Amazon.com Essentials:
Richard Donner's 1978 epic about the Man of Steel showed how a
film about a superhero could be a moving and romantic experience even
for people who long ago gave up comic books. Beginning on the icy
planet Krypton, the story follows the baby Kal-El, whose rocket ship
lands in Smallville, Kansas. He is found there by a childless couple
and raised as the shy Clark Kent (the young Kent is played by Jeff
East). The film is perhaps most touching in these sequences, with
expanses of wheat fields blowing in the wind and with a young man who
can't figure out what part in destiny his great powers are meant to
play. The second half, with Reeve taking over as Clark/Superman, is
bustling, enchanting (the scene in which Superman flies girlfriend
Lois Lane--played by Margot Kidder--through the night sky is great
date material), and funny, thanks largely to Gene Hackman's sardonic
portrayal of nemesis Lex Luthor. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
With great aplomb--and the tag line "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly"--DC
Comics' Superman met with movie magic in 1978. The film featured
Oscar-winning flying effects, John Williams's soaring music, and an
innovative title sequence, and audiences ate it up, along with its
thrilling sequel. Director Richard Donner's casting of the
then-unknown Christopher Reeve couldn't have been better--the towering
Reeve fit the suit and cape masterfully, but his real weapon was
making the bumbling Clark Kent into an endearing leading man instead
of the dry counterpoint to the Man of Steel that Kent had been in
earlier film versions. Although most critics lean toward Richard
Lester's Superman II (1980) as the series high point, which
offered an endearing love story between the Man of Steel and Lois Lane
(Margot Kidder), Donner's first film also deserves just praise in
setting the old-fashioned cornball tone for the series and providing
Superman's backstory from planet Krypton (featuring a high-priced
Marlon Brando as Superman's father). The last two sequels lose much of
the magic: 1983's Superman III seems to have been produced only
to showcase red-hot comic Richard Pryor as a computer hack turned
supervillain, and Reeve himself came up with the story line for 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, a silly attempt to impart a meaningful message of nuclear disarmament. Throughout the films, the supporting cast is first-rate, with old pros like Valerie Perrine, Jackie Cooper, and Ned Beatty having a grand old time. Even better are the villains, especially Terence Stamp as General Zod and Gene Hackman in his lightest, funniest work ever as Lex Luthor. --Doug Thomas
