Latest / The K.B. Radio Network / Superman (2025) Movie Review
Transcript
- 0:17well
- 0:18hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of the first
- 0:30film in the dcu or the dc universe over at dc studios and warner brothers written and directed by james gunn superman yes the brand new addition into the superman lore we get david corn sweat starring as car kent aka superman along with rachel brosnahan
- 0:53nicholas holt nathan fillion and uh Let's go.
- 0:57of more stars here this is the non-spoiler review i'm gonna do two reviews of the spoiler review will come out this sunday after everybody has had has had the weekend to check it out so we're gonna do a full spoiler review on
- 1:17sunday so come back to check that out but my initial review here for superman a movie that has been highly anticipated it
- 1:26from movie lovers,
- 1:29from comic book lovers,
- 1:30from comic book movie lovers alike.
- 1:33This was a film that is set to jump off this new DCU over there at DC Studios and,
- 1:42for better or worse,
- 1:44rival
- 1:45Marvel with their
- 1:46MCU. But this film had a lot riding on its shoulders.
- 1:52If this movie crashed and burned,
- 1:55DC was in trouble.
- 1:57you had to come out firing on all cylinders in this film and with all that being said i'm happy to report they did it james gunn pulled it off superman
- 2:12is awesome this was so much fun i i enjoyed this movie from beginning to end is it is it
- 2:22flawless movie no is it the greatest comic book movie i've ever seen no but it had a job to do and it executed its job i believe to a t the best that it could this this movie set up this
- 2:38big universe that we're about to dive into over there uh with dc studios and uh for a first film to not be in
- 2:51origin story and we're picking up in the middle of this i guess world this universe that's already lived in already have metahumans already has superman you're asking a lot of this story to
- 3:08propel you forward and it worked and for the life of me you know i don't understand why people doubted james gunn you can say what you want about james gunn uh
- 3:22he's too active on social media or whatever the case may be.
- 3:26I don't care about all that.
- 3:27I just want him to deliver a good film.
- 3:30And he always has.
- 3:32I've enjoyed all his movies,
- 3:34Slither,
- 3:35Super,
- 3:36The Guardian's films.
- 3:38I love all of those movies.
- 3:40Those are really good movies.
- 3:42And when people doubted him making this movie or doubting how good it would be,
- 3:50I scratched my head because this is the same man that made you feel emotion behind a talking tree and a raccoon.
- 3:59He managed to do that throughout three films and it worked.
- 4:03It was so good.
- 4:05You know,
- 4:06those Guardians of the Galaxy films.
- 4:08And so you put him in a Superman film where it's all about heart and hope.
- 4:14I felt,
- 4:15OK,
- 4:16who better than James Gunn?
- 4:18Man,
- 4:18this movie has so much heart.
- 4:21This movie really depicted Superman how I remember him from the comics.
- 4:27All of the elements are there.
- 4:29Everything about his character is there.
- 4:32That's in the comics.
- 4:33And,
- 4:34you know,
- 4:35you can't go wrong there.
- 4:37The few elements of this movie that I was kind of concerned about going in didn't bother me in the end.
- 4:43You know,
- 4:44I thought Crypto was going to be aggravating.
- 4:49you know because he was getting aggravating in the promotional uh lead up to the movie because that's they show was the dog and don't get me wrong love dogs that's good it's cute cute dog
- 5:02But
- 5:03I didn't want to see him throughout the whole movie.
- 5:05And that was,
- 5:06he was not part of the entire movie.
- 5:08He plays a part.
- 5:10The dog plays a big part in the film,
- 5:12but that wasn't the core of the film,
- 5:15which I thought,
- 5:16you know,
- 5:17leading up to this film.
- 5:19I thought it was going to be oversaturated with the inclusion of
- 5:25Guy Gardner and Hulk Girl and Mr.
- 5:27Terrific.
- 5:28I thought all of that would just...
- 5:32over over packed this movie and it didn't you know they used the right amount of these superheroes they used the right amount of crypto and this is truly a superman movie at the end of the day this was all about him and
- 5:48i was worried about that but my worries were answered after this movie was over this is one of the better adaptations of this comic book character And
- 6:00I'm going over the...
- 6:01long history of adaptations of Superman from film to television or whatever.
- 6:08This was one of the best.
- 6:10And
- 6:11I'm not ready to put it up there with
- 6:14Christopher Reeve's Superman or,
- 6:16you know,
- 6:18stuff like that.
- 6:19I'm not going to fly off the handle just yet.
- 6:21I want to see it maybe two more times before I go crazy with it.
- 6:25But it is truly a really,
- 6:28really good adaptation of Superman.
- 6:32Speaking of Superman,
- 6:33David Cornswet,
- 6:34how was he going to handle?
- 6:36How was he going to fit into those red trunks?
- 6:39I think he did a pretty good job.
- 6:43Once again,
- 6:43I'm not going to try to gauge him by Christopher Reeves or
- 6:49Henry Cavill or anything like that.
- 6:51I'm not going to put him on a scale against those guys because I feel those are different movies.
- 6:58You can't compare those actors.
- 7:00you know to anybody else's those were different superman adaptations it was different uh styles of movie just like this was so i i wouldn't say oh man he's better than christopher reeves i know or oh man he can't hold a candle to uh
- 7:18henry cavill no no no i'm not going that far but as far as this story this version of superman i think david corn sweat did
- 7:29pretty doggone good and there were some parts of his character that i didn't like i don't know if it was his choice or the directing choice but it's like it's something like with batman right you
- 7:45want batman to have two distinct personalities you want him to have the bruce wayne side in the batman side and it's you want that here too you know you want the actor to have
- 7:58the christopher reeve side uh christopher reeves see there i go comparing the clark kent side and the superman side and uh there were moments in the film you couldn't tell the difference between the two and that was kind of kind of i don't know kind of worrisome to me because nobody
- 8:18else can see this you know nobody okay he's wearing glasses big wolf but other than that they talk the same
- 8:26he kind of holds his self the same he still has that superman posture as he's clark kent you know it's it it didn't differentiate you know and it's only for a couple of scenes a couple of moments that
- 8:43this happened when he was interacting with others as clark kent and i was like well he's still he's still giving off superman vibe you know he's not giving clark kent vibes here but
- 8:55You know,
- 8:55aside from that,
- 8:56as far as him holding his own as the man of steel,
- 9:00I think he did exceptional.
- 9:03Um,
- 9:04Rachel Brosnahan,
- 9:06literally born to play Lois Lane in this,
- 9:11in this universe.
- 9:12She is the best Lois Lane
- 9:15I've seen in a long time.
- 9:17She is amazing in this role.
- 9:20And I knew she was going to knock it out the park because I'm a huge fan of her,
- 9:24uh,
- 9:24show.
- 9:25at least when it was on the air,
- 9:27The Marvelous Mrs.
- 9:28Mabel.
- 9:29I thought that was perfect casting,
- 9:32and
- 9:33I was right.
- 9:35She was perfectly cast as Lois Lane.
- 9:38And those two together,
- 9:40David Cornsweat and Rachel Brosnahan,
- 9:44have electric chemistry,
- 9:47perfect chemistry,
- 9:49the way they were bouncing off of one another,
- 9:52especially in the moments where it got kind of heated.
- 9:55between the two and you have lois lane you know talking to uh superman basically
- 10:04as as a normal guy like she was talking to me they can't do her nothing and she is not intimidated by this larger than life figure you know and superman basically kind of cowering to
- 10:20her but not in the sense of he was a henpecked or anything like that it was just the respect factor of it but i just loved their relationship in the film i thought they had perfect chemistry.
- 10:34uh nicholas hope nicholas freaking hope as lex luther i'm once again i'm trying not to compare to other iterations of this character you know the gene hackman's and the uh
- 10:53kevin spacey's of the world even even michael rosenbaum in the worlds you know i'm not trying to throw him in that loop
- 11:03But my God,
- 11:04this was probably perfect casting as well.
- 11:06Just to think,
- 11:07at one point,
- 11:08Nicholas Holt was second runner-up to be Superman.
- 11:13It was between him and David Cornswick.
- 11:16But
- 11:18James Gunn chose David Cornswick because he fit the mold,
- 11:23I guess you could say,
- 11:25better than Nicholas Holt.
- 11:27And I always thought...
- 11:27nicholas hope as batman to be honest with you i would love to have seen him as bruce wayne but that's neither here nor there that was erased when i saw him as lex luther he he he killed it no pun intended he
- 11:43he killed his role he was amazing as lex luther he had everything that i recall from that character in the comic books even in the animated show and uh other
- 11:57tv shows as well he he displayed his intelligence he's super intelligent he's a genius and he is brutal as a serial killer if need be he he he has it all and nicholas
- 12:13hope did it man he did it i i am super super impressed with his performance as well the other part of this film that was kind of
- 12:27kind of weird to think about was the justice game with Green Lantern,
- 12:31Hawkgirl,
- 12:31and Mr.
- 12:32Terrific.
- 12:33I liked all of them.
- 12:35I liked them all with the exception of Hawkgirl,
- 12:38who was played by Isabella Marcette.
- 12:40And it's not her.
- 12:42It wasn't her.
- 12:44She had nothing to do.
- 12:45Everybody else had something to do.
- 12:47You know,
- 12:48Nathan Fillion had something to do,
- 12:51you know,
- 12:51as Guy Garner.
- 12:52And he was Guy Garner her through and through,
- 12:54even down to the haircut.
- 12:56he was everything about guy garner in the comics brought to life uh the actor who plays mr terrific i can never pronounce his name and i'm not gonna try today and and butcher it unmercifully so i'll just say the actor who played darwin in
- 13:14the x-men first class and was done dirty in that movie he was how can the one x-man who is unkillable be killed
- 13:24Well,
- 13:24they managed to do it in that movie,
- 13:26but he got his redemption here as Mr.
- 13:29Terrific.
- 13:30He was terrific.
- 13:32He was actually amazing in this movie.
- 13:36Almost stole it.
- 13:37He had,
- 13:38I think,
- 13:38the most screen time of those three,
- 13:42you know,
- 13:42in the Justice game in this film.
- 13:45And he held his own,
- 13:46man.
- 13:46He did a phenomenal job as Mr.
- 13:50Terrific.
- 13:51Like I said,
- 13:51Nathan Fillion was awesome.
- 13:53It was just Isabella Morissette as Hawkgirl.
- 13:56She had nothing to do.
- 13:59She came in for just as many scenes.
- 14:02She was in just as many scenes as the other
- 14:06Justice gang members,
- 14:07but it was like she was just there.
- 14:11She was just there.
- 14:13And it wasn't bad,
- 14:16nothing bad.
- 14:18She didn't have anything to do.
- 14:20It just felt like she was just there.
- 14:23Regardless of that,
- 14:25I enjoyed their inclusion.
- 14:27Like I said,
- 14:28to start it off,
- 14:28I thought that they were going to oversaturate this movie with the Justice gang,
- 14:34but they didn't.
- 14:35They didn't.
- 14:36They gave you just the right amount.
- 14:39The story worked.
- 14:40Everything in the story worked,
- 14:43and you felt like there's a bigger world out there,
- 14:47which is what you want to do when you're building a cinematic universe.
- 14:51And that helped.
- 14:53That made it feel like it was lived in,
- 14:56feel like we're in store for so much more.
- 15:01And I can't wait to see what's next.
- 15:03in this universe.
- 15:04My flaws in this movie,
- 15:07like I said,
- 15:09the Hawkgirl character felt a little shortchanged in this film.
- 15:14Some of the visual effects looked a little wonky to me.
- 15:17You know,
- 15:17I went to see it in IMAX,
- 15:20and that's supposed to be the best quality you could see a film,
- 15:23and so I'm watching it,
- 15:24and it was just like a couple of seconds of a scene,
- 15:29the visual effects look like,
- 15:31ooh.
- 15:34It was noticeable.
- 15:35It just popped out.
- 15:36It was like,
- 15:37ah,
- 15:37man,
- 15:38that is some bad green screen there,
- 15:41you know.
- 15:41But for the most part,
- 15:43it looked good.
- 15:44I mean,
- 15:45the flight sequences looked amazing.
- 15:47I loved the flight sequences with the exception of one.
- 15:52It was one.
- 15:53And I'll get into it in my spoiler review in a couple of days.
- 15:56But it was one of them.
- 15:57I was like,
- 15:58huh?
- 16:00This doesn't look all that hot.
- 16:03But anywho,
- 16:05yeah,
- 16:05the visual effects were a little wonky there in the film.
- 16:10And
- 16:11I didn't get a real sense of the passage of time.
- 16:17You know,
- 16:17I don't know how many days this was.
- 16:23It felt like a week or something,
- 16:25you know?
- 16:26The time period this film took place.
- 16:28But I know it wasn't a week.
- 16:30It just...
- 16:31felt like it like it was moment throughout the film while like okay is this the next day or okay they got this information really quick here and you know it just stuff like that it stuff moved at a kind
- 16:46of a hectic pace as we started to enter the third act especially it was kind of uh information was kind of just thrown at you i guess you could say and
- 17:00I get it,
- 17:01you know,
- 17:02I get it because you're expanding this universe,
- 17:04but,
- 17:05you know,
- 17:05you could have rolled that out a little slower.
- 17:07It just felt like they just threw it out there.
- 17:10And then the knock that I,
- 17:13one knock that I have that's not really a knock,
- 17:17but
- 17:17I wish it was something else.
- 17:20And we had an,
- 17:23well,
- 17:24I got to go over it.
- 17:25I got to say it here.
- 17:26It's not spoiled.
- 17:26I'm not going to go into detail,
- 17:28but there's.
- 17:30i guess you could say the la the cameo at the end of the movie that popped up it was fun to see but it came off as random as random can be it just felt so random you
- 17:45know what it just felt random i'll get more in depth in that also in my spoiler review and yes there are two post-credit scenes and quite honestly
- 17:59you can leave when the credits start it is no reason it's no reason to stay for those post credit scenes but it hey they're there you know one of them is real cute though i will say that one of them is super cute it may bring a tear to your eye but other than that it's
- 18:19nothing important but overall really enjoyed this movie i had this was the i think one of the first.
- 18:28time since covid that a theater i went to see a film that wasn't a uh screening or anything like that that was completely packed it was packed in that theater and
- 18:44i was happy for it man i was happy to see it you know it was the fan event so all of the you see guys dressed up as superman literally with the cape and all grown men
- 18:58grown men and in the funny part about it i'm not laughing at them i i'm laughing at myself because i felt so underdressed i just came normal you know t-shirt and pants but
- 19:14they were all dressed out decked out and was all in on this movie and i felt it man i love to see that you know uh people cosplaying as the characters even uh one guy
- 19:27He had a cape and everything and his girlfriend,
- 19:32I'm assuming his girlfriend,
- 19:33she was dressed as Lois Lane.
- 19:37I kid you not.
- 19:38It was the cutest thing ever.
- 19:40I wanted to catch him after the movie was over,
- 19:42but I didn't see him.
- 19:43I wanted to take a picture of him.
- 19:45But yeah,
- 19:46it was cute,
- 19:47man.
- 19:47But everybody enjoyed it.
- 19:49And more importantly,
- 19:52I enjoyed it.
- 19:54Superman.
- 19:55Written and directed by James Gunn gets a letter grade of a B+.
- 20:01yeah awesome movie man awesome movie if you are a fan of the superman the animated series that what came out in the 90s early
- 20:132000s whenever this is that this was basically that show in live action if you're a fan of the character from the comics this is the movie for you you know if you
- 20:28If you love Christopher Reeve's version,
- 20:31which I'm pretty sure 99.99999%
- 20:35of people do,
- 20:37and I'm in that 99,
- 20:39we all know that wasn't a carbon copy of the comics.
- 20:44You know,
- 20:44that was just that version of Superman.
- 20:47And
- 20:47God forbid you go into the sequels of those films.
- 20:51But
- 20:52I digress.
- 20:54Superman from 2025 is a B+.
- 20:58Really fun time in the theater,
- 21:00and I'm excited to see what's to come in the DCU.
- 21:06I would like to know,
- 21:07did you check out Superman,
- 21:09and did you enjoy it?
- 21:10Did you think James Gunn pulled off a miracle of sorts and make people love Superman again,
- 21:18and are you looking forward to the DCU?
- 21:23Email the show,
- 21:24kbradiopodcasts at gmail.com.
- 21:27You can also search for the show on all social media platforms.
- 21:30Just search for the KB Radio Network.
- 21:33Also,
- 21:34don't forget about YouTube,
- 21:35ladies and gentlemen.
- 21:36Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this movie if you don't mind.
- 21:42Don't forget about the five stars,
- 21:43the reviews,
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- 21:49wherever you are currently listening.
- 21:53to the concession stand here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this review of superman don't forget to come back this sunday when i release the spoiler review where i can get more in depth i'm
- 22:11going deep i'm gonna talk spoilers end of the movie cameos and and whatever else that i couldn't talk about here today
- 22:22But I want you all to know that I love you.
- 22:24Continue to love everyone.
- 22:25And until we speak again,
- 22:27you all be blessed.