Despite having never met prior, Lex Luthor, feeling that Superman’s mere existence bruised his intellectual vanity, believes that Superman is a threat and his nemesis. Going so far as recruiting underlings who have allowed themselves to be genetically altered (The Engineer) or have mysterious abilities similar to Superman (Ultraman). He pitches his Raptors (his private band of soldiers) to the Secretary of Defense Rick Flag Sr. and the government agency A.R.G.U.S. which turn him down. Luthor’s machinations include breaking into The Fortress, kidnapping Krypto and later, Superman and placing them in a cell within a prison built in an unstable black hole prison. Is Luthor redeemable? Is there anything worth redeeming?
Michael A. Burstein:: Luthor has one redeemable quality. Despite the fact that his concerns are wrapped up in his own ego, he does seem to be genuinely worried that Superman is or could be a threat to humanity. And there have been Elseworlds stories in the comics that prove he has a strong case. Even in main continuity there was once a storyline where Superman becomes a “benign dictator.”
However, despite Luthor having a point about Superman, the way he goes about achieving his goals is execrable.
Peter Briggs: Luthor always (almost always) believes what he’s doing is right, but it really depends who’s writing him. I was not a fan of Nicholas Hoult’s Luthor here. I felt he was a casting mistake from when I heard it was on the cards. There are movies I’ve really liked Hoult in (X-Men First Class, Warm Bodies, Renfield, Fury Road). And there are movies I haven’t, like Tolkien or The Current War, where I didn’t feel he had the gravitas to pull off the role. I thought his character was one-note here. Honestly, he was pretty much the only thing I didn’t like about this movie.
If we’re talking about Luthor as the character, I had a massive, massive issue with what I think is the major “Jump The Shark” moment in the film, where Luthor shoots the helpless bound shopworker in the head. I felt my movie theater audience actually be stunned into silence…and actively hate the movie – not Luthor – for the next 60 seconds. I couldn’t believe Gunn put that moment into a film that kids are going to see. There was an eleven year old girl sitting next to me with her mother. I winced for her, as much as myself.
Thomas Lakeman: For the most part, they give Luthor a lot to work with here, but then saddled him with not one, but two monologues as the film raced towards its conclusion. Either was excessive, and both were degrading.
Jon Bogdanove: Gunn’s portrayal of Lex is ideal!
No. In my opinion, Lex has no potential for redemption, due to what makes him tick.
Like our current President, Lex is a narcissist, megalomaniacal sociopath, and bully. The fact that Lex is vastly more intelligent and clever than Donald doesn’t change their underlying shared personality flaws.
Instead, Lex’s clever brain constantly performs ridiculous amounts of mental gymnastics to prop up his delusions that he, Lex Luthor, is the hero and that Superman is a dim-witted fool and glory-seeking moron. Lex needs to believe that only he himself is the one real super-man.
Luthor spent his whole life convincing himself that he is somehow intellectually superior to everyone in the universe. He has to be the ultimate Winner, and everyone else must be a Loser. Lex has stopped at nothing to maintain this delusion—corruption, murder, sedition, treason, genocide. He will literally do anything for his cause. As long as the end result proves his superiority, nothing he does is evil.
Anything that threatens Luthor’s delusion of superiority must be defeated, humiliated and destroyed. He cannot bear the thought that anybody else matters, or that there may be someone, somewhere who is better than he.
Yet, there is that Big Blue Boy Scout flying around, so smug and self-righteous!
It’s not just the fact that Superman has superhuman powers. Since grade school, Lex has always been smart enough to defeat foes stronger than himself, and has taken down superbeings before. No, Superman’s super-powers just make him a worthy opponent.
In part, it’s his name, “Superman.”
To Lex, Superman is not a man at all. He’s an alien! Lex himself is the only true super-man! The fact that the losers out there call this alien “Superman” proves what morons they all are.
But—what really galls and tortures Lex Luthor most about Superman are his ethics and compassion! Superman’s heroics are a relentless threat to Luthor’s worldview. Everyone matters to Superman. They are not just losers to him—nor simple fodder for his own aggrandizement, as they are to Luthor. Superman believes in goodness, kindness and genuine altruism—all things that Lex long ago convinced himself were fanciful fictions that losers delude themselves with to make their little lives feel less meaningless!
Everything Superman does and stands for is a direct affront to Luthor—a challenge to his narcissistic megalomania. Luthor can’t suffer Superman to exist, because, with every good deed, Superman knocks a brick out of Luthor’s self monument. If Superman is right, then that would mean everything Lex has ever done might actually be evil. It might mean that Lex isn’t the one, true super-man. It might mean that Lex really is the villain so many of those insignificant losers think he is!
Superman’s continued existence drives Lex deeper into insanity.To keep his delusions intact, and prevent his facade from crumbling to reveal his own miserable meaninglessness, Lex Luthor must defeat, humiliate and kill Superman. He has no choice.
Sad.
Alex Grand: No, Luthor is not redeemable. He shot a dude in the black hole prison. I supposed we’ll see him get a green iron suit, but I’d rather move on to Mongul or Darkseid. We’ll see where it goes.
Robert Greenberger: When Lex referred to Superman as “it,” I thought that summed up his attitude. He sees Superman as an alien whose motives could not be trusted. That they see the world through different lenses gives them conflict, but you add in the actual fear he seems to have, it adds something more to the relationship. Of course, he went to extremes and let ego get the best of him. Nicholas Hoult sold it very well and I liked how he went toe to toe in their final exchange.
Will McGuire: I don’t think Luthor is redeemable and I think the shooting of Mali, the food truck guy, is the pivotal insight into this version of Lex and where he’s at as a character. There’s a moment after Luthor shoots Mali where he loses his composure, because he’s surprised the gun went off and you can watch him realize how little the casual, personal, taking of human life actually means to him.
He’s killed millions in the abstract– boardroom deals and geopolitical machinations– but that moment is probably the first time he’s personally killed someone. Then you see him get a hold on himself, and leave making the boast that he’s going to kill Clark next.
This also gives you a nice ironic twist: for all his caterwauling about Superman being a threat to humanity…Lex actually doesn’t care about people at all.
I came into comics when Lex Luthor was still firmly in the Byrne/Wolfman mold. He was a merciless manipulator whose power as a storytelling device laid in the fact that he could not simply be arrested at the end of an issue and have society return to normal– his corruption was part and parcel of the way the world worked and it was Superman who was tilting at windmills to try and bring him down.
Gunn’s Luthor has elements of that character mixed with the mad scientist of the Golden Age and a kind of petulant childishness that the character displayed at times in the Silver Age. The Tycoon Luthor I remember would ruin someone’s life with a word if they displeased him, but this one has a personal prison dimension he tosses everyone who irritates him into.
I think this new version of Luthor reflects a collective unease we feel for tech billionaires and by extension, for the unchecked progression of technology itself and how it dehumanizes. The old Lex reflected an unease in the 1980’s with how much social power you could accrue with intelligence and affluence, but this new one is dangerous because he has no impulse control.
Josh Marowitz: The Lex Luthor of Smallville and the Lex Luthor of Waid & Yu’s Superman: Birthright were both redeemable to a point, but the Lex Luthor of this movie is not redeemable — at least, not to audiences. We don’t see enough of his public face to see what he’s done to cultivate his fanbase. We see him almost entirely contained in his command center shouting about Superman. Was this a Luthor who was trying to do good things for people, even if motivated by profit and ego, until Superman showed up and Luthor snapped?
But I hope that this Luthor weasels out of the charges against him and convinces the world that the whole thing was fake news or something.
Jerry Ordway: Lex is not redeemable. I agree with the comment earlier about Lex shooting the poor food vendor in the head. It was jarring, though I suppose this was Gunn’s moment to make us think Lex would do ANYTHING, including killing Krypto, the Kents (should he discover their connection) or Lois. I liked Nicholas Hoult, though I kind of wanted better lines for him. I guess everyone goes in knowing Lex is the bad guy, but even surrounded by “camp” Gene Hackman made you believe Lex was evil through the crinkle of an eye or a throwaway comment.
Something I don’t think anyone touched on, but occurred to me, is that all the stuff in this film has been seen in other Superman films, with the exception of Krypto. His Lex is similar to Superman Vs Batman Lex, the breaking into the Fortress was done in Superman 2 as well as Superman Returns. The political set up reminded me a lot of what was shown in Superman IV, and also Black Adam, where we saw the “heroes don’t kill” stuff. So these elements are all rehashes with a James Gunn filter. With so many great comic book stories, a part of me is disappointed that we keep seeing Lex Luthor stories. So, I kind of hope Lex is diminished in a sequel, so the focus can be on Brainiac, or Mr Mxyzptlk!
Lenny Schwartz: Lex also suffered a bit in the writing of this film (He’s in charge of green lighting DCU films but James Gunn needs someone to green light HIS film scripts as studio head because a lot of this could be fixed with another draft). The reasons Lex hates Superman SO MUCH in this film are incredibly thin. But Lex still works, because Hoult is so damn strong in the role. He makes Lex multi-dimensional and rocks it. His reasons be damned, Hoult makes the flimsy reasons work and work well.
Vito Delsante: Is he redeemable? I mean, we know he’s not, but he could throw money at Metropolis and go on an apology tour and revitalize the city. I’m not suggesting he run for President or anything, but stranger things have happened.
Thomas Lakeman: It’s hard for me to see Nicholas Hoult’s Luthor puppeteering Ultraman and not think of Elon Musk challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a cage match.
He’s just such a crazy-eyed tech bro, and I guess that’s our model for super villain these days. I liked Luthor better when he had that cool battle armor or in the John Byrne era when he was basically Donald Trump. Hell, I liked him better when he was wearing his prison grays all the time like he had a whole closet full of them. Is he redeemable? I’m not sure James Gunn wants him to be redeemable. It would blunt the point that this Luthor isn’t just jealous of Superman, he HATES ALIENS, get it? Hoult’s best moment is at the end, when he seems to realize that without the object of his hatred, he’s nothing. That I found interesting.
Andre Bennett: Of course Lex isn’t redeemable. He truly is Morrison’s Luthor. He could have saved the world years ago if it meant anything to him.
Thomas Lakeman: Wouldn’t that be something if this is the last we ever see of Luthor? There’s no redemption at this point, and the movie goes pretty out of its way to exploit how despicable a being he can be. I think it’s one aspect of the Superman canon they can now move past. There are bigger, better, more complex villains in the DC Cinematic Universe to explore.
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