Superman (1978)

[Morrus]

I don't think it's time dilation... it's just dodgy scriptwriting.

One of my favourite superhero movies of all time though. I'll happily sit and watch that movie any time.

 

[aco175]

On Krypton their 'year' is different than ours and is 1,000 times faster, so Superman could be 3 Earth years old and several thousand Krypton years old at the same time. A bit like arguing science and the Bible where the Bible says the Earth is only 6,500 years old and science says 4.5 billion. Maybe 7 of God's days to create the world took what we call 4.5 billion years.

 

[Golden age Superhero]

Just saw this for the first time in cinema (and in concert, too) and thought it held up better than I remembered. As a kid, I thought the second half dragged a bit, but that seemed not to be the case this time around. It’s still spectacular, an incredibly seminal and pure superhero story. And Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder are both amazing,

(Though the 70s sexism, oy. What’s with cutting out all the mums? “We will always be with you, Kal-El, by which I mean me, I won’t bother recording Lara in these crystals. Also, I’m going to homeschool you at the North Pole for twelve years, never mind if Martha worries.”)

(Also: “I know you’re the best reporter here, Lois, but I’m giving your beat to a tall white guy without a college degree because he’s a damn fine typist.”)

Anyway, I noticed what I thought was an interesting inconsistency in the film (not surprising - honestly the script is a bit of a mess) about Krypton.

1) When the recording of Jor-El speaks to Clark at the Fortress of Solitude, he says that Krypton exploded several thousands of years ago. Which is fine, presumably baby Kal-El was in suspended animation and the ship doesn’t have FTL. It also makes Lara’s reaction about how primitive Earth is more interesting - she’d presumably have last seen it around 2000-1000 BC. Also, fragments of Krypton would probably take at least that long to get to Earth.

2) During his planning, Lex states that Krypton exploded in 1948, and that it took Kal-El 3 years to get here. Which is also fine, and baby Kal indeed aged about that much. Apparently the ship has FTL now. What that doesn’t explain is how fragments of Krypton only took 3 years to get to Earth.

What do you think? Is Jor-El mistaken and the ship somehow just got to Earth a lot faster?

(Also, Lex quotes Lois’ interview as his source, when we saw the whole interview on screen and he didn’t say any of that. Maybe Superman came back later to fill in some facts and figures?)

(Also, honestly, I think the kryptonite is a complete ass pull by Lex. It’s narratively not necessary - the main distraction is that there are two missiles and Superman can’t catch them both - and its only real function is to give Miss Tessmacher something to do.)

(That said, Hackensack, NJ is basically half a second away from New York (and Metropolis is very clearly NY in this film) as the Superman flies and it’s really not much of a distraction. Maybe shoot the missile at Paris instead? That way you get to free Zod et al without having yet another atomic bomb plot.)

In the comics Clark did go to college to get a degree. Also, in the Donner cut of Superman II the missile that Superman sends out into space does set the evil Phantom Zone criminals out into space.

 

[jian]

In the comics Clark did go to college to get a degree. Also, in the Donner cut of Superman II the missile that Superman sends out into space does set the evil Phantom Zone criminals out into space.

Yes, he does - in the film he seems to spend 12 years at the Fortress after high school and so presumably doesn’t have a college degree (unless he made it up).

In Superman II, the atomic bomb is brought by terrorists to the Eiffel Tower and Superman deals with it by throwing it into space, just as the Phantom Zone prison happens to be flying by, setting off the rest of the plot. If they’d been freed by a missile in the first film it’s just have been a bit more efficient, I guess.

 

[jian]

Random recent addition courtesy of Dr Glaucomflecken (an eye surgeon who does YT videos about the US health system) - Clark’s glasses in the film are clearly quite strong bifocals (or progressives as we call them now).

Assuming Clark doesn’t need them in any way, he either stole them from someone who does (maybe his dad’s nightstand?) or took the time to see an optician and pretend to have terrible vision at all distances so he could get genuine glasses. The latter is pretty hilarious so I’m keeping it as my personal canon.

 

[MGibster]

Still the best Superman theme.

 

[Golden age Superhero]

Yes, he does - in the film he seems to spend 12 years at the Fortress after high school and so presumably doesn’t have a college degree (unless he made it up).

In Superman II, the atomic bomb is brought by terrorists to the Eiffel Tower and Superman deals with it by throwing it into space, just as the Phantom Zone prison happens to be flying by, setting off the rest of the plot. If they’d been freed by a missile in the first film it’s just have been a bit more efficient, I guess.

I was mentioning the Donner cut of Superman 2. Not the cinematic version.

 

[jian]

I was mentioning the Donner cut of Superman 2. Not the cinematic version.

Sorry, you’re right. I haven’t seen it - where does the missile come from, is it from the first film?

Read the summary on Wikipedia - so he uses time travel again to reset the whole universe so presumably the prisoners remain in the Phantom Zone, which is interesting and also makes more sense than a memory wipe kiss.

 

[Golden age Superhero]

Still makes you wonder why not just do that first?

 

[jian]

Still makes you wonder why not just do that first.

I guess there are two possible explanations, Watsonian and Doylist as usual:

Watsonian: Clark doesn’t want to try and travel in time while there are active Kryptonians around who can interfere with it or stop him - he has to remove them from the situation first.

Doylist: It would make for a less interesting film and also would imply he can travel in time whenever things go bad (oops, didn’t notice this tsunami in time, let me hop back a couple of hours and deal with it before it reaches Australia). That would lead to a quite interesting version of Superman if he did, though - he’d have memories of past events that nobody else would remember.