Man of Steel: A Symbol of Hope

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.

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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I had a lot of issues with the original - it felt slow and ponderous to me and the visually was way too dark. This is a much tighter edit, and the cuts that have been made to 'spiteful' Supes make a positive difference. Great use of the bombastic soundtrack! The reviews below really say everything that I feel - you've really increased my enjoyment of Man of Steel!

First let me say what others have said, the colour regrading is fantastic, the palette of the original film was one of the main problems, but here it is fixed, the reds and blues are bright.

A lot of the other problems I had with Man of Steel have also been fixed. Jor-El being one of them. Generally speaking I think the pacing for this film is much tighter. I really like the handling of the Jonathan Scene in particular thought I would probably remove "I let my father die"

This will be my go-to version going forward.
Thank you.