Reeve has wonderful charisma, and the film's epic qualities are spectacular.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
On November 28, 2006, Warner Bros. went on a "Superman" spree, a veritable binge, releasing in standard definition and in some cases high definition practically everything they could find relating to "Superman"--from new movies to old ones, from TV series to cartoons, from documentaries to television specials. Among the best of their "Superman" releases is this four-disc, standard-def Special Edition set of "Superman: The Movie," which includes two versions of the film--theatrical and expanded--along with a ton of supplementary items.
Disc One: Original 1978 Theatrical Movie:
Appropriately, the first disc in the set contains the Christopher Reeve "Superman" movie in its original theatrical form, 141 minutes. Connoisseurs may argue the relative merits of "Superman: The Movie" vs. its sequel, "Superman II," but for my money, I enjoy this opening stab at the man from the planet Krypton, the story providing a background on his origin and a tongue-in-cheek adventure.
Two things were essential to making the movie work: The filmmakers had to find a credible Superman, and they had to make him fly. Not infrequently in the past the Man of Steel had looked too old, too puny, or too overweight. In Christopher Reeve, the casting department found someone with just the right charisma to pull it off, even if his physique didn't quite match the muscular torso of the man in the comic books. Reeve, a former soap-opera star, was tall, dark, handsome, boyish, shy, and athletic. Close enough. What was important was that he could charm the hood off a cobra. His smile and wink were so disarming that even his most severe critics had to admit he was the best Superman for the time. Then, there was that little matter of making him fly. Remember, the filmmakers made this movie before the age of digital special effects. They did it all the old-fashioned way. And does it work? Of course, it does, and splendidly. There's never a moment in the film when we can say Reeve's aerial aerobics look phony. The special flying effects looked good then and they look good today.
Before the producers hired Reeve, however, they retained the talents of Marlon Brando as Superman's father, Jor-El, and Gene Hackman as the super-villain, Lex Luthor. This, too, was inspired casting, although one wonders at the decision to assign Brando top billing, given that his part in the two-and-a-half-hour film lasts less than twenty minutes. But a mega-star is a mega-star, and his name alone was worth millions at the box office. Hackman, on the other hand, feared his role might be too lightweight and tarnish his reputation as a serious actor. He needn't have worried. The role merely confirmed what we had already known--that Hackman could play anything from light comedy to heavy drama with equal ease. More veteran actors filled out the other parts, people like Glenn Ford as Superman's foster father, Jonathan Kent, and Jackie Cooper as the editor of the Daily Planet, Perry White, and Ned Beatty as Luthor's comical henchman, Otis, and Trevor Howard as a member of the ruling Krypton Council. Plus, there were Susanna York, Terence Stamp, Phyllis Thaxter, Maria Schell, and others in minor roles. And relative unknowns also did splendid work, like Margot Kidder as Superman's love interest, Lois Lane, and Marc McClure as the cub reporter, Jimmy Olsen, and Valerie Perrine as Luthor's sexpot girlfriend, Miss Teschmacher.
With a story and screenplay by Mario Puzo ("The Godfather"), heroic music by John Williams ("Star Wars"), and a capable director in Richard Donner ("The Omen," "Lethal Weapon"), the only thing the film needed was enough money to carry it out successfully. Not to worry. Warner Bros. afforded the film one of the biggest budgets they had ever given to a production, and their reward was the highest-grossing motion picture in their history up until that time.
"Superman: The Movie" is divided into two distinct parts. The first part traces the history of the amazing superhero from his childhood on the doomed planet Krypton through his adoption by parents on Earth and his young adulthood in Smallville. This first part is fairly serious and straightforward, attempting to dazzle the audience with visual effects like the destruction of Krypton and the baby's star flight to Earth, with Brando's voice-over narration. Critics have often lambasted this opening section for being too pompous or self-important and not getting right to the main plot. On the other hand, I've always liked this section because I enjoy learning how these superheroes came into being. It's why I enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" more than other people did. It was all prelude and no actual silly superhero plot.
The film's second part recounts some of Superman's first exploits as Clark Kent, "mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper" who "fights for truth, justice, and the American way." But it does so in basically comedic fashion. Reeve plays Kent as klutzy, coy, cuddly, and cute, and plays Superman as impeccably forthright and noble, saving the world from jewel thieves and bank robbers, saving Lois from a helicopter disaster, saving a cat from a tree, saving the President from a disabled Air Force One, that kind of thing. His biggest problem appears to be finding a telephone booth suitable for changing clothes. Hackman as Luthor is a bona fide ham, "fiendishly gifted" and "the greatest criminal mind of our time" in Luthor's own words. He is a comic-book character all the way, as are Beatty's oafish Otis and Cooper's blustering editor. They fit right in with a comic-book plot about Luthor's attempt to drop the West Coast into the sea.
Just how well one can reconcile the seriousness of the first part with the silliness of the second part may to a degree determine one's overall reaction to the movie. I mean, newspaper reporter Lois Lane lives in a penthouse garden apartment, if you can believe that. Only in the movies. Fortunately, there is a sweet love story that goes along with the comic-book action, and that partially redeems the film's second half. Still, as a whole, "Superman: The Movie" gives us a little bit of everything, and that's not a bad thing to have.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]19521[/release]