Man Of Steel: Remastered

This was a fun edit. :)

Agent 9 has recut Man of Steel using the original Donner's Superman The Movie as a template, and replacing the Hans Zimmer soundtrack with the classic John Williams score.

And for the most part he is very successful.

The cut work is very good, the biggest cuts being the Krypton prologue and young Clark's flashbacks, along with a restructuring of Clark's finding of the Fortress and meeting of Lois. I enjoyed all these changes. It moves the story along faster, Clarks has a more mysterious quality, we learn about him through Lois's point of view and any information lost during the Krypton sequence we learn during Jor-el's education of Clark. In fact, I actually wish more had been cut. In particular, I think the entire Smallville battle could have been cut once Zod departed without significant impact on the narrative and I do wish the Metropolis destruction could have been trimmed even more than Agent 9 had, but I applaud all the clever cuts he did make.

But the real star of this edit is the soundtrack replacement. Agent 9 did exceptional work in this department! BRAVO!!! For the most part, the audio work is seamless and adds a very uplifting, nostalgia quality to the film.

However, there were times where I felt the Superman theme was used too often. There were points where it felt repetitive or too soon or an alternate, more subdued track or cue would have been more appropriate. It was almost too much of a good thing.... it sort of highlighted how these are films of very different era's and how the interpretation of the hero has changed, and the soundtrack did not always quite fit the way one would hope it would.

But overall, this was a very positive alternate viewing experience and I highly recommend it.

THUMBS UP!

Agent 9's fan edit of Man of Steel represents an enormous feet and excels as an alternate viewing experience of Zack Snyder's film.

Some reviewers have mentioned Clark comes together as Superman too quickly. Whilst I understand where they are coming from it personally didn't bother me and I found how the story took shape through Lois inspired.

Once we have that awesome transition from baby Kal-EL's ship passing over the barn to the helicopters in the Arctic I knew I was watching a different movie and welcomed it.

There were moments in the editing which didn't quite work for me and for some reason I found the Krypton scenes a little out of step with the pacing and structuring of the remainder of the fan edit.

I'd like to see the vulgarities like 'measuring dicks' and 'dick-splash' removed which if anything felt more out of place in this version of the film.

The restored colour pallet works in tandem with the replaced score in brightening up the movie. Some scenes looked a little washed out and lacking in contrast however overall the film was much more pleasing to look at.

Now the score......

Let me start by saying that whilst Zimmer's score is mostly noise when compared to what may arguably be Williams finest, I did however enjoy Zimmer's Superman theme. For a film supposedly about hope it contained just that little nugget of optimism. Problem was it only played during the end credits.

Replacing an entire score and orchestrating it in a way that sounds like it was always there is a herculean task and for most of the part Agent 9 has done an extraordinary job.

I must confess for the first fifteen minutes I felt the music was out of touch with this material with Williams's compositions only serving to remind me of the film I'd rather be watching. However as the edit evolved I found myself more and more charmed by it.

In particular I think the action scenes benefited and felt more comic book, uplifting and exciting rather than loud and dreary. It also helped with the pacing and energy of the battle scenes which in honesty left me bored and drained in the theatrical version.

Where I think the music needs more work is with the subtleties. Of greatest offence and an example which others have mentioned is after Superman kills Zod and the love theme from Superman Returns kicks in. However as part of the same scene the cue chosen up until this point is spot on. Likewise when young Clark rescues the school bus, here John Ottman's Superman Returns cue plays all over the scene and could've benefited from being more underscored. It's perhaps a classic case of less is more and some times the score simply felt too prominent.

The wrap-up and ending work tremendously well. With the scene of Superman lecturing the General much more palatable. Plus there's a lovely touch of emulating the Superman fly over scene from the original films.

I truly hope Agent 9 revisits his edit at some point in the future. It's not far off and as it stands is still an awesome experience. Highly Recommended !!!!!!

Wow. I'll start off with that word.

I hated this movie in the theaters. Overlong, Henry C really needed help to emote, etc.

This edit? Boom, I had tears at the end.

Way to pull something out of this movie.

The John Williams score choice was brilliant. Maybe that's what got me so emotional, but it hit me right in the chest.

I am recommended this highly.

Impressive work all around. The color grading and rescoring were very successful to me in lightening the tone of the film and bringing back some old feels. It was overall very well executed. I'll start with visuals and visual editing. The color work was very impressive. I think the interior when he is surrendering is a touch blue but that's a minor niggle. All the exterior shots looks significantly better and the suit looked wonderful. I like the cuts, I don't feel like we lost anything. The flashback use was great and sets up the end well. I thought the placement of the flashback when he is surrounded against the fence could have been elsewhere, though. Where it was it sort of slowed the momentum going on and we went from flashback to pseudodream. If it had been placed before he surrenders I think it would have had a nice thematic echo with him eating his pride for the good of humans. The colors were really good. All of the cuts to the finale made the focus go to the characters with Zod disregarding human life. Definitely much better than thinking about random people probably dying during a climax. The opening credits were awesome, I really think they captured the tone of the edit. For the audio, this was the centerpiece of the edit to me. For a minute, I felt a little disconnect with the very modern look of the film and the music but it quickly hooked me. I really enjoyed it throughout and the music was edited to the screen action superbly. Some musical highlights: The music swells on "beyond your reach!", when Zod is taking off for Phantom Zone, when Zod first comes to Earth and Clark is looking up at the sky, when Lois gives the 'I told you so' look while Perry gives the 'you were right' look when Zod speaks to the world, the way it matched up with the tanks loading before Superman surrenders (great time for flashback IMO), the soaring music as Clark takes Lois's hand, "I don't care what you tell him" from the Colonel, over the sweeping shot as Zod turns to first speak to Superman, Superman rejecting Zod's plan, the timing of the main theme with his takeoff to return to Earth, when Superman attacks Zod from the side, the way the music comes down as she says "you're weak, son of El," great drums when Superman stares down military troops, then the quick hit of the theme when the Colonel says they're not enemies, the somber come down after the neck break. It only really didn't work for me when it sounded too upbeat in the immediate run-up to the neck break and the main theme was maybe used once or twice too often.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, great work!

The video editing is top notch and the audio creation Agent 9 undertook is inspiring. I was skeptical of this edit as I absolutely LOVED Hans Zimmer's score, but I found myself smiling and having fun when Superman knelt down for his initial flight and John William's familiar theme cued.

The video looks great for a 5 gb mp4 file. The color correction is spectacular. Any chance of getting a color corrected Man of Steel original?

The audio was a little jarring at first. The center track sounded rough and lifeless, but was tolerable. I'm impressed with the isolation that you were able to achieve as this is a music driven story. I found that the removal of Hans Zimmer's score actually made some of the ridiculous cgi fight scenes more tolerable. Perhaps because it was sooo much better than the video linked to the 80's music source? Who knows? I only noticed one time when Zimmers' score could be heard when Superman began to rise up in the world engine's gravity well. Other than that it was great.

The narrative felt rushed in some places, but this is a supplemental edit, and movie for that fact. We know how he gets there, we know where he grew up, it's ok to fast forward to him becoming Superman. I liked Lois Lane more in this edit also because of the change of narrative.

I thoroughly enjoyed this edit of Man of Steel. It has brought a breath of fresh air to a movie that I had hoped was better, but still enjoyed. Great job Agent 9! Perhaps a similar treatment for the dark knight series using the 60's tv show camp? :)