If new ‘Superman' movie feels like an attack, you have a guilty conscience

Miami Herald

4 days ago

Spoiler alert: This column discusses the plot and characters of the 2025 movie 'Superman' in detail.
Superman has always been more than just a comic book character. He's an idea and an ideal, an avatar for truth and justice — and the American way, a patriotic 1942 wartime addendum to his famous radio serial motto.
I'm not a comic book guy, and I've also always found the Man of Steel a little boring — too powerful, too generic. While we've seen a couple decent live-action versions of the character (TV's Tom Welling and Tyler Hoechlin, in particular), the two most classic portrayals aren't so super to me: George Reeves was way too old for the role, and Christopher Reeve was a total stiff.
But actor David Corenswet and director James Gunn have finally gotten it right. This is a Superman we care about, mostly because he cares so dang much about us. Even though he comes from outer space, there's no question Clark Kent's home is Kansas — the state we love for its all-American wholesomeness. Everything Superman does in the new movie is about protecting the people of his adopted planet. Time and again, he moves heaven and Earth to make sure the bad guys cause as little death and destruction as possible — even swooping in to save a sweet little squirrel in one particularly memorable moment.
The last silver-screen Supes, Henry Cavill, certainly looked the part. But although he's a tremendous actor, his director Zack Snyder had no idea what the character is supposed to be about, framing him as a dour, aloof, Ayn Randian Ubermensch who fails to prevent uncountable human deaths in his wildly violent battles. That's not the Superman I know.
However, Ubermensch is exactly how his arch nemesis Lex Luthor sees himself — and the new movie is the first time the character is legitimately scary. Michael Rosenbaum created a marvelously complex version of Luthor in the series 'Smallville,' but since we see him grow up over time, we come to understand how he gets so twisted — he's as much antihero as he is villain.
Nicholas Hoult's Luthor is nothing but a screaming void of egotism, reeking of impotence and self-doubt despite his vast wealth. He's transparently a stand-in for Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, creating a literal army of 'rage monkeys' to ruin Superman's reputation in social media.
And despite the fact that this movie was in the works long before Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis teamed up to throw immigrants who don't even face any criminal charges into a swamp detention camp with its own comic book name, it isn't difficult to draw a parallel from that obscenity to Luthor disappearing the politically inconvenient to tiny cells in an inaccessible pocket dimension.
Hollywood and the American way
So, sure, the new 'Superman' is about politics — and not terribly subtle about it. It's no surprise, either, that agitators throughout the MAGA ecosystem are freaking out over it. Even though Trump and Musk's bromance came to the ugly end we all knew was inevitable, and maniverse stars such as Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz are experiencing acute buyer's remorse over Trump 2.0's cruelty and ineptitude, some right-wing influencers are still losing their minds that the movie puts the black hat on a billionaire using his lucre to imprison his enemies and flood Americans' media networks with disinformation.
I don't think the new film is a triumph for the ages. There is zero place for profanity in a Superman movie. And I actually agree with far-right professional complainer Ben Shapiro that it's overstuffed, more carnival ride than movie. However, Shapiro predictably went off the deep end when he whined about that old conservative bugaboo of the entertainment industry: 'Hollywood cannot say 'the American way' because they don't believe in the American way,' he said in his slam review. 'They don't believe that America is unique. They don't believe in these American basic values and principles and rights.'
I don't know what movie he saw, but Gunn's 'Superman' champions American-style truth and justice for all — including for Luthor, whom our hero rightly turns over to the law instead of going vigilante on him. It reminds us constantly that we are defined by our choices, not by our DNA or where we come from. The movie's most touching scene takes place at the Kents' modest Kansas country home, where his parents emanate love for their adopted son — their son — and the values he embodies.
Truth and justice should be for each and every human being — not just the ultrawealthy, or just those well-off enough to be able to afford health care. So if you see a murderous, lying oligarch getting his comeuppance for wreaking havoc on the rest of the world as 'woke' — well, I'd suggest you reconsider your personal concept of the American way.