82
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenBoasts a smart screenplay by Robert Benton and David and Leslie Newman, striking cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth (especially in the Smallville sequence), bright comic turns by Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman, and of course, that winning performance by Christopher Reeve in the title role. Believe a man can fly? You bet!
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSuperman is a pure delight, a wondrous combination of all the old-fashioned things we never really get tired of: adventure and romance, heroes and villains, earthshaking special effects, and -- you know what else? Wit.
- 100Dallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonDallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonIf not the best superhero movie ever, it's definitely in the top 3. Reeve will forever be Superman to most of us.
- 100The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottEstimates of the movie's costs range between $35-and $70-million; whatever the price, it was not too much to pay. As gods go, Superman is one of the godliest; his movie is one of the best.
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThere's no doubt that it's a flawed movie, but it's one of the most wonderfully entertaining flawed movies made.
- it's the simple, earth-bound quality of the film that makes this comic-book fantasy soar.
- 70Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrThe film is best when it takes itself seriously, worst when it takes the easy way out into giggly camp--as it does, finally and fatally, when Lex Luthor enters the action; Gene Hackman plays the arch-villain like a hairdresser left over from a TV skit.
- 70The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbySuperman is good, clean, simple-minded fun, though it's a movie whose limited appeal is built in.
- The film burdens itself with too many story lines and an overlong (though beautifully photographed) prologue, but things really get moving when Reeve takes the screen.