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Everyone knows about the Christopher Reeve Superman films. They're all pretty well engraved
into pop-culture and they're pretty much what we immediately think of when someone says
"Superman Movies". But the truth is, there are many obscure Superman films that only
barely fit the criteria of being a theatrical release of the Man of Steel.
I think it's pretty safe to assume that this is the first super-hero adaptation, if not
the first ever Superhero Film (and I'm not counting those serials). Not only is this
reflected in the screenplay which is overdramatic, anticlimactic and very slow-paced but also
through the visual aesthetic which I have to admit, is actually pretty charming in how
old it is.
The question isn't so much whether it holds up (if you don't know the answer to that then
you should probably be institutionalised), the question is whether it's at the very least,
watchable. The problem is that it really isn't.
While the visuals, when George Reeves is on screen, are very reminiscent of the comics
at that time and therefore quite compelling to look at, and while George Reeves is one
of the most perfect embodiments of Superman and Clark Kent with his seamless changes in
physicality and behaviour going with his appearance and while George Reeves actually does quite
a great job at carrying this movie as the leading role, it doesn't change the fact that
the film is only 58 minutes long with 75% of it being rednecks chasing the titular Mole
Men, or the fact that the script is pretty uninspired in terms of science-fiction at
the time, or the fact that the villains (which aren't villains by the way, they're just misunderstood)
look like if Verne Troyer and Max Von Sydow in Flash had their genes spliced into an army
of clones, or the fact that these "villains" do nothing villainous except accidently cause
the death of someone and then run around for the rest of the film. But worst of all, it
doesn't change the fact that Superman doesn't even really appear in the movie until the
very end and even when he does show up he doesn't really do anything in what is one
of the most forgettable third acts of all time except stand up to some rednecks.
This film was made into a two-part episode as an addition to the series it was meant
to be the pilot to. That's exactly what it feels like. Like they just took a bad episode
of the show and they stretched it out to only 58 minutes and dumped it into theatres. If
you're going to make a film as a pilot to a TV series, your aim should be to take what
defines the show and write it into a 90 minute feature that should introduce the show to
the audience. The show would basically has the plot summary of, Superman fights criminals
in Metropolis while working for The Daily Planet under the guise of Clark Kent. The
film has no Metropolis, no Daily Planet, no criminals, no fights and not even a lot of
Superman or Clark Kent, so right off the bat there is no reason to watch this movie as
a piece of Superman fiction, which more or less means that there's no real reason to
watch this movie at all because basically it sucks.