Saw the new Superman movie today.
Was not impressed.
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The film is very bland and two-dimensional. There are plenty of action scenes and drama scenes, but the film doesn't give due time to establish characters proper so those action and drama scenes don't hold whatever weight was intended.
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The background characters were fine enough, and so was Superman, albeit they weakened him to an almost ridiculous extent and made him pretty immature and whiny.
I did not like Lex Luthor, though. His character had a good start, being ruthless and jaded, but as the film progressed he became more control freaky and weird. The film also couldn't decide whether it wanted to be more of a light-hearted bronze-age feel or a grittier silver-age one and it flip flops a few times.
Example: At no point in the film are any characters badly injured or in any real danger, which is more bronze-age-like, but then there are scenes where Superman is wounded in fairly graphic fashion, and even one where Luthor executes a man who earlier in the film had helped Superman right in front of him.
This film has the bones of a good film, but very little of the volume. Not enough time and polish was given to scenes where it would have mattered most to simply let the moment sit and sink in with the viewer. Instead of any well fleshed-out struggles and progression, convenience after predictable convenience keep the plot moving toward a particularly unimpressive climax.
For a runtime of almost 2 hours, the 2025 addition of Superman does little to nothing to fully engage an audience.
