When I watched Zack Snyder’s Superman (2025), it arrived with all the spectacle fans might expect. It was damn sure that I was expecting gravity-defying stunts, a booming score, and city-flattening CGI mayhem. However, beneath the superhero gloss lies a much deeper question. What is it, and who controls the story of power?
The movie is set in a vaguely familiar dystopian America. This Superman is different this time, more symbol than saviour. Therefore, he is worthless about truth and justice, more about surveillance and statecraft. The movie subtly critiques the system. The systems of propaganda, as media networks scramble to shape Kal-El’s narrative. And governments deploy him as a weapon of deterrence rather than hope.
Actor Henry Cavill reprises his role with a stoic charm. However, the script gives him little room to explore Superman’s inner world. But not worth it. Instead, the spotlight shifts to the machinery around him—newsrooms, think tanks, and security councils. The real “villain” isn’t a caped nemesis but a system addicted to control and optics.
For a while, the pacing occasionally falters under the weight of exposition, but the film lands punches where it matters. Snyder’s visual metaphors—flags burning, statues crumbling, eyes in the sky. It draws a clear line between fiction and the world we inhabit. The parallels to modern-day media wars, colonial ideologies, and digital surveillance are deliberate and unsettling.
As for me, the film’s boldest stance is in its conclusion. Resistance doesn’t come from gods but from people. A brief but powerful subplot features ordinary citizens organising against tyranny, reminding us that belief systems can both save and destroy depending on who wields them.
This year’s Superman (2025) may not be the feel-good blockbuster of the summer of 2025, but it’s an essential one. Why? Because it’s a provocative look at the narratives we accept and the ones we question. It asks. When heroes become tools of power, who’s left to speak truth?
The Review
Superman 2025
Propoganda and Public Eye: Superman (2025) is not your typical summer blockbuster. Henry Cavill returns with stoic intensity, but the spotlight shifts from the Man of Steel to the powerful systems surrounding him—governments, media, and institutions obsessed with control. Zack Snyder’s film is heavy with metaphor and meaning, drawing eerie parallels to today’s world of surveillance and media warfare.
PROS
- Reprises Superman with stoic charm, adding gravitas even when underwritten.
- Tackles modern ideologies, media manipulation, surveillance, and systems of control—rare in superhero films.
- Shifts focus from gods to ordinary people resisting oppression, a subversive and empowering conclusion.
CONS
- Superman’s inner life is neglected; the script doesn’t allow Cavill to explore deeper emotional terrain.
- The film prioritizes commentary over connection; viewers expecting traditional superhero thrills may feel disconnected.
