Review of Superman (1978) by Filipeneto — 30 Oct 2021

This was one of the great precursors of modern superhero movies, full of effects and CGI. However, what we have here is obviously much more primitive and simpler. The film takes one of the most classic cartoon characters – Superman – and brings us a very canonical view of his origins and path, from the destruction of his home planet and arrival on Earth to his consecration as a world hero. Today, however, it is a somewhat forgotten film, that has aged badly: it continues to have admirers, to be loved by those who saw it in youth, but it has natural difficulties to conquer new audiences.

The script takes the official story of the hero and seems to me quite faithful to that narrative, but it can't go any further and gives us an artificial, forced and clichéd story, in which even the villain is such a caricatured figure that we can't see him as a threat. Despite this, and its excessive length when we think about the story told, the film turns out to be a good piece of entertainment, and even those who do not like it are unanimous in giving it a place in the list of relevant films in our collective memory and in pop culture.

One of the essential pieces for the success of the film is the excellent performance of Christopher Reeve, an actor who was immortalized thanks to this hero, in the several films in which he played the part. He's not a flawless actor, but I'd say a lot of the trouble comes from the material he's been receiving and the way Richard Donner conceived the film in general, trying to lighten it up, like a histrionic and very presumptuous adventure comedy. Margot Kidder also did a satisfying job. Less lucky, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando are fortunate to have made other films that are much better, and where we can see them in all their talent: Hackman persistently overacts and Brando has almost no screen time.

On a technical level, the film justifies its large budget with elaborate and very flashy visual and special effects, but which for us appear as authentic museum relics, with a strong cheesy tone, totally unbelievable. Cinematography, absolutely without any contrast, looks hazy. The settings range from the most conventional to the height of hospital futurism, so white and gleaming that they look like ultramodern clinics. The editing is relatively good, but like I said, the movie drags a lot and doesn't justify its length. The best, really, is the soundtrack, where it pontificates an extraordinary theme that was composed by the “master” John Williams. A Superman movie without this theme song, to me, is inconceivable.