Why did James Gunn turn Superman into the biggest disappointment of 2025? From the opening scene the message was clear. The movie begins with the line “3 minutes ago Superman lost a battle for the first time.”
So why didn’t Gunn make a film about one of the many times the hero stood strong capable and victorious? Audiences did not pay to watch Superman wheezing and bloody on the ground. Yet that is exactly what Gunn delivered. This was not an accident. It looks like a deliberate choice to demean the white male hero that generations of Americans grew up cheering for.
The problems pile up fast. Superman needs his dog to save him and even the dog hurts him. A Mexican catsuit lesbian character delivers cringe lines and later grows chainsaw hands. The film cuts away again and again to diversity shots that feel forced and out of place.
Lex Luthor theatrically controlling the hammer comes across as silly. Superman suffers a second defeat just nine minutes in. The first time we see Clark Kent he faces verbal attacks. The Kents appear as buffoonish caricatures of MAGA-types. Lois Lane’s first act is to criticize Clark’s writing.
Why does the strongest hero on Earth keep needing backup? Superman relies on the Justice Gang instead of standing as an uber-powerful force in his own movie. Every rescue involves a female diversity character. When a kaiju threatens the city Mr. Terrific not Superman takes it down.
After thirty years of saving the public the people suddenly turn on Superman. A Peacemaker cameo lands flat. The DOJ face-plants Superman into the ground. Element Man turns into kryptonite in a twist that feels pointless because this is already the weakest Superman ever put on screen.
The hero screams in pain. He cannot escape the quantum river so Krypto must save him again. Superman ends up weak defeated and leaning on Lois. Somehow Lois knows exactly how to fly a spaceship to get him to safety not once but twice.
George Kent looks morbidly obese after a lifetime working the land. The Mexican lesbian catsuit character suffocates Superman and he never uses his heat-ray vision to stop her. A clone Superman kicks his butt. Once more the dog has to rescue him.
A little diverse boy holds up a sign. Superman’s unbreakable arm gets broken. Scene after scene chips away at the hero America once believed in.
This is not just bad storytelling. It’s part of a larger pattern in Hollywood where traditional, male heroes get torn down while new agendas get pushed. Studios chase cultural trends at the expense of entertainment and profit. Audiences notice. They remember who stood for strength and who chose to weaken it.
James Gunn had a chance to give us a Superman who wins. Instead he gave us weakness, failure, and lectures. The question remains: who really benefits when the symbol of truth, justice, and the American way spends most of his movie on his knees?
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English (US) · 