A few reviews

[jrWHAG42]

Superman the Movie is a perfect movie in my eyes.

[Gaith]

Superman: The Movie (1978)
I haven't seen this all the way through for ages, this time I went for the Theatrical Cut. Even in that shorter version, wow does this feel slow and dated

I get the nostalgia for this movie, but, oh boy, do I not get the unvarnished veneration. It is dull as dishwater at least half the time. As I first said years and years ago, I'd be interested in seeing a focused fan edit of the movie: no Zod prologue, maybe no pre-destruction Krypton stuff at all, a bare minimum of Lex+Otis hijinks, and maybe even no climactic time reversal? Because I agree that Reeve and the score are great. (Kidder... is also there.)

[mnkykungfu]

it's a gripping example of what I like to call a "process movie," ....HBO's Florida 2000 election drama Recount

I think the common term is "procedural".  Big props for the shout-out to Recount!  Great underseen gem.
 

Superman: The Movie
wow does this feel slow and dated
The humour is often goofy and misjudged
campy Gene Hack(man) and his two painfully unfunny sidekicks
 
You can (ALMOST) believe that nobody notices they are the same person because Reeve shape-shifts his body between the two. 

YES.  THANK.  YOU.  I totally agree with all that, and that Reeves and Donner are rightfully venerated here.  OTOH, the pluses do not make me totally forget about the minuses.  How film critics can hold this up on a pedestal while constantly dismissing the phenomenal quality of recent super-hero films boggles my mind.  Reeves will always be the gold standard for how to embody a superhero, but that is a cheeeeeeesy movie.  When John Hodgman says "Nostalgia is the most dangerous emotion.", this is a prime example.  Great for the time, but we have improved by lightyears since then.  Well, Marvel has.

Saw a couple things!:
2 movies with very talented casts, but that the directors just mis-execute the story and get very mixed results.
Observe and Report (2009)

Just watch the trailer, it's better than the movie.  Full thoughts here: https://letterboxd.com/nottheacademy/fil...nd-report/

Secretary (2002)

Very interesting, but sold out by its ending.  I know the BDSM community was just happy to see a film portrayal that wasn't played for villains or a cheap laugh, but this isn't really a balanced portrayal either.  Full review here:   https://letterboxd.com/nottheacademy/film/secretary/

Silver Surfer: The Animated Series (1998)

Back when this debuted I was a big fan of the Silver Surfer comic, and the character was enjoying his highest degree of popularity and commercial success.  A big part of that was the writer/artist team of Jim Starlin and Ron Lim, and so I was pretty turned off when the TV series came out based instead on the “old-fashioned” writing and drawing of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  I also was not keen on the mix of CGI into the hand-drawn animation.  I, the target audience for the show, boycotted it, and so I was single-handedly responsible for it being canceled after 12 episodes.  Har har.

Cut to 20 years later and I decide to finally check it out.  It is a bizarre one.  Who is it aimed at?!  The lines are delivered slow and simplified, and the voice-acting is melodramatic and cheesy like a little kids’ cartoon.  (Thanos, in particular, is very disappointing to go back and see turned into a Mumm-Ra type villain.)  On the other hand, the writing is based off these grand cosmic stories dealing with free-will, escapism, the comfort of ignorance, ends vs means, evolution, and a host of ideas too complicated and mature to easily describe.  Lots of obscure Surfer comic characters are faithfully represented here, and much of the art looks almost directly pulled from old panels from the ‘60s.  It’s a trip, for sure, and worth a watch!  I’m not sure how they ever thought it would find an audience, though.

[jrWHAG42]

It's weird because I'm a youngin, and I didn't watch Superman the Movie until recent years. I have no nostalgia, I just somehow don't agree with any of these flaws?
But at the same time I do love some modern Superhero movies too, be it Henry Cavill's portrayal of Superman or the MCU.
I guess I'm just easily amused.

Now I feel like watching Superman the Movie. Mayhaps it hasn't been recent enough that I last watched it.

[mnkykungfu]

^ It's a fair point.  But I don't think you have to have lived through a time to be nostalgic for the attributes of it.  ( Not that you're doing this but: ) some people just look back at certain cultural periods and idealize them.  I saw this segment about some Americans who have this nostalgic myth of American history but really don't think about the details.  (Just a funny example, I'm not making a political statement here.)

For me, the nail in the coffin for Superman: The Movie is the ending. 

Okay, so the premise is that Superman can fly around the world in reverse to its revolution.  So then we're mean to accept that this would make the Earth turn backwards (it wouldn't.)  And that that would not cause massive tidal shifts, buildings crumbling, huge disasters, etc.  And that it would somehow reverse time.  But it wouldn't reverse everything, only a few specific things about what happened in the film, in order to undue Lois' death.  It's just crazy bananas.  I wouldn't even show a child that kind of ridiculous ending.  Especially because it's universe-breaking.  You now have to explain why Superman doesn't undo every huge problem by just flying backwards.  Phantom Zone criminals escaping?  I'm going to rewind time to prepare for their arrival.  Luthor running loose?  I'll rewind time to wait for him when he exits prison.  Richard Pryor hijacked my movie?  I'll rewind time to not sign up for that script.  It's just a super-lazy ending that erases all the stakes from a real dilemma for Superman: how much can he prioritize the lives of those around him versus the greater good? 

One of the worst endings in movie history.

[Gaith]

^ As I understand it, the idea isn't that Supes is turning the Earth backwards; he's just flying so fast he breaks the time barrier and travels backwards. The choice of visuals utterly failed to communicate that, however. As for it being a plot device... I'm of two minds. As a goofy, universe-breaking contrivance, it's kinda charming. But, while she's admirably independent, Kidder's Lois is all-around not nearly as charismatic or engaging as Reeve, so his/Supes' anguish just doesn't work for me. Also of note, that ending was originally going to be the climax of the second movie, undoing Zod's victory (as seen in the Donner cut of the same), which at least is more dramatic.

[mnkykungfu]

^Where do you get that from? 

They literally show: he's flying backwards, no time-travel.  Then, the Earth slows its rotation, stops.  Still no time travel and he's been flying backwards quite a lot.  Then the Earth starts rotating backwards, and they show scenes that just played out on Earth reversing.  And so on.

[Gaith]

^ Could have sworn I heard it from something on the Donner cut of II dvd or online news source, but Googling around reveals only uncertainty. Oh, well. Amounts to the same thing, really.

[Moe_Syzlak]

I was seven (almost eight) when I first saw Superman. I can still remember leaving the theater totally pumped up with that Williams score in my head. But even then I thought the reversing time thing was goofy. And Lex never seemed like an imposing villain. My kids are the same age now, so maybe it’s something I should see what they think of it.

[jrWHAG42]

We can make logical assumptions, but there's no way to prove for sure that you can't reverse time by flying around the earth unless it's actually tested.
...
Also, in a movie where a guy can fly, you're worried about realism?

These aren't real counterpoints, I don't have a good counterpoint, I suppose it is pretty silly.