Superman I:The Movie (1978)

[Shinzon2004]

The planet Krypton is doomed,and Jor El,a scientist knows it.Before the planet explodes,Jor El sends to the Phantom Zone the 3 evil Kryptonians General Zod,Ursa and Non charged of commiting crimes against their people.Jor El then sends his only son, Kal El to a blue planet named Earth where he becomes Superman,the Man of Steel and champion of human kind.

Discuss everything about the movie here,incluiding its alternate versions.The movie starred the late Christopher Reeve,Gene Hackman,Margot Kidder and Marlon Brando.Directed by
Richard Donner.

[mansuper]

Wonderful film. Whenever i watch it, it never really looks out of date, except for some of the special effects.

[Shinzon2004]

I agree,the first movie is a true epic,a masterpiece,I love the main credits of the film!I hope that Superman Returns is as good as this one.

[Antithesis]

I hope so too. As much as I love the original, I like the extra footage in the recent special or director's cut.(I can't remember exactlly what it was called at the moment)

The advice scene with Jor-El was good especially. It showed that he really was just starting to be a hero, and wasn't completely confident on what to do.

I also love the extended scene of when he goes to Luthors lair. It shows his powers more and helps display that Luthor did have some kind of defences. It always seemed weird that at least in the version I'd seen most prior to it, you just hear rumbling and then Superman is there.

[GOBBluth]

I always look forward to two parts of the movie:

When Clark superspeeds home and beats Lana and the football players. One asks, "Clark? How did you get here so fast?" Clark simply replies, "I ran."

My other favorite is when we are going through space and Jor-El is speaking to Clark. The moment he says, "they can be a great people Kal-El...they wish to be. They only lack the light to lead the way. It is for this reason above all, their copacity for good that I have given them you...my only son."

Then the Superman theme goes up louder than before Jor-El's face crystalizes or something and we see Superman for the first time. Truly amazing.

[Antithesis]

True those are good scenes. I even like when he's first going to turn back the Earth. You just see so much anger and deterination in him.

[Shinzon2004]

However it was forbidden by Jor El to interfere in human history,
and Superman violated Jor El s rules.Wasnt Superman punished later in Superman II??Lois Lane shouldnt be alive at all in Part II so Part II takes place in an alternate timeline in which Lois never died.

[Antithesis]

I don't remember any punishment. Maybe there should've been, but it still doesn't remove any of the power from the scene.

[tobiasfunke]

There probably was supposed to be a punishment, but who knows how many things were dropped when they fired Richard Donner.

Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent...phenomenal! It's absolutely genious. Who would suspect THAT guy of being Superman?

[mansuper]

Originally posted by tobiasfunke
There probably was supposed to be a punishment, but who knows how many things were dropped when they fired Richard Donner.

Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent...phenomenal! It's absolutely genious. Who would suspect THAT guy of being Superman?

excellent point.

[zanos]

It was definately a film that was way ahead of it's time.

[elway]

It still holds the top spot of comic book movies. Krypton exploding Kal-El getting out in time. Great 20 min backstory on krypton and Jor-El.
Highschool Clark wasn't the best part of the movie but it was nessesary for the story. The death of JK and Martha trying to wake Clark up but he's allready 200 yards out in the field thinking of his journey to come. Knowing there is a higher calling he needs to adhere to. The FOS was ahead of it's time for movie sets simply amazing. Jor-El and Clark's talk was brillantly done as Clark went on a 12 year out of body experience where he learns everything on 28! unknown galaxies. Thats where he finds his true calling. Protect the planet u live on with ur powers and avoid krypton all over again.
Hackmon as Lex was great just wish there was more of the evil side to him, but still a great performance. And there is nothing u can say about Chris Reeves but born to play superman. Even with the big budget spidermans the original superman still holds it's ground after all these years. Can't wait to see what a big budget superman movie is like ,only a month to go............................>

[UDStyle]

Just the first 3 minutes of it is incredible.. and thats just the opening credits.

[Shinzon2004]

I agree,the main credits are awesome and the S shield exploding in the screen...fantastic!!One of the greatest movies of all time.

I hope we can say the same for Superman Returns cant wait to see it!!

[bluegayle]

I liked the Superman soundtrack, and the Superman scenes using his powers, Christoper Reeve as Clark/Superman..but I was still disappointed in the movie as a whole. Many fans like Gene Hackman as Lex, but I thought Lex was not as powerful/evil as he was supposed to be (my knowledge of Superman prior came from comics and cartoons of the 80s). I think it may be because for me, I didn't know if Gene Hackman was a big star that he probably was at the time, so the cast directors probably thought it was great they could get Hackman.

Otis as the comedy relief and a few comic scenes, mostly with Eve Teschmacher, hurt this movie for me, it didn't seem to be the serious adaptation that it could have been. Movie #3 and #4 were much worse, and #2 is kind of fuzzy for me, so this is definitely the best of the 4 that had Christoper Reeve.

I pretty much think that this Superman movie, the first Batman movie with Michael Keaton, and Spiderman 1 and 2 are the top movie adaptations though. Love the Xmen comics and cartoon, not the movies. So I'm probably in the minority that I'm not totally praising this movie even as I admit I really like it because the parts that were good, were really good.