics is a deeply conservative philosophical statement - and the film's emotional climax. The Kent family scenes are some of the most genuinely traditionalist filmmaking in recent Hollywood blockbusters. The adoptive family is the moral center. The dog is loyal. The hero believes in something. That's not nothing. That's actually a lot.

What Gunn gets wrong, or rather, what he chooses to inject: the Boravia/Jarhanpur conflict positioned as a Gaza analog, with the United States backing the aggressor. The Cleavis Thornwaite character is a transparent and personal smear of conservative media figures, one-dimensional in the way that tells you more about the filmmaker's grudges than the culture. Gunn's press tour comments - "he's an immigrant," "I couldn't say the American way" - primed audiences to see ideology where the film might have allowed them to just see a hero.

The $217 million opening weekend and $618 million global total suggest audiences largely separated the film from its press campaign. That's probably the right call. Watch it on its own terms. Note what it gets right. Note what it gets wrong. And appreciate that Corenswet is the real Superman we've been waiting for since Christopher Reeve hung up the cape. He deserves this role. The character, at his core, is still worth cheering for.

Parental Guidance

Recommended age: 8+ with parental engagement on political themes.

Violence: Kaiju attack on Metropolis and fight sequences with Ultraman are intense and sustained. Luthor kills a character on screen - handled with gravity, not gore. The pocket-dimension imprisonment scenes are threatening. No blood, no torture. Stylized action throughout.

Language: Mild. No significant profanity.

Sexual Content: Clark and Lois kiss. Their relationship is established as romantic and committed. Nothing beyond that.

The Real Concern: The film's immigration allegory is embedded throughout. Younger viewers will absorb the framing that skepticism of Superman equals xenophobia - and by extension, that skepticism of immigration equals bigotry. The Cleavis Thornwaite character teaches children that conservative media figures are cowardly buffoons driven by fear and ignorance. These are political lessons delivered in the language of superhero entertainment. Parents should be prepared for the conversation.

The antidote is the film's own traditional core. Use it. Talk about Jonathan Kent's speech about free will. Talk about why Superman surrenders to the government rather than fight the mob. Talk about why Krypto's loyalty matters. The good material is genuinely good. The political material is a launching pad for conversation, not a reason to skip the movie.

Woke Tropes & Content Analysis

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Gaza/Boravia Geopolitical Allegory	4	Moderate	High	7.2
Immigration-as-Primary-Metaphor	3	Moderate	High	5.4
Anti-Conservative Media Caricature (Cleavis Thornwaite)	3	Low	Moderate	4.2
Institutional Betrayal	2	High	Moderate	1.4
'American Way' Slogan Softened	2	High	Low	0.7
TOTAL WOKE				18.9

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Chosen Identity Over Conquest	5	High	High	6.3
Kent Adoptive Family as Moral Center	4	High	High	5.04
Self-Sacrifice and Voluntary Surrender	4	High	Moderate	2.8
Traditional Romance with Moral Accountability	3	High	Moderate	2.1
Classical Masculine Heroism and Restraint	3	High	Moderate	2.1
Loyal Companionship - Krypto	2	High	Moderate	1.4
Moral Courage Under Pressure	3	High	Low	1.05
TOTAL TRADITIONAL				20.8

Score Margin: +2 TRAD

Content Breakdown

Is Superman Safe for Kids?