The Michael Knowles Show - July 11, 2025


Michael Knowles REVIEWS The New ＂Superman＂ Movie (2025)


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

183.8388

Word count

2,950

Sentence count

273

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Superman: Dawn of the Superheroes is out in theaters and I'm here to review it. Spoiler: It's not good. But it's not all that bad either, and I'll give you a quick run down of what I thought of it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I saw Superman.
00:00:04.840 There will not be spoilers in the first part of this review.
00:00:08.200 There might be some later on, but I'll let you know.
00:00:09.800 I'll give you a little bit of warning.
00:00:11.060 I saw Superman.
00:00:12.800 I'm going to put all my cards on the table.
00:00:14.720 I generally don't care for these superhero movies.
00:00:17.360 Some of them have been okay.
00:00:18.920 They're not really for me, so I am reviewing it on that handicap.
00:00:23.340 I'm trying to be as fair as I can.
00:00:25.320 And I went into this movie being told this was going to be super woke, super anti-Trump, super pro, immigration, really woke.
00:00:35.400 And it was a little bit of that.
00:00:37.660 There was a little bit of that, but just a little bit.
00:00:45.880 Before I even saw the movie, my wife said, she goes,
00:00:48.700 You know, man, at this point, I wonder if the studios are just releasing all this really woke stuff to just gin up controversy and make people...
00:00:57.160 And in a way, I think that's what happened.
00:00:58.480 Because the movie wasn't that good.
00:01:00.060 There were a couple interesting moments.
00:01:01.560 It wasn't totally terrible.
00:01:02.880 It wasn't good.
00:01:04.360 It wasn't even all that woke.
00:01:06.080 There was a vaguely anti-Trump angle.
00:01:08.600 But it was so lazy that it was even a vaguely anti-George Bush angle.
00:01:12.700 It was just like a vaguely anti-deportation, anti-torture, whatever.
00:01:19.440 It was fine.
00:01:20.420 There was a Tucker Carlson character.
00:01:22.440 That's like, I don't even count that as a spoiler.
00:01:24.060 There was a character who was a right-wing pundit who was obviously supposed to be Tucker.
00:01:27.720 There was an interesting observation, which is that all journalists are operators.
00:01:31.440 This you just kind of get from the general Clark-Lois story throughout the whole franchise,
00:01:37.740 which is that Lois is supposed to be a journalist, but she's sleeping with her mark, you know, with her source. 0.93
00:01:44.500 And that is just true of journalism.
00:01:46.260 All journalists are operators.
00:01:48.260 All operators are journalists these days.
00:01:50.240 So, okay, that was fine.
00:01:51.800 My biggest takeaway, total non-spoiler takeaway, though,
00:01:55.580 the special effects don't work as well anymore.
00:01:58.120 This is a change over the last six months.
00:01:59.920 It used to be that these movies were pretty well-written.
00:02:02.660 There was a lot more dialogue.
00:02:04.140 There was just more writing.
00:02:05.420 And then, with CGI and special effects coming up in the 90s and 2000s,
00:02:10.060 there was less dialogue.
00:02:11.900 And there could be less dialogue because the filmmakers could spend more time just blowing stuff up.
00:02:19.340 And it was dazzling to people.
00:02:25.180 It was amazing.
00:02:26.300 You'd go and watch New York City be blown to smithereens,
00:02:29.140 and you'd say, wow, oh my goodness.
00:02:30.760 But with AI, I can make that now in about five minutes.
00:02:35.020 And I can post it on Twitter.
00:02:36.460 So, I think that the writing is going to have to get better now.
00:02:41.680 Because the studios don't really have any advantage over some dude in his basement
00:02:47.400 with a decent mid-journey subscription.
00:02:50.320 So, that makes me hopeful.
00:02:51.560 The dialogue was not there for this movie.
00:02:53.560 Some of the writing was a little better than some superhero movies.
00:02:56.040 It was better than some of the Marvel movies where, really, there's no point whatsoever.
00:02:59.320 There were some interesting points, which we'll get into in more of the spoiler section.
00:03:03.260 But the main takeaway is, and they couldn't have known it, really.
00:03:06.840 Or maybe they should have seen it coming, but they couldn't have seen the rapidity of it.
00:03:11.420 The special effects just don't hit like they used to.
00:03:14.740 Sorry, you're going to have to write dialogue again, studios.
00:03:30.300 That's going to be tough.
00:03:31.280 Okay, slight, slight spoilers.
00:03:34.580 I think these are tolerable spoilers.
00:03:36.760 If you want to go see the movie, I'm not saying avoid it at all costs.
00:03:40.260 It's fine.
00:03:41.920 But I don't think this will ruin the movie, these kind of spoilers.
00:03:43.760 The government arrests him without reading his Miranda rights because he's an alien.
00:03:50.920 And aliens don't have rights.
00:03:52.660 This is a clear knock on Trump and the anti-mass migration movement and the pro-deportation movement.
00:04:00.060 Unfortunately, it's not even really true because we do afford the illegal aliens a ton of rights that slow down the whole process. 0.95
00:04:06.180 And it's how they've exploited the system and why there are 16 million illegals in the country. 0.79
00:04:09.100 But anyway, that's one bit where you say, okay, no more truth justice in the American way.
00:04:13.700 Okay, there's some wokeness.
00:04:15.220 Here's a slight spoiler, though, that was interesting.
00:04:16.900 I've been kind of harsh on the movie.
00:04:17.960 Here was a line that was pretty interesting.
00:04:19.480 But it's a slight spoiler.
00:04:20.540 So if you don't want any slight, this is a slight spoiler.
00:04:22.860 Lois and Clark are having a debate over punk rock.
00:04:27.800 He says, I like punk rock.
00:04:29.100 She says, you don't like punk rock.
00:04:30.200 All those bands you like, they're pop.
00:04:32.300 They're not.
00:04:32.560 No, I'm punk rock.
00:04:33.320 No, you're punk rock.
00:04:34.140 No, I am.
00:04:35.560 No, I am.
00:04:36.500 And Lois says, I question everything.
00:04:40.340 You trust everyone.
00:04:41.740 You think everyone is beautiful.
00:04:43.540 And Clark responds and says, maybe that's the real punk rock.
00:04:47.040 That was a good line.
00:04:48.760 That was a good line because of the moment we're living in.
00:04:51.100 We're coming out of the cynicism and irony of the 2000s and 20-teens.
00:04:57.380 What's hot now, what's punk rock now is sincerity, authenticity, earnestness, enthusiasm.
00:05:04.640 It's just something I've noticed.
00:05:05.940 It's a little bit of a millennial Zoomer divide.
00:05:08.520 You think everything's beautiful.
00:05:09.800 You see the good in everyone.
00:05:10.800 And he says, well, that's punk rock.
00:05:12.120 Totally agree.
00:05:13.280 We are coming out of an age of cynicism and irony and vocal fry and disbelief.
00:05:22.140 And I think what we're coming into is a greater appreciation of beauty,
00:05:25.360 a recognition that there is objective beauty,
00:05:27.960 a recognition that man is made in the image of God,
00:05:32.140 and we're fallen and we're a little broken,
00:05:34.780 but there still is that image of God in us.
00:05:36.900 And you can actually look for the good and you can pursue the good.
00:05:39.460 There is a good to pursue.
00:05:41.360 And really, good is to be pursued and evil to be avoided.
00:05:44.780 That's more important than just a kind of crass, materialist, envious, selfish cynicism.
00:05:49.660 I really liked that line.
00:05:51.060 We're going to get to the real spoilers now.
00:05:52.660 So if you don't like it, if you're like me and you would have never seen this movie,
00:05:56.580 if you weren't made to, if it wasn't your job to go see this movie, then keep watching.
00:06:02.400 If you are concerned, this is the spoiler.
00:06:08.140 The hook of the movie is that Superman is basically the Antichrist.
00:06:12.440 What I mean by that is, the hook of the movie is that his parents,
00:06:19.500 I'm not even that familiar with the Superman story.
00:06:21.280 I had to have some friends around here explain to me the broad Superman story.
00:06:24.740 But his birth parents, who sent him to the Earth before planet whatever was exploded,
00:06:30.880 they sent him with a message.
00:06:32.140 And the message was, you're here to serve humanity.
00:06:34.460 But the hook of this movie is, there's more to the message.
00:06:38.560 And the rest of the message is, and you got to dupe these idiots.
00:06:42.400 These humans, they're stupid.
00:06:44.600 They're gullible.
00:06:46.020 You should dominate them.
00:06:47.900 You need to rule over them mercilessly.
00:06:50.480 You need to become a tyrant.
00:06:52.000 And this causes a crisis of identity for Superman.
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00:08:15.400 And this is, it's an interesting hook.
00:08:18.100 I kind of liked it because it raises questions about, am I just inevitably going to be a replica
00:08:23.740 of my father?
00:08:24.560 And the answer it gives is that, yes, indeed, the sins of the father can be revisited upon the son.
00:08:32.900 What the father does, what the father says, or the mother, for that matter, what your parents say and do,
00:08:38.800 that will affect you.
00:08:40.140 That will have consequences for your identity.
00:08:43.820 But they're not insurmountable.
00:08:46.900 They're not insurmountable.
00:08:48.020 He doesn't, Superman isn't that guy.
00:08:50.960 Superman became Superman.
00:08:52.720 He doesn't have to be what his father planned him out to be.
00:08:55.680 And there's a great scene where he goes back to the people who raised him,
00:09:01.180 the nice old Midwestern farmers who raised him.
00:09:03.840 And they're clearly his parents.
00:09:06.520 You know, they are really fulfilling that parent role.
00:09:08.740 They clearly love him and he loves them.
00:09:10.820 And so this has, you know, so much of Superman has biblical Christian references.
00:09:16.980 And that clearly calls to mind, you know, who is my mother?
00:09:19.960 Who is my brother?
00:09:21.280 He who does the will of my father.
00:09:22.680 That's my mother. 0.97
00:09:23.280 That's my brother.
00:09:25.220 There's then a direct conversation between the father who raised Superman, not his birth father,
00:09:31.920 the father who raised Superman, and Superman.
00:09:33.920 And this part was good, but it was still a little bit lib.
00:09:37.500 Because he says, hey, Clark, Clark says, I'm not who I thought I was.
00:09:42.860 And the father says, the adoptive father says, parents aren't for telling their kids who they are.
00:09:53.180 Parents aren't for that.
00:09:54.800 You have made choices.
00:09:56.120 You have done things that determine who you are.
00:09:58.360 And I like that a little bit.
00:10:02.640 You know, obviously, yes, we do have free choice.
00:10:05.340 But I think the adoptive father is underselling the role of parents in a way that is classically liberal.
00:10:11.760 And so that's where I think it kind of fails philosophically.
00:10:14.600 It's getting close.
00:10:15.580 Yeah, you don't have to be like your apparently evil alien dad.
00:10:19.260 But he is going to affect you.
00:10:21.780 And actually, the role of parents is to tell kids who they are.
00:10:24.480 If the role of parents were not to tell kids who they are, what's the role of parents?
00:10:28.280 You're not, your role is not to educate your children.
00:10:30.920 If your role is not to help bring up your kids, what's the point of parents?
00:10:37.100 You just warm bodies?
00:10:38.220 You just, you're bringing them money or feeding them or something?
00:10:41.420 No, you are.
00:10:43.140 And then, and it really hits this classically liberal line when the adoptive father says,
00:10:47.180 your choices are what matters.
00:10:49.180 So once again, this is liberalism.
00:10:51.120 It's your choice, your choice, your choice.
00:10:53.120 Because your choices do matter, but your choices come from something.
00:10:55.260 Because freedom is willing, predicated on knowledge.
00:10:58.100 So there is, don't undersell it.
00:10:59.960 What would have been a better, more accurate portrayal is, is the, the adoptive father saying,
00:11:05.460 hey, Superman, nature is a part of you, but nurture is also a part of you.
00:11:10.040 And nature and nurture are combining with your, with your freedom to make up who you really are.
00:11:16.120 Could have said, no, no, no, you're, the role of parents is to tell kids who they are.
00:11:20.940 And I, and I helped to tell you who you are.
00:11:23.320 And you've run with that and you've done better than I did.
00:11:25.620 You know, you're, you're, I'm so proud of you.
00:11:27.280 That would have been, so it wasn't, you can't really blame the studios for not being all that philosophically adept or anthropologically adept.
00:11:33.040 But that was a part where I thought, I, it's, this is, could be interesting, but just, they don't take it all the way.
00:11:38.460 Okay.
00:11:38.960 Then, super heavy spoiler, super duper heavy spoiler.
00:11:42.980 Superman meets a clone, Superman.
00:11:47.020 So this is kind of clunky writing.
00:11:48.900 Oh, wow, he met a clone.
00:11:49.880 Okay, so you're now taking this theme of, you know, like, I was born to be this evil tyrant over the earth,
00:11:56.540 but then I was raised to be this good guy.
00:11:59.900 And what am I really?
00:12:01.260 Who am I really?
00:12:02.140 You know, and then, so he meets the clone, who's the, the thing he could have been.
00:12:06.840 Now, in, in the classical way we understand human nature, this is just, you know, this, this is just a could have been.
00:12:13.540 In the way that now materialists desperately try to avoid God and, you know, free will and everything.
00:12:19.820 They, this would, this would be like the multiverse, you know, so here's the Superman in the multiverse who's an evil, terrible clone.
00:12:26.540 But either way, whatever, if you, if you can do the lame version or the classical good version.
00:12:31.200 Either way, okay, here's how it could have gone wrong.
00:12:33.840 But he didn't have to become that guy.
00:12:35.420 He became the good guy, and that, that's great.
00:12:37.300 And then you get one last little woke thing at the end, big spoiler, where he says, I'm not an alien.
00:12:43.960 You keep calling me, I'm not an alien.
00:12:45.540 I'm as human as anyone.
00:12:48.620 This is, you know, the guy, the guy with face tattoos who MS-13 shuttled across the border yesterday.
00:12:55.400 He, but he's as American as anyone.
00:12:57.320 He's as American as apple pie.
00:12:58.840 Some guy in Timbuktu, he's, he's the real American. 0.95
00:13:01.480 And you, 12th generation from the founding stock, you know, you're not a real American because America is just an idea.
00:13:08.280 Humanity is just an idea.
00:13:09.920 He's not a human.
00:13:11.920 He's not, Superman is not a human.
00:13:13.760 He's an alien.
00:13:15.040 Earth isn't just an idea.
00:13:17.000 Humanity isn't just an idea.
00:13:18.240 It's flesh.
00:13:20.040 It's both, a human being is both spirit and flesh.
00:13:23.780 And unfortunately, we, in our schizophrenic modern age, in our stupid modern age, we somehow deny both of those things.
00:13:31.840 On the one hand, we say we don't really have souls or we don't, spirit is meaningless.
00:13:35.200 We're all just flesh.
00:13:36.240 We're meat puppets.
00:13:37.480 But then on the flip side, we say, but actually the body doesn't matter at all.
00:13:40.060 I can be whatever I want.
00:13:41.040 I can be the opposite sex.
00:13:42.140 And I'm just kind of an avatar and I'm not.
00:13:44.420 So somehow we get it perfectly wrong.
00:13:46.260 And this movie partakes of that error to some degree.
00:13:49.360 I'm not an alien.
00:13:50.220 I'm as human as anyone.
00:13:51.380 No, you serve humanity.
00:13:52.760 You are you, Superman.
00:13:55.580 You have a special role.
00:13:57.480 You're not quite human, but you're not totally divorced from humanity.
00:14:02.200 You're doing your own thing.
00:14:06.400 And by recognizing that reality, you are living up to your full potential, more so than even your birth father hoped for you to be.
00:14:12.920 And more than your adoptive father ever could be because you have these special powers and you get to be this special thing.
00:14:17.880 But not by denying what you are.
00:14:19.300 Unfortunately, the movie ends on this kind of identity crisis, this identity confusion.
00:14:25.020 It doesn't happen.
00:14:25.360 The whole point is the problem in the movie is there's identity confusion.
00:14:28.960 And he overcomes the identity confusion by realizing that he's not just a prisoner of what his birth father wanted him to be.
00:14:35.240 You know, his biological father wanted him to be.
00:14:37.180 But then it ends on the same kind of identity confusion that we all have.
00:14:42.880 Not only biologically, you know, the trans debate of the last 10 years, but also politically.
00:14:50.380 The American identity debate of the last 50 years.
00:14:53.520 What's it mean to be an American?
00:14:55.780 What's it mean to be a human?
00:14:57.280 It's just an idea.
00:14:58.840 So the movie is basically bad.
00:15:01.260 It's bad in different ways, though, from how we expected it to be.
00:15:04.660 It's a touch woke.
00:15:05.680 It's not super woke.
00:15:07.360 It's more classically liberal, I guess, which is almost worse as far as I'm concerned.
00:15:13.880 I'm hopeful, though.
00:15:14.780 I'll leave you on this hopeful note.
00:15:15.780 I'm hopeful these movies are going to have to get better because the studios can't just lazily fill up two-thirds of the movie with it.
00:15:27.260 As if that's going to dazzle us.
00:15:28.820 That doesn't dazzle us anyway.
00:15:29.760 It was dazzling the first 300 times they did it.
00:15:33.280 But we have AI now.
00:15:35.080 There's been a technological change.
00:15:36.340 Technological change is just naturally, especially movies themselves, obviously, are a technological innovation.
00:15:41.080 And when the technology changes, the art forms are going to have to react to that.
00:15:44.740 So the hopeful note on Superman is it's going to have to get better or it's just going to go away.
00:15:52.800 I hope it returns to truth.
00:15:53.840 It's like it's trying to get back to truth, justice, and the American way.
00:15:57.140 It just doesn't quite know how.
00:15:59.760 Maybe Superman 2 will get it.
00:16:01.980 See you next time.