During a discussion with friends about Man of Steel the other day, it quickly grew into a discussion about all Superman films. More specifically: Superman the Movie, Superman Returns and Man of Steel. We compared highs and lows and kept coming back to the same question: Why don't the latter two work as well? The answer is very simple. Because Richard Donner is a better storyteller than Bryan Singer or Zack Snyder.

Neither Singer nor Snyder has demonstrated a consistent grasp of combining visual and story elements throughout their careers. Their projects skew heavily towards one or the other (primarily one for Snyder). Donner, despite a clunk project here and there, has always had command of all necessary elements to…

Boom! That intro music hit me like a hurricane and in an instant I was transported back to the very first time I saw this movie. The very first movie I ever saw at 'The Pictures' with my Dad.

He was a busy guy and always doing what he could for us. At the time, we really didn't get to see very much of him what with work and one thing and another, so having him all to myself (while my teen sister and Mum went shopping) was a dream for this 9 year old. When we arrived at the local Odeon I had no idea what was happening, but I do remember seeing the huge <S> posters on the…

Jor-El: [bidding his son farewell, as Lara looks on] You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you... even in the face of our death. The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more, I... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you, all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son. This is all I... all I can send you, Kal-El.

SUPERMAN

With these lines, we open this cinematic…

"I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way." -S

Superman Franchise Ranked: boxd.it/2dqj4

I love this film and it was great to see it on the big screen a few days ago. It was fun because there was a critics intro and an original superman short ahead of time.

Superman is the Psycho of the superhero genre and it still is a fucking delight. Give me that 40 minute prologue! I love it! This is a film that had the guts to make the first damn scene a setup for the sequel. They made what Marvel does with post-credits scenes the first fucking scene in the movie. That is amazing. Then this movie is like now…

On January 6, 2021, The U.S. Capitol suffered an insurrection. The next day I read something that made me realize that I am, at least, particularly to blame for it. It said:

"This is the result of America raised on childlike action films. Simplistic storylines, battling in costumes, good vs. evil. You can't punch your way to better politics results, there's no final boss to fight. The actual change comes from boring legislative process and elections."

I hope you will join me where I post about certain Superman entries and their effect on the American psyche that lead us to last Wednesday...

Prior entries:
boxd.it/1A6ZnT
boxd.it/1AeOSn
boxd.it/1AnW1J
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Here we go the big one. As much as intellectuals want to…

”Been showing off a bit, haven't you, son?”
“Um... I didn't mean to show off, Pop.”

Superman is the Star Wars of Superhero movies

Believe it or not, there was a time when superhero movies were completely out of fashion and pretty much nonexistent. Sure, we had campy tv shows, but they were just silly fun and never taken all that seriously.

And then came Superman.

Written by Mario Puzo with groundbreaking special effects, spectacular casting and a massive budget which included a record breaking 3.7 million dollar salary to Marlon Brando for two weeks worth of work, Superman is the film that jumpstarted an entire genre.

Christopher Reeve makes a pitch perfect Superman and his chemistry with Margot Kidder…

After the disaster that was The Man of Steel, my wife and I decided to cleanse our palettes with a dose of the 1978 Christopher Reeve classic.

Leapin’ Lizards they went all out with this one. An A list cast as second bananas, behind the scenes names like Geoffery Unsworth ( Cinematographer on 2001: A Space Odyssey ), 7 Second units filming simultaneously. A larger budget for credits than most entire film budgets of the day. Hmm, sounds remarkably like Man of Steel.

The cost of this one, $55M, in 2014 adjusted dollars $198M is pretty much in line with the Man of Steel budget. In this case money well spent. Why, because it’s funny and touching and wonderfully stylish…

Richard Donner had a single word printed in big letters on signs sent to every creative department involved with this film: VERISIMILITUDE. "It's a word that refers to being real...not realistic—yes, there IS a difference—but real," explained Donner. "It was a constant reminder to ourselves that, if we gave into the temptation we knew there would be to parody Superman, we would only be fooling ourselves."

I’ve not seen this film properly since I was barely cognizant and was almost in tears when this film started with an overture—curtains open, and we are reminded of how this character found his start as John Williams’ eternal strings begin to swell: in the pages of a comic book, serving as a salvo…

Despite being the first major motion picture in the Superhero genre in Hollywood, Superman (1978) still holds up as not only a great superhero movie but also a great entertainer in general. While the superhero genre may seem like a safe bet now, it was quite risky to make a superhero film in the New Hollywood era as back then superhero meant something as wacky as Batman TV Series of Adam West (which I also like). They needed someone like Richard Donner who had just directed The Omen (1976) to take up this risky task. Whole backstory  of Superman was shown in a brilliant way, which is something that Man of Steel struggled with. It was nicely laced with humour…

--model-- Superman [Christopher Reeve remains the definitive Man of Steel], superhero film, NFR...

Richard Donner's comic-book superhero classic.

It is the --1st-- first installment in the Superman film series.

The --topp most expensive film made up to that point, with a budget of $55 million, "Superman" was released in December 1978 to critical and financial success; its worldwide box office earnings of $300 million made it the --2nd-- second-highest-grossing release of the year.

It received praise for Reeve's performance and John Williams' musical score.

On the planet Krypton, Jor-El of the Kryptonian high council discovers that the planet will be destroyed when its red supergiant sun goes supernova. The other council members dismiss his claims. To save Kal-El, his infant…

Superman remains the greatest superhero movie of all-time, largely on the strength of everything we see before Christopher Reeve even dons the cape. Each moment of the origin story swells with grandeur, majesty, and wholesomeness: there's just an unabashed sincerity to how Donner treats this material with the right amount of seriousness while still letting loose with the silliness on the back end. But the one thing that never wavers is just how good Superman is: when we finally get back around to revisiting this character, I hope Hollywood remembers to give us a Superman who takes the time to rescue cats from trees and says the word "swell." Superman is cool precisely because he's not cool: he's an old-fashioned…