Superman is undoubtedly the greatest superhero of all times and the recent release of the Superman collection on DVD for the first time makes it even more Super! It contains the first (and so far the only) four Superman movies, featuring the late Christopher Reeve as both the mild mannered Daily Planet reporter and the caped crusader for truth and justice, Gene Hackman as the villainous Lex Luthor and Margot Kidder as the charming Lois Lane.
In Superman: The Movie, more commonly known as Superman I, director Richard Donner does an admirable job by presenting first Jeff East as the teenaged Clark Kent or Kal-El, later to be replaced by the late Christopher Reeve as an adult, with the late actor dubbing voices for both to give the character some credibility. Marlon Brando makes a million-dollar appearance as Jor-El, Superman’s father, in the beginning of the film, and boosts the films to greatness.
Superman II, a movie that was mostly shot by Richard Donner but credited to Richard Lester after the former was sacked in the final stages, is every Superman-fan’s favourite film since it features Superman fight three equally powerful Kryptonian outlaws, convicted at the beginning of Superman I. They land on Earth after they are set loose in space accidentally and threaten the future of the planet Earth. During the course of the movie, Superman abandons his superpowers to be with Lois Lane but in order to save Earth, gets back the powers and rids the planet of the super villains from Krypton.
Superman III might not be as good as its predecessors but certainly was better than part IV because in it, Clark Kent goes back to Smallville and meets his first love Lana Lang (played by Annette O’Toole who plays Martha Kent in TV series Smallville). In one of the most memorable scenes of Superman III, Superman fights his alter ego (meaning Clark Kent). In that scene, Reeve gets to show off his acting skills as he plays the double role with fervour and to perfection. In the last Superman movie, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Superman has a new arch-nemesis, Nuclear Man, courtesy Lex Luthor but mockery prevails as in the scene where the villain drags a human being without a helmet into outer space and she can still breathe! Although the idea for The Quest for Peace was a good one, it wasn’t a face-saving one as the film finished at the bottom in the great comic book movies.