Another aspect that is enjoyed by many is Gene Hackmen’s portrayal of Lex Luthor. This is a villain that started out as an evil genius out to ruin Superman. But somewhere along the lines he became a villain out to beat up Superman.
This has been shown in his use of power suits, getting powers such as lantern rings, and the use of his own Legion of Doom and Injustice League. But this early portrayal of the villain shows us a version of Lex Luthor that is working towards a real estate scheme. That is literally his plan: buy cheap land and turn it into beach front property so he can be rich. This is classic, cheesy villain 101 and I loved it.
To hammer home the entire experience, Superman does not fight any great super powered bad guys in his battle against Luthor Real Estate. Instead, he has to fight against the
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disasters Luthor’s missiles are causing. Dams exploding, cars piling up, and bridges crumbling are all the kind of things people forgot Superman stops. They always expect Doomsday or Brainiac, but Superman’s goal is to promote truth, liberty and the American way. Fun fact: “The American Way,” was in his slogan in this day and age.
During this time, Superman was being established as doing more than punching things. He was growing to represent more: to be a thinker with power.
What I’m getting at is that this is one of if not the best Superman movie in the entire collection of Superman movies. It does the best job of portraying Superman without bogging everything down.
All of my favorite moments and comic portrayals aside, the movie boasted an impressive screenplay that was smart while maintaining the humor. The music was also to none with the Superman theme becoming famous and instantly recognizable the world over.
As you can see by looking anywhere on the internet, many fans enjoy this original Superman movie. While you can see its age poking through, it does stand the test of time. So with such a promising start, how did the franchise begin to falter? At what point did a Superman movie become something to skip and watch on television?
When did a movie titled Man of Steel bring back the franchise and gross around six hundred and sixty-eight million dollars in the box office? Well the road from a three hundred-million-dollar box office to sixty- eight million dollars is a long one that we’ll dive into.
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JASON
The Superman film franchise is important to recognize because it was the first time when film techniques established by 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars: A New Hope were used in mainstream movies to propel images from comic books to the silver screen. This franchise had staggering success followed by a slow and steady decline over the course of a decade.
What cannot be denied is the influence this franchise has on all other comic book franchises; its lessons of what to do and what not to do. As a child of the 1980s I grew up on the Americana of the first three Superman films and was profoundly influenced by their achievements and shortcomings. What follows are my thoughts on these films in individual reviews.
The film that started off the modern superhero genre, Superman, lives up to all of the hype, using elements of great filmmaking from the 1970s. This is one of my favorite films because it incorporates great elements of film and lives up to the promise of what a movie can be.
The script by Mario Puzo established the key elements that are needed in an origin film and gave Superman the air of an American myth from the get-go. Everything taking place on the last days of Krypton embodies an intense amount of imagination, establishing villains for future. Jor-El is played masterfully by the greatest actor of the 20th Century, Marlon Brando.
The film is slow paced following the destruction of Krypton. Experiencing the childhood of Clark Kent on screen shows the distinct juxtaposition of the alien world of Krypton and the
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Americana of Smallville. It’s important that this film shows Clark Kent as an alien becoming an American—a key character element of Superman throughout the franchise.
Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Gene Hackman are the gold standard that will always stand the test of time in the comic book genre. John Williams’ score married with Richard Donner’s photography, which creates emotional and rousing scenes that showed the beauty of stories based on comic books, are some of the best elements of the film.
This is a film that is only diminished by the time it was filmed in, when action sequences were much more difficult to orchestrate. The Richard Donner director’s cut is worth the viewing, as you will believe in Superman by the end of the film.
The Superman movies had quite the roller coaster in the success department. They started out high, went low, and then ended up back on top.
DAN
Superman kicked the franchise off strong. Beginning the film with the origin of Krypton and Kal-El was perfect. It set up Superman and Superman II in a short, concise manner. Christopher Reeve proved to be a perfect Superman, portraying both the roles of Clark Kent and Superman in a dynamic way that showed the differences in the two characters was more than just glasses and a suit.
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Reeve’s managed to show these characters did have different personalities and demeanors, giving the audience reason to believe the two weren’t one in the same. Reeve also did a great job at making the flying somewhat believable. Sure, it was obviously fake, but the way he moved around in the sky made you really think that he was flying and not just floating around on wires.
Gene Hackman was a good Lex Luthor, portraying him as an evil genius, who had plans to make himself rich, even if it meant the death of others. The character was at least somewhat realistic because he didn’t use crazy machines to complete his plot.
My biggest problem with the original Superman was that it ended in a way that just didn’t feel like a resolution. It was almost as if they decided to use a shortcut to get the ending. It was good, but it could’ve been better. Overall, this was definitely the best Superman movie from the first four in the franchise. Superman set the bar high, giving Superman II some big spandex to fill.
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SUPERMAN 2
BENNY
This brings us to the next movie, Superman II. Now it’s odd that originally these were both intended to