I don't usually review movies that are playing in theaters, but we just saw Superman (2025). I went in with an internet full of complaints about "wokeness," so I expected a lot of LGBTQ representation. Here's what I got:
The Wokeness: There are some nonwhite people around. Big deal.
The Plot: The tyrannical leader of Boravia (mostly Russia, a little Israel) wants to invade neighboring Jarhanpur (mostly Palestine, a little Ukraine), and promises to make Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, left) king of half the country if he helps. So he sells them $80 billion in arms for cheap.
But Lex's main goal is to discredit and hopefully kill Superman (David Corenswet), because he doesn't like aliens, because he's envious of Supe's popularity, because...well, even he isn't sure. He's a movie villain, it's his job.
Lex has a vast number of high-tech resources to help with the discrediting/murder:
1. The Engineer, who can fill your lungs with nanobots so you suffocate.
2. A prison in an unstable pocket universe, where he keeps political prisoners and people who criticized him on social media.
3. An interdimensional rift that can take down whole cities.
4. A lot of Superman clones.
5. Super-genius employees played by Terence Rosemore and Stephen Blackehart.
6. A monstrous kanju that grows to Godzilla-size and breathes fire.
Left: Blackehart's d*ck
7. The message that Jor-El and Lara sent along from Krypton. Supe always thought that they asked him to help the people of Earth, but they actually told him to rule Earth, and massacre anyone who resisted. This is real, not fake, and when it gets into the media, people reject poor Supe. Why do they care about the career his parents planned for him? My parents wanted me to work in the factory.
Supe has a number of allies this time around:
1. Food cart guy Malik Ali (Dinesh Thyagarajan), who jumps into a crater to help the injured superhero. Lex kidnaps him.
2. Krypto the Superdog. Lex kidnaps him, too. Spoiler alert: The dog doesn't die.
More after the break