Superman: The Movie

What’s the Story?

Reviewed by Ed Grant

As the planet Krypton is about to explode, administrator Jor-El (Marlon Brando) ensures his son's safety by putting him in a spaceship intended for Earth. The Kents, a farm couple, discover the boy from space and raise him as their son, Clark. Upon adulthood, Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) sets out for Metropolis, where he lands a job as a reporter on The Daily Planet. He also fights crime as "Superman," a name given him by reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), a coworker on the Planet whom Clark secretly loves. Meanwhile, criminal mastermind Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) develops a plan to cause a deadly earthquake in California, thereby increasing the value of his desert property. When Lois becomes a victim of the earthquake, Superman must literally turn back time by flying around the Earth with enough speed to temporarily reverse its orbit.

Is It Any Good?

Christopher Reeve proved an ideal Superman, with just the right level of steadfast simplicity. But the producers' emphasis on larger-than-life moviemaking (they won a Special Achievement Oscar for visual effects) results in a movie that drags in parts. The quartet of writers -- who individually had dreamt up the stories of The Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde -- concocted an overlong spectacle that spends an inordinate amount of time recounting Superman's origin, then fragments into episodic crime-fighting vignettes.

Younger viewers may not have the patience to wait through the first third of SUPERMAN before getting a glimpse of Superman's famous costume, and the picture is more than half over before he begins fighting crime in Metropolis. Thus, the movie will appeal primarily to adults looking to relive their youth by watching a 1970s-style blockbuster.