Superman (1978)
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Superman Movie Review
Superman is a 1978 superhero film directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder. It’s a very dated, but fun flick.
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“Easy, miss. I’ve got you.
You – you’ve got me? Who’s got you?“
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This is a milestone movie for being the first ever big-budget superhero film, and it was a box office spectacle of its time. Nowadays, the film unfortunately doesn’t fully hold up, but I appreciate it for its importance and for how charming and entertaining it is.
I watched the theatrical version first and then I saw the extended cut. The extended cut added many very interesting sequences and I liked the majority of it, but overall it was simply ridiculously, needlessly overlong. The theatrical version is the better one.
I actually loved the Krypton first act, his origin story was very well executed and at that moment the film was quite epic. I also loved the upbringing sequences, and all of the scenes with his wonderful parents are moving and great.
The highlights, though, are easily the scenes with Lois Lane. The journalism stuff is amusing, but their romance is absolutely lovely with playful dialogue, amusing innuendos and overall terrific chemistry between the two leads. This is the best Lois Lane ever, so wonderfully portrayed by underrated Margot Kidder. And it surely is one of the best superhero romances of all time.
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But I really disliked all of the Lex Luthor stuff in the third act. That ruined it for me. I know that Gene Hackman’s performance has its fans, and he’s fine in the role, but the role itself is just so bad. The man isn’t menacing in any way, but actually rather silly, and I could never take him seriously whatsoever.
The same goes for the action in the third act. Thankfully, the movie before that did not have all that much action, but the action on Krypton and the train sequence for instance were greatly executed and fun. But the action in the third act is simply too dated to be taken seriously, it looks silly and in particular the spinning of the Earth’s orbit was hilariously ludicrous even for this genre and for this period.
Marlon Brando obviously phoned it in with his performance, but Clark’s parents are memorable and well-acted. And of course Christopher Reeve is great in the role of both nerdy Clark Kent and badass Superman. His Superman is very easily the best cinematic version of the character that we got so far and honestly a quintessential one.
Superman is an overlong, epic film for better and for worse. It obviously felt similar to ‘A New Hope’ as it was released at the same time in both its scope and visuals. I actually liked the special effects for the most part, especially the Krypton part, but the flying was badly executed.
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However, I and everyone else should forgive the movie for its VFX and actually appreciate them as they were great for its time, but I could not forgive the movie for being so damn silly and campy in its third act. That really bothered me as it did not fit what came before it.
But it’s overall very charming, if incredibly flawed. I found the romantic elements the best while the comedic ones are the worst. The superheroics is also solid, and in my opinion the film was also so well shot, directed and particularly amazingly scored with an absolutely iconic John Williams score that ranks among his finest ever.
Superman is a respectable, but flawed flick. I find its third act so silly to the point of being ludicrous in some of its action sequences. It’s campy and also very dated and ridiculous in its villain. But everything that came before that third act is very good. The first act on Krypton is powerful and in particular the romance works wonderfully as it’s quite charming. Margot Kidder is a great Lois Lane and Christopher Reeve remains the best Superman so far. The film has respectable VFX for its time and an absolutely iconic score from the great John Williams.
