4 h. ago What the culture war over Superman gets wrong | Noel Ransome

Rightwing commentators are furious over the superhero’s positioning as an immigrant. But his story was crafted to cushion uneaseWe’ve entered the era of the superhero movie as sermon. No longer content with saving the world, spandex saviors are now being used to explain, moralize and therapize it. And a being from Krypton has shown up once again in a debate about real life; about borders, race and who gets to belong. Superman. Of all symbols.I’ve read reactionary thinkpieces, rage-filled quote tweets and screeds about the legal status of a fictional alien – enough to lose count. This particular episode of American Fragility kicked off because James Gunn had the audacity to call Superman “the story of America”. An immigrant, by definition, as he was always meant to be.Noel Ransome is a Toronto-based freelance writer Continue reading...

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8 h. ago ‘I’m not a fan of hero movies, but the world needs to listen to Superman 2025'

In a world where governments are turning a blind eye to Israel's genocide in Gaza, Superman's anti-war message is revolutionary.

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29 h. ago Superman director says Henry Cavill was fired from DC in ‘terrible’ way

‘It was really unfair to him,’ director and co-DC boss said

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3 d. ago A real wag: Superman gets the bleak realities of dog ownership spot on

Hollywood has hitherto been ridiculously soppy over canines. The scrappy, wild and disobedient beast here is as annoying as the real thingSuperman might be one of the most confusing blockbuster films to hit the big screen this year. The tone, as you might expect from a goofball superhero movie that is plainly about the invasion of Gaza, is all over the shop. Too many characters contribute too little to the plot. There are moments when it feels like it was written specifically to provide work for the silly-glasses and ironic-haircut industries. It is a bit of a mess.But that said, one thing is demonstrably true: the dog is cool. As shown in the trailer, Krypto the superdog is Superman’s secret weapon. A mile away from his last screen outing, where he was muscular and proud and voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Superman’s Krypto is scrappy and wild. He doesn’t obey commands. He destroys whatever equipment is put in front of him. Whenever he may or may not save the day, it seems lik...

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4 d. ago A thrilling 2025 film that slipped under the radar with Superman star arrives on Disney+

The film features an Oscar winning actor and a Matrix star

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4 d. ago Did Superman kill the press junket? How TikTok clips conquered movie publicity

From the new Superman geeking out on Star Wars to the Wicked cast crying, actors’ personality insights are now distilled into reel-friendly clips and internet boyfriend-baiting soundbitesThe new Superman is a tricky proposition to market. Not only does it represent a new reimagining of an 87-year-old character, but it also has to tell everyone who David Corenswet is. The new Superman is a complete unknown to many of us, and you suspect that a hefty slice of the film’s promotional budget has been given over to selling the guy to the world.In the old days, this would have been achieved with wall-to-wall press interviews. Big, hefty cover stories in key publications in every territory, where interviewers would attempt to plumb the depths of his psyche to see if he can pass muster. But that hasn’t really happened. Instead, there is a very big chance that – if you’re the right age – you will have learned everything you need to know about David Corenswet from a couple of TikToks. Continue...

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5 d. ago Superman shows we were all wrong about the blockbuster summer of 2025

James Gunn’s new film has shrugged off ‘superhero fatigue’ to become one of the biggest and brightest blockbusters of the year. When it comes to mainstream filmmaking, there’s a lot of doom-mongering – but Louis Chilton sees reasons to be cheerful

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6 d. ago Superman: identity crises, fascist space holograms and a super furry animal – discuss with spoilers

Has director James Gunn reinvented the superhero film – or just lovingly detonated it? Let’s have a deep dive into the new Man of Steel movie• This article contains spoilers for SupermanJames Gunn’s Superman is a curious film: so earnest, so heartfelt, and so defiantly weird it sometimes feels less like a reboot of the world’s most iconic superhero and more like an elaborate fan project. Most of us will be relieved we’ve said goodbye to the heavy metal space Jesus of the Zack Snyder years, and that Gunn has avoided paying too much retro cosplay tribute to the Christopher Reeve era. This is undeniably a Superman we’ve never seen before on the big screen: a Kal-El who’s deeply human, flawed, and more likable for it.The new Man of Steel, played with boyish charm and the right amount of golden retriever energy by David Corenswet, spends most of the movie juggling black holes, battling clone siblings, and dealing with the looming realisation that his space dad might have been one bad day...

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8 d. ago Superman is super woke? How politics play into the new man of steel

The right has already branded the new DC tentpole too woke after its director called the character an immigrant, but just what role do real-world issues play in the film?Superman Woke! Variations on that headline splashed across all manner of non-Daily Planet websites this week in advance of a new Superman movie reboot, specifically the comments of writer-director James Gunn, who casually characterized the character as an immigrant and, as such, telling the “story of America” in an interview. This rankled rightwingers including the former TV Superman Dean Cain, who acknowledged Superman as an immigrant but blanched at the idea of actively associating that as an American value, noting that “there have to be limits”.Meanwhile, the former Trump lackey Kellyanne Conway, now a Fox News host, characterized the movie she hasn’t seen as an ideological lecture, and added her supposed anger that the movie’s star, David Corenswet, elided the old “truth, justice and the American way” Superman s...

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9 d. ago Sorry, Dean Cain – of course Superman is woke, he fights injustice

James Gunn’s latest Man of Steel has copped flak from some predictable quarters, but the truth is, superheroes have been subverting the powerful, sticking up for the underdogs, and punching moral cowardice since the 1930sDean Cain, you may have read, is very upset with the new Superman. The erstwhile Man of Steel, who played the last son of Krypton on TV in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993 to 1997, thinks James Gunn has gone too far with his description of Kal-El as an “immigrant that came from other places and populated the country” in the new DC film.Speaking to TMZ, Cain pondered: “How woke is Hollywood going to make this character? How much is Disney going to change their Snow White? Why are they going to change these characters [to] exist for the times?” Continue reading...

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1 week ago Superman review – is it a bust? Is it a pain? James Gunn’s dim reboot is both

The Man of Steel – played with square-faced soullessness by David Corenswet – has an uninteresting crisis of confidence in Gunn’s cluttered, pointless franchise restarterHere is a film occupying the heartsinking Venn diagram overlap between franchise exhaustion and AI soullessness: a film fatally unconvinced of the reason for its own existence. We’d all hoped that writer-director James Gunn, who was in charge of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie series, might put some wind back beneath Superman’s wings – or in his cape, or under his boots, or at any rate somewhere near his costumed person. The Man of Steel needed a fresh start after his self-cancelling contest in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, and getting muddled together with a lot of other utility superheroes in Justice League a year later – though I will admit to enjoying the pure hubristic craziness of the lengthy Zack Snyder cut of that movie when it saw the light of day.But this? If it was to be a reboot then...

Politics

1 week ago James Gunn confirms Superman is about an ‘immigrant’: ‘Yes, it’s about politics’

Superman will be released in cinemas on 11 July 2025

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