{"id":10668,"date":"2016-02-13T11:47:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T19:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=10668"},"modified":"2016-02-13T11:47:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T19:47:27","slug":"gregs-movie-night-superman-the-movie-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=10668","title":{"rendered":"‘s Movie Night : Superman – The Movie (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superman : The Movie (1978)<\/b>
\nDir: Richard Donner (also known for Lethal Weapon, The Goonies)<\/p>\n

The age of blockbuster had just begun. \u00a0Jaws in 1975 chewed a whole new level of movie madness which Star Wars in 1977 blasted to bits. \u00a0The race was on for the next big movie and then another one after that one after the one before that one. \u00a0In 1978 Superman landed and the producers knew it would be big. \u00a0They were so sure that they filmed two movies at once and paid ridiculous amounts for Marlon Brando to appear for minimal work and no requirement to memorize his lines. \u00a0Finally, with new emerging film effect technology, it was believed that Superman could be pulled off convincingly.<\/p>\n

Immediately when you turn on a movie and the kids find out it is going to be about superheroes you become the family superhero. \u00a0When they find out it is about one of their favorite superheroes (they have non-favorite superheroes?) you really become a leader of superheroes. \u00a0The squeals of delight were high just from the subject of the film. \u00a0Also, they had a sense of wonder to finally see the original <\/i>Superman, \u201cyou know, the one with Christopher Reeves that had the horse accident\u201d. \u00a0Apparently his fight was part of some books on great courage in their 2nd and 3rd grade classes. \u00a0This added even more anticipation and interest.
\n\"a2\"<\/a>
\nSuperman starts at the beginning. \u00a0Actually before the beginning. \u00a0Way back on Krypton. \u00a0Marlon Brando tries to save the planet but instead only saves his son. \u00a0Shot to Earth with enormous amounts of information a young Clark Kent grows up in the fields of Nebraska as an outcast. \u00a0When his Earth dad dies he leaves to find his inner-self, amidst the Castle of Solitude apparently located under some ice at the North Pole. \u00a0He is then told his purpose in life from a spectre Marlon Brando hologram. \u00a0Meanwhile, while Superman is finding himself there is master villain Lex Luthor, played by the always enjoyable Gene Hackman, scheming under the city streets of New Yo.. uh, Metropolis. \u00a0Ironically, also in Metropolis Superman\u2019s alter-ego Clark Kent runs into fellow reporter Lois Lane at the Daily Planet. \u00a0She isn\u2019t interested in him despite his advances but she is very interested in that super-being who saved her from the helicopter accident. \u00a0Yes, the helicopter accident. \u00a0She gets the privilege of conducting the sole interview with the \u201cSuperman\u201d in which she spends most of the time dreaming about him and flying around the sky and he spends spilling all his weaknesses to the printed paper. \u00a0This information gets to Lex Luthor who plans to use it against him and remove the only power on Earth that could stop his evil plans, Superman. \u00a0Stealing a couple missiles from the military and devising a fail safe plan (leaving your enemy alive but slowly dying and leaving the room) Luthar hopes to shave off a piece of California to make new beach front property. \u00a0Little does he know Superman can stop all that AND make time go backwards to save lives. \u00a0(My daughter exclaimed, \u201cDaddy! \u00a0He can do that?\u201d and I scholarly replied, \u201cYou saw it didn\u2019t you.\u201d)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

First of all, this movie clocks in at 2 and a half hours. \u00a0When you are doing family movie nights with the under 10 crowd knowing how long you may have to remain there and when to get started is important. \u00a0There is no reason this movie had to be 2 and a half hours. \u00a0In fact, realistically the whole \u201cKrypton is going to be destroyed\u201d through the \u201cnobody likes me in high school\u201d parts weren\u2019t necessary. \u00a0It would have been more compelling and better paced to just have it alluded to in some fantastic cinematic technique. \u00a0Even if you didn\u2019t know the back story you would get that Clark Kent is fumbling and Superman is awesome. \u00a0That being said, I suppose some young ones could be exposed to the origin story for the first time and, frankly, they want more Superman movie time.<\/p>\n

Gene Hackman is good as Lex Luthor. \u00a0Let me back up a second. \u00a0One of the legacies of this film franchise is that it legitimized making a \u201cstraight\u201d superhero movie. \u00a0No longer did these muscled marvels have to live in camp but instead could be taken seriously. \u00a0Ok, back to Lex Luthor and company. \u00a0While Hackman\u2019s ripping of his completely incompetent sidekicks is at times amusing, let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s campy! \u00a0And Tim Burton\u2019s Batman? \u00a0That has camp in it too! \u00a0Let\u2019s not kid ourselves here people! \u00a0However, I get it, the door had been opened to make a more serious superhero movie. \u00a0However, Hackman is enjoyable in the role playing it properly straight through this buffoonery. Also, don\u2019t forget \u201cOtisburg\u201d. \u00a0Otisburg\u2026.<\/p>\n

Christopher Reeve became a big star and household name from this series. \u00a0He also became terribly typecast. \u00a0However, is that because the character dominated the actor or the actor didn\u2019t have much else to him? \u00a0While he plays a cute dupetydoo Clark Kent his acting skills leave a bit to be desired. \u00a0This lack will not affect your kids at all. \u00a0At all…<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Superman<\/p>\n

So a movie that is going to appeal to kids probably doesn\u2019t need the interview with Lois Lane scene where she is asking what color her panties are. \u00a0Am I right? \u00a0Maybe I\u2019m being a fuddy duddy. \u00a0I know, I know, the kids won\u2019t even understand the jokes. \u00a0They won\u2019t understand that when Lois slips up on a question asking Superman how \u201cbig\u201d he is instead of how \u201ctall\u201d he is that she really is talking about his\u2026 \u00a0BUT I KNOW what she meant!<\/p>\n

All ends happy and the kids were happy. \u00a0Finally they got to see the original Superman and another celluloid milestone has been crossed. \u00a0I found that it didn\u2019t hold the magic it did when I was a kid. \u00a0I wanted to really really like Christopher Reeves but he just felt really flat. \u00a0I wanted to say \u201cSee kids when they made superhero movies the right way without all the\u2026 uh..\u201d but I couldn\u2019t. \u00a0They were far from disappointed but I felt it was just a little long in the tooth.<\/p>\n

Mom says : It\u2019s a little long in the tooth.<\/i>
\nBest Guess: 8+ (sexy jokes and gender stereotypes)<\/b>
\nGrown Up Score: B-<\/b>
\nKids Grade : It was great!<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superman : The Movie (1978) Dir: Richard Donner (also known for Lethal Weapon, The Goonies) The age of blockbuster had just begun. \u00a0Jaws in 1975 chewed a whole new level of movie madness which Star Wars in 1977 blasted to bits. \u00a0The race was on for the next big movie and then another one after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[109,2996,4385,8155,8635,19366,19368],"class_list":["post-10668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","tag-109","tag-blockbuster","tag-christopher-reeves","tag-gene-hackman","tag-gregs-movie-night","tag-superheroes","tag-superman"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}