Man of Steel: A Symbol of Hope

I won't write too much but the changes made here, both big and small, really improve the flow of the film. Some of the more gratuitously adult material has been removed (like taunting the hologram about pain, Mr. Kent saying to leave a bunch of children to die, some of the cursing, etc.) and I'd argue the film is better for it. It's a Superman movie, I don't need too much gritiness.

The color changes are the part that really worked for me. Seeing his suit pop with red and blue like that made it feel way more like a Superman movie, and reducing the eggregious action/destruction to the bare necessities really kept the pace moving. Also removing Lois from a few key moments, ever so slightly, really kept the focus on Superman where it belonged.

Highly recommended. It won't change your opinion about the movie if you hate it, but if like me you thought it was a 7.5, it'll make you think it's an 8.5.

"A good edit is its own reward."

First of all, I'm a huge Man of Steel and Zack Snyder fan in general. I follow the director since his first film and I have watched everything he's ever done ever since and most of those projects multiple times. They are not flawless by any means and certainly not all equal, but I love his style and his vision. Man of Steel is my favorite Superman movie. Henry is awesome, the direction the same, the story is pretty great and the music and new superman theme was simply phenomenal. Be that as it may, the action on the third act was a bit too much, there are a couple of scenes that don't make sense, like Lois asking Clark to tell her the truth while he had revealed himself in the kryptonian ship like a moment ago, and the use of the excellent new theme was very very scarce.

TM2YC addressed the excessive action and the music part, while also making a few more changes, like the way Superman's father dies or cutting out the entire sequence of the nuclear attack on both Superman and Zod.

I watched the first version of the fanedit, which uses the theme in more scenes and I've got to say, with the exception of a couple, I really loved this! This should have been done from the beginning! The only two scenes that I found it was unnecessary was when they were talking about the world engine and the second is when Zod deletes the Jor El AI. Other than that, excellent use of the theme!!

When it comes to the trimming down action stuff, I think that I did not like most of the changes. The part with the nuclear attack, it shows to the audience that even from what seems certain death, because Superman is like a floating mummy in space, he can come back, something that makes more believable and digestible the fact that he returns from "actual" death in Justice League. From my point of view, it was a built up to that, to show people what he can do.

From the very first moment, I loved the whole action sequence in Smallville, so trimming down even a second of that is a minus for me. I understand the reasoning behind that, the fact that most people take issue with the level of destruction that happens during this movie, but for me, it is justified under the "reasoning umbrella" that Superman is still young and founding out what he can and can't do, and while he was doing that, he had to fight three "Supermen" that threatened earth. So, I think we can cut him a little slack. Plus, this was addressed in BvS, with a very angry Batman that wanted to kill him because of that, among other reasons.

Another thing I did not understand why it was cut out, was Superman screaming in pain and sorrow after killing Zod. I mean, Superman does not kill. Snyder wanted to make that abundantly clear, that Superman was 100% forced to do that and then, after the fact, show how much it affected him. This whole sequence was very very carefully planed and executed. So, Superman screaming, along with everything else in this scene, from my point of view at least, is a must include.

Finally, the change with the death of Jonathan Kent. Unfortunately, even though it was done really well, it did not work for me. It makes far more sense for his father to stop him and also, having Jonathan die in that blunt, abrupt way with the car, is not a fitting end.

Other than these issues, the edit was excellent, all the cuts were seamless and if someone hadn't watch this before, he would not know if anything was missing or that something feels off.

If you don't mind the specific missing action stuff and the way Jonathan now dies, and also you wanted more of this awesome new Supe's theme, then this edit is for you and will replace the original, I guarantee you that! For me though, I haven't decided yet, probably I will stick with the original but I'm not sure, I want to let this edit sink in a little more.

Thank you TM2YC for all your hard work and thanks to anyone who read my review!

Marvelous! Stupendous! Super...human effort! Loved the extra music themes, loved the color correction, loved the trims to the story. Beautiful movie, wonderful work. Thank you.

I can say i completely forgot the original cut after this one. Some things can't be fixed only by editing but this is truly shows with aome effort you can make things better. Highly recommended!

So my friend is a Comic book film fan, like everything comic books (i.e. he's spent a lot of time invested in understanding the nuances and easter eggs of all comic book films through youtube shows and podcasts and the like), and has somehow convinced me to rewatch the Snyderverse before four hours of Justice League.

We start with Man of Steel, but instead I've convinced him to watch the fanedit.

So let's talk about the fanedit A Symbol of Hope.

It's essentially the same film, minor edits (~10 minutes in total) in particular to the overlong action sequences to speed them along and show less wanton destruction caused by Supes himself. The two other big changes that are most appreciated are that it recolors most of the movie so that it pops brightly and colorfully and rescores it so that the awesome Han Zimmer Man of Steel hero theme (from the trailer) plays more frequently during key moments. (There are two audio tracks, we went with the Hopeful Mix instead of the Extra Heroic Mix, due to reviews here.). We both universally loved the recoloring and rescoring. With The Hopeful mix we found it the right mix without over-usage complaints that were rallied at the Extra Heroic Mix. This is truly a Superman theme.

Narrative:
The most noticeable cuts regarding plot are three fold, first regarding Papa Kent's answer "Maybe," to the question, "should I have let them die (the kids in the bus)," second the Superman scream after he kills the last of his kind, and finally, the biggest one, the Papa Kent death scene is truncated to make it seem like Clark hesitated in saving him rather than being explicitly told by his father to let him die. All three of these stood as controversial with the death scene standing out as the most controversial for my buddy.

The first one, the "maybe" scene, my friend argued that it takes away from Papa Kent's philosophy about protecting his son from revealing himself, I still think the line makes Papa Kent an asshole and I appreciated it's removal and found that enough of the uncertainty and concern still came out in the scene.

Nothing much to say on the Superman scream after Zod's death really.

I think given my buddy's investment in understanding Zack Snyder's intent he's more attached to the original scenes than I am, particularly the Papa Kent death scene, claiming that it completes Papa Kent's arc and is integral to the one son, two fathers (with two ideals) theming of the film. I just shrug but I see his point. Papa Kent believed in his philosophy so strongly that Clark should hide who he is, that he was willing to sacrifice himself for it. The dog is still a stupid freaking plot device to get there though.

The film as a whole wasn't changed much, it wasn't a world beater then, and this edit still isn't a world beater. As a film it's important to remember that this film wasn't so much a Superman film but an alien invasion film starring Kal-El. As a result Zack Snyder spends most of the film with hefty philosophical questions about what it means to be a a super powerful alien on Earth, what it means for society to find out that they're not alone in the universe, and how people will react to that. These portions are slow, yet meditative in a way and mostly really work. Even though I enjoyed them for what they were, they're not quite as hard hitting as similar toned and paced understated character study of Signs. Nonetheless, years later, I continue to find Zod's global message on the tv quite unsettling and a fantastic piece of suspense, scale, and scope.

Much of the third act is quite tone deaf to the rest of the film and this edit goes a long way to fix this. Both my buddy and really loved the tightening up of the overlong action scene. In the original, the rest of the film gives way to bombastic action and destruction which is thankfully reined in for this edit, in an attempt to give more oomph to Superman as savior, a hero attempting to save the people of his new home. After it devolves into clear good/evil delineations and fist fights, it's really sad that any of the promise of the film as a first contact film is lost. The third act echoes the tragedy of 9/11 and yet it's heroic as Clark and Lois share a kiss among the destruction.
Sure this Superman is conflicted as a hero because he doesn't have all his ideals in place, he makes it clear he doesn't want to fight any of the Kryptonians but he will to save his home. Which makes sense, as Zack Snyder's DCEU is a multi-film saga of the origin of Superman, and how he became to be the Superman we know and idealize. It's littered with stutter steps, but that's what the whole vision is.

I think there's still some enjoyment in this film, rescored and recoloring helps, and some neat trims to action. The plot changes, particularly the Papa Kent death scene changes the theme drastically beyond that all of the edits I see are positive.

I think there's some clear influence from Nolan here, particularly in the theming of superheros in the real world ala the Dark Knight trilogy, and the whole DCEU may have done better if Nolan had retained this influence.

Nonetheless, with Man of Steel, the inherently darker, washed out color palette is all gone and it's better for the brighter colors even if it doesn't fit the more somber tone of the film. I enjoyed my time revisiting Man of Steel in this fanedit.