Review Detail

Man of Steel is a complicated beast...there are parts of it I absolutely love, but at an overdrawn length, a confounding ending, and way too much decompression at the start, it can be a chore to try and sit through if you're not a first-time viewer. I tried watching it again with my parents and I switched it off half-way through Jor-El's adventure on Krypton. Nobody cares what antics Jor-El gets up to (and If you did, it's probably because you watched the superior animated pilot of the DCAU Superman), just get to Kal's launch as quickly as possible. This is ultimately what happens in this edit.

The visuals are brighter and more appealing, the narrative is more cohesive and still gives you a broad sense of scope while minimising greatly the time taken to "overdo" everything. Scenes that grossed me out or infuriated me were cut or greatly reduced, the mix of other films into the edit is seemless, and the ending shot is one that should have been in the filmmaker's minds the entire time. There can be no other way to end a Superman film.

I'd have preferred it if there was a way of editing around Clark dealing with Zod at the climax, in fact I'm still keen to find an edit that does this and challenge anyone with an ambitious streak to find a way, but here it remains. Ah well.

The score, by which I'm now all too familiar with, stands out supremely, although I did find certain spots here and there where it clumsily fades out or jumps into another piece of the score during the mix. This is not a deal-breaker by any means, it just causes the flow of scenes to suffer an audible abruptness. Could be smoothed over with a few more efforts.

Overall, this edit is a treat. Gives us the best bits of the movie while giving it the spirit and satisfactory sounds of a vintage era in the Superman medium. Hopefully Agent9 turns his attention to Dawn of Justice later (the Elfman soundtrack for Batfleck maybe?)