Ranking the Superman Movies (Both Live Action and Animated)

[dupersuper]

Superman: The Movie
Superman vs. The Elite
Superman II
World's Finest: Superman/ Batman movie
All-Star Superman
Superman: Doomsday
Superman III
Superman vs the Mole Men
Superman Unbound
Atom Man vs. Superman
Superman serial
Superman/ Batman: Public Enemies
Man of Steel
Superman Returns
Superman/ Batman: Apocalypse
Superman IV

I reserve the right to change this order upon reflection.

[Auguste Dupin]

Based on those I've seen:
1) Superman the Movie
2)The Flesher shorts (since they apparently count)
3) All Star Superman
4) Man of Steel
5) Superman: Doomsday
6)Superman II: Donner Cut
7) Superman Returns
8)Superman Unbound
9)Superman/Batman: Public Ennemies
10) Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
11) Superman II: Lester Cut

[dancj]

1 - Superman III
2 - Superman II
3 - All Star Superman
4 - Superman The Movie
5 - Superman Returns
6 - Man of Steel
...
..
..
...
99 - Superman IV

[Darkseid]

1. All Star Superman
2. Superman vs The Elite
3. The Fleischer shorts
4. Man of Steel
5. Superman: Last Son of Krypton
6. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
7. Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
8. Superman vs The Mole Men
9. Superman: Unbound
10. Superman: The Movie
11. Superman/Batman: World's Finest
12. Superman II
13. Superman: Doomsday
14. Superman III
15. Superman IV
16. Superman Returns

[Adekis]

1. Fleischer shorts (why are we including these? They're not really movies the way the rest are, you know? Either way, Superman's at his best here- my ideal Superman movie would include a shot-for-shot remake of one of these shorts at the start just for kicks!)
2. Man of Steel (You know what? I don't have to justify myself to anybody, I thought Man of Steel was awesome!)
3. All-Star Superman (doesn't hold up to the comic, I'm afraid- but still does the best job of everything on the list of showing how bombastic and explosive Superman's world is!)
4. Superman Vs. The Elite
5. Superman III (The best Superman has ever been acted, and the closest to the comics at the time despite the lackluster bad guys)
6. Superman Unbound
7. Superman/Batman: World's Finest
8. Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (what was Batman even doing in this? He was almost useless!)
9. Superman: Doomsday
10. Superman/Batman:Public Enemies
11. Superman: The Movie
12. Superman II
13. Superman IV
14. Superman Returns

To be fair, I have never seen Superman Vs. The Mole Men, though I do have it. I'll watch it some time, I'm sure.

[Charlus]

Recently I´ve had the opportunity of seeing "Superman II-The Richard Donner´s cut"... So, not only he used that silly "time travel" piece of argument in the first one, but he was intending to use it one more time?

That´s why despite all the hate it gets, I put Superman III above the previous ones.

Anyway, for me, the best Superman movie ever made is Superman vs. The Elite. (Still, love every scene Chris Reeve shows up).

[jaybay]

Superman I
Fleischer Superman
Superman II
Superman III
Superman vs the Elite
Parts of Superman Returns

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Recently I´ve had the opportunity of seeing "Superman II-The Richard Donner´s cut"... So, not only he used that silly "time travel" piece of argument in the first one, but he was intending to use it one more time?

Actually, he was only going to use it the one time, at the end of II. But even though they were being filmed side-by-side, there was no guarantee I was going to do well enough to merit II, and since that was the big special effect shot, it was decided that it would be used in I instead. Originally, Superman was just going to catch the missiles in time, and one that was flung out into space would break open the Phantom Zone and free Zod and the rest.

[Siddon]

1. Superman II
2. Fleischer Superman Shorts
3. Superman
4. Superman vs The Elite
5. Man of Steel
6. All-Star Superman
7. Superman III
8. Superman and the Mole Man
9. Superman UnBound
10. Atom Man vs Superman
11. Superman Brianiac Attacks
12. Superman/Batman Apocalypse
13. Justice League: Doom
14. Superman Returns
15. Superman IV The Quest for Peace
16. Superman: Doomsday

[Mister BoMan]

Superman: The Movie
Man of Steel
Superman II
The Fleisher shorts
The Batman-Superman Movie
Superman Returns
Superman Unbound
Superman vs The Elite
Superman: Doomsday
All Star Superman
Superman and Batman Public Enemies
Superman and Batman Apocalypse
Atom Man vs. Superman
Superman (serial)
Superman and The Mole Men
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
Superman III
Superman: Brainiac Attacks

[Robotman]

Superman: The Movie
Man of Steel
Superman II
Fleischer shorts
All Star (It was a good adaptation but I wish they would've split it up into two parts like they did with TDKR)
Superman vs The Elite (great story but the animation was soooo bad)

[SpOck]

Out of those I've seen:

1. Superman Vs. The Elite- Despite some shoddy animation this is my favorite Superman movie. The voice acting is phenomenal, it's well paced, it has great action, and it's overall a really superb Superman movie.
2. Superman II- I like the Richard Donner version the best, but the theatrical version is great too. It has great villains, an okay plot, and cool special effects (for the time).
3. The Batman/Superman Movie- I didn't rank this as #1 because it is about both Batman and Superman, but the awesomeness of this movie is equal to the awesomeness of it's voice cast. Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Mark Hamill, and Clancy Brown together in the same movie is worth seeing no matter what the plot is.
4. Man of Steel- I wish this movie was higher on my list, but it just had too many problems. It's sad, especially considering the great cast and visuals. Ultimately, I think the problem lies in the script. The Superman-as-Jesus thing and every ridiculous scene with Pa Kent were huge problems, not even counting destruction more fit for a Michael Bay Transformers movie than Superman and product placement so whorish I thought I was watching an Adam Sandler film. While I love the Kryptonian stuff, there are just too many problems to make this a truly great Superman movie.
5. Superman: The Movie- Christopher Reeve is the perfect Superman, and the special effects are great, but the not-actually song that Margot Kidder sings and Gene Hackman's Lex bring it down.
6. Superman: Doomsday- The overall execution just isn't good. There's a decent movie in here, but it doesn't meet it's potential.
7. Superman Returns- This movie is poorly written and has very little action and boring characters. It just sucks.
8. Superman III- The only good part about this movie is Christopher Reeve's evil Superman (and the special effects). But even Christopher Reeve couldn't save a film with such a messy script. This film is simply bad.
9. Superman IV- There's a chance that with a decent budget this could have been good. But it's cheap, the special effects suck, and the execution is terrible. Just pretend that this never happened.
10. Superman: Braniac Attacks- Hey, you know what we should do in a movie based on the beloved Superman: The Animated Series? Completely bastardize everything that the fans love about the series! This movie is insultingly bad. **** this movie. **** it! Avoid at all costs.

[dupersuper]

2)The Flesher shorts (since they apparently count)

Yeah, I don't get that.

5. Superman: Last Son of Krypton

The Superman Adventures pilot?

[Sprite]

Here's a top list of my personal favorite Superman films.

1. Superman: The Movie
2. Superman vs. The Elite
3. All-Star Superman
4. Superman II
5. Superman: Doomsday
6. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
7. The Batman Superman Movie: World's Finest
8. Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
9. Superman Unbound
10. Superman Returns

[BBally]

Bump

Here's my order of the thearitical releases (an updated rank i did at Kung Fu Cinema forum):

Superman:
The film that proved that superhero/comic based adaptations can be more than above average campy films. Reeve remains to this day in my personal opinion, the best actor to ever play a superhero, no matter how good others play them, I still see Christian Bale playing Batman, or Robert Downey Jr playing Iron Man while Reeve became the character, which became a double edged for his acting career.

Superman Fleischer/Famous Shorts:
You could consider them adaptation of the radio serial since it consisted of the same cast who played Clark Kent and Lois Lane and had a more polished version of the radio's theme song, the shorts still hold up quite up well today (although the portrayal of the Japanese in the WWII era shorts might make people uncomfortable)

Superman II (Both cuts):
Both have their positives and negatives. Terrence Stamp's General Zod remains as one of the positives, KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

Superman And The Mole Men:
Theatrical pilot for the George Reeves series, I think it's the first feature length superhero film ever made. It was an entertaining debut for the actor with a somewhat anti-McCarthism message.

Man of Steel:
For all it's problems, I still enjoyed MOS. Henry Cavill looked the part and he comes across well in his interviews and was one of the biggest positives about the film, if only the script was better.

Superman Kirk Alyn Serials:
Apart from the out of place animated flight scenes, both serials are entertaining.

Superman III:
Despite the overuse of comedy, there's a good movie somewhere in 3, I really liked the Smallville scenes as it gave Reeve a chance to explore the mild mannered Clark Kent side of his character, Anna O'Toole of later Smallville fame was a pretty good Lana Lang and the darkside of Superman was entertaining.

Superman IV:
Okay, other than being the first superhero film I've seen in theaters, this is a complete guilty pleasure of mine, it's in no way a good movie, in fact it's quite a bad one but I just enjoy how bad it is, plus Reeve still does a great job as the Man of Tomorrow.

Superman Returns:
It was a better made film than 3,4 and MOS, I admit but I found it so bland and uninteresting with such bland characterization that it completely ruined the film for me.

The reason I put Superman Returns as my least favorite Superman film is because it could've been a better film than it actually was and I've first seen the film in 2009 and I heard about the criticism it tends to receive so I went in with low expectations and still wasn't impressed. My problems as follow:

- The pacing of the film was very slow and quite boring, I get Singer was trying to copy the Donner films but those films had more heart in them while SR comes across as a high bugeted fanfilm than an actual movie. The only scene where I wasn't bored was the Superman saving the plane scene as well as seeing George Reeve's Superman TV's Lois Lane, Noel Neil as Luthor's elderly wife and TV's Jimmy Olsen, Jack Larson as Bibbo the bartender.

- The acting was for the most part okay but the biggest problems were the leads, Brandon Routh was a decent Clark Kent but I didn't feel his Superman, Kate Bosworth just came across to me as really bland and Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor to me was just, Spacey playing Gene Hackman playing Lex Luthor and I'm not that fond of Hackman's Luthor as he came across as more campy than the actual Luthor in the comics at the time.

- Superman as a stalking deadbeat dad, so wrong on so many levels.

- The "son" felt more like a gimmick or an obvious plot point than an actual character to me.

- The way the film uses the way overused "Do We Really Need A Superman?" trope, which in my opinion the only time it was done well was in the story that inspired the idea "Must There Be A Superman" from Superman #247 (Jan. 1972) written by my favorite Superman writer Elliot S! Maggin.