My favourite scene in my favourite superhero film. I wrote about it recently here, if you're interested. :)

https://fanfare.pub/superman-45-years-on-76bd2c037eea

On the subject of Donner, he was an old school reliable pair of hands who could nonetheless craft first rate pictures. In that respect he is akin to directors from the classic era like Michael Curtiz, ie people who weren't interested in playing auteur but for whom directing was nonetheless a profession at which they excelled.

In Curtiz's case, you'd have to be psychic to spot auteurist links between the style of The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca. In Donner's, style, theme, and subject matter wise, Superman could not be more different to The Omen, Lethal Weapon, The Goonies, Ladyhawke, etc. But for my money he's just as great as those whose body of work is singular and distinctive in the traditional auteur sense (Hitchcock, Lean, Kubrick, Scorsese, Burton, Allen, etc).