The original Richard Donner Superman film is still probably the best depiction of DC's iconic hero in a live action film - and is responsible for making comic book movies a thing that exists. That being said, the ending of the film (where Superman reverses the rotation of the Earth by flying around it super-fast and that somehow turns back time - instead of, ya know,killing all life and wreaking havoc on every ecosystem on the planet) is pretty dumb.
What makes it even dumber is that there was originally an ending planned that would have avoided the whole weird time travel plot AND provided a direct link to the sequel - the missile that was due to strike the San Andreas Fault would be deflected by Superman and knocked into space, where it would detonate...and the explosion was the reason Zod escapes from the Phantom Zone. It would have tied up the movie nicely, ended on a really cool cliffhanger, and taken care of some unnecessary exposition in the sequel - since pretty much the EXACT SAME THING happens in Superman II to open the Phantom Zone.
They changed it because Donner felt it would be too "gimmicky" to use one film in order to lure folks back for a sequel and wanted to leave the first film with closure...even though they were shooting Superman II simultaneously with Superman I, so there was almost no question that they were expecting audiences to come back for more.
Luckily, Superman III and IV came out not long after, and any complaints about dumb stuff in Superman I was overtaken in Superman III that's mostly about Richard Pryor inspiring Office Space and Superman being a dick and straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Source: http://www.dorkly.com/
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