I think it’s very interesting how Man of Steel and Superman 2025 seems to have very opposite criticisms

I think nowadays criticism towards Man of Steel is a bit less hyperbolic and more focused on being fair, but always comes down to tone, creative decisions, and especially how the movie is written. I know for me at least, and this goes for a lot of Snyder movies, the actual point in which you’re supposed to get from the movie clashes with what you’re often being shown. So Man of Steel gets a bad rep for poorly portraying a Superman that I think is actually pretty solid, but held down by creative choices that are made to serve an overall aesthetic in spite of what the movie is supposed to communicate. Which is also a problem I have with Snyder’s adaption of Watchmen.

Meanwhile Superman 2025, when I do see it criticized for specific things, is criticized for being incredibly straightforward. The movie lets you know what’s going on with certain characters, plot points, and escalations in the plot pretty much all the time. Whether it’s explaining who characters are, what they think, how something works, or what’s currently going on in the plot, you’re often being told what’s going instead of just dripping info instead of just showing you and assuming you’ll get what you need. Like how we’re given a TV segment that explains the Justice Gang is funded by Maxwell Lord, instead of just letting us make a connection with the Logo or meeting Lord himself. The dialogue is by and large accused of being corny too, though I never take corny dialogue as a serious criticism against a genre as inherently corny as the Superhero genre.

This is outside of the fact that the tones are completely opposite. And I’ve seen these movies called overly edgy and overly humorous respectively. It makes me wonder what Superman movie would be considered a middle road between these two.