Monday 28 March 2011

Yesterday's man of tomorrow

Superman (1978)

Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman are the big name support actors on show here as Christopher Reeve stars as the man of steel. Conceived as a two part film project this first part tells the origin of Superman and his initial appearance as a super hero.

Superman is not my favourite comic book hero and in fact he is one of my least favourite, firstly there is the is the problem of his origins as a golden era character leaving him as a fairly one dimensional character at times. There is also the Tarantino question to consider, what does the Clark Kent's persona say about the way that Superman views humanity?

While this is the first part of a two part project when looking at the film on it's own the plot does take a long time to get going. Building up the back story of Superman and adding in Christian metaphors mean it is nearly an hour before we actually see an adult Superman and the actual Lex Luthor caper in the the film feels like it is tacked on the end. Compared to the modern glut of super hero films we have this film does not always show up favourably but is still a good watch, effects that at the time were very impressive are still good but are diminished compared to modern achievements.

4/5 a good start if you remember it is just the first part, if viewing on it's on then it is a weaker film.

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