Tags: blog, film, action, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday August 24th, 2025
Under supervised
There’s a much discussed scene near the start of this movie where Lois Lane stages an impromptu interview with Superman. She asks him difficult questions about his recent actions stopping a war, questions that unsettle and fluster him because he can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t take his actions at face value; that he’s saving lives. It’s an interesting scene as it reveals so much about his character, about how he sees the world through a simple premise, that as long as he’s motivated by virtue, his actions will be (and will be perceived as) virtuous.
The problem with this scene is that, bluntly, Lois Lane is an arsehole. She rattles Superman because she takes on the classic centrist, view-from-nowhere voice that ‘respectable’ newspaper writers habitually use. The one where “some people might say…” is used to speak utter bullshit but not be held responsible for saying it. Where the whims of an aggressive, multi-billion dollar, military-industrial state and a people’s right to exist are points of view that carry equal weight. Where facts and opinion are the same thing.
Superman even tries to call her on out on her bullshit, referring to her quoting warmongers in good faith as silly and dishonest, but lacks the ability to articulate just how offensive this shit is. She even admits that she’s trading on her ignorance to make her point but seems to consider that to be a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Later, Lois does some actual journalism and finds there is staggeringly obvious corruption involved in the war that makes her questioning of Superman seem embarrassingly naive. Maybe if she had taken the time to learn the first fucking thing regarding the subject she was ‘just asking questions’ about, her and the Daily Globe could have the exposed the corruption and lies and, if not stopped the invasion, helped Superman with the public relations battle.
It may seem a minor point but it really rankled me. It sets the tone for the rest of the film, which wants to acknowledge the precarious political situation we find ourselves in, but has none of the intelligence, articulation, curiosity or courage to have anything to say about it.
On the positive side, Krypto lights up the screen in every scene he’s in. Hawkgirl’s screech is a delight, Green Lantern’s haircut is a violation of my human rights. Crucially, we get a really good depiction of Superman. His sincerity and good faith shine constantly and is completely believable throughout the entire film.
Sadly, it’s the only believable thing in the film. Unlikeable, paper thin characters stumble their way through a series of black-hole sized plot-holes, all while weightless special effects whirl around with no relationship to physical reality or basic story telling.
A boring waste.
