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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Superman': A ranking of all the live-action versions of the Man of Steel
Nicolas Cage (who has a son named Kal-El) made a brief appearance as a multiversal variant of the Man of Steel in 2023's 'The Flash.' While it was a pretty lackluster and mostly CGI cameo, it served as a nod to the actor nearly playing the hero in the ultimately shelved 'Superman Lives' film from writer Kevin Smith and director Tim Burton back in the '90s. Matt Bomer It's a shame that Matt Bomer, who Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Advertisement Hugh Jackman While he's better known for his work with Marvel as the razor-clawed Wolverine, Hugh Jackman did play Superman in an unofficial capacity in a 2001 episode of 'Saturday Night Live.' Will Ferrell also put a hilarious spin on Superman's dad Jor-El, played by Marlon Brando in the 1978 film. Advertisement 10. John Haymes Newton/Gerard Christopher Following the end of the Christopher Reeve era on the big screen with 1987's much-maligned 'Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,' Clark Kent was reborn on the small screen with 1988's 'Superboy' TV show (later titled 'The Adventures of Superboy'). Initially played by John Haymes Newton, who left the series after one season and was replaced by Gerard Christopher, this version of Kal-El features the hero during his younger years, navigating college life and a growing rogues gallery. While 'Superboy' was campy and over-the-top, Newton and Christopher turned in admirable performances as the Boy of Steel, with the underrated show laying the groundwork for future series that investigated Clark's early years, like 'Smallville.' 9. Kirk Alyn As the first person to play Superman in live action, Alyn had a chance to continue to play the character beyond his initial film serial appearances in 1948's 'Superman' and 1950's 'Atom Man vs. Superman.' A dashing star who embodied the rugged heroics of that era's Superman, Alyn sadly 8. Dean Cain Definitely a product of its era, the ABC series 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman' turned the superhero's story into a weekly romantic melodrama in the mid-'90s, as Teri Hatcher's Lois Lane swooned over Dean Cain's Superman. Advertisement 7. Henry Cavill Drawing inspiration from the 'Injustice' video games, where tragedy turns Superman into a god-like tyrant, Zack Snyder's take on the character was pretty dark and dreary in 2013's Henry Cavill in the 2016 film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." Clay Enos 6. Brandon Routh My vote for the most underrated live-action Superman goes to Brandon Routh, who absolutely nailed the look and feel of the Man of Steel in 2006's 'Superman Returns.' As a spiritual sequel to the first two Reeve movies, Routh perfectly captured his predecessor's ability to balance the bombastic heroics with his bumbling alter ego. Routh's Kent was incredible, but the film suffers from a severe drought of compelling Superman action, making this an unfortunate one-and-done situation for the actor. Well, that was until he suited up again for the CW's TV crossover event 'Crisis on Infinite Earths,' where Routh played an older version of Superman inspired by the 'Kingdom Come' comic. 5. David Corenswet He may be the new super kid on the block, but David Corenswet has already flown up into my top five of live-action Superman actors. In the new film, directed and written by James Gunn, Corenswet brings a great mix of sincerity, hope, and humanity to the role, crafting a Superman that, as Globe film critic Odie Henderson Advertisement David Corenswet in 'Superman.' Warner Bros. 4. Tyler Hoechlin The last actor to play the Man of Tomorrow on the small screen, Tyler Hoechlin brought super dad vibes in the CW's 'Superman & Lois' series, which ended its four season run last year. Hoechlin, who originally played a different version of Superman on the CW's 'Supergirl' show, really embodied the character's wholesome, family man side in 'Superman & Lois,' which saw Clark, Lois (Bitsie Tulloch), and their two teenage sons living on the Kent farm in Smallville. While the series was cut short, Hoechlin deserves a lot of credit for his incredibly earnest portrayal of a Superman who always puts his family first, and for anchoring the character's legacy in the final years of DC shows on the CW. 3. Tom Welling Yes, 'Smallville,' which ran from 2001 to 2011, was at times a cornball fest that fused supernatural sci-fi with teenage melodrama, but for many millennial Superman fans, Tom Welling is their Man of Steel. Physically, Welling looked as close to the comic book character as a person could get outside of Christopher Reeve, and, even with the often cheesy dialogue, his gravitas made viewers buy into his super-powered Kansas do-gooder routine. 'Smallville' was far from perfect, and sure, he never really wore the Superman outfit until the final seconds of the finale, but Welling deserves his flowers, because no one has spent more time playing Clark on screen than him. Advertisement 2. George Reeves For fans of a certain age, George Reeves is the gold standard when it comes to the classic portrayal of Superman. After debuting as the hero in 1951's 'Superman and the Mole Men,' Reeves returned to play the character for six seasons on the hit TV series 'Adventures of Superman.' Becoming the face of the Man of Steel during his TV golden age (he even appeared as Superman in a 1957 'I Love Lucy' episode), Reeves brought an imposing, strongman physicality to Superman that made him that era's ultimate tough guy. 1. Christopher Reeve Did you really think it'd be anyone else? The Christopher Reeve in "Superman." Courtesy of The Kobal Collection at Art Resource Matt Juul can be reached at
Epoch Times
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
‘Superman': The New Guy's Good in Throwback ‘Superman' for Kids
PG-13 | 2h 9m | Action, Superhero | 2025 Introduced 87 years ago in 'Action Comics #1,' the alien meta-human Kal-El— commonly known as Superman ('Man of Steel,' 'faster than a speeding bullet')—became a symbol of hope and justice in America.
Los Angeles Times
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Up, up and … eh? A rebooted ‘Superman' gives the Man of Steel a mind of marshmallow
Fine, I'll say it. I need Superman. I'm craving a hero who stands for truth and justice whether he's rescuing cats or reporting the news. Cheering for such idealism used to feel corny; all the cool, caped crusaders had ethical kinks. Even his recent movies have seemed a little embarrassed by the guy, scuffing him up with cynicism. I'm with the latest incarnation of Superman (David Corenswet) when he tells Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) that having a big heart is 'the real punk rock.' Director James Gunn's antsy reboot skips past the origin story of infant Kal-El slamming into Kansas in an escape pod from Krypton. Instead, this 'Superman' opens with Corenswet's savior slamming into Earth again, this time after losing his first fight. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and his bionic minions have batted Superman around Metropolis like a toy, forcing him to flee to his Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica with 14 broken bones and a busted bladder. The starkness of the white snow against his bright costume looks like a blank page asking: Who should Superman be today? The Superman myth has always been a fable of collision: a near-perfect alien challenged to protect fragile, scared humans who struggle to accept that we're not the bestest beings in the universe. Here, Kal-El's parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) are heard insulting Earthlings outright — 'The people there are simple and profoundly confused' — which, for the franchise, is actually going a little easy on humankind. Historically, we tend to let him down, going back to his surprisingly spiky movie debut in 1951's 'Superman and the Mole Men' (note the lack of a 'versus'), in which George Reeves protected the outsiders of the title from a rural American mob. 'Obviously, none of you can be trusted with guns, so I'm going to take them away from you,' he lectures the townsfolk, pretzeling their shotguns. 'Stop acting like Nazi storm troopers!' Gunn isn't that punk rock. He's pop punk; he wants to be liked by a mass audience. Having taken control of the DC Universe, he's pivoted away from gloom to concoct a Superman who isn't too sweet or too serious — frankly, he's a little stupid. After a hasty resuscitation from his adorable dog Krypton and his robot butlers (voiced by Alan Tudyk, Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker, among others), Superman races back into battle before he's healed. He gets beaten senseless again. Stupid is a smart idea for a 21st century reboot. Superman's stymied do-gooder impulse feels right for an era where you can't say 'Save the whales' without some genius asking why you don't care about plankton. The goal might have been to make him super naive. But Gunn doesn't do sincerity, so this Superman comes off as obtuse and overwhelmed — which, even for a Julliard-trained actor like Corenswet, is pretty impossible to pull off with any personality. His dimples and blue eyes are empathetic. But he mostly just looks dazed. This Superman is all impulsive energy, much like his unhousebroken puppy, who also wears a cape and tramples on things when he tries to help. They're essentially the same species. Superman gets distracted midfight by his urgent need to protect a squirrel; Krypto spends one brouhaha looting a pet store. Superman's reporter girlfriend of three months, Lois (a savvy and sensible Brosnahan, kitted in fabulous '70s-style threads), is well-aware of his dual identity and the flaws in his hasty reactions to injustice. She points out that physically threatening the thuggish president of fictional Boravia (Zlatko Buric) to stop invading weaker countries is technically torture. 'People were going to die!' Superman sputters. Lois' reticence about him mirrors our own vacillation with the DC Universe's new direction: We need to see something more from this guy before we commit. In this script, the lines of good and evil aren't drawn in black and white or even gray — they're a tangle of squiggles. There are no neat solutions, no shortcuts and there's no way for Superman to defend himself when Hoult's Luthor drums up a dubious sex scandal to accuse the Kryptonian of 'grooming' humanity and hires an actual room of typing monkeys to ruin his online reputation. (You may remember that before Gunn was hired to oversee DC Studios, Walt Disney fired him from Marvel when a blogger behind Pizzagate unearthed the director's old shock-jock jokes about pedophilia and 9/11. Clearly, that grievance is still on his mind.) The plot is impatient but entertaining enough. The villainous billionaire Luthor, who Hoult plays like a beady techno-zealot, has several schemes up his fancy sleeve. One involves a tent city in the desert that hides a portal to an extrajudicial jail for his enemies, both interstellar and domestic. (He's got green-skinned babies and a sobbing ex-girlfriend in there.) Gunn has sarcastically tried to make the place look cheery — Luthor's henchmen are dressed in mismatched Hawaiian shirts — but the sequence might give you the shivers. Gunn is known for wrangling groups of weirdos ('Guardians of the Galaxy,' 'The Suicide Squad') into blockbuster action-comedies. His instincts are to spray everything with silly string and slap on a wacky soundtrack. Here, there's actually a very good doom metal electronic score by John Murphy and David Fleming, but the movie stiffens up whenever it needs to get real. When we visit Clark Kent's family farm, it's touching to see his childhood bedroom. But his plainspoken Ma and Pa (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince) have been made to talk so slowly they sound like they have brain injuries. It's as though 'Superman' isn't sure how to be earnest without whacking us over the head with it. The script is way more confident when Gunn gets to scribble in the margins, whisking in Milly Alcock's party-hardy Supergirl for a fast and fun cameo. (She'll have her own movie next summer.) Luthor's main henchwoman, known only as the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), is constructed from skittering robotic cells that let her change form like a Swiss Army Knife, while his latest ditzy blonde girlfriend, Eve (a very funny Sara Sampaio), wriggles her way into becoming a memorable highlight. One of the film's umpteenth kaiju fights introduces the corporate-sponsored Justice Gang, a trio of apathetic superheroes spearheaded by Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) with Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). They dispatch a monster so gracelessly that Superman finally gets some sense knocked into him. 'There's got to be a better way to do this,' he groans. The movie's tone shape-shifts just as recklessly as an outer space inmate named Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) who can transform into explosive acid. Gunn is compelled to show us his entire vision for the DC Universe. But as he cuts from a slow-burning gag about a garage door opener to a legitimately brutal execution to a whizbang combat scene set to a song that whoops, 'Fun fun fun!,' I just wished I was having more of it. This isn't quite the heart-soaring 'Superman' I wanted. But these adventures wise him up enough that I'm curious to explore where the saga takes him next. Still, I left chewing over how comic book movies can be so popular and prescient, and yet people who've grown up rooting against characters like Lex Luthor cheer them on in the real world. Maybe Gunn can answer that in a sequel. Or maybe our stubborn myopia is what this Superman means when he says, 'I screw up all the time but that is being human.'
