DigitalSpy rank all Superman films.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/f...t-to-best.html

Couple on there I have not seen but pretty much agree with the list except I would swap number 1 and 2 around though.

[Jadeb]

That's exactly how I'd rank them. As bad as IV is, it's still miles ahead of SR and its unrecognizable superpeeper. And III is underrated in general. Love evil Superman, the junkyard fight and the genuinely scary (for kids) robot transformation.

[JBatmanFan05]

Their list is not how I'd ever rank them, mine:

1. Superman (1978)
2. Superman II (1980)
3. I don't know, but probably not Man of Steel either

Superman II (1980) might have been #1 if it was done with Donner all the way through, we'll never know and the so-called Donner Cut is nothing of the sort.

[The Kid]

That's about how I'd rank them although I'd switch 6 and 7 and they'd move up one since I haven't seen Supergirl

[Custodes]

Hard to pick the best but, I would not put Superman III nor Quest For Peace ahead of Superman Returns. The whole Shuttle/747 rescue scene with stadium landing was amazing and spectacular. One of the best Superman movie scenes ever.

[Kuwagaton]

I'd agree if I didn't find II so boring

[manofsteel1979]

pretty close to how I would rank them, although I would swap #2 and #3. If there wasn't a SUPERMAN:THE MOVIE, there wouldn't likely ever have been a MAN OF STEEL.

[Cypher]

Ill just censor my own opinion.

[Sacred Knight]

Superman: The Movie is number 1 for me. It should have been II easily but Lester injected too much camp and ignored key narrative sequences like adequately explaining how Superman got his powers back. The complete lack of explanation there is hugely damaging.

[BBally]

I guess I'm not the only one who would rather watch Superman 3 and 4 over Returns, the thing about SR is that it could've been so much better than it actually was. 3 had some decent scenes (the Smallville scenes being the highlight and Reeve and O'Toole who played Lana had much better chemistry than Routh and whoever played Lois in Returns IMO) and 4 is just so bad it's a guilty pleasure for me. So my issue with Returns is that it's a huge disappointment for me with the mediocre script and forced melodrama. MOS had a mediocre script too but I at least cared about what was going on and Cavill had a more convincing Superman feel about him than Routh IMO.

Let me put it this way:

Both films are like 2 different meals, Superman Returns is a nice looking meal but tastes kind of bland and isn't filling while MOS is kind of a disorganised mishmash but the tasty parts are quite tasty and satisfying enough. That's my opinion.

[Doctor Know]

I suspect this will become a hot thread when everybody wakes up. I'd switch the ranks of Superman II and Superman TM.

[manofsteel1979]

I guess I'm not the only one who would rather watch Superman 3 and 4 over Returns, the thing about SR is that it could've been so much better than it actually was. 3 had some decent scenes (the Smallville scenes being the highlight and Reeve and O'Toole who played Lana had much better chemistry than Routh and whoever played Lois in Returns IMO) and 4 is just so bad it's a guilty pleasure for me. So my issue with Returns is that it's a huge disappointment for me with the mediocre script and forced melodrama. MOS had a mediocre script too but I at least cared about what was going on and Cavill had a more convincing Superman feel about him than Routh IMO.

Let me put it this way:

Both films are like 2 different meals, Superman Returns is a nice looking meal but tastes kind of bland and isn't filling while MOS is kind of a disorganised mishmash but the tasty parts are quite tasty and satisfying enough. That's my opinion.

That part I bolded is one of the best analogies for SR and MOS I have ever read, and dead on.

I tend to go back and forth on SUPERMAN IV and SUPERMAN RETURNS, over which is worse. At the moment I do agree with this ranking, as SMIV had a noble purpose to it but was undone by circumstances beyond Chris Reeve's control. Yeah the script was a little weak in places, but decent effects and a bigger budget likely could have saved it. However, RETURNS had everything in it's disposal a good director, a great cast (Kate Bosworth excluded. She is not a bad actress...but NOT Lois at all) and the guys who wrote X2, one of the best Superhero movies ever by that point, and a budget enough to make it all work...and it failed pretty badly. A part of me used to wish Singer ended up doing a sequel, as I think he would have made a better movie the second time around, but I think it all worked out for the best.

SUPERMAN III holds a nostalgic special place in my heart, as it was the first Superman film I have strong memories of seeing. Yeah, it's cheesy and silly in spots, but it's FUN. It feels like a Bronze Age Superman Annual brought to life. Reeve pulls off his best performance as Superman/Clark/Evil Superman in the entire series.

[Kandor Rising]

Man of Snapping Necks is not better than STM. That's whack.

I would love to someday see IV with all the deleted scenes back in and see what plot holes disappear.

[JBatmanFan05]

Man of Snapping Necks is not better than STM. That's whack.

Yeah, Man of Steel is a grim morose affair. Kewl Batman-edgy Superman that appeals our blockbuster love of Ridley Scott's Gladiator (a movie that works just fine, because it isn't Superman-related) and the blockbuster dreck like Transformers and Fast and Furious. I think the whole point of the article was to "shock" the geek reader with the popular MoS's high now-usurping placement.

The "Honest Trailer" of Man of Steel on Youtube entertainingly sums up what's wrong with the film.

[Surf]

I thought MoS got more right than wrong, it can't be viewed in a vacuum like the original pictures so it has that in it's favor (or detriment depending on how far you and Clark go back I guess).

Not like it needed explaining but it has been 40 years since STM. If you're old enough, for over a decade back in the day Superman was the ONLY superhero movie that ever got made (with a couple dabs of Swamp Thing in there) so I think that led to many more multiple viewings than anything else we'd have comparably today. That said those first couple were pioneers at the time SII, STM, SIII/MoS , Returns....SIV are how I'd rank them.

There ain't no two ways about A Quest for Peace, this is one of the worst movies ever, not just of the genre- ever. Superman Returns (with the sound muted) is pretty damn good if you hold it up next to SIV. I can't find any nostalgia in it like SIII and I was in the theater to see it. When as a kid you leave a movie and think that wasn't very cool- that's really not cool. Sure there were parts to SII that didn't work but nothing like SIV. NOTHING was even sound about it except for maybe the cape descending to the ground after William Katt's brother (not his brother) scratched up Kal real good with his nuclear fingernails. Quest for Peace is a tougher watch than Batman and Robin.