Superman [PG]

On the planet Krypton life is about to end as the planet is close to destruction. With little time, Jor-El and his wife send their infant son to Earth to grow up and later, use his ‘powers’ and wisdom for good. When he grows up he uses his inhuman strength, speed, vision, imperviousness, and flight to become a superhero: by day he is the shy and humble Clark Kent, but when helps is called for he is the charming and heroic ‘Superman’. But even ‘Superman’ has his weakness and when criminal mastermind Lex Luthor discovers it, he embarks to get Superman out of the way so he can, through a real estate swindle, destroy California. 

I’ll be the first to admit that I never got into the whole Superman phenomenon. I have a sort of appreciative and ‘meh’ relationship with him. I appreciate that he is probably the only genuine hero of comic bookdom (I can’t back that up though, I was never a comic book person) and I particularly like the fact that Clark Kent is the façade (for a really genius critique on Superman, see Kill Bill II), but at the end of the day, I never really bought into the whole fad. The same has to be said for this movie. I think it’s a bit unfair for me to write what I think because I’m a modern movie-watcher and therefore, the things that were the ‘wow’ factors of this flick back in the 80s just seem silly and outdated to me. Nonetheless, let’s talk about Superman… 

On the planet Krypton life is about to end as the planet is close to destruction. With little time, Jor-El and his wife send their infant son to Earth to grow up and later, use his ‘powers’ and wisdom for good. When he grows up he uses his inhuman strength, speed, vision, imperviousness, and flight to become a superhero: by day he is the shy and humble Clark Kent, but when helps is called for he is the charming and heroic ‘Superman’. But even ‘Superman’ has his weakness and when criminal mastermind Lex Luthor discovers it, he embarks to get Superman out of the way so he can, through a real estate swindle, destroy California. 

Having said this negative stuff about Superman being outdated and rather hilarious a movie from a modern perspective, I still actually really like this flick. What I really love is that there is this great sincerity from everyone involved and that really shines. It makes me laugh at it, but it really shines. I can see how awesome this film would have been when it was released, but for me I really appreciate the novelty aspect of it in terms of modern superhero flicks. I don’t think I’ll ever lump this movie into the category of being a great film, but I don’t think I could ever actually grow tired of watching it once in a while. 

Surprisingly, this flick does stand the test of time and despite some bouts of very bad writing, I think I’ll bring my kids up watching this rather than the crap that’s being spewed forth for children these days. There are some very funny and memorable moments of tough-guy one liners, there’s some cheeky sexual tension and playfulness, and the action is actually pretty cool too. Not to mention Christopher Reeve… SO GEORGEOUS!!! He was charming, bumbling, adorable, witty, and he was so dreamy to look at… 

Starring Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Margot Kidder, Valerie Perrine, Phyllis Thaxter, Susannah York, and Gene Hackman, Superman is, at the end of the day, a very entertaining movie on a whole lot of different levels. Filled with action, super powers, romance, drama, and comedy, I actually really do like it and it is worth having in any film buff’s collection.