I think so. All practical effects and Reeve imo gave at least an Oscar nominated performance. His duality of roles is bar none, excellent. The emotion, the grit of Superman, the clumsiness of Clark Kent. He embodied the character and will always be considered my fav superhero movie of all time. That Williams score is historic. It’s also my ringtone. Gives me chills always hearing it.

If not, what is?

I dunno if it's the best superhero movie ever, but I certainly consider it the best distillation of the Golden Age era Superman. And, yes, Reeve was amazing in the role.

There's certainly a case to be made for it to be the best ever. Richard Donner wore his love of Superman on his sleeve, and his creative choices were clearly that of someone who was very invested in the character and had a great understanding of him. Christopher Reeve conveyed not just Superman's nobility and moral clarity, but he also had the comic chops to play the nerdy Clark Kent, making you believe that people in the film would never think that the two were the same person.

Where the film loses a few points is with Hackman's Lex Luthor and his cohorts. This interpretation of the villain is undoubtedly original, but it doesn't make much sense for one of the world's smartest men to have in his entourage a loyal buffoon and a girlfriend who turns out to have priorities other than Luthor. The trio have fabulous chemistry, and Hackman's turn as the man condemned to tolerate those not at his level is very entertaining, but this version of Luthor is hard to take seriously until he confronts Superman by himself and puts his plan into motion.

I don't think I need to say a whole lot about John Williams's score other than that the Superman March is a piece I have on heavy rotation. There might be some question as to which superhero film is the greatest of all time, but for my money, the main theme from Superman '78 is without equal.

Good post here and I agree. I am a huge fan of the first two Reeve films and always will be. It can be argued that the first film is a perfect super hero movie or maybe the best. The Luthor stuff you mention is right though. It’s a little too much incompetence for such a mastermind. But, it all worked out, didn’t it?

Far from it.

Given the state of special effects technology at that time, it works very well for what it is. What keeps it relevant as an example of a stand-out superhero movie is the performances. Unfortunately, even as a kid, I knew that the turning time backwards climax was dumb as fuck.

Take the post-Iron Man MCU out of the equation, and Spiderman 2 with Tobey Maguire is still better than Supe 78

Absolutely not, that would be The Batman.

It's been years since I watched it but I've always considered it top 3 with Spider-man 2 and Into the Spider-verse. Maybe the Dark Knight and Guardians would round out a top 5.

​​​​​​​I'd rank this one right above Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.

No. When an author writes himself into a corner, and then gets out of it by abruptly giving his hero the power to turn back time, the result is a bad script.

Donner's Superman never needed to worry about making a bad decision because he could always have gone back to fix it. Imagine that Superman took Lois for a flight in the clouds, naively went too fast, and scared the bejesus out of her. A quick reset and it never happened. "Can you read my mind" indeed. He could go all groundhog day on her. No wonder we all think that he always does the right thing.

Maybe someone can explain the physics in this shot.

That doesn't bother me at all. If a man can fly, why shouldn't everything that he touches fly as well? It's like Golden Age Superman lifting up a brick building by the corner. Sure, why not? It's within his powers.

Yes.

Next question.

He's generating the momentum and she's hanging on. (Of course, when she let go Superman should have flown past her as she descended at an angle, instead of falling straight down.) Unless you're questioning how Superman himself flies. That varies depending on the continuity of any given era/story.

And, given how strong he is naturally (especially in the pulling planets example, Superman shouldn't have that muscular a physique (unless he's constantly using planets as free weights).

Yes, with Burton's Batman and Batman Returns as the next two. I shouldn't need to call my psychiatrist after watching a super-hero movie because it is so fucking depressing.

You might want to avoid Logan then.

I like Logan, it sill feels like it is a comic book. I mostly meant Superman when I made the above comment. Watchmen and V For Vendetta are great comic book films and then something like Blade that is for adults. Batman can be dark without being a fucking bummer, Superman should not, the character should be like a goddamn carebear and not some moody emo sad sack.

I happen to watch the second hour of this with my kids on Saturday morning, the same day this thread went live. It was on TV in the hotel room as we were getting ready to go.

It was fine. We watched from the point where Superman and Lois fly together. The kids liked it but weren't amazed by it. I started to turn it off right after he saved Lois and they said no, no, we want to see the very end, so that says they were at least compelled by it. They said they'd watch the whole thing, if I wanted, and the second one, so maybe we'll do that. Spent a lot of time wit the kids saying they did special effects this way or that way or asking how they did something. They like old movie magic. It's definitely a product of its time. It's dated in all sorts of ways: the effects, the comedy, the camerawork, the dialogue, and the pacing, the pacing, the pacing. Truly, after that movie, yes, we all believed a man can fly. But it is not the best superhero movie ever.

It is one of the most important superhero movies ever. But it's not the best.

I did have a laugh with the kids when I said the US government is so tied to Superman as the great American hero that they let them explode the real Hoover Dam and they rebuilt it together from the film's profits. Wait, what, really?! I had them going for about 10 seconds, it was fun.

Before this movie, they had never seen anything related to Superman. But they knew enough. They knew he's from Krypton and he's also Clark Kent and he's vulnerable to Kryptonite and he loves Lois Lane and he's a reporter in Metropolis and Lex Luthor is a bald guy who is his nemesis. Just a fascinating glimpse into how much the Superman mythos is in culture, even when you're not looking. They did not know who Jimmy Olson was, though. Sorry, Jimmy!

My opinion - The Dark Knight is the best superhero movie

But Captain America: The Winter Soldier is my favorite

...and that trick was even re-used in the Donner cut!

Even watching that as a kid, I knew that was horrible cheat. And, on top of that, I puzzled it out for a bit and came to the conclusion that stopping the Earth's rotation and putting it in reverse would not turn back time but would, most likely, be catastrophic with stuff going on like the oceans flooding the land masses (like trying to run with a bowl full of liquid), and maybe even ripping the crust from the mantle.

When a kindergartner can call bullshit on a plot point in your movie, you know you done screwed up!

I think Superman '78 nails the characters (although Lex Luthor has evolved considerably since then) and general tone of the world, but I think other films since have done that and more.

I think it really depends on how you mean "best superhero movie". Most faithful adaptation? Most enjoyable? Most auteur-driven or signature? Most competent movie that happens to have a superhero in it?
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Since no one can argue that it is "the best" in terms of technical film-making achievement, or that it is "the best" in terms of intellectual or emotional complexity, I think the only way "the best" could conceivably be applied is just in terms of pure entertainment value.

In which case it's Thor: Ragnarok, baby!

Superman turning time back by spinning the Earth is still more plausable than how the Joker escaped after dropping Rachel out of the window and Batman jumped to save her. Oh, wait, it is never shown/explained what happened to the Joker and his men who are still at the top of the building holding hostages after Batman and Rachel land on the car. I guess it is is possible that Batman called him a cab.

I'd be curious to hear how your kids feel about Superman's first night, which is easily one of my favourite sequences in any superhero movie.

About the rescue where Supes gets the cat out of the tree, does anyone else remember the little girl getting slapped by her mother? I could swear that the first time I saw the film that the mother tells the girl not to lie and then we clearly hear her getting hit. In the versions I've seen on DVD and Blu-Ray, that sound effect is absent.

I'm open to the possibility that I imagined that slap, but in the versions I've seen without the sound the scene goes on a beat too long, suggesting that something was supposed to be there but was edited out. In today's climate, I totally get why something like that would be removed, but 1978 was a different time when a lot of audience members would relate to being on the receiving end of a parent's open palm.

Yeah, you always heard the girl get slapped after the mom says "haven't I told you to stop telling lies?" You could still hear it on my old DVD, before the disc fell victim to laser rot. Wasn't aware the audio was later omitted on BD. Is it also missing from the 4K UHD BD?

This is the extended version of the scene, but the ending is the same as was present in the theatrical cut.


I was surprised to learn there are people who hate that he bothers to save the cat, saying it makes no sense for him to even bother helping the little girl.