Superman

I'm back! And to celebrate the release of Man of Steel this Friday (can't believe it's already here, Fall of 2011 doesn't seem long ago), I decided to go back and relive the cinematic history of Superman, starting with Superman in 1978. While this wasn't the first superhero movie, it was the first major superhero movie and paved the way for films like Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and The Avengers. I don't remember much of it, but it's regarded as a classic and one of the greatest superhero films of all time. So, let's relive it and see if it's as good as people say it is.

PLEASE NOTE: This review may not be as good as others, as I am not preparing for it unlike others and am writing it as I watch it so my first reaction is what I write for it. I apologize if this upsets anyone.

The Good

• The music - I need to say this immediately. The music to this film is amazing. It perfectly works for Superman and just sounds awesome. Whoever came up with it (John Williams I think) is a genius. Just perfect, and I actually sat on the main menu of the DVD for about 5 minutes just to listen to it.
• Opening scene - After the very long opening credits, we get an awesome opening scene on Krypton (the only logical place to start the movie). General Zod, Ursa, and Non. And wow, I forgot how hot Ursa. Just wow. On-topic, it's a nice opening scene with the three on trial (I guess is the best way to describe it) and are sentenced to to "eternal living death" in the Phantom Zone. We never see the three again (which sucks since we don't see Ursa again), but it's perfect to set up some future films. I won't go into too much detail about the 3 (I already went into detail about how hot Ursa is, just wow), but again, just cool to see.
• Jor-El - Jor-El was neat to see, but he's just not the way I pictured Jor-El. Nothing wrong with that though, he was still cool. Also, was he played by John O' Hurley? I'll feel like an idiot if he didn't, but I think it was him.
• The following scene - Nice following scene with Jor-El and his wife (I didn't catch her name, but I want to say Mala) are trying to save Kal-El by putting him in a ship to Earth. There's also some non-subtle foreshadowing. But still a nice scene. I think it would have been more emotional though if there had been at least 20 minutes to build up to this which would make us care about them more.
• Lana Lang - Nice appearance, but jeeze lady! What is wrong with your face!?!
• Mr. Kent's Death - Just a sad moment. I don't know why since we barely saw him at this point, but still very sad.
• Special effects - I would complain about them, but then I remember this film came out in 1978. At the time, these were extremely good special effects (I think). Great job guys! (not sarcasm)
• Fortress of Solitude - I just think it looks awesome. Not as awesome as the Batcave in the Burton movies, but it's not fair to compare them. But the fortress is still awesome.
• Lois Lane - I really Lois in this film. There is something odd about her, but I still like her for some reason. Don't remember the name of the actress who played her, but she did a great job.
• Perry White - Not much to say here, but he did a good job.
• Miss Tessmacher - Lex Luthor's assistant. She was just awesome in this film. Just perfect and one of my personal favorite things in this film (and might be my favorite).* Didn't care for her voice, but I could forgive that.
• There's a scene where Superman is just doing several heroic things. It's a nice scene. The music fits perfectly and it's cool seeing him kick @$$ since the movie was kind of slow up to this point. Now if only he wasn't such a boy scout.
• The Final Scene - Awesome final scene where Superman flies over the Earth off into the distance while the theme plays.
• Superman - And we're up to the big cheese himself. Overall, I though Superman was done very well in the film. The costume was good for it's time (though the Man of Steel costume looks MUCH better), Christopher Reeves did a good job as big blue, and he was overall good. Even Clark Kent was done very well. There were some corny lines (from both), but I think that was intentional, so I can forgive it. Overall, Supermna was just done extremely well here.

*I admit, part of why I love her so much is how hot she is. But I just love the character too.

The Rooftop Scene

There's a scene on a rooftop at Lois' apartment. I don't know what to think of this scene. It was kind of nice, but it got too mushy to the point I wanted to vomit. So, pretty much I don't know what to think of this scene.

The Bad

• The opening credits drag on WAY too long - Seriously, these drag on too long. Longer than the opening things in the Star War movies or the Spider-Man 2 opening credits. They give tons of stuff that should have been saved for the ending credits. But we here the theme for the movie, so I won't complain too much.
• The council - There wasn't anything wrong with the council, but they just annoyed me. They seemed way too rude and snooty.
• Kal-El as a baby has weird looking hair - Just saying.
• The ship Jor-El puts Kal-El in is just weird - Looking at it, I have no clue how the heck it was able to fly. They did say that Krypton is centuries ahead of Earth, but they still could have made it look better. I know they were trying to show the crystals, but still.
• The scene showing Krypton being destroyed lasting too long - It just gets to the point that you're saying "We get it, all Kryptonians are dying! Move on!"
• Baby Kal-El (or whatever I call him at this point) lifts the back of a pickup truck - Why? Was there any point to that other than to that way the Kents (I forget their first name, CRAP! I want to say Thomas & Martha, but that's a whole other origin for a whole other character) could see his powers? They could of come up with something better.
• Immediately after Mr. Kent died, Clark leaves the farm - Way to be a great son! (sarcasm)
• Superman's costume seems to come out of nowhere - A little explanation is all I'm asking for. Or I just wasn't playing attention and missed something.
• Jimmy Olsen - I didn't care for Jimmy in this. There's just something odd about him. He just seemed a little too nice, like he was hiding something.
• Lex Luthor - This is probably my biggest problem with this film, the butchering of Lex Luthor. They turned him into a Saturday morning cartoon villain on this show. Why? What's wrong with evil businessman Lex Luthor? Gene Hackman is a good actor, and his performance was fine, but the script just ruined Luthor. There were some good moments but the bad outweighed the good. And what was the point of the wig?
• Kryptonite - Their explanation for Kryptonite was strange. I don't feel like getting into it, but it was more complicated than it needed to be. It was probably an easy reason for what it is, but they didn't explain it well.
• Luthor's plan to use Kryptonite on Superman - This fails on so many levels. He launches missiles and tells Superman he has a detonator for them. And even with all Superman's strength and speed, he couldn't catch both missiles. As Superman interrogates him and demanding the detonator, Superman finds a chest covered with led (which he can't see through) and opens it only to find kryptonite. What? You're Superman! You could catch both missiles in the time it takes a normal person to wash their hands (and even that would be taking too long). Plus, he really didn't suspect Lex was up to something? Idiot.
• Whenever Lex yells "Ms. Tessmacher!," it sounds like Ebenezer Scrooge in the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol.
• Ms. Tessmacher turned on Lex and saved Superman - That sucks.
• Superman is too overpowered - I was keeping quiet about this, but I need to rant. WHY THE HELL IS SUPERMAN SO OVERPOWERED!?!? I can understand how strong he is, how pretty much nothing hurts him, etc. (it is Superman after all). But he reverses time by reversing the rotation of the Earth? WHAT THE HELL!?! No matter which universe we're going by, that should not be possible! Forget Batman, this version of Superman is the Master of PIS.

My Overall Rating

This film is MUCH better than I remember, but still not the epic movie Superman could have. It has it's share amount of flaws, but with the comics available at the time, they did pretty good with what they could. I would give it a 3.5/5, but I can't since they removed the ability to give .5 star ratings. I don't feel it deserves 4/5, so I'll go with a solid 3/5. Sorry Supes. But hopefully Superman II is better.

My Final Verdict: 3/5 Stars.

I'm Sorry

Sorry this review wasn't very good. I had too many little thoughts I had to write down which take up so much space barely any of the important stuff got it. I truly apologize for this and swear the Superman II review will be better. I just had to rush this to get it out by the end of the day.