I stumbled across the Superman movie which starred Christopher Reeve a couple of nights ago as I was flipping through the cable channels, and I was happily reminded of what a great movie (really a wonderful first half of a movie, and an OK second half) it was.  The early origin story with the Kent family on the farm just hits all the right notes for me. The later part with Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor slides into goofy comic villainy, but by then Christopher Reeve is in full Superman mode, so I was able to forgive a lot of the flaws in the story.
Watching this version of Superman from 1978 also reminded me how much I loathed the Man of Steel movie. I came out of the theater after that awful experience thinking that not only did the filmmakers not understand anything about Superman, but I didn’t even think they LIKED the character very much. I suppose the Man of Steel version of Superman was a “Dark Knight” twist on the character, but that just proved that the filmmakers didn’t GET it. Superman is a GOOD GUY. The Superman from Man of Steel was more like General Zod from Superman II than like Christoper Reeve’s Superman.
In my fantasy sequel to Man of Steel, the Real Superman (Christopher Reeve, digitally resurrected just to right this terrible wrong) returns, spit curl neatly in place, and handily banishes the new boneheaded Man of Steel into the Phantom Zone where he belongs.
Now THAT’s a happy ending!
