Road to Justice: Superman

Superman
Directed by: Richard Donner
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando
Released: 1978
Watched: September 10th, 2015

Thoughts Before: I watched this one a long time ago along with the sequel. Having watched them back to back I can't really remember what happened in each of the movies. I do remember liking them, and Christopher Reeve makes a damn fine Superman. A Justice League movie starring Adam West, Lynda Carter and Christopher Reeve, that could have been awesome. Anyway, after seeing this I'm sure I'll believe a man can fly.

Thoughts After: So I think this is a case of "it was technically impressive at the time". All the main Superman origin plot points are covered, Jor-El's attempt to save his people, saving Kal-El at the last minute, the Kents finding and raising Clark, Superboy-ish beginnings, Papa Kent dying, the move to Metropolis, meeting Lois and Jimmy and Perry, the dichotomy between Clark and Superman. And Christopher Reeve is still one of my favorite portrayal's of the man of steel. But this movie, wow. It was just so boring, everything happened in such a dull manner. Why does Lex Luthor and his crony seem like bumbling oafs? The effects also don't hold up so well, for me personally I enjoy seeing how movie effects have evolved, and while I don't hold it against the movie that it was made in the 70's, some of these effects are not great.

The only thing I remembered from this movie was Superman losing his shit over Lois and somehow knowing how to turn back fucking time itself and setting things right again, while somehow also negating the natural disasters that were a serious problem moments ago. It's not a bad movie, but it's way too long, which is strange as this movie does cover so much information, it just needed to condense it a little. Also, the tagline is fantastic.

Bonus Round: Now the 1940's! Those were some guys who got Superman! Look, I may have been born in the early '90's but I have an immense amount of adoration and nostalgia for old cartoons. Max Fleischer's Superman is an excellent example of what I'm talking about. We watched the first episode Superman/The Mad Scientist alongside the movie, and it fared way better. They cover (and cut out a ton) of his back story in less than three minutes, then the story is about a mad scientist who, honestly, I don't get his end goal. He tells people where to find him, and that he plans to use a death ray, Lois goes to get a story from him, he kidnaps her and makes her watch him destroy the city. Superman comes and saves the day, in a hilarious fashion. His transformation is awesome, sneaking into a backroom of the office as you can see his silhouette quickly being changed, not super quickly mind you. Then he sneaks a peek out of the door real quick before speeding away through the window.

A building is being blasted away, but Superman manages to straighten it out (without support beams I'm not sure, but hey it was the 40's) and then he starts punching the death ray back at the scientist. The power is upped, but Superman is hardly slowed down. He takes the mad scientist away to jail and he even gets a sly little smirk at the end when Lois says the story turned out well thanks to Superman and even a fourth wall breaking wink to the audience. Oh mah stars. I love classic animation like this, I don't really understand why even. It's all public domain and easily found on youtube, I highly suggest looking into for fans of Superman or just vintage cartoons.