At the core of the best Superman films is the actor who plays Superman and Kent, and that’s been perhaps the most consistent element of the Superman films that have been released thus far. Christopher Reeve, Henry Cavill, and Brandon Routh anchored films by the likes of Richard Donner, Zach Snyder, Richard Lester, Bryan Singer, and Sydney J Furie, and have rendered even the most ludicrously wrong-headed material enjoyable. The list below will rank all Superman movies from best to worst.
Justice League:
Superman doesn’t really matter in this Superman movie. However, this is a movie made with no real sense of tone, no feeling for emotional growth or catharsis, and a stunning lack of involving action, aside from the video game level of pageantry of the climactic fight against Steppenwolf and his Parademons. There’s no one at the helm to say what the movie should look, sound, and feel like in the end. The creators of Justice League have created a flavorless catastrophe, a movie with no soul, no purpose, and no insight.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The two most famed titans of the DC universe convey nothing about their personality beyond their propensity for battle, their tactical brilliance, New Superman Trailer Has Made Fans All Excited: Displays Immense Promiseand some vague spirituality that never gets too much attention. There is little of the adopted humanity, the experience of living on Earth, or the conflicting small-town ethos in his character, just a God on Earth who is willing to own Batman.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
This one of the Superman movies is about Superman fighting against the spread of nuclear weaponry was the product of Christopher Reeve himself. This film is at its best when the focus is on the battle between the Man of Steel and his numerous villains, most prominently Nuclear Man, played by Mark Pillow, a former Chippendale dancer. But when the film attempts to be funny, dramatically substantive, or convey a political message, every minute becomes excruciating and too bland to grab the imagination.
Superman III
The entire subplot of Clark Kent returning to his hometown and wooing the girl he had a crush on in High School, played by Annette O’Toole, is so astoundingly inept and innocuous that the actual risks that are taken in the main storyline come off as fanciful and occasionally sloppy. By the time the film gets around to the Superman vs Superman fight, the film has become episodic at best, a collection of not-so-well-written sketches involving the Man of Steel and Pryor’s Gus Gorman. What Lester is about to attempt is what makes the film worth seeing.
and then uses the deaths of military and police officers to reiterate how evil Zod is.
Superman Returns
A lot has been made of the film’s narrative devices. In many ways, Batman v Superman, Superman Returns, and Superman III are equally flawed. It could be argued that Superman III, or even Batman v Superman, could be considered the superior film since it at least tried to do something remarkably different with the Superman formula. Superman Returns would probably rank higher if it were not so beholden to the story beats of another of the films on this list.
Superman II
For sure, Superman II had its original ridiculous ending, in which Superman reverses the rotation of the Earth to turn back time. Superman turning back time on an equally ridiculous reset button at its conclusion, or Superman kissing Lois with such potency that she forgets the events of the previous weeks, I don’t know which one is the hardest to swallow. Considering the genuine romantic chemistry between Reeve and Kidder in this one, it feels like a portion of the movie was wasted. Superman II is the most ambitious story ever attempted on screen and goes far beyond the action.
Man of Steel
When looking at the things that sink other Superman movies on this list, you’ll see none of them apply here. In all categories that tend to define movies like this one, Man of Steel comes out as a legitimate second best, boasting the most impressive cast assembled for a Superman movie since the star-studded 1978 film. While this one may not be the most lovable, it is, without question, the same movie from its beginning until the end. This one occupies a high spot on this list and is a rather damning indication of just how poor most Superman movies are. While this one is #2 on the list, it’s a very good one.
Superman: The Movie (1978)
None of the sequels, reboots, re-envisionings, or remakes ever approached the promise inherent in this movie. This one is not only the first one ever made, but one of the best films of its era. Christopher Reeve’s casting in this timeless movie remains the gold standard for superheroes in general. The movie has cast such a long shadow over superhero movies that its protracted origin story format remains an almost inescapable component of the genre.
Those are the Superman Movies ranked from worst to best. What do you think of this list?
