Superman

Richard Donner's film probably looked good on the big screen in 1978 but today it comes across as a laughable attempt to re-size the Superman story to epic proportions thanks to a grandiloquent script (by Mario Puzo, David Newman Leslie Newman and Robert Benton). a star-studded cast, cheesily lavish special effects and John Williams’ s characteristically bombastic score. Of course in Nerdand all this is regarded as a good thing so if you are a citizen thereof, simply invert my comments.

After an interminable title sequence featuring what was state-of-the-art computer graphics at the time, the film spends the first hour slogging through the back-story of how Superman (played by Jeff East in very bad wig) got from Krypton to The Daily Planet. Once we arrive at the Clark Kent we all know from the classic 1950s George Reeves TV series, the film picks up, largely because it stays close to the latter’s tongue-in-cheek style

Don’t be fooled by the cast, Marlon Brando as Superman’s father intones portenteously on his son’s destiny but it amounts to little whilst cast members such as Trevor Howard and Terence Stamp barely feature. Only Gene Hackman as arch-villain Lex Luthor, a kind of precursor to Jack Nicholson’s The Joker in Batman, stands out in what are the most entertaining sections of the movie. Then newcomer Christopher Reeves became famous for his role (he played the character in three sequels) but more because of Superman’s iconic status and red-and-blue spandex outfit than for any particular quality of his two-note performance.

FYI: Superman II which was directed by Richard Lester which completes the story only half-told here was apparently quite solid (given that you rate the first instalment positively) although, two further sequels, unsurprisingly, were not. 

 

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