Man of Steel: A Symbol of Hope

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(Updated: July 04, 2023)
Overall rating
 
9.2
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10.0
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9.0
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10.0
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9.0
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8.0
I love a lot about what was done in this, but there were a couple of things that I really did not enjoy unfortunately.
The colour grading is fantastic, most of the edits are also fantastic.
everything seems to flow well and it feels like a professional job.
Some of the choices however, do not work for me. The use of the hero theme is laid on fairly thick for my tastes. as a result it loses it's impact.
Then the part where he 'learns to fly'... it feels too easy lacks a lot of the impact it could have.
I would have liked to watch all the way through, but the music made it difficult and I was feeling frustrated and I don't think it's fair on the editor to feel that way.

Aside from all that, I think the way Jonathan Kent was dealt with was awesome. I much prefer the way this was presented.

mostly, this fanedit has such great ideas, it partially inspired me to do m own fanedit of this movie years later.

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(Updated: November 08, 2017)
Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
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10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
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.

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Blu-Ray
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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Firstly, I have to echo others' praise of the color grading TM2YC has done for this edit. It really helps the film to feel less dour, and helped me to notice some things I'd never noticed before (like Superman's black suit while falling into the pile of skulls at the end of the talk between him and Zod). Very well done. One unfortunate side effect is that it helps highlight some dodgy CGI that the muted theatrical grading helped to hide, but it's worth the tradeoff (and that doesn't happen often).

Now, onto the edit itself: it's great.

Don't expect the wheel to be reinvented as far as structure goes, mind you - it's very much the same film. But TM2YC's subtle touch manages to highlight what works well while mitigating some of the fundamental missteps. Superman is more of a hero, there's less frustratingly expository dialogue, and thank God the "he's kinda hot" bit was cut completely.

The fight sequences are something I thought were handled very well, and I suspect account for a large percentage of the time cut from the film. Every time I watch Man of Steel, I get bored about 1/3 of the way through every fight. In "A Symbol of Hope," I was engaged through all of them, even the Smallville fight and Superman vs. Zod. While there's still an excessive amount of death and destruction, it's mostly caused by the villains, with TM2YC doing his best to show Superman save as many people as he can (though he wasn't given much to work with on that front).

My favorite part about this, though, has got to be Pa Kent's death. Every single MoS edit should just swipe that scene wholesale from "A Symbol of Hope" - I mean, with TM2YC's permission, of course. But it's just so perfectly done that I can't imagine a better way to handle the scene. It doesn't feel edited in any way, and it plays up Clark's internal conflict exactly the way the original scene was intended to, but without shooting itself in the foot in the process like the theatrical cut.

The rest of the nips and tucks are well-chosen and very well executed. The expansion of the hero's theme works well except in the "kiss" scene - unlike others have mentioned, I quite liked it during the Krypton sequence, except for a slight technical issue I'll mention in the next paragraph. The rest of the music replacements - when I noticed them, and I'm certain I didn't notice them all - worked seamlessly. The "first flight" sequence is wonderful and exhilarating, as it should be, and again doesn't feel edited even though I know it definitely was. I also especially liked the "quiet" during Jor-El's "in time, they will join you in the sun" speech.

On a technical level, there was exactly one cut that bugged me in the moment, and I know it was an audio transition issue, but I can't for the life of me remember what/where it was, so it clearly didn't have much of an effect on my enjoyment of the edit. And like I said, it was only one cut - everything else was, as usual, perfect. As for the issue mentioned earlier during the Krypton sequence, it was during Jor-El's flight after stealing the Codex: when he notices his bird-lizard's wound, he speaks reassuringly to it - the music replacement/sound FX rebuilding here has mixed Jor-El's lines too low so they're nearly inaudible. I should note that I'm watching this through a 2.1 soundbar, so this may be less of an issue in a 5.1 setup with a discrete center channel.

I still wish the oil rig scene was gone, but other than that, it's extremely close to perfect. This is definitely replacing the official version in my DCEU canon.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Now this was an edit I truly enjoyed. Some of the minor changes really help improve the narrative, even if relatively minor. These include Clark smashing the truck and satellite - both behaviors that really should be out of character for Superman lore and just diminish his character. The trimming of various fight scenes also helped smooth out some of the pacing issues this movie had because they would get needleslly dragged out.

I really enjoyed the additional soundtrack inserted throughout the movie to give certain critical moments extra emotional impact. This was a nice touch by the editor. The color correction also helped make things pop out in a more positive manner. You would also be hard-pressed to notice any of the cuts made. All new audio inserted was smooth and seamless.

Some of the minor narrative differences I had were the removal of Jonathan indicating to Clark he should not be saved and the removal of his scream after killing Zod. I felt those few seconds were critical into allowing the audience to understand Clark's raw emotions.

I want to thank the editor for sharing this nicely done edit with me. This will be the version that I intend to rewatch in the future.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
First off may I concur with a fellow reviewer that the colour correction is reason alone to watch this fan edit. MOS has never looked better and is much more even in its presentation.

Highlights for me include the tornado scene, re-scored first flight and the title cards were a neat addition. Small edits like in the interrogation scene bring some much needed fun and shows the overall care taken with this fan edit.

One scene I would have trimmed is Lois making out with Superman amongst the carnage. Whilst less troubling given the editing plays more as though the civilians got out, the scene still bothers me because of the dialogue that follows. 'They say it's all downhill after the first kiss.......I'm pretty sure that only counts if your kissing a human'. Just doesn't seem like a Superman thing to say.

The score: The MOS theme remains one of the few nuggets of optimism in a otherwise downbeat film and is the chief reason the theatrical trailer worked and got fans excited. Therefore I welcomed greater use of it in this edit. However there were scenes where I felt it didn't entirely work and I think this has to do with its slow build up. I also wouldn't have used it for Jor-El leaping from the archive tower as I think it's best we first hear it with Superman.

However overall a really solid fan edit that gets the most out of the original source material. Highly worth checking out!
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