Superman: The Movie – 3 ½ / 5 stars

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!

Before his home planet of Krypton is destroyed, Jor-El (Marlon Brando) sends his infant son in a spaceship to Earth. There he is found and raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, and he discovers he has great powers that he must use for good. He moves to Metropolis to save people and become Superman (Christopher Reeve). But he must go toe-to-toe with the evil genius Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), while also maintaining his cover identity of Clark Kent, reporter at the Daily Planet.

Superman: The Movie was directed by Richard Donner (The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, Ladyhawke) and was released December 15, 1978. I finally got around to seeing this classic and am glad I did. I think I’ve seen it before because I remembered a few scenes when I saw them, but it was good to see the full movie. Although most of the special effects were cheesy and laughable, I still thought they were cool because, well, it’s Superman. Even though it’s obviously fake, it’s still inspiring and I can appreciate what it accomplished at the time it was released making people believe “a man can fly.”

I thought the intro was a little long given that we didn’t see Clark Kent grown up and at the Daily Planet until almost an hour into the movie. The backstory was definitely needed, but maybe it could’ve been shortened a tad or told Man of Steel-style through a series of flashbacks. The story was somewhat mediocre with cheesy villains, but it was the ‘70s. I thought Christopher Reeves was fantastic as Superman and did a great job switching personalities between the clutzy, goofy Clark Kent and the confident, heroic Superman.

One of my gripes with this movie, besides the dated special effects, is the infamous time travel scene. (Spoiler Alert) After the missile hits and Lois dies in an earthquake rock slide, Superman flies around the world so fast in the opposite direction that he reverses time to save her. This did break away from predictability, but just no. Please no. Let’s just continue to pretend this never happened.

Overall, I’d rate this movie 3 ½ / 5 stars. As a Superman fan, I still enjoyed it and am glad I saw it. I’m also glad to see how much special effects have improved since 1978. Most likely, you’ve already seen this but if you haven’t, I think it’s worth seeing the original movie and how far Superman has come.