INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, welcome back to the mattofficialstudios show, the show where I do my best to give you reactions, breakdowns, media reviews, & discussion videos all from a devout catholic perspective.

Please join me as we say (sign of the cross & a Hail Mary).

Today, I am reviewing the latest addition to the worldwide best-selling DC phenomenon, James Gunn's “Superman.” I would say “how did he grab that title from the 1978 movie,” but that one was titled “Superman: The Movie,” so…. yeah, forget that whole question. Nope, I literally just looked it up, & it was called “Superman”.... Ah, that was 47 years ago, who cares, that’s long enough for it to become public domain, come on!

I HAD MIXED HOPES ABOUT THIS MOVIE

I gotta admit I had confused hopes for this movie for 3 reasons; 1) because at first I was like “oh great, another Superman movie, for like, the millionth time” 2) because director James Gunn revealed that Superman would be political in this movie, which directly ties into 3) Superman is my ultimate OG comic character, surpassing even Iron Man or Captain America, which is sayin’ something, & if ANYONE was gonna DARE ruin, mess with or hurt MY Clark Kent in ANY way, shape or form, ohhhhhh, that would simply be beyond forgiveness…. but thankfully, that isn't the case!

FIRST TIME I SAW THIS HAPPEN IN A THEATER

This is the first time I’ve ever seen this happen, but the theater showed what looked like an extended extra sneak peek teaser of the film before playing 2 more trailers & then playing the actual film. I have no idea why that was put in there, but I ain’t complaining, it was just random & confused everyone else in the theater as well.

WHAT I’LL FOCUS ON IN THIS REVIEW

Now, I would normally summarize the movie’s plot & scenes, as I did with my “Jurassic World: Rebirth” review, go listen to that as an example, but instead, I’ll focus more on why I believe James Gunn was slightly misleading saying Superman was “political” in this movie & why I disagree at first based on my initial perception. I also just watched Michael Knowles’ review of the movie to hear his thoughts & for some inspiration, so I’ll be quoting him quite a bit with what I’m about to say. In that case, please go watch his review before you continue with this one. If it’s not linked in the description cause I forgot again, just search “Michael Knowles Superman Review” on YouTube, it’s not hard to find.

I WAS SCANNING FOR POLITICAL ELEMENTS THE WHOLE TIME

First things first; I kid you not, the entire time I was in the theater, I was consciously, but mainly subconsciously, scanning for anything in the movie that sounded even remotely political. Now, I’m no political expert by any means, I don’t wanna be, that’d be a pretty sad life in my opinion, but based on what I know from our political culture in the US from the past 5 years, I had a mental checkbox at what I assumed would be in the movie for it to look or sound “political” to me if that makes any sense.

I did not in any way perceive this movie or any part of it as a full-on woke, liberal or political agenda. There were definitely political ELEMENTS in it, subtle ones, a few I even found a bit funny, but that’s different to me than it being blatantly political.

THE PRIMARY POLITICAL ELEMENTS IN THE MOVIE

The primary “political” elements in the movie are 1) superman being an illegal alien, not being granted the miranda rights & later claiming to be just as human as all of us, 2) his foster dad telling him that a parent’s job isn’t to tell their kids who they are, it’s solely their choices that define so, which I already commented on in my breakdown of the trailers, go watch that video if you haven’t already, 3) Lois once calling one of the main characters a “hot ex girlfriend,” & 4) Superman having an identity crisis after discovering his biological parents not only sent him to earth to serve humanity, but later contradicting that saying he’s meant to be an unruly tyrant dominating all the retarted citizens of earth, being supreme Lord & such. Look at those two halves of the message, do they not sound contradictory to you at all?

So now let’s break these down.

First, Superman being an illegal alien, not being granted the Miranda rights & later claiming to be human as well. Superman being an illegal alien never crossed my mind for a second watching all the other DC movies, let alone this one, but again, this is where politics starts to subtly shine itself onto the plot. Politically speaking, Superman IS an illegal alien considering he crash-landed on Earth without going through the proper immigration process beforehand, but it’s nonetheless science fiction, & politics doesn’t belong in science fiction, so to hell with that. Knowles even said how Superman being denied the Miranda rights due to being an alien is ridiculous since our country does grant aliens & illegal immigrants the Miranda rights, but that’s besides the point. Knowles said Superman claiming to be just as human as the rest of us was a super blunt reference to the liberal agenda on America & humanity just being ideas, saying he’s not human & is a literal alien. I 1000% agree with Michael Knowles on a literal basis, but I believe Superman was being metaphorical. He’s saying he’s more human than Luthor will ever be because of his values, where his heart is & what he stands for as a resident of Earth, which I also 1000% agree with. So Knowles was still right, I just think he blew off the metaphorical context Superman was implying. However, film is subjective, so that’s valid.

Second, Jonathan Kent tells Clark that a parent’s job isn’t to tell their kids who they are, but it’s their choices that define & tell them who they are. Knowles said it is absolutely a parent’s job to tell their kids who they are cause what else does a parent do, what else is their job, which I 100% agree with. But I also agree with being lenient enough to allow your kids to experiment & make their own mistakes in order to learn, grow & develop in their own, individual way. Damn, that was a good accidental bar. I already mentioned this is my trailer breakdown, which will be linked down below or just search it on YouTube, but to summarize, our choices & actions do absolutely speak loud volumes to what & who we are, but our actions & choices alone do not solely, permanently define us. Cause if they do, then what’s the point of changing & becoming a better person if ALL your actions, even your most hideous ones, always remain a part of you, according to society? So Jonathan’s claim about choices defining you is only half right & his claim about a parent’s job is entirely wrong, but it didn’t even come from him, it came from the screenwriters, so he’s off the hook…. Maybe.

Third, Lois calls one of the main characters a “hot ex-girlfriend.” One of Lois & Clark’s best friends from work is Jimmy Olsen, & Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend is Eve Teschmacher. That is a guess, I could have that totally wrong, please fact check that, I prolly sound like a totally clueless dumbass. Anyways, Jimmy’s ex takes numerous physically appealing selfies of herself throughout working with Luthor before she’s let go before trying to expose him, & that’s exactly where Lois’ line comes in. As Eve is getting all the proof ready to send to Jimmy, she says she’ll only send it if they can spend the whole weekend together & being way too loud while doing it. When Luthor catches her & starts dragging her to her prison cube, she sends the files to Jimmy just before dropping her phone. And whaddya know? This annoying as hell, self-absorbed, clueless, stereotypically hot diva of a woman not only sends Jimmy all her sexy photos, which I will assume was intentional unless her psychotic breakdown just caused her to send the wrong files, but Lois spots one sexy photo in the gallery with a map in the background that shows proof Lex was a traitor from the start. And when she sees it, she’s like, “Jimmy, your hot ex-girlfriend is a genius,” which just leaves him nothing but confused. Now, this line is ever so slightly by the tiniest sliver hinting at lesbian vibes from Lois, but I know it was put in the script purely for comedy & women nowadays call each other “hot” & “girlfriend” all the time with no lesbiand intent behind it cause that’s just their banter, so I can definetly let that slide.

Last but not least, Superman discovers that his parents not only sent him to earth to serve & protect humanity, but to be a nasty, unruly tyrant, dominating them all, which understandably leads him to having a full mental breakdown & identity crisis. Now, the only political component of this is the reference to people with gender dysphoria, homosexual attraction, identity disorders, anything relating to folks having an identity crisis cause they believe they’re born or trapped in the wrong body, they feel same sex attraction & believe they’re forced to act on it, living a sinful lifestyle, etc. All of that is fair & a valid perception, but the connection between all that & what’s happening in the movie is so incredibly small, it’s almost non-existent, cause it was all a massive miscommunication, to understate it. The movie explains this, but the message Superman’s bio parents sent with him to Earth was damaged during transmission, so the second half was completely corrupted. The first half was his parents saying how they’re sending him to earth to save his life as Krypton is falling apart & he’ll do good on earth, etc. & he assumed he knew how it ended. One of Luthor’s minions manages to not only unlock the second half by some technological miracle, but also have top of the line professional linguists translate it to English, which says Superman will rule over & dominate earth like a filthy tyrant & control all the stupid, moronic, weak humans of earth. This, obviously, leaves Superman stunned & starts re-evaluating his entire life, let alone identity, telling Lois he thought he knew what the message meant & in no way shape or form did he ever intend to rule over Earth, nor would he ever intend that. This is one of my favorite bits of the movie where she says, “I never believed that, Clark. Not even for a moment.” Again, the connection between this whole scene & its political component is so unbelievably small & barely noticeable that I didn’t mark it on my mental checklist as a political part of the movie, it was just a basic misunderstanding that resulted in a huge mental breakdown, questioning why his parents really sent him to earth. And this goes right back to Jonathan’s claim on parenting, an implication of it I totally missed, where he said despite whatever reason Clark’s bio parents sent him to earth for, he ultimately decided who he would be; a pure-hearted, absolutely law-abiding citizen with the will to do good, protect & serve. Ok, that law-abiding comment was kind of a joke, but it’s not like he’s robbing banks or something, just destroying several city blocks during his battles. But in all honesty, what else do you expect from the most powerful metahuman in existence tryna destroy these egregiously huge monsters in the middle of New York City? I think it’s New York City?... ehh, who the hell cares, it’s not like he can just yeet them in the Sahara Desert despite having superstrength.

THE CASTING CHOICES (BRADLEY COOPER AS JOR-EL)

Now let’s go over the casting choices. They got Bradley Cooper to play Jor-El in this film, which I honestly have no comment on considering it was so brief. There’s not even a lot of emotion or effort put into the character since all you see him & Lara do is appear in the recording of the message they sent with Superman speaking in a totally foreign language. It’s later translated to English, but the translation sounds like an entirely different person. They also got John Cena & Sean Gunn to be in the movie for like, 2 seconds in totally different scenes, which again, I have no comment on because it was so brief. I’m not complaining about these particular casting choices, they just weren’t on screen for nearly as long as I hoped, but that’s fine.

THE CASTING CHOICES (ISABELA MERCED AS HAWKGIRL)

I may be biased cause she’s sort of a celebrity crush of mine, which won't last forever, but I absolutely adore so much that they put Isabela Merced in this movie as Hawkgirl, she did ABSOLUTELY terrific. I already knew Hawkgirl was a comic character, but I thought she was connected to Hawkeye in some way or another. After just Googling it, I was clearly wrong, she’s exclusively a DC character, so that’s good to know for future reference. Isabela is just so pretty & attractive in every way, shape & form, & I LOVE every movie I’ve seen her do so far. I’m not a fan of what she’s worn in some of her public photos, but it’s Hollywood & that’s neither here nor there. She’s also 24 years old & I’m 19, so I can legally say all that, haha. Yes, I Googled her age as I was writing this script, which I was gonna do regardless out of curiosity.

THE CASTING CHOICES (NATHAN FILLION AS GREEN LANTERN)

I’d say the most interesting casting choice in no good or bad way was Natnan Fillion as Green Lantern because 1) I’ve only seen Green Lantern portrayed in this Justice League cartoon show I used to watch & all the lego movies, so I have very little depth on what his character is & how it’s intended to be portrayed, & 2) I’ve only seen Nathan on screen as Hermes in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, so I have no extensive detail on his overall acting history. I’m not upset at Nathan playing Green Lantern, he actually made him pretty funny which is a thumbs up for me, but it is not at all a casting choice I would’ve predicted having known beforehand Green Lantern would be in this film at all, but he did great nonetheless. I haven’t seen or heard many actors play or voice Green Lantern on screen, besides knowing Ryan Reynolds did him for a movie years ago that I haven’t seen yet, so I don’t have any ideas or suggestions on who else could have been casted, in theory.

THE CASTING CHOICES (NICHOLAS HOULT AS LEX LUTHOR)

Nicholas Hoult was the most brilliant Lex Luthor I’ve seen on screen since Jesse Eisenberg from Batman v Superman. He played Luthor so perfectly in every conceivable way, they couldn’t have picked a better man to play him for this movie. He also looks EXACTLY like Luthor from the comics when you make him bald & shaved, which is a thousand times cooler. I knew I recognized his name & face when I saw the trailer, I just couldn’t picture exactly where, so I skimmed his filmography on IMDb. The only films I’ve seen him do are, regrettably, Nosferatu (2024) as Thomas Hutter, The 2024 Garfield Movie as Jon & Deadpool 2 as Beast. I most likely remember him from Nosferatu…. Well, that’s unfortunate. He did great in the other two, though I didn’t particularly recognize or notice him in them.

THE CASTING CHOICES (RACHEL BROSNAHAN AS LOIS LANE)

Rachel Brosnahan plays Lois Lane. Though Amy Adams did absolutely spectacular as Lois in the previous Superman movies, I again, have no depth whatsoever on what Lois Lane’s core character & personality is & how it’s intended to be portrayed on screen, so I can’t personally claim who did better or not. What I can say is that Rachel too, did quite spectacular at portraying Lois in this movie, & in my opinion, looks a bit more like Lois Lane to me than Amy Adams, but they both did individually great.

THE CASTING CHOICES (DAVID CORENSWET AS SUPERMAN)

And of course, last but not least, David Corenswet as Superman. At first, I'm like, “how did he even get the part besides coincidentally looking just like Superman,” and then I'm like, “he auditioned dummy, that's how you first get the part.” I haven't even seen too many superman actors on screen to further verify this, but I kid you not, David is the best superman I've seen since Henry Cavill, & Henry Cavill kinda redefined the image & character of Superman for all of us.

THE FIRST SUPERMAN MOVIE I EVER SAW

The first Superman movie I saw was Superman Returns with Brandon Ruth, & he was great, but I never looked further into him as an actor or saw more of his filmography. Henry Cavill was, again, a revolution for Superman & gave us a new perspective of who Superman is & what he does. He doesn't dethrone Henry by any means, but David did a surprisingly impressive job at playing Superman, he even put a little extra comedy into Superman Henry never really exercised except in Justice League for like, 2 seconds. & like I said, I already know David from Twisters, where he played Scott, a totally different type of character, so it was great to see him on screen again.

CONCLUSION

Well, that is my full & honest review of the new 2025 DC movie, Superman, written & directed by James Gunn, starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan & Nicholas Hoult. Thank you all for watching & listening, please visit the IMDb page & movie website linked in the description for more information of the movie itself, visit mattofficialstudios.com for more content from me & visit my link in bio for more absolutely not exclusive content, God bless, & I’ll see y’all next time, peace.