After watching Superman recently, my first thought was: Mr. Terrific > Supes. And that Krypto was the true hero of the film. But after I got those hot takes out of my system, I was thinking this wasn’t your average superhero movie. It actually felt like a buddy film… one which the secondary character always seems to rotate.
While I don’t think multi-hyphenate filmmaker James Gunn specifically had that in mind while he was writing, directing and producing (along with Peter Safran) it, that’s exactly what it feels like whenever there’s two main characters sharing the screen. Now, you’ve got your brief romantic interludes with Clark (David Corenswet) and Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). Then there’s your classic good vs. evil: Man of Steel vs. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). While in captivity, it’s Supes and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). You can’t forget about Ma/Pa (ever so briefly). And in what feels like the true team up of the film, Supes and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) are a great pair, working very well with each other on screen. You can’t forget about the true team-up that focuses on their future earnings potential, here: Gunn and Corenswet.
But the pairing that works best throughout the film’s entirety… is Superman and his pet dog, Krypto. Technically, the dog is his cousin’s, Kara Jor-El (Milly Alcock), as the film’s conclusion corrects me, but that’s a small fact that I don’t mind ignoring.
These two characters have appeared in DC Comics for decades now, and while they may seem a little corny by themselves, together, they’re as punk rock as apple pie. Well, you know what I’m hinting at… maybe?
While also being the film’s comedic relief, Krypto is the saving grace for this version of Superman, who isn’t as overpowered as he’s appeared in previous big-screen outings. Although CGI may have had a hand in presenting the pooch, as a longtime dog owner, it’s the only character here that truly sparked my interest whenever it appeared. And the way the film develops, I didn’t exactly turn into a true-blue Supes fan, either — I’m Team Batman, all the way. Having grown up with the Dark Knight, that was the line of demarcation of my childhood. I was either living the Batman or the Superman life, but not both. I chose the path of the Caped Crusader and haven’t looked back once.
I liked Superman (2025), but I didn’t love it. The movie offers a different version of Kal-El, along with a different perspective of the character. But it feels like the whole is greater than the sum of the parts for this release, as I liked its supporting characters a lot more than the main one. I even enjoyed Perry White and Jimmy Olsen more than Clark Kent!
With a worldwide box office resting around $615 million, Superman outperformed The Fantastic Four: First Steps this year, but its global cume underperformed. Politics definitely played a part; not every country is a fan of the USA. But this superhero didn’t exactly represent “the American Way” like it used to. In fact, the film’s writer-director-producer almost totally sabotaged its prospects before it was released, stating it was an “immigrant story,” but it still created a large first-weekend audience. And people kept paying to see it for multiple weeks afterward, as other offerings flopped and the fanboys cheered.
I’m slowly coming around to DCU > MCU and I’ve almost caught up with my backlog, as I’ve now watched The Suicide Squad, 1.5 seasons of Peacemaker and now Superman. Next up for spooky season: Creature Commandos! I’m actually enjoying these homework assignments a lot more than I expected!
It’s taken a while to get there, but I’m beginning to think that Safran and Gunn might just have a good thing going right now at Warner Bros…