Superman '78 is 35

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

I've never actually seen Superman the movie. I do plan on watching it, next time it's on TV.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by chrisdude

I, of course, wish Donner could have finished his work, but I can't say I watch the Donner cut often. It's certainly better, but there's a constant voice in the back of my mind, whispering, "This isn't the real movie, Chris." But I am grateful that it was released, and I do show it to people.

See, I'm the other way, since it's more along the way the story was originally written and meant to be presented (more or less), despite being only 9/10s finished I've since accepted the Donner Cut as the "real" movie. Not as far as what was released in theaters and the public at large may be familiar with, but "real" as in "This Is What We Were Supposed To See The First Time". The only thing I wish they kept from Lester's cut was Superman's "General... would you care to step outside?" line to Zod. That, and bringing the flag back to the White House at the end. But nothing's perfect.

Krutch: Most of that, really. I can poke fun at it whenever I see it, but nothing about it screams "bad" (except the flying poem, and we all know everyone was doing at least an hour's worth of cocaine through the entire 1970s, so some things just have to be overlooked). It does still have influence, because a ton of films in the same genre still borrow from it. Not only were most of the effects invented as they were making the movie, but a lot of the wire-work still looks more real than a lot of the CGI flights we've seen since. And I do still get the chance to introduce it to people of various ages who've never seen it, and most don't really care it's from the 70s. I was surprised how much my niece and nephew liked it. I mean, I can see some people not liking it, but honestly, most of those people I've talked to seem kind of cynical and apparently have something against whimsy. Generally speaking. It's not really like watching "Batman"; it's a fairy-tale movie, not an action movie.

Pretty much all I find really dated about the first one is the clothing. Could use a little less Otis and a lot more Tessmacher, but nothing's perfect. It's not perfect but it's as close as any comic movie ever got to the "heart" of the material it was adapting.

As for anything else, yeah when you watch it you can tell, "OK, this was made in 1978" but really, is that an issue? Does CGI always automatically look better than the stuff they gimmicked up back then? Does the fact they have crisper lens filters now take away from everything the movie does right, things 90% of comic movies since have borrowed from, from pacing to music to FX shots to camera angles? I fail to see how being visibly obvious a movie was made in a certain era means it has "aged horribly". It's definitely among the most enjoyable movies of the 70s. Everything is freaking "dated" or "aged" once more than a quarter century has gone by, that doesn't mean it's bad. Damn, son, it's just a movie. "Gojira" is still about as good as it gets in its genre. So what if it looks like sh*t? Everything they've done to "improve" it in retreads and rip-offs since then looks even more fake. "Man Of Steel" was a really good movie. Objectively, it could be said it was a better movie than "Superman". It's not, however, a better movie about Superman.

The first movie, for one, did a much better job positioning the main character in a heroic light than MoS did. I'll swallow a little bit of forced humor and over-sized bowties, gladly, in exchange for a hero who doesn't accidentally knock over all the buildings in a heavily populated major city he's supposedly "protecting". I kid because I love, it's a great movie, but it's only better at being "a movie about how he became Superman". The first is still the best "Superman Movie". It's the only one that feels like a complete movie and touches on all the broad and familiar strokes of the mythology, including several the new one left out or minimized.

If you know Superman, in the first movie you get everything you expect to get. In MoS, you can't help but ask in your subconscious "Where's Lex?", for example, because "movie villain burn-out" or not, you know he has to be there, he's "supposed" to be, even though you know he won't be because he's already been in five movies and this one needs to be "different". I get it. It's not like he's mandatory for every movie. It still feels "wrong" to introduce a Superman universe that doesn't, from the very beginning, include Luthor. Or Kryptonite. Or the full Clark disguise. It's obvious why they didn't bother this time out. Doesn't matter, it still hurts MoS as a complete, self-contained "Superman movie", in that vital parts of the mythology are left for the sequel. Dated or not, only the first one "got it right" in one shot, and I feel it deserves credit for that, and it's those big and small things all mixed together that make the original the best overall of the lot (although I prefer "Returns" on a personal level, and "MoS" was the closest to the comic in some amazing and obscure ways).

Zarius: I'm with you on that roar when he takes off. That freaked me out when I was 3. I just hate the older movies' "arbitrary new super-abilities we pulled out to make the script work because WB is leaning on us to finish this damn thing already" trope. I mean, I get it, but it's not even something he would do if he could, and it muddies up the ending (if he saved Lois instead... did all those other people die?!). All the Superman movies have kind of weak endings, although I did like the end of "Returns" but it still feels weird and kind of stalker-y, even though him and his kid was a really touching scene (Tip: if you pull an all-day Superman, Donner Cut and Returns back-to-back marathon, you will cry at this scene when he gives his father's soliloquy, even if you didn't love the movie). MoS's final scene was fitting and clever, but depending on where you fall on what happened at the end of the Big Fight, it might be too late. I'm pretty sure the theater I was in hated it. Not sure why, but nobody stayed to see if there was a "stinger" in the credits and there were a lot of pissed-off faces and grumbling. I wanted to clap, and usually I do whenever I feel a film deserves it, but this one time, I was actually afraid what might happen if I dared.

I love this kind of stuff. I'm glad there's so much attention and activity around Superman these days. I didn't have the internet when "Returns" came out so I didn't really get to acknowledge or participate in these kinds of talks.