Rewatching every live-action Superman movie in 2025 puts a lot of things about the DC hero into perspective – especially since it’s been decades since Kal-El’s first film installments came to our screens. As one of the first figures anyone will think of when the word “superhero” is said, Superman is naturally a huge character.

Over the almost eight decades Superman has been a live-action film figure, he’s had a wide ᴀssortment of stories told about his fictional life, resulting in some of the superhero genre’s most lauded and most derided movies, respectively. As such, rewatching all of Superman’s live-action movies provides a lot of interesting insights about the hero’s past, present, and future.

The First Live-Action Superman Movies Still Hold Up Well In Several Ways

While audience interest tends to focus on Superman’s live-action movie future, his first films are fascinating to revisit. Part of this is down to how much Superman and DC have evolved and developed since these movies were released, but it’s also interesting to note how much these earlier installments are still being mirrored by later releases years on.

For example, Superman and the Mole Men – Superman’s first feature-length live-action film – subverts expectations by having Superman defend the Mole Men against the townsfolk who seek to harm them, making the human civilians the antagonists of the story. Decades later, this story is more interesting than ever, as it shows how Superman’s morals and empathy were present this far back.

Similarly, 1978’s Superman to this day holds a considerable 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and rewatching every Superman movie underlines exactly why this is the case. The care, charm, and wit put into making Superman pays off tenfold in every step of its story, especially thanks to its stellar casting and score adding that extra emotional edge to its run.

Superman also is still clearly the formula that newer DC movies draw from in a range of ways, both in terms of the Man of Steel’s specific characterization, and more broadly in terms of its playful yet awe-inspiring approach to depicting superpowers and how they’d work in a still relatively grounded world.

The Superman Movie Serials Are More Interesting Than You Might Think

The Superman movie serials are often not considered fully part of the hero’s film lineup. Though this is fair – since they’re segmented into short parts that were intended for viewers to watch weekly – the serials do still deserve to be talked about in terms of a live-action Superman movie lineup, as they’re basically where it all started.

While the serials show their age in some ways – largely in terms of the overarching story never being able to fully get going, given each part tends to start and end on a cliffhanger – they’re more endearing than it might seem even when first watching them, since initial viewing is naturally more dedicated to simply seeing where the story goes.

As one of the first on-screen looks at Superman, seeing the initial depictions of his origin story and hero journey is undeniably interesting. There’s also a certain charm to some of the more unusual avenues the serials take, such as introducing “Spider Lady” as Superman’s first nemesis, and skipping Superman’s backstory with Lex Luthor to make them established rivals.

Even Superman’s Worst Movies Are Still Fun

While Superman’s movie catalog is largely a strong one, it does have its less well-received films – and less well-received by a considerable margin. Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace are arguably the worst of this roster, both because of their respective stories, and because of the ways they don’t live up to the original two Superman movies.

That said, even while there are obvious flaws in both of these films, they can still be majorly fun watches – especially in terms of revisiting them with the awareness that they don’t hold up to the 1978 and 1980 Superman movies, but are entertaining in their own right.

There is a lot of comedy that still works in both of these less popular Superman movies, and a lot of moments that now have more entertainment value in retrospect, in terms of how weird and wild some parts of the stories are – which makes them still worth revisiting on a lot of levels.

Every Actor Who Played A Live-Action Movie Superman Nailed The Role In Different Ways

Over the years, there’s been a wide range of different actors who’ve taken on the Superman role. Naturally, this means conversations around these films tend to delve into who was best – or worst – among these actors. However, after rewatching all of these movies, one thing has become especially clear to me: every Superman actor has been spot-on in different ways.

Of course, Christopher Reeve is rightfully considered one of the most important depictions of Superman of all time, mirroring the larger-than-life side of the hero and yet the humble nature he possesses without making this feel like the paradox it might otherwise seem.

Brandon Routh does a solid job of being able to pull off playing essentially the same hero in Superman Returns, and Kirk Alyn and George Reeves are also underappreciated as the figures who first brought the iconic Kryptonian to the film world and showed that the character could work as a central movie hero.

The latest additions to the Superman casting roster are no different. Henry Cavill brought a gravitas to the more serious iteration of Superman he played that Man of Steel arguably hinged on, and David Corenswet equally brought forth a brighter and more hopeful hero that still feels three-dimensional and the kind of figure a franchise could be built off of.

Man Of Steel Isn’t As Different To Other Superman Movies As It Sometimes Seems

Man of Steel is a movie that’s obtained a unique and oftentimes polarizing reputation in the years that have followed its release.

For every person who lauds it as the best superhero movie of all time, there seems to be a detractor who believes the film is not only a bad superhero movie, but also a release that depicts a version of the hero who is needlessly edgy and nothing like his film counterparts.

While the subjective nature of movies means it’s fair for people to hold either view, these perspectives often draw from the idea that Man of Steel was nothing like what came before it. Though in some ways this is true, rewatching Man of Steel alongside the rest of Superman’s movie roster underlines it’s mostly not.

Man of Steel – like its ancestors – takes a distinctive and refined approach to its story, but it’s still ultimately the superhero origin story of Clark Kent learning how to fully hone his powers and become Superman. Similarly, the story of him facing off against General Zod and his forces bares remarkable similarities to Superman II throughout its runtime.

This both means the film is drawn from and inspired by the prior Superman movie mythos more than it often gets credit for, and that it’s far more closely tied to the pre-existing Superman films than is often recognized, as a result of the film’s complex place in the Superman movie landscape.

Superman Returns Is The Closest We’ve Gotten To Superboy In A Live-Action Superman Movie In 77 Years

While Batman has gotten at least some on-screen movie time with Robin, across the annals of Superman’s live-action movie history, the hero hasn’t gotten to interact with any costumed version of Superboy, be that Conner Kent or his son Jonathan Kent. Interestingly, though, one film does come close: Superman Returns.

Thus far, Superman Returns is the only live-action Superman movie that really delves into the concept of Superboy, with the film revealing that Jason – Lois’ son, who appears at first to be the child of her and her husband Richard – is in fact Superman’s son. However, this is not given a lot of time to fully develop as a concept.

While Superman Returns shows that Jason has powers, with Clark becoming aware of Jason’s true parentage, the movie ends without confronting what this means for Clark, Jason or Lois fully. As it stands, it seems this was likely something intended to be explored more in the plans for a Superman Returns sequel, which ultimately never came to fruition.

This is particularly interesting as it means we’ve still never fully explored Superboy’s story in a live-action Superman solo movie, nor what it would mean for the wider DC world for Superboy to become a part of a film universe. Hopefully, the DCU may be able to bring a change in this regard later down the line.

The DCU’s Superman Is A Perfect Blend Of Every Superman Movie That Came Before It

Part of what DCU’s Superman appears to owe its 83% Rotten Tomatoes score to is the way in which it blends core aspects of what worked in essentially all of the Superman movies before it into one hope-filled and heartfelt love letter to the DC hero and what he’s meant for so many over the years.

In many ways, David Corenswet’s iteration of the hero is the closest we’ve gotten to Christopher Reeve’s rendition since the original Superman movies. Superman’s тιтular hero is powerful and committed wholeheartedly to helping others, but in a way where he can still come across as vulnerable and human despite his larger-than-life abilities.

That said, the way that Superman explores what someone with superpowers would mean for a reasonably grounded world – and the way in which doing things like getting involved in foreign conflicts would be complex for such a figure – does feel more akin to Man of Steel, even if the tones of the DCU and DCEU movies are different.

Rewatching All Of DC’s Superman Movies Makes Them All Feel Even Better As A Collection

Many criticisms of Superman movies in the past have revolved around what individual installments are missing. This isn’t an unfair complaint, as expecting a part of Superman’s mythos to be in an installment only to find it isn’t there is something that understandably leads to a less than stellar viewing experience for those who go in with specific expectations.

However, there’s truly something for everyone in Superman’s movie catalog, and rewatching it underlines how specific installments were built in certain directions because they were trying not to simply copy what came right before. When looked at altogether, it’s clear Superman’s movie roster explores the hero’s lore in a variety of ways that keep things interesting.

With a hero like Superman – and with the way the superhero genre often leans – it would have been easy for the hero’s movie offerings to follow a more rigid and identical formula: explore the origin story of Superman in the same way, possibly add a sequel that’s exactly the same, rinse and repeat. Instead, we’ve gotten far more than that.

While this means there’s a range of receptions to the Superman movies that may not have otherwise been as varied, it does seem in the big picture this is a worthy trade to ensure that Superman’s filmography maintains audience interest, and to help ensure Superman‘s films have been a cornerstone of the superhero genre for this long.