The Curious Case of James Gunn’s Superman Structure

Introduction

When I first learnt that James Gunn’s Superman movie basically skipped the first act I was curious to see how that would work. I’d seen mixed reviews, but I always like to make up my own mind, and i’m always interested when a film (Especially a big Blockbuster Movie) tries something different. While I wasn’t a fan of the movie (to put it mildly) this isn’t a review.

What I want to chat about instead is how I perceived the structure of this movie, and what I believe could have been done a little differently to make it work, without losing the overarching story and themes they were going for.

There will be heavy spoilers from here on out.

Superman’s Structure

Applying The Hero’s Journey Model To Superman 2025

The Ordinary World in this movie would be that Superman is already established. He’s been on Earth for a while and is a hero to the vast majority of the people. He beats up monsters and villains, and works his day job at the Daily Planet. So while the film starts mid-fight, we get some idea of his life, even if we’re filling in a lot of the blanks ourselves from previous incarnations.

From my understanding his Call to Adventure then revolves around the international incident, and Superman taking it upon himself to stop a war. Lois questions his actions, and whether he should have the right to choose. Superman immediately Refuses the Call stating that he knows best, and peace should always be the correct option.

The Mentor aspect of the story is a little confusing here and was somewhat skipped, or put in the wrong position (more on that later) The Mentor is Superman’s real parents, and their message to him. Their suggestion that he makes a life on Earth, and in his interpretation, protects the people of the planet with his super abilities. All well and good until moments later that message in debunked and Lex unveils Superman was actually sent to Earth to rule it by his parents.

Superman’s Crossing The First Threshold therefore is him entering a brave new world where he’s no longer a fan favourite. Instead he’s considered a threat by the people and the Government. This all happens instantly, but again, I’ll circle back to that in a moment.

Despite feeling bloated and unfocused the second act plays out in a more traditionally structured manner. The Tests, Allies, and Enemies is always the fun part of a Super hero movie as Superman battles monsters and his public image, fighting alongside The Justice Gang, with Lois’s support. In the background Lex is further plotting his downfall, and the people are turning against him.

The Approach to the Inmost Cave comes when a warrant is issued for Superman’s arrest, and he’s left with no choice but to turn himself in. By some stroke of storytelling luck Lex Luthor is the man given the task of incarcerating Superman, and does so by taking him to a Pocket Universe.

There, he’s to be locked up for life in what has to be considered the beginning of The Ordeal and is structurally the low point in the movie for our hero. While I’m not a fan of any of these scenes, structurally, it kind of works.

The Ordeal continues as Superman finds out he does still have friends as Element Man, Mr. Terrific, and Lois, come to his aid and help him escape. This also gives Superman the opportunity to then try and clear his name in what could be considered the Reward, along with his trip back to the Kent Farm.

The third act for me structurally makes the most sense (even if I didn’t care for any of it) The Road Back for Superman becomes a literal one when Lex does something to split Metropolis in half. Now Superman has to once again save the people, and himself.

The Resurrection comes within this battle as Superman beats the villain who defeated him at the beginning of the movie, and also shows Lex to be the fraud he is. Then, they put the city back together by pressing a button or something, but I digress.

Finally, the Return with the Elixir element is everybody loves Superman again, and he gets to have a moment with Lois, and get rid of the unruly puppy who’s been abusing him all movie.

A Three Act Structure Needs A First Act

While the above summary isn’t massively in-depth you can see structurally a lot of things are in place from the second act onwards, but this is why the three-act structure is important. The first act in Superman forgoes a lot of things which generally make scripts (and stories as a whole) work.

The Ordinary World we are introduced to in this movie is short lived and not examined in any way. The Call and The Refusal both happen in the same scene as part of a single conversation, and the Mentor aspect is in the wrong position as that moment happens in the opening of the movie as Superman retreats back to his fortress and hears the message playing in the background.

The problem for me therefore lies in those opening moments of the film. Starting with a big set piece is fine in an action movie if it’s a hook, and then the story begins, but that’s not what happens here. It’s all part of the same story, one we weren’t privy to before the movie began.

We haven’t seen the Ordinary World. We know who Superman is because of other movies, not this one. I’m not suggesting another origin set piece, but something which shows us Superman’s core values. Who he is.

I think this could have been easily achieved to without changing to much, and keeping the story James Gunn and the other writers wanted to tell. For me, Superman needed to start with him preventing some kind of disaster. Saving people. We needed to see him saving a school bus full of kids, helping old people, putting a fire out, stopping a plane falling from the sky (I know they already done that one, and it was great)

We needed to see Superman be a Hero! Not battling some unidentified monster while Lex shouted cheat codes in the background, but actually see why the people value him and hold him in such high regard.

This would establish the Ordinary World. Then, when he’s questioned over his political interference, we have proof why Superman believes he’s on the side of right. That he has the people’s best interest at heart.

Whether he should have the authority for the actions he has taken can still be the central story, but we have a reason to believe in our hero that has come from this movie, rather than trying to mirror it to our own political ideals, or some jokey antidote about a cactus plant.

Maybe I’m too old and jaded to understand the modern ways but surely starting with a set piece of Superman saving everyone from a natural disaster is more exciting than him battling a CGI monster, and it gives us a greater understanding of who he is, and why he is so loved by the people. It fulfils his own sense of purpose more because he is the hero he knows who can be, and who his parents (before the message was debunked) asked him to be.

The Mentor

The second change I’d make in the first act is the Mentor. Having it at the beginning of the movie in the background when it’s the main story seems a little blasé to me. I think if Superman saved everyone from a disaster, then had his interview with Lois about his political actions, we could then move onto a giant set piece to round off the first act.

Assuming we somewhat know Lex’s intentions by this point, this is when Superman could lose the fight. He retreats back to the Fortress of Solitude to get fixed up by his robots… but that’s when Lex and his crew arrive.

Superman could be listening to the message like he was at the beginning for whatever reason, but Lex and his entourage discover it’s secret. Someone has an ability to notice there’s more to it, like they do in the film.

Here, Superman could hear the message at the same time they do, and be devastated by it. Everything he thought he knew about himself is a lie, and that lie has been revealed in his own Fortress of Solitude, by his mortal enemy no less!

Lex can then leave a broken Superman to his dark thoughts and go and reveal the actual message to the world, and begin his smear campaign against the Man of Steel using his troll monkeys or whatever the fuck they were.

Nothing is lost within the story told this way round, but we understand the stakes more, and have more empathy for Superman. Hearing the real message after he’s got his ass kicked, and a smug Lex Luthor being the one to deliver it, in his fucking home, would serve as a much stronger emotional beat than Superman watching the video on an i-Phone after saving a squirrel.

He’s Crossing the First Threshold in pain, and the journey to the low point has began.

From here the movie can play out as it did because I’m not trying to fix the whole thing as I really didn’t like any of it. But, I do believe all the movies problems stemmed from jumping into the story to quickly, when very little needed to change in order to set everything up better.

It was a bold choice to forgo the first act, but the constant expositional dialogue that plagued the movie from beginning to end tells me it didn’t work (even if loads of people love the movie, which is like, “your opinion man”)

Summary

Stories have a beginning, middle and end for a reason. We have to be invested, and that can only happen if we have an understanding of what’s going on, and a horse in the race. Superman is our guy in this story, the one we want to support and be okay, but we see little from him that relates to his end speech about being one of us other than him telling us so.

He tells us how difficult his life is as a human on Earth, but so little of it is seen. The Kents have always been Superman’s human side, a chance for us to see Clark Kent not Superman, but their scenes came too late. They felt like they were tossed in there because the Kents should be in the movie, rather than for a genuine reason.

Of course, the movie could be looked at purely as an entertaining nonsense action movie, but in my opinion, even those need to be structured correctly. Structure helps with pacing, and the familiarity of the story telling enhances our enjoyment, it doesn’t take away. Structure isn’t about being boring or unoriginal. It’s not about telling the same story. It’s about being able to tell whatever story you want, and know it has a chance to flow and make sense.

Plenty seemed to really enjoy the movie, and obviously it goes without saying that all of this is just my opinion, but I thought it was a movie worth examining a little, especially on the structure front.

It was fascinating to see a modern big budget movie without a traditional first act, and I somewhat applaud the ballsy attempt to forgo the origins and jump into the story sooner, I just think it could have been done with a little more subtly. It appears however that the days of Superman saving people are over, and now he just battles big CGI monsters in blurry action scenes. At least I’ll always have Donner’s Superman.