Source: youtube.com

1. Superman: The Movie

If you’ve liked any comic book movie made since its release, you owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Donner’s Superman.

I’ve talked about a couple “format-setting” movies, that everyone after copied, and this is the grandfather of ‘em all. There were attempts at superhero movies before Superman ’78, but other than Batman ’66 – which was basically a long episode of the show – none of them especially worked. No one had really figured out how to make a movie based on superhero comics yet. Someone needed to show everyone how it was done.

And Richard friggin’ Donner did.

Seriously, Richard Donner is a criminally underrated director, and Superman is maybe his best film. An incredibly skillful movie that captures the tone of the comic book like no other, 1978’s Superman set the kind of light, subtly comedic tone that pretty much all superhero movies for the foreseeable future would stick to. Also, come on, Christopher Reeve is to date the best Superman of all time. Seriously, if you want to see where comic book movies came from, head on back to 1978.

After all, it’s true what they said: “You will believe a man can fly.”