The original adaptation of the man of steel. As a baby, Kal'el's/Clark Kent's (Christopher Reeve) home planet of Krypton is destroyed. At the last moment, his parents send him to Earth, where he discovers he has extraordinary super powers, which he puts to use protecting the planet and upholding justice as the hero Superman. All the while he maintains he secret identity as a mild mannered news reporter and battles the evil Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman).
Of my generation, everyone knows the story of Superman, but I had never seen the first film adaptation of the comic book superhero. In spite of the fact that the film is now 30 years old, it still has a large amount of good stuff going for it. For one thing, there are some genuinely touching moments in the story - such as the moment Kal'els father has to send him from the planet to save his life (his father, Jor'el is portrayed by Marlon Brando, another plus there).
\obviously, in a Superman feature there are bound to be special effects, and before seeing them on screen you might expect them to be cheesy and badly done. However, if you watch it, and remember when this film was made, the effects do stand out as being rather impressive. Avoiding comment on how cheesy they are, the flying and super strength sequences are done in a very 'believable' way (or as believable as Superman can be). If you are a comic book fan, you should definitely check out this classic among classics.
