"Atom Man vs. Superman" was quite hard to obtain on video, back in the heyday of that format. I had already seen the 1948 serial of "Superman" and that one is great. My expectations for the above production were only half met. The actor who played Lex Luthor was perfectly satisfactory. It was good to see Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill reprise their respective characters. However, the story as a whole didn't interest me all that much. I found it a bit hard in keeping up with what was happening. That is usually a sign that the writers haven't done a very good job. As before, there are 15 chapters that compromise the whole story but it felt longer than that to me. There is still some fun to be had with this one.

Most reviewers appear to give this serial the edge over it's forerunner, 1948's "Superman" with most of the same principals involved. Quite honestly, I found little difference between the two except for the inclusion of Superman's arch-enemy Lex Luthor, ably portrayed by Lyle Talbot, who takes on a dual role as the title character Atom Man. With his shaved head, Talbot epitomized the classic look of Luthor from the Silver Age comic book era, and just like Clark Kent and Superman, you never saw Luthor and Atom Man in the same place at the same time.But gee, wasn't Atom Man just the goofiest looking screen villain ever? I mean he was just laughably ridiculous looking with no hint of menace whatsoever to my thinking. The opening chapter had the head of Atom Man superimposed over newspaper headlines of various crimes being committed across Metropolis, along with images of atomic bomb blasts to further heighten the connection with the character.Just as in the first serial, animation is used to simulate Superman's power of flight but the film makers also used close-ups of Kirk Alyn to simulate various flying poses. What cracked me up however were some of the decisions regarding Superman's heroics in the story. In the first chapter for example, Superman prevents a bridge from swaying so a woman in her car can be rescued by the police when he could just as well have saved her himself. The bridge wound up falling down anyway.Perhaps even funnier, at least to me and it happened a couple of times, was when there would be the usual group of reporters in Perry White's (Pierre Watkin) office, and with his phone within arm's reach, Perry would ask Jimmy Olsen (Tommy Bond) to dial a number. So Jimmy would walk all the way around the desk and bystanders to make the call. You really had to wonder what the rationale was for decisions like this to be made.Moving from chapter to chapter, one would be hard pressed to make sense of any continuity in the story. The over riding concept here had to do with some type of special coin Luthor invented that allowed for the transmission of solid objects and people over short distances, a neat precursor to TV Star Trek's transporter beam a couple decades later. Atom Man himself fades from the scene well before the final chapter so the ultimate battle against the Man of Steel one might have expected never comes to pass. By then though, so much goofy stuff happened already you might not even notice.

Favorite Movie Quote: "The kindest thing that I ever did was not bumping you off right away, Miss Lois Lane." This classic Superman flick from 1950 contains some of the most hilarious, unintentional humour that I've ever come across. In this flick things get blown up, real good, especially trucks and cars. And with the added bonus of super-cheap special effects, it all serves to heighten every minute of the B-Grade Fun.In Atom Man Vs. Superman we find Lex Luthor (secretly Atom Man) once again blackmailing the city of Metropolis. This time Luthor threatens to destroy the entire community by carefully aiming his powerful Thermo Gun (with its suction ray) on the city's skyscrapers.Perry White, editor of The Daily Planet Newspaper, assigns Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent to cover the story. Naturally, it's our hero Superman who ends up saving the day.

There are few sequels that are ever as good as the original. This is one of them. The only real difference between the two is that the special effects in this one are better. The story leaps right into the action, with the city of Metropolis being hit by a crime wave. One man is behind all this crime, the evil Lex Luthor. Superman battles Lex Luthor and his alter ego the Atom Man through 15 fun and exciting chapters.Superman does a lot in this serial. Can he save Metropolis from a deadly flood? Can Superman escape the Empty Doom? Will Superman's real identity be released to the public? Will Lois Lane go to work for the Lex Luthor? Find out this and more in ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMANI give it 10/10. It's perfect.(Note: Look at the close-up shots of Kirk Alyn flying as Superman. The 'S' on the Superman uniform is backwards.)