Man Of Steel: Recut

When Man of Steel first came out in 2013, I remember thinking that this is the Superman movie that humanity deserved. Having seen Superman in almost every live-action incarnation so far, except for the live-action TV series Lois and Clark and anything before 1978, I always found the representation lacking (particularly in Smallville, so much angst). Here we have a Godlike character only doing things that humans do, with just a sprinkling of superhuman achievements. There have been plenty of animated adaptations of Superman that have showed the Superman that's willing to go above and beyond in order to fight for the greater good and have displayed his godlike attributes when necessary. In fact, the DC animated universe is overall much stronger than most of the live-action projects that DC has created thus far. Regardless Man of Steel finally gives us Superman the God rather than Superman the man.

However this first attempt in true Godlike action was not flawless. This is where Avid4D has taken up Zack Snyder's slack. I would say that this edit is not only masterful, but is Avid4D's masterpiece (though I have not yet seen his edit of Cloud Atlas). The transitions between scenes, particularly the transitions between Jor El's explanation of krypton and then the actual scenes on krypton was particularly inspired. Rather than starting the movie on krypton and then referring back to it later, we get to see the weight behind Jor El's words with the actual story as it happened. I also really liked how it was rooted in smallville and made Superman seem less like an alien than he did in the original cut. Overall the reordering works extremely well and strengthens the narrative and rather than getting the sense that Superman was an alien with little to no remorse we instead feel with him at the end of the movie when he must snap's Zod's neck to prevent him from eradicating humanity.

In particular the structure of this edit made me once again realize how truly epic Man of Steel was, and how different it was to most other live-action Superman incarnations before it. This edit seeks to both humanize a Godlike alien and the rearranging of structure for better flow made Henry Cavill's performance more weighty (though it was still a little stiff at times). Overall the end fight scene seems trimming was well served and turned what was otherwise an almost too long of a fight scene into something a little more reasonable at just about 11 minutes long. I remember when watching the original cut thinking during the entire last fight scene that all Superman would have to do in order to defeat Zod would be to clap both his hands over Zod's head so that it would explode. It was something I saw on a Hulk comic once and having to watch Superman and Zod beat each other across miles of a completely destroyed city seems somewhat superfluous if all it took was a simple handclap motion. Of course for the narrative to work then it would have to dawn on Superman earlier that Zod could not be saved from destroying everything. This edit saves a bit of the unnecessary destruction and the implied amount of lives decimated by focusing the action on just Superman and Zod and makes Superman seem like a bit less of an asshole for further destroying an already almost completely destroyed Metropolis.

Once again Zack Snyder has made a great movie that suffers from pretty shitty editing, and Avid4D stepped up and made a truly remarkable edit to an already fairly good film. I watched all of Avid4D's Superman movies in one giant Superman movie marathon in one day and what a day it was! I would highly recommend anyone trying to watch good live action Superman movies to watch Avid4D's take. I cannot praise enough how fantastic it's been to have a nice streamlined narrative for Superman with a focus on the things the viewer cares about and less about what hollywood can shove down our throats. Bravo, sir! I can't wait to watch your Cloud Atlas edit and eagerly anticipate more of your work.

This was a good edit. The story flowed better overall. The viewer has an opportunity to connect with main character at the start of the film rather than having to wade through 30 minutes of back story.

The edits where logical except for the birth sequence in the opening credits. Not sure anything could be done about that in the type of edit you where going for.

All in all very enjoyable at least more enjoyable then the Theatrical version.

I really enjoyed this edit. The narrative makes more sense and we arrive at things as Clark does. The story feels more natural and it really adds some mystery to the film. I do agree that the opening credits were jarring, but nothing that ruins the film by any means. Perhaps if the flashbacks were more in time to the soundtrack beats?? Anyway, the video/audio had no problems that I could notice and it played fine for me. Well done Avid!

the last time i saw MoS was in the theater. reading this was such a dramatic rearrangement had me excited to revisit this movie that i thought was actually really boring and detached.
the restructure is brilliant. we are more involved with Clark's growing up with the Kents and his journey to become better than what he was destined to be.
there are a couple less-then-perfect transitions but not serious. video/audio quality is also great.
obviously, i enjoy this version over the studio release, i don't need to say anything else.
i totally back MoS:Recut up for anyone else to see.

I saw Man of Steel in the theater and while I enjoyed it, there were a few issues that lessened my enjoyment of the film.

The first issue is the opening sequence on Krypton. While interesting, I felt it took too long to get to the main character: The Man of Steel. I saw the movie with my mom and about 5 minutes into the film she turns to me and asks "Is this the right movie?" My second problem was the narrative. It tries to deal with too many ideas and it felt somewhat disconnected. The third flaw for me is the action, it goes on for too long for my tastes. I like a good action film, but world busting action sequence are common in modern films and can only hold my attention for so long. A movie needs to get back to character and story development to keep my interest.

So on to Avid's FanEdit of Man of Steel. Technically the edit is great, I only noticed a few abrupt transitions, but otherwise the audio and video is great. I watched the MP4 and the quality was superb on our large screen TV.

The Narrative is definitely improved. Avid does a great job fixing two of my issues with the film with one major edit: Moving the opening sequence on Krypton to the later half of the film. The film begins with Clark Kent immediately and follows his childhood to adult story. This also helps makes the film's story seem less disjointed. Clarke's initial story has nothing to do with Krypton and Civil War. It is mostly about his family and using his powers responsibly.

Krypton's story is not told until Clark discovers his heritage. This is great since it sets up the second half of the film. That being said, the sequence still feels too long and I would have liked a few more cuts. At one point Zod explains his escape from the phantom zone. If not sure if this would be possible, but it might be interesting to splice in the majority of Zod's rebellion story here instead.

My last concern was the long-winded action sequences. Avid4 made a few cuts, but they still went on for too long in my opinion. This time I watched it with my dad and he also thought they dragged on too long. Some may disagree, but I would have liked to see a few more cuts. I think it might be possible to remove the first half of the world engine sequence. It seems superfluous as it tries to build tension with the trapped Daily Planet girl.

Overall the edit is great and I recommend it. However, the film is still over 2 hours and 10 minutes. I think there is room for more edits. I was still bored with the action sequences by the end of the film. I would have liked to see the action and Krypton sequences cut down a bit further.