Favourite scene in Richard Donner's Superman

[The Laughing Fish]

I intend this thread to focus on 1978, but if you want to mention a fave scene from the Donner cut I guess you can do that too. No matter if it's finished or not, Donner's Superman was meant to be a two-part saga after all.

My favourite scene, in terms of emotion, would have to be Superman turning back time. The older I get, the more I've become critical of this scene because of the plot holes, but it's Reeve's performance that sells it as a spectacular scene. From the despair he feels over Lois dying to using that grief as a determination to undo her death and the damage the earthquake caused around California is still exhilarating.

But in terms of story, I believe the whole Krypton sequence is perhaps the film's strongest. Setting up the stage of Jor-El sentencing General Zod and co to the Phantom Zone, the restrained silence as the Kryptonian council dooms the whole planet and Jor-El and Lara saying their goodbyes to their infant son before narrowly making his narrow escape. Out of all the nostalgic things people heap praise for this movie, I hardly see anybody talk about how terrifying Krypton's destruction was. That, together with the destruction of LA in Cameron's Terminator films, used to scare me sh*tless as a kid. But moving on...

Baby Kal-El listening to Jor-El's recorded voice teaching him some of Earth's history before arriving in Smallville, and the cinematography throughout the whole sequence up to the first-person view of crashing on the farm, was exceptional for its time. Geoffrey Unsworth had a unique touch that was sorely missed once he had passed away.

Feel free to share your favourite scene/s in S78 if you wish.

[thecolorsblend]

What I'll say for now is Hackman's moment where Superman opens the chest and uncovers the Kryptonite. Up to that point, Hackman played Lex as a smiling, mischevious schemer. But in that moment, Hackman turns on a dime and becomes a coldblooded killer. He's not messing around now. It's time for him to end the threat of Superman once and for all and he doesn't hold back.

Great moment.

[The Laughing Fish]

There was also the moment when Hackman's Luthor killed the cop who was following Otis in the underground subway tunnel. For all of Lex's goofy charm, he lets that mask slip and shows his sinister, deadly side from time to time. His lack of care, when Tessmacher mentioned her mother would be by the missile heading towards New Jersey, sums up his ruthlessness. It's quite an underrated character trait in S78. Too bad he lost that edge in SII.

[The Laughing Fish]

When The Flash came out, Gunn took a shot at a certain cinematic Lex Luthor in an interview. Many people thought he was talking about Jesse Eisenberg, but he later revealed he wasn't a fan of Gene Hackman's portrayal.

In reading these replies, sometimes it seems like people are looking for things to get outraged about & have little sense of history," he said, adding: "Although Donner's Superman movies are some of my favorites, I've spoken out publicly before & even written about it in EW [Entertainment Weekly] back in the early 2000's, perhaps unwisely, that Lex Luthor is not my favorite part of those films.

The portrayal can lean campy & I wished he seemed like a greater threat & I wished he'd played it bald throughout. I regret having intimated that I didn't like ANY Lex on Michael [Rosenbaum]'s show, but there it is.

For the record I think Hackman is one of the five greatest actors of the Seventies & Eighties, and he starred in some of my favorite movies. I just didn't love him as Lex.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/james-gunn-lex-luthor-superman-b2358817.html

That may not be as bad as his B89 comments, but this f***er can shut up. Hackman's portrayal may be dated nowadays, but his version of Lex doesn't make me cringe as much as Gunn's characters do.