Movie Review

Superman (2025) – The Luthor Review

/ Jason Luthor / Leave a comment

Superman may be the most comic book movie I’ve ever seen in my life.

Superman talks to Krypto while a robot watches.
You won’t see many movies with flying dogs.

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, then you’ve heard that a new Superman film was coming out. Directed by James Gunn, this new film arrives at a time when love for the superhero genre has faded. Which is interesting in the sense that this new film embraces comic books to a degree that I’m not sure any other comic based film has. Guardians of the Galaxy, another James Gun product, also embraces the weirdness of comic books. Yet I’m not even sure that film comes close to embracing the full strange scope of what comics can be in the same way that the new Superman film does.

Consider the following unique parts about the film. A super powered dog, Krypto, who flies and wears a mini-cape. A series of robots, all themselves wearing capes, simply called “The Superman Robots.” A giant interstellar octopus thing that superheroes fight outside the windows of skyscrapers while people inside carry on as if life is normal. That’s before you talk about pocket dimensions, interdimensional rifts, and artificial black holes. Superman as a film is not afraid to embrace all the pseudo scientific weirdness that is a part of comic books.

Krypto carries Superman by his cape.
Krypto the flying dog is a weird bit of comic history. But adorable.

But that’s all just the window dressing, the world in which the story unfolds. And the story isn’t a complicated one. It has small “twists” but from the start, you know who the villains are. You know who the good guys are. There are no spy-level twists or any international intrigue that will keep you wondering about what’s really going on until the last moment.

No. This movie is about Superman, also known as Clark Kent, and his nemesis, Lex Luthor. Of course, these two are surrounded by a great cast of characters, but the movie is chiefly interested in exploring the two differing world views of its main hero and villain. Lex can be summarized by envy and selfishness. Clark can be summarized by hope and selflessness. From these differing qualities, they affect the world in vastly different ways. The film is clear about how unchecked ambition and selfishness can destroy the lives of others. On the other hand, the film is also quite clear that selflessness and setting an example for others can lead to acts of heroics by others that can also positively affect the world.

Superman argues with Lex Luthor.
Every time Lex and Clark meet up, you can feel the gulf between them.

So who are those other characters? Well, Lex is primarily surrounded by the overly cheerful Ms. Teschmacher, Ultraman, and the Machinist, in addition to a gang of minor sycophants who act as his office team. Clark, on the other hand, has the Daily Planet team of characters such as Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson. However, as Superman, he also has the Justice Gang, consisting of Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific. Luthor’s behavior, in the end, is destructive and pushes people away. Clark’s behavior, on the other hand, inspires people to be better.

The crew of the Daily Planet stare at the camera in shock.
Lois is the clear leader of the Daily Planet crew, but they’re all incredible.

Of this cast, Lois Lane and Mr. Terrific are two of the most standout characters. Lois explicitly draws a contrast between herself and Clark from the start of the film. They’re very different people who see the world quite differently, because they are quite literally from different worlds. That doesn’t make Lois a bad person, just very human, distinct, and truly an emblem of the hard hitting reporter who is after the truth. Mr. Terrific, on the other hand, is one member of the Justice Gang. Terrific’ s existence, he claims, is to live for technology with little interest in human emotions. He just happens to be on the good side. But Mr. Terrific, throughout his appearances, strikes me as among the most human members of the cast. His interactions with literally everyone, from Guy Gardner to Lois to Superman himself, always are highlights of the film.

The only major con I can see to myself is how busy it is, and how it’s paced. Personally, I had absolutely zero issues with the pacing and rapid sequences. But your mileage will definitely very. The movie starts in media res, with Superman having just come off a beating, and the film never lets up from there. We’re rapidly introduced to multiple conflicts and characters over the first 30 minutes that lead into the main conflict that will occupy the last hour and a half of the film. That first 30 minutes will definitely be rough for non comic fans. It will also most likely be rough for those who have difficulty following fast paced films. It will definitely strike some as disjointed, though I had no problems following the thrust of that first half hour, and understood it was setting up what was to come over the following hour. Yet I will also admit that it may be difficult for some viewers.

The Justice Gang consisting of Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific swoop into Metropolis.
The Justice Gang have a bad name, but great powers and hilarious rapport.

On the other hand, there have been some criticisms about the film I simply cannot understand. I do not think James Gunn undercuts emotional moments with humor. In fact, I think that he lets those moments sit quite long enough. It’s simply that at some point the scene switches to something less dramatic. That’s simply scene transition, and the conflict is not undermined by those transitions. New scenes add to what came before as separate storylines begin to come together as the last conflict builds. I also don’t believe this movie doesn’t take Superman seriously enough. I truly believe anyone who thinks so just wanted a repeat of a grim, unhappy Superman. There are multiple times when Superman fully demonstrates the seriousness of the situation and his commitment to human life. He demonstrably saves people time and again, he struggles with his identity, he fights back over and over from the threshold of defeat. And Superman repeatedly emphasizes what he is about and his raison d’etre, no more greatly summarized than when Lex and Clark have two speeches that mirror each other, except with each espousing a different ethos.

But if you want to know how this movie hit me, I can summarize it like this. I set my phone down and never looked at it once. I laughed at all the great jokes. I felt my heart swell at the brave moments. I felt my heart beat when Lois and Clark struggled and grew their relationship. And I cried multiple times before the film came to its tremendous end.

Superman and Krypto watch the Earth from the moon.

Superman is in theaters now.

Movie Review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

/ Jason Luthor / Leave a comment

The Mario Bros. power up in this family friendly film.

It’s okay to have fun.

It’s strange that I had to keep reminding myself about this throughout the entirety of the Super Mario Bros. Movie. For the last month, the online discourse surrounding this film has been obnoxious. “It’s not as emotionally impactful as a Pixar film!” “There are no deeper lessons learned from the movie!” As if the lack of those things inherently makes a film bad. Neither does “It’s just a kids movie!” make for a good defense of a film.

That’s the thing, though. The Mario movie isn’t a bad film. In fact, it’s a pretty good one if you’re looking to just have fun. It’s bright, it’s silly, it’s humorous, and it’s a visual treat. I truly disliked having to argue with the discourse, in my own head, as I watched the film. That’s my own fault though, of course.

The easiest thing to address about the film is the visuals. How can you not? The Mario movie is so visually bright that almost every scene in the film explodes off the screen. Yet once again, the movie somehow came under criticism from the online mobs. At some point in the last few years, people started expecting every individual strand of a character’s hair to be rendered. That level of attention to detail in Pixar films has caused their films to explode in costs, for negligible gains. Does anybody really care that Mario’s mustache isn’t life like? Is anybody really asking for that? The film has a solidly cartoonish look with exaggerated visuals that are perfect for the material.

Donkey Kong in the Super Mario Bros. movie.
The visuals don’t even look bad.

Musically, the soundtrack borrows from the games for much of the musical cues while also integrating pop hits over different scenes. The original score is fantastic, and the fact that we got a rendition of the beloved DK Rap is a delightful surprise. There is only one scene that comes to mind where the use of a pop track really didn’t fit; I’m thinking specifically of when Take On Me was played over a scene of Mario and Peach driving through the streets on a golf cart. I’m not sure who chose that specific song for that specific scene, but it was the one instance of a track feeling jarring and not well integrated into the film.

But let’s be honest. Everyone coming to the movie is waiting to hear the incredibly memeable earworm known as Peaches.

If you don’t want to spoil the surprise, then skip the video, but parents around the world are going to be clawing at their ears as their children sing Peaches for the 50th time. But, to be honest, it was one of the highlights of the film. Someone apparently just told Jack Black to make a song and scream it out, and that man went 200% into creating a song that will live in infamy. I’ll say that during my showing, the crowd broke out in applause. And, ashamed as I am to say it, I’ll find myself walking around singing “peachespeachespeachespeachespeaches.”

The Mario Bros. in the Super Mario Movie.
Mario and Luigi have a real winner in their first film in 20 years.

I thought the voice acting throughout was great. The only character that seemed miscast was Cranky Kong, voiced by Fred Armisen. However, the rest of the cast was solid. Princess Peach, voices by Anya-Taylor Joy, takes up as much screen time as Mario himself and maybe more than Luigi. Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt, and Luigi, voiced by Charlie Day, make up the heart of the film. The central theme of the film is the importance of their brotherhood. Throughout, we see Mario acting very protective of his less courages, and less capable, younger brother. That theme is present from the very first moments of the movie, and there’s a genuine sweetness in their love for each other.

But the plot as a whole is as complex as an plot in any Mario game. The Mushroom Kingdom is threatened by Bowser, who wants to marry Princess Peach, and Mario and Luigi arrive to save the day. As is the trend in modern films, Princess Peach couldn’t be relegated to a damsel in distress. Actually, even in the most recent Mario game, Princess Peach seemed to spurn both Mario and Bowser’s romantic advances to go on her own journey at the game’s conclusion. There’s nothing ground breaking or ultra feminist in Peach’s portrayal, but it was nice to see that she was written as a capable ruler of her kingdom. Rather than be relegated to the background, Peach takes a central role. She’s protective of the Toadstools who live in the kingdom and sincerely cares about the well being of the people around her. Mario is still positioned as someone uniquely capable of helping, since he never accepts defeat and is willing to keep getting back up no matter how many times he’s knocked down. The two play off each other very well as they both do their part in saving the kingdom from Bowser. That relationship is accented by memorable characters throughout the film, from the apes of Kong Kingdom to the imprisoned, humorously nihilistic Luma.

In fact, all the relationships are portrayed fairly well.

At the end of the day, the Super Mario Bros. Movie is one of the most profitable films ever, having taken in nearly $1.5 billion in revenue. Does it deserve that number? That’s subjective and depends on your tastes. Just, take the Mario movie on its own terms. If you’re looking for a tear jerker in the spirit of Up or Wall-E, you won’t find that here. You won’t have the deeply interwoven message of coming to terms with your own adulthood like was found in Inside Out. But the film is a lot of fun, and sometimes, that’s all you need.