Man of Steel: A Symbol of Hope

TM2YC once again establishes his firm place among the great faneditors. The color correction alone makes this version of the film an improvement over the original. What was a hampered by Snyder's seeming obsession with washed out and muted colors has been replaced with vibrance and life.

The number one edit that made me rewind and watch again was how TM2YC reworked Johnathan Kent's death. The way he edits this scene brought an instant emotional response that I did not get from the theatrical version. Masterfully edited here.

I'll admit that I didn't care for the extra Hero themes throughout the film, but the their integration was wonderfully executed. I enjoyed this edit and will be rewatching it in the future.

I highly recommend TM2YC's work. This again is a textbook example of how to do things right. The attention to detail, collaborative approach, and patience throughout the editing process has resulted in another phenomenal edit from the man whose cinema we all want to be taken to.

Right off the bat, this isn't my exposure to a "Man of Steel" fan edit, in fact there were three different edits before hand with very different goals and results. Thankfully though, I myself haven't come across a single bad one, and TM2YC's experience is no different. Similar to most takes on the film, color grading is a lot more pleasing thanks to saturation/brightness adjustments, the pacing is a lot quicker via carefully timed cuts to plotting and action, and I can easily call this a superman film that rings true to the character. Only this time, a huge emphasis is put on "the character of Superman", with cuts to a lot of swearing, more restraint on the cgi infested battle sequences, a much less angsty atmosphere due to simple changes to the soundtrack and more subtle edits, heck even the addition of nicely placed title cards in the opening gives a proper feel to the whole thing. Are there still issues that keep it from reaching "Wonder Woman" level of quality? Sure but to be honest most of them come right down to the script being to focused on exposition/self important speeches and the hand held cinematography (would've been nice to have a tripod there, Zach). All in all, the edit is very well executed top to bottom, and frankly I would love to see TM2YC take on Batman V Superman in the future. Grab an American flag and put on your red capes, here comes Superman to save the day.

I'm one of the five people on the planet that really like Snyder's DCEU movies, so any fanedits/fixes for me have to focus on the details. It's also unrealistic to expect that every aspect of an edit is going to work for you, unless you do the edit yourself.

"Man of Steel" has always been a movie I've defended more than it deserves. I'm a Superman fan and I have a special relationship with the character, but it's impossible for me to ignore this film's terrible screenplay or its overlong, loud action sequences. Any fanedit would find it hard to fix the former (for obvious reasons), but it can do a lot with the latter.

"A Symbol of Hope" is not a very invasive edit and, for my purposes, this is a good thing. With a few seemingly minor changes, it makes a world of difference. "Man of Steel" 's problem for audiences was that it wasn't "fun"; one can interpret this in a variety of ways, but knowing the target audience for this type of film, the answer comes down to it not being a superhero movie. "Man of Steel" is an alien invasion movie, about an orphan alien living among us, until his biological family comes to claim him for their own. The set up is clever (and would've been amazing with a better writer), but this means the action is framed through the eyes of the humans, the audience; that's why there is so much unnecessary destruction. It's a disaster movie, but there's Superman in it.

This edit manages to fix this by employing two basic tricks: for one thing, it adds the "heroic" theme in key scenes. It's so minor you'd think it doesn't matter, but it actually does a lot to change this to a legit superhero movie.

The other, far more important trick, is the editing down of action sequences. TM2YC's idea to trim down the action to only the sequences that involve Superman actively trying to save people was brilliant in its simplicity. Not only does this make the film less tedious and less loud, not only does it change the tone of the movie without ever needing to actively change the tone of the movie, but most importantly it creates a bond between the audience and Superman, the hero. It's that lack of a connection, this alienation, in the theatrical cut that led so many to blame Superman for the destruction of Metropolis. By keeping the action focused on Superman, no matter how loud and violent it gets, you invest in the character and his struggle to stop it all. It doesn't matter if he often fails, what matters is that all you see is him trying.

There are other small cuts and fixes here and there, some minor moments I'd have preferred to keep in (why does everybody cut out the truck, or Superman crashing in his first flight attempt?), but this isn't really criticism. As I said, no fanedit will be perfect for you; where it counts, in its stated purpose, "A Symbol of Hope" succeeds and then some. I *enjoy* watching this edit. It has pretty much replaced the theatrical cut for me, whenever I feel like watching Man of Steel. This is near damned perfect, assuming you don't outright hate the movie as it is. If you already like Man of Steel, but you wish it was a little less exhausting and a little more Superman-y, I highly recommend this one.

PS: I would recommend not using the Extra Heroic Mix. It does wear the theme out a bit and I'm not entirely comfortable with the music being used for Jor-El. I understand the father-son connection, but a lot of this film is Clark not being a product of Krypton. I think it loses of a bit its punch. The regular Heroic Mix is plenty effective as is.

Visual Quality + Editing are phenomenal. The Y+G gain (an annoying staple of Snyder films) has been lowered, saturation boosted, and oh my the difference in the interrogation room is HUGE.

Audio Quality is fantastic and the editing barely stood out. There is a slight blip at (53:56) where Clark says "I'll go get him" and repeats the latter half of his sentence, and occasionally the re-scoring was slightly abrupt. Otherwise great.

The Narrative is not hugely different from the original, but slight changes certainely make it easier to stomach. Fight scenes are reduced, although damage is still extensive. Characters are less monologuey, although still a bit too earnest. All things considered, there is very little an editor can do, without completely rewriting the film that could perfect the narrative, and taking that into account TM2YC has made a valliant effort.

I ENJOYED (TM2YCs) Man of Steel. I smiled (at least 3 times). I shed a tear for Pa Kent and Clark when he died, and Lois didnt bother me nearly as much, and lets not forget that glorious "Flight" sequence. I can say none of this about the original and that should speak to the quality of this edit (It made me FEEL more than the OG). The few things I wasnt totally fond of-- I recognize that rescoring is tricky-- The insertion of the "Heros theme" became slightly tedious and after hearing it a few times I found myself annoyed by it. And personally I would have liked more extensive changes (as that was clearly not the intention of this edit, it does not affect my rating).

Wonderful work, and I'd like to thank you again, you have given me hope to revisit my abandoned MoS edit, and in the end isn't the point of Superman, to give people hope? ;)

Man of Steel has never looked so beautiful. If there's one comment I can make in this review that means more than anything else, it would be that one. TM2YC took a movie that was so poorly graded and dull looking and turned it into a vibrant and well rounded visual beauty. Everything in this movie from the shots to the costume looked absolutely wonderful only for an ugly coat of paint to ruin that, and TM2YC has basically repainted this new film into one of the prettiest superhero movies of the modern era. The new look alone makes this movie a lot less boring to watch.

As for the cut itself, it is definitely an improvement over the original. While some cuts of Man of Steel opt to cut 20+ minutes out of the film to improve the pacing and reduce the bloat, this cut tries more to take a look at the film as it is and fine tune the flaws. With only 9 minutes cut, this isn't a new vision of Man of Steel's story. Rather, it is very much the version of this story that we wanted to see put on the screen in theaters. Along with the color grading, several small touches like cutting out the overabundance of unnecessary language, removing Lois's scream of terror and pain, changing the opening shot, and removing Clark's yell at the end help to make this version of the movie a lot less mean spirited than the one we saw in theaters in 2013.

Man of Steel has always been a movie that either bored or angered me, but this cut has finally showed me a fine tuned version of Snyder's vision that I can appreciate and enjoy. It is amazing that removing several bad moments and regrading the film can help you to not only enjoy those elements being gone, but also find more joy out of the characters and story that have been there since the beginning. Much like TM2YC's Ghostbusters fanedit, this is a cut that can very easily replace the theatrical version and not just feel like a good fanedit, but a professional and superior edition of the movie. My only small complaint is that some of the score gets reused a little too much in this version, but that also can help to create a bit more of a consistency of theme across the film. This feels like a perfect start to the DCEU, closer in tone to the likes of Wonder Woman and (hopefully) Justice League.

After watching and thoroughly enjoying this cut, I'm curious to see what TM2YC would be able to pull out of the even messier sequel, BvS. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, though, as I know this edit was already a tremendous undertaking and BvS would require even more hard work to pull out such a masterfully fine tuned and remastered version of the film. The highest praise I can give this edit is that it is now my definitive go to edit of MoS, and I hope to some day find a BvS edit that can follow it well and fit into a better DCEU.