My Review of "Superman (1978)"

Superman (1978) is a movie that I wanted to get into many times in my life. I tried to when I was younger and then tried to again when I was older. This movie kept making me fall asleep and it was hard to get through it. Now that I'm understanding a little bit more of the lore and had fun with the latest instalment, I wanted to check this out yet another time. This time it was a lot better.

The movie starts off oddly enough on the planet Krypton. It talks Superman's father trying to warn the people of the impending doom. They're too preoccupied by this guy named Zod and his henchmen to care. Zod is imprisoned, Superman is shipped off to Earth as a baby and the planet blows up.

It's basically an origin story. We have the Kents, Jonathan and Martha finding the young baby and they raise him as their own. Jonathan instills some morals and rules for Superman to abide by. Superman hates it but he loves his parents so he lives by these rules.

Years later he starts working at the Daily Planet under the name of Clark Kent. As Clark he's a bumbling klutz and it's pretty fun to watch him as this character. To add even more charm to his character he's a country bumpkin in a fast moving city called Metropolis. I really liked this aspect of the movie because of the dramatic irony. Too bad there's not too much of this because I could watch a whole movie of this.

Working at the Daily Planet he instantly falls in love with a news reporter named Lois Lane. There's a ton of things going on in the city and he decides to start saving everyone as Superman.

On the other end of things there's this guy named Lex Luthor who is trying to become uber rich. Lex Luthor is done really well in this movie. His diabolical plan is quite ambitious but this character is almost exactly like Dr. Evil in the first Austin Powers movie. Everything from the number one henchman and the lady sidekick is hilariously one for one to that movie.

Even the evil plan of sending rockets to destroy the US is the same thing. He monologues after he has absolutely won against Superman. Then he throws him into a pool of water in an easy to escape scenario. I know this was meant to be serious but because of Austin Powers I couldn't take this movie very seriously.

In some ways, this saved the movie for me. I found it a lot more entertaining than I expected this time around. There are also a lot of generational social norms that are quite different in this movie. For example a child being beaten by their parents was part of a joke in this movie. Those were really interesting to see and a little funny as well.

Surprisingly, even though the special effects were quite outdated they fit the campiness of the movie. It felt quite on brand with the rest of the movie so I didn't mind it. They were pretty well done especially when you consider this movie came out in the 1970s. For those that have the higher definition version. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack actually helps make this movie feel of a grander scale.

Overall, I couldn't believe it took me this long to actually appreciate this movie. This time around it was a lot more fun to watch. It is very campy and fun. I'm starting to realize why people have this movie in such high regard, that's why I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10.