Matthew and I hunkered down over the weekend with two very different films, each asking of its viewer something slightly dangerous. One asked, Can a hero still mean something when it feels like the world has moved on? The other asked, What if the horror came early, in the night, from your own backyard?
The two films in question: Superman (2025)—James Gunn’s big-budget reboot of America’s favorite alien poster child; and Weapons—a horror-mystery directed by Zach Cregger that doesn’t flinch from asking what happens when innocence vanishes into thin air.
Spoiler: Weapons startled my soul. Superman entertained my nostalgia (and made me miss Henry Cavill). Let’s dive in.
So What Even Is Weapons
Weapons begins with the terrifyingly mundane: one ordinary night, at exactly 2:17 AM, the children of a third-grade class vanish. All but one. There’s no supernatural lightning bolt, no flashy ritual—just absence, leaving behind empty beds, panicked parents, and a town unraveling.
Julia Garner is front and center—not as a scream queen, but as a witness, a mourner, and a vessel for grief that refuses to behave neatly. The film splits into multiple narratives—teachers, relatives, investigators—each viewpoint adding layers to the mystery. There’s a witch-like woman named Gladys whose presence gnaws at the edges, and a nephew (Alex) caught in his parents’ downward spiral. The disappearance is more than a crime—it’s a crack in the social order, and Weapons lingers on how suspicion, denial, and paranoia fill the void.
Tone-wise: this isn’t loud horror, it’s uncanny horror. Dread builds in hallways, silence screams louder than jump scares, and grief itself becomes the monster. Garner’s performance anchors it—grief dripping slow, suspicion curling around every interaction.
Superman (2025): Tried, True, Sometimes Troubling
Meanwhile, Superman (2025) is James Gunn’s relaunch of the DC Universe’s first chapter. David Corenswet dons the cape, Rachel Brosnahan plays Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult bald-shines as Lex Luthor, with a parade of Justice League cameos thrown in.
Plot essentials: Superman is years into being a hero when he’s drawn into an international conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur—conflict stoked by Luthor’s hand. Luthor invents a metahuman phantom, the so-called “Hammer of Boravia,” to discredit Superman. Clark suffers a public defeat, retreats to his Fortress of Solitude, then stages a comeback alongside heroes like Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. The real villain isn’t just Luthor—it’s perception. Can Superman still inspire when the crowd wants proof over principle?
The tone is hopeful, earnest, and occasionally overstuffed. Too many ideas, too many cameos, too many attempts to tee up the next decade of DC films. But it works in moments: the visuals soar, the moral stakes matter, and Brosnahan’s Lois Lane—sharp, skeptical, deeply human—is a refreshing corrective to decades of damsel tropes.
Why Weapons Hit Differently
Here’s what Weapons did that Superman only flirted with:
- Mystery + Restraint: The vanishing of children isn’t solved in a tidy Act One. The film lets us live in the ache of not knowing, and that’s the scariest place horror can go.
- Character stakes, not disaster stakes: The horror is intimate, not apocalyptic. It’s about families imploding, classrooms left empty, a teacher haunted by silence.
- Tone balance: Horror, yes—but braided with grief, suspicion, and strange compassion. The film doesn’t need buckets of blood; it wrings terror out of a hallway at night, a scream muffled too late.
And Julia Garner. She doesn’t just perform, she bleeds dread. She’s brittle and strong all at once, keeping the film terrifyingly human.
Superman’s Wins and Missed Flights
I didn’t hate Superman. It’s competent, occasionally uplifting, and dressed to impress. But competence isn’t awe, and spectacle isn’t soul.
High notes:
- Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane: skeptical, sharp, witty—she’s the real heart of the film.
- The Boravia/Jarhanpur conflict grounds the story in geopolitics, raising stakes beyond Metropolis skyscrapers.
- The film embraces color and hope—something DC has ducked for years.
Weak spots:
- Overstuffing: too many heroes, too many subplots, too many winks at future spin-offs.
- Superman’s speeches sometimes land like Hallmark cards dropped into a geopolitical crisis. Noble words, but brittle delivery.
- Cavill’s shadow: Corenswet is fine, even charming, but Cavill carried a grit that made disbelief easier to suspend. Here, it feels polished to the point of safe.
Comparison: What I Loved vs What I Tolerated
| Feature | Weapons | Superman |
|---|---|---|
| Fear + Tension | Quiet, creeping dread | Explosions and spectacle, less suspense |
| Character Depth | Intimate, flawed, human | Archetypes, strong but simplified |
| Innovation | Narrative fractures, mystery | Nostalgic beats, franchise setup |
| Emotional Impact | Haunting, sustained | Uplifting, then disposable |
| Lasting Power | Stays in your head | Stays in the theater |
My Take: Why Weapons Wins the Weekend
The real hero of the weekend was Weapons. It didn’t just entertain; it stalked me into Monday. It asked questions about trust, about silence, about what communities hide until it’s too late. It didn’t hand me answers. It left me with unease.
Superman is fine. It’s candy-coated nostalgia, a feel-good blockbuster with enough color to be better than recent DC misfires. But I walked out without a scratch. With Weapons, I walked out haunted.
Final Thought: What I Walked Away Wanting
After Weapons, I wanted more films willing to break me open—horror that doesn’t just scare, but lingers like grief. After Superman, I wanted the opposite of polish: I wanted Clark Kent to falter, to stumble, to bleed. I wanted a Man of Steel who occasionally rusts.
Summary: The Rotten Apple & the Kryptonian Bloom
- Weapons is a horror-mystery about 17 children vanishing at 2:17 AM. It tells the story through fractured perspectives—parents, teachers, investigators—anchored by Julia Garner’s devastating performance.
- Superman (2025) is James Gunn’s bright, earnest reboot starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult. It tackles global conflicts, public trust, and Lex Luthor’s manipulations, but sometimes drowns itself in franchise baggage.
- Verdict: Weapons is fresh, disturbing, unforgettable. Superman is fine, likable, but forgettable once the cape folds.