Or how that one Superman broke in plaster pieces.

http://www.supermancinema.net (currently down)

http://superman.rossiters.com/s2_main.html

if donner had been given the time and money to make the epic two-parter he had originally intended, possibly could've been the best comic book film(s) ever made. As it stands, superman ended up being a fun, campy blockbuster. What could've been, though.... makes you ache a little.

At long last, a scientific explanation may be revealed as to how Superman travelled through time:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4779728/

Probe launched to look for space-time shift
Gravity Probe B lifts off after delays; will test Einstein's theories

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:40 p.m. ET April 20, 2004LOS ANGELES -

NASA on Tuesday launched into orbit a $750 million satellite conceived during the Eisenhower administration to test two of Albert Einstein’s fundamental predictions about the universe.

The Gravity Probe B satellite blasted off from an oceanside pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta 2 rocket, one day after concerns about high upper-level winds and flight software led NASA to call off the first launch attempt.

The satellite separated from the rocket 75 minutes later and began its 18-month mission, officials said.

The launch of the 6,800-pound (3,090-kilogram), Lockheed Martin Corp.-built spacecraft marked the end of the longest development period of any mission in NASA's history.

Scientists first proposed what became Gravity Probe B in 1959, a year after the launch of the first American satellite and the creation of NASA. Over the decades, it weathered more than a half-dozen attempts at cancellation amid concerns over cost overruns and technical hurdles.

The Earth-orbiting satellite was built to test elements of Einstein’s theory of general relativity — namely, predictions about the nature of space and time, and how the rotating Earth warps and twists the fabric that combines the two.

The mission is widely expected to prove Einstein right, producing what one NASA official called a “ho-hum” result.

Scientists at Stanford University designed the spacecraft around four spheres of quartz the size of ping-pong balls. They are the most perfect spheres ever made.

Theory predicts that by lining up the satellite in space with a distant star and setting the balls spinning, their alignment should shift off kilter in small but measurable amounts in response to Earth's mass and rotation.

Einstein proposed in 1916 that space and time form a fabric that can be curved by the presence of Earth and other large celestial bodies. The curving warps the fabric like the depression a gymnast creates by standing on a trampoline.

Two years later, other scientists suggested that the rotation of a large body, like Earth spinning on its axis, should drag the fabric of space-time with it, twisting it as it does.

Scientists have measured the warping effect before. The twisting effect, called frame-dragging, has never been directly detected. Gravity Probe B was built to detect both.

Gravity Probe B should spend 44 days orbiting 397 miles (635 kilometers) above Earth doing calibration work before its mission begins in earnest.

Scientists expected to have a “serious test of general relativity” five weeks after that, said Francis Everitt, the mission’s main scientist.

Gravity Probe A was a separate mission, launched in 1976, that looked at the warping of time.

Ummm...Superman: The Movie IS the best comic book movie ever made!

Yes...it is! No other comic film will ever get close to the sheer size and grandeur of Superman The Movie...the only one I think has gotten close is Hulk...

He's saying it could have been even better...and he's right.

Superman not running into his other self(ala BTTF Part II) is what always confused me. The entire ending makes no sense, yet I guess I've been willing to overlook it since the premise of Superman is absurd to begin with plus the rest of the movie is so well done(Otis notwithstanding).

Honestly, I think the magic kiss at the end of Superman II bothers me more. It completely undoes all the character development of the previous 2 hours.

I think it was done because it looked pretty damn cool back in the day.

no it IS the best comic movie!

I've been trying to work out an explanation for the ending. When you think about it, this movie pretty much uses the "Wayne's World" approach and says, "That's not the way it should end." then - WHAM! - suddenly we have an alternate ending with Lois unharmed and her car never getting sucked into the earth.

I was thinking maybe the Superman who reversed time (we'll call him "Superman A") actually stopped the missile headed for the San Andreas Fault while his counterpart ("Superman B") stopped the missile headed for Hackensack, New Jersey just like he did last time. Although, that would not explain Lois' comment later about the gas station still blowing up and telephone poles falling down. (So SOMETHING still must have happened to the San Andreas fault, although nothing happens this time to Lois' car.)

Then "Superman B" disappears like Biff in the deleted scenes of BTTF II (or Marty almost did in BTTF I) in an attempt by the space time continuum to repair a major paradox.

You're right... on second thought this makes no sense. Oh well, if Superman can repair the Great Wall of China just by looking at it, I guess there's no point in trying to explain his powers.

This whole argument is insane. The man feels no pain, flies, has the strength of 100's of men, can survive in space for extended periods of time without breathing, can create heat rays with his eyes and freeze things with his hurricane breath, teleports, gives up these powers at will and gets them back again by stepping into a magic crystal booth, and built an entire crystal palace by dropping one green crystal into the snow.

How do you explain any of it? Why focus on the time travel thing?

Are you suggeting there is a method of travelling back in time that you WOULD believe? As of this moment, it has never been demonstrated in any way.

Oh yeah, he also can tread water for like 5 minutes with kryptonite around his neck but once he is out of the water he needs the help of some woman to lift the chain off his neck. Why doesnt that bother anyone. If he has all the strength to tread water, why not just use it to lift the chain off your own neck and let it fall to the bottom of the pool. Then he could have let hackensack explode and save Lois without needing to go back in time.

yeah, no problem traveling back in time via flying faster than light in hollywood, the star trek yahoos did it atleast once also.

j