12 Years Later, James Gunn’s DCU Still Can’t Top Snyder’s Defining Man of Steel Scene

Warner Bros. pressed the big red reset button with James Gunn’s Superman, and yeah, fans showed up. But the conversation that has swallowed the movie ever since is not subtle: people keep replaying Henry Cavill’s first flight in Man of Steel and asking why Gunn’s version of flying doesn’t hit the same.

The fight about flight

Gunn’s Superman (2025) is bright, colorful, and brings back the classic suit. David Corenswet looks the part. The sticking point for a lot of viewers has been the flying itself. It’s competent, sure, but it didn’t wow everyone. That has only made Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel feel even more mythic in hindsight, especially the first time Cavill’s Clark tries, fails, and then finally launches into the sky like he just discovered a new sense.

That Man of Steel scene is constructed to make you feel the mechanics: the way he gathers power, the ground kicking up, the hesitation, the second try. It’s not subtle that Snyder, the Sucker Punch filmmaker, stages it like a rite of passage, with Jor-El’s words guiding Kal-El while he figures himself out. One fan compared it to a toddler learning to walk, and honestly, that’s the vibe.

"They’re really trying to compare James Gunn’s garbage to this masterpiece?"

Harsh, but that’s the tone of the online discourse right now, and it started as early as the first trailers. People picked at details before the movie even landed, and when it did, the flying sequences were one of the first things back under the microscope.

Gunn’s Superman is already Superman, and that’s part of the rub

To be fair, Gunn’s film is set after Clark has already discovered his powers. Corenswet’s Superman spends a lot of the story bouncing from mission to mission, much of it tied to Lex Luthor’s machinations, so there isn’t that big cinematic epiphany where flight becomes a character beat. He’s capable, he’s moving fast, but the movie doesn’t stop to give the flying a poetic moment the way Man of Steel did. If you wanted a signature 'this is how a man learns to fly' sequence, Gunn’s version wasn’t really trying to be that movie.

Reception, then and now

Man of Steel was the kickoff to what fans often call the Snyderverse, and critics famously hammered it for the city-leveling destruction. Fans were more split, with a sizable chunk still ride-or-die for Snyder’s take all these years later. The aggregator snapshot tells a funny story: Man of Steel sits at 57 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with a 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb, while Superman (2025) has an 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and the same 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb. So critics warmed to Gunn’s movie more, while general audience scoring landed in basically the same spot.

If you ask me, the 'too much destruction' complaint never made sense for a guy who can fold a truck like a soda can and fight gods in the sky. The Man of Steel choice was aggressive by design. Different aims, different vibes.

Who’s who

• Man of Steel (2013): Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, with Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, and Laurence Fishburne.
• Superman (2025): David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, plus Isabela Merced, Milly Alcock, Nathan Fillion, Edi Gathegi, and more.

So where do you land?

If Gunn’s Superman worked for you, great. If you’re still chasing the awe of Cavill’s first liftoff, also fair. Both Superman (2025) and Man of Steel are currently streaming on HBO Max, so it’s ridiculously easy to do a back-to-back and decide which take makes you believe a man can fly.