Tuesday 23 February 2016

Superman (1978)



Superman: The Movie Review


As a warning, there will be spoilers ahead.

Superman is a comic book movie directed by Richard Donner, whose last director's credit came from The Omen two years earlier. Seems like a strange choice after that disturbing flick, but it seemed to actually work.

The film stars Christopher Reeve as Kal-El/Clark Kent, Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, and Marlon Brando as Jor-El.

The story follows Kal-El, who sent to Earth to save him from his dying planet of Krypton. Due to his origins, he has super-strength, x-ray vision, the ability to fly and ....... the ability to turn back time I guess, along with some other powers.

Kal-El, now known as Superman, takes to the city of Metropolis to help those in danger, and to take down the evil Lex Luthor, who plans to destroy part of California so that his land will be worth millions of dollars.

The first third of the movie takes place in the opening credits because Holy God they seem to go on forever. It would have been ok if there was a bit more going on in the background, but it's just the same credits with the same effect over and over.

Thankfully they're not too unbearable as we do have the legendary John William's excellent score in the background, even if the main theme does sound suspiciously similar to the main theme of Star Wars a year earlier.

So once the credits are finished we arrive at the planet Krypton, with Jor-El sentencing General Zod and his crew to exile which will set up the next movie nicely.

Jor-El is trying to convince the council that the planet will be destroyed sometime soon. No one listens to him and so he sends his son Kal-El to Earth to begin our story.

I do wish that we had spent some more time in Krypton, as the sets were fantastic, and the models used for the exterior of the city looked very realistic.

Marlon Brando is not in the movie for long, but gives a very memorable performance as Clark's father, especially in his speech to his son right before he sends him to Earth, as he knows he will ever see him again. Well until he shows up in a strange hologram later on.

I do think that Clark's early years are skipped over way too quickly as we only see him for a couple of minutes as an infant (in which, by the way, Martha Kent seems way too quick to go for the kidnapping route and pretend that he's an orphan), and then barely get to see his life on the farm, which only seems to be there for the death scene of Pa Kent.

Straight after that we see Clark grown up yet again and now employed by the Daily Planet, where he meets reporter Lois Lane for the first time.

I did enjoy the portrayal of Lois as she was pretty badass and it didn't feel like she was there just to be a love interest for Superman. Her on-screen banter and chemistry with Superman made for some good dialogue and funny moments.

Speaking of him, I know this has probably been said a million times by now, but Christopher Reeve was the absolute perfect choice to play Superman, and I honestly can't see anyone playing the role any better. Sorry Henry Cavill. It's just flawless the way he can act like the socially awkward Clark Kent and immediately go to the calm, strong-willed Superman.

I also did enjoy Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor as he did make him feel like a diabolical genius at times. I do feel that the character of Luthor was a bit inconsistent though. He starts off well enough looking like a cold, emotionless killer while sending an innocent cop to his death, but the character does feel a little too comical at times. I know this is a comic book movie, but there are some scenes towards the end where he disguises himself to change the co-ordinates of some missiles, and it just feels like a segment from a Looney Tunes episode. Still, the rest of the time he is an excellent villain.

As for the story, there's not too much going on, but it's exactly what you want from this kind of film as we see Superman performing all the heroic acts we want to see such as saving a plane from crashing, stopping a train from spinning off the tracks, and beating up some bank robbers.

The first time we see Superman is the iconic helicopter scene, in which he saves Lois from falling to her death. The scene is excellent and still looks great to this day. Plus it does give the classic line from Lois of "You've got me? Who's got you?!"

The best scene in the movie (in my opinion) comes from Lois's interview with Superman. This scene does a great job of showing us some of Superman's powers, some information about his origins, and the start of his romance with Lois. The best part comes when Superman offers to fly Lois around Metropolis in a charming moment. That is until he somehow drops her in mid-air, but at least he saved her in time.

Spoiler Alert for the ending.

I thought I couldn't fault anything in the movie until we came to the climax. I'd heard it was bad, but I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. After one of Luthor's missiles causes an earthquake, Superman finds Lois dead in her car after suffocation. It's an emotional moment and very dark. You could just see Superman starting to into a rage of anger, and it does humanise him quite a bit. Then he flies into space and somehow manages to make the Earth spin backwards which also manages to turn back time to stop the last missile from hitting, which in turn save Lois's life. And that's basically it. He also finds the time to capture Luthor and hands him over to the authorities.

Again this has been talked about many times before, but it just left a sour taste in my mouth and just felt like a very lazy, happily ever after ending.

Overall this is an excellent superhero/ comic book movie. Like I said earlier, I can't really fault anything outside of the ludicrous ending, and I would have liked to have seen more of Clark's early years getting used to his powers, but the movie was already running at two and half hours so I can understand why it may have been cut. Also those 2.5 hours absolutely blew by as the movie was a joy to watch.

Easily one of the better superhero movies we've ever had.


Grade: A


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