“I’m sorry about that, Lois, but I’ve been kind of busy for a while.”

After watching the original Christopher Reeve Superman for the fifth time this year (yes, really), I finally decided to settle on a perfect score for it. To put it simply, it has just become one of those movies for me that I randomly get the urge to watch. There is absolutely nothing like it, and nothing that will ever be like it because of the era it came out in, when it comes to comic book movies. It was a pivotal film for the entire superhero film sort of subgenre, and probably the most important when it was released. There hadn’t really been anything released prior with such a budget that led to such a film that made you fully believe in the main character on screen (hence, the tagline for the movie: “You’ll believe a man can fly.”).

Getting into the actual movie, of course, it’s actually pretty interesting in terms of the way it introduces the character. We don’t get any Superman at all until the middle act, which follows a rather untraditionally long first act, but a first act that I think is incredible. It starts off with the destruction of Krypton, where we immediately get to see the beautiful visuals that last throughout the entire movie. One thing that definitely helps is the inclusion of Marlon Brando as Jor-El, who, despite his very small amount of screentime, takes over the screen when he is on it and leaves a memorable impact by the time the credits roll. Even when he’s shown as just a baby, you care about Kal-El/Superman simply due to how much Brando sells his love and care for him. This introduction also does a really excellent job of setting up Superman II, without being too over-the-top about it.

Once Kal-El, now Clark, finally arrives on Earth, that's when I truly get hooked emotionally. The film really doesn’t spend a lot of time in Smallville at the end of the day, but every second of it is written, directed, and scored perfectly so that you get truly invested in this character before things really even start happening plot-wise. We see the struggle that Clark would naturally have with all the powers he has, and at the peak of all this is when a tragedy occurs that, in fact, really sets off the plot. Everything I just talked about covers the entire first approximately forty minutes of the film, and saying anything more would definitely get into spoiler territory.

To get the obvious (at least to me) out of the way, this is very easily the best interpretation of the Superman character that we’ve ever gotten, and that we ever will get, simply because Christopher Reeve really was and is the, I guess you could say, template for what makes the character so special in the first place. I don’t want to ignore Jeff East, either, who is also brilliant as the young and youthful Clark Kent. But really, what makes Christopher Reeve such a good character is his embodiment of both Superman and Clark Kent; the acting here is just spectacular. He quite literally transforms between the quirky Clark Kent and, well, not so quirky Superman throughout this movie, far better than anyone who has played the character in live action since in my opinion, and I love all the other Superman portrayals.

He has a tremendous amount of character depth, due to both the nature of the first act of the film and also his general goodness. He wants what every human would naturally want, but never at the cost of being a hero. His embodiment of hope is also something worth noting, which I’ll get a little off topic here by saying that I love that we are finally going back to that with David Corenswet’s interpretation. Yes, Reeve’s version is campy, but that’s what makes it so special to me. He is an all-out Boy Scout who just wants to do good for the people of Metropolis.

The acting all around, in general, though, is fantastic in this film. The movie is very campy on its own, even though it is very emotionally grounded, and everyone knows what movie they are in. Margot Kidder is brilliant as Lois Lane. She’s even better in the second film, but here she does such a good job of playing a curious reporter with a good heart and her own little quirks as well. While Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor strays a bit far from the comics, he, like I said with the entire cast, knows what movie he’s in. He’s so over-the-top evil without any real motivations other than money, but it works because of the movie he’s in. I think Otis and Ms. Teschmacher (“Ms. Teschmacher!”) are fun side companions, too.

The special effects are not only revolutionary, but still hold up to this day. As I already mentioned, you really will believe a man can fly. The vast majority of the flying scenes, in particular, especially some of the earlier ones, hold up and still look as good today. Not only are the special effects good, but so are the practical ones too. Krypton at the very beginning is stunning, with all the beautiful sets and everything, and the explosion of the planet is one of the most impressive visual effects shots I’ve ever seen from this era of film, even compared to something like the original Star Wars movies. I’m a sucker for miniature models, and I love all of the ones that were used throughout and mainly at the end, even if it was pretty obvious that they were miniature models.

Now, even after all the praise I’ve already given to this film, I still have three reasons that are the biggest reasons why I love this movie so much, other than Christopher Reeve, of course. The first one is obvious, which is the score. Not only is this my favorite superhero film score of all-time, but it is quite easily by a landslide my favorite movie score of all-time. There are plenty of other iconic not only superhero movie scores, such as Danny Elfman’s scores for his Batman and Spider-Man movies, Hans Zimmer’s scores for Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, as well as Man of Steel, but also a plethora of even more iconic scores from John Williams. John Williams, for most people, is the greatest movie composer of all time, with a catalogue of movies with scores I absolutely adore like Jaws, E.T., the Indiana Jones movies, and especially everything Star Wars (even the movies I don’t like), but Superman: The Movie tops the cake for me, personally.

Not only is the main theme probably the most iconic superhero theme ever and one that gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it, even when I listen to it separately from the movie, but every other track is fantastic too. The music perfectly portrays hope, fun, heart, epicness, and tension whenever it needs to, and is never too over-the-top for what is going on, which could have easily happened simply because of how non-subtle the score is. My favorite track, other than the main one, would have to be the one simply titled “The Flying Sequence,” which ties into my next point.

Superman: The Movie, despite how many incredible scenes there are in other movies, has my favorite scene of all time in it, which is, in fact, the iconic flying sequence. I’ve gotten goosebumps from it every single time I’ve watched it, not only because of the score, but because of how it’s basically the standout scene that demonstrates how special a feeling movie this is. The special effects are unbelievable in this sequence, and it really is the main scene that sort of demonstrates everything that this movie resembles. Hope, fun, epic, and heart, all in one scene. It’s not only the standout scene for the movie, but for Superman and Lois as well. I’ll also give a little bit of a hot take by saying that I love the monologue she gives towards the end of the scene. I know that part gets a lot of criticism from people, mainly thinking it’s awkward and out of place, but it gives off, at least to me, a fantastical and magical feeling, no matter how cheesy that may sound.

Speaking of fantastical and magical, as I start to wrap up this way-too-long review (which I guess just happens when you’re as passionate about a movie as I am for this), I’ll just say that that is what, at the end of the day, makes this movie so near and dear to me. It’s from an era that we’ll never get to see anything like this ever again, and not just because it was really the first big comic book superhero movie. The fun and camp tone is just something that wouldn’t work today, which I’ve heard they tried in Superman Returns and failed at for that simple reason. Comic book movies have completely shifted since 1978 (and 1980). They are a lot less simple than they were back then, which is a good thing - movies need to evolve, but as I will say to cap off my main points about the movie, no other comic book movie has felt as uplifting to me.

While I don’t personally have any gripes at all with the film, there are definitely criticisms that many people have that I will address, and also address why they aren’t negatives for me. I won’t mention the Lois Lane monologue and Lex Luthor, since I already talked about those ones. The biggest one of the main criticisms people seem to have is the pacing, which is mainly a criticism of the first act. Yes, it’s slow, but as I’ve already talked about, it sets up everything so perfectly and is the most emotional part of the movie, which makes it, for at least me personally, fly by (no pun intended, I guess). The other one is the ending. Yeah, sure, it may have a lot of logic issues, but for me, it works because of how it caps off Superman’s character arc. It’s the scene that most demonstrates, at the end of the day, despite the fact that he’s from another planet and has incredible superhuman powers, he’s human and has human emotions.

To finally cap off this movie review, which is by far the longest one I’ve made up to this point, I’ll just say this: every time I watch this movie I love it even more, and it’s just, as I sort of said at the beginning, one of those movies I can just throw on at anytime no matter what.