Superman (1978) *****

You know how we have comic book adaptation films every summer. This is the granddaddy of them all (even though it would be another decade for Batman to get his film and yet another decade for the genre to truly take off). Everyone knows the story of Superman, so I won't even waste the time on the plot or the storyline. If you don't know who Superman is you might as well stop right here.

Directed by Richard Donner, Superman is a film that could have been an over the top romp ala the late 1960's Batman television series. But what Donner delivered is a film anchored in reality. This being from another world has dropped on the everyday lives of the people of Metropolis (or Manhattan if we want to get technical). When the name Mario Puzo is thrown into the screenwriting process you know this isn't going to be a campy affair.

The cast is great. Christopher Reeve IS Superman for the entire generation that grew up with these films and the way it's going the next two generations will also look to Reeve as the big blue guy with the "S" on his chest. Can you imagine anyone else in that role? James Caan?? Brando turns in a nice 15 minutes as Kal-El, almost appearing to be in something written by Shakespeare and Margot Kidder shall forever be Lois Lane. Finally Gene Hackman gets the honor of playing one of the biggest baddies in modern mythology in Lex Luthor and he does it perfectly.

Richard Donner has said that he had two goals in making this film. The first was making you believe a man could fly. The second was that the audience cared about what happened to Superman and Lois, making it a pseudo love story. He accomplished both and created a film that dozens of producers and comic book geeks have tried to emulate ever since.