Richard Donner directed Superman in 1978 under a sign on set reading verisimilitude, and that word explains the film. He insisted the material be played completely straight, and the decision to treat a man in a cape as a serious dramatic subject is the foundation every later superhero film is built on.
He then made The Omen, The Goonies, Scrooged, Lethal Weapon and its sequels, moving between horror, family adventure and buddy action without much apparent effort. The Lethal Weapon films established the template the buddy-cop genre used for twenty years.
He was removed from Superman II partway through production and the released version is a composite. His own cut was assembled and released decades later.
