In light of a new Superman movie coming out, Stevo and I challenged ourselves to catch up with the movie series before seeing the new movie, Superman Returns. Even though there are five movies, the fifth is using the second as its predecessor, while ignoring the 3rd and 4th movies, which appear to be pretty dumb anyway.
A big part of the movie is spent explaining Superman’s past (as if we didn’t know); starting on Krypton, with his father Jor-El (Marlon Brando), sending him from their planet which he believes will be destroyed in a matter of days. He sends all their collected knowledge with him, and begins his three year trip to earth. His ship crashes as the Kent’s are driving along the Kansas highway, blowing their trucks rear left tire. Because they have no children (and are quite old already), Martha convinces Jonathan to let them adopt him and raise him as their own; which still seems weird to me… who would really adopt and raise a kid who fell out of the sky in a spaceship? Desperate Kansan’s I guess (yes, I am from Kansas. Shut it). As a teen, we see how Clark Kent yearns to show off some of his abilities through sports, rather than being the team manager. His earthly father assures him that “there is some reason why you are here. And it doesn’t have anything to do with scoring touchdowns.” Soon after, he passes away, leaving Clark, who’s 18, wondering why he has these powers if he couldn’t save his father.
He then disappears for a while, getting his Fortress of Solitude to build itself out of the glowing green data stick his father (Jor-El) sent with him. And for several years, he trains and learns from the ghost of his Kryptonian father. When he comes back to society, Clark Kent (Christopher Reeves) gets a job for the Daily Planet, where he meets Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure), Perry White (Jackie Cooper), and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). From there, he saves Lois several times with his super powers, unveils Superman to the world, and manages to maintain his true identity a secret.
In the meantime, we are introduced to the evil genius mastermind known as Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). His plans come into our sights with time, and his underground fortress/mansion is quite impressive. Instead of seeing Superman as only a threat to his evil plans, Lex see’s Superman’s presence and arrival at that time as the greatest challenge.
The acting is great, the plot is very nice, and I found myself pretty upset that Superman actually prevails over Lex’s awesome plans… not only cause his plan is amazing, but because of how Superman actually wins. He pushes lava, stops the Hoover damn from flooding the valley below, and even goes back in time to save Lois (by spinning the earth in the wrong direction). The movie itself is pretty excellent, except for Superman’s presence. I mean, the man has every power thought up and only one weakness. Lex does his best to stop him, but even Superman’s stunning good looks work against Lex, and his female assistant free’s Superman, completely jacking up Lex’s plans, and allowing Superman to do the impossible.
I’ll be honest: I have never cared much for Superman. The reader/viewer can’t relate to him at all, whereas Spiderman and Batman have issues that we do and weaknesses that everyone has. Superman is a crazy alien dude who can only be killed by rare meteorites. Sure, he is always trying to be normal, but what is normal? And is he really trying? To me, he’s romanticism and Lex is realism. And we all know that once ya grow up, romanticism only looks good, but always fails us. On the other hand, Lex Luther is funny, cunning, and portrayed by a much better actor. I found myself rooting for the bad guy.
It’s a good movie once ya get past the annoying, unrealisticness of it all. The special effects are amazing for the time, the plot is excellent, and the characters are interesting (thanks to some excellent actors). If you’re wanting to see Superman Returns, then this would be, in my mind, a must see.