Gene Hackman or Kevin Spacey?

[The Fat Bioware Nerd]

That doesn't change the fact that the first two Superman films are actually BETTER than Superman Returns.

Except that they're not really better if you ask me.

The less comedic portrayal went a long way for me as well. I like Hackman, but Spacey brought a calculating menacing quality that Hackman didn't. I could believe Spacey's Luthor was capable of sinking most of North America into the ocean with absolutely no remorse much easier than I could believe Hackman sinking California.

To be honest I thought Lex Luthor from Superman: The Animated Series was more menacing than Kevin Spacey...By the way I think the first two Superman films were better than Superman Returns because the late Christopher Reeve was a better Superman than Brandon Routh IMHO.

...Even Roger Ebert and Chris Gore think the first two Superman films were better than Superman Returns. Ebert said "The only reason why Superman Returns was made is because special effects have improved since the Christopher Reeve era."

Chris Gore said "This movie should've been called Superman Lives because he doesn't sacrifice anything, Superman Returns is basically the episode one of the Superman films."

[Slothy]

And I've never cared much for movie critics or their opinions. There are a lot of things that Superman Returns did very well, while their are, admittedly a very few things I didn't like. The same goes for the original Superman and Superman 2 though (I'm speaking about the Richard Donner cut though. The original version of Superman 2 is utter crap for a lot of reasons).

I like Spacey better as Luthor than Hackman (and even if you had made the Animated Series an option I'd still go with him, though by a narrower margin). I also liked Routh's Superman, though Reeves was slightly better. I can't stand Reeve's portrayal of Clark though. I realize that in 1977 the official stance was that Clark Kent really was the disguise and Superman the real personality, but I've never cared for that. With Routh's performance though, even though it's based largely on what Reeve did, he managed to make it seem that Clark really was the actual person, not Superman. Clarks bumbling tendencies and shyness seemed more an exaggeration of his own personality, rather than an outright lie to hide his identity. Reeve's Clark Kent never sat well with me, but Routh managed to fix much of the problem without straying too far from what Reeve established. I honestly feel he doesn't get enough credit for that.

[The Fat Bioware Nerd]

IMHO Dean Cain was the best Clark Kent...it's a shame he couldn't play Superman/Clark Kent in Superman Returns because that would've been awesome and John Shea probaby would've been a better Lex Luthor than Kevin Spacey.

[Bunny]

I thought the question asked was a matter of opinion on which actor played a supervillian better. When does that equate to which film is better or not?

[The Fat Bioware Nerd]

I thought the question asked was a matter of opinion on which actor played a supervillian better. When does that equate to which film is better or not?

What I meant to say was Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor had a better evil scheme than Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor IMHO...I know that Hackman's Luthor wasn't very menacing but what did you expect? Superman: The Movie was made in the 70's and nobody took comic book films seriously back then.

Everybody thought a comic book film was a joke and the directors treated every comic book film as a children's movie.