Superman Epic

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Faneditor Name:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1978, 1980/2006
Original Running Time:
151, 116
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
248
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
When you watch this I want you to feel like WBD released a brand new 4 hour Blu ray of Superman without any new fancy VFX or anything. It is just a straight up re-edit utilizing all HD footage possible to drastically improve the movie. NO major changes, I don't want you to notice that I edited anything. I'm just trying to make the best film possible using all the available high quality footage. I almost want to call it THE SIMPLE MAN'S CUT.
Intention:
When the Donner cut of Superman II came out back in 2006 they made a big mistake because they tried to deliver a Superman II with as much Donner footage as possible rather than utilizing ALL THE FOOTAGE THEY HAD to give us the best Superman II possible. That being said, the Donner cut showed that Superman II is not supposed to be a sequel really but rather a 2 hour conclusion to Superman The Movie. That was a game changer for me and how I saw this entire production. As much as I love all the fan edits of Superman II, I honestly think the viewer REALLY misses out when they chose to watch these as two separate films because it's not two separate films, it's one film cut in half. Now I just put it back together and I made the necessary changes they should have made back when they released the Donner cut of Superman II. it's supposed to be one giant epic story. That's what they filmed, that's how it should be enjoyed.
Special Thanks:
I want to thank my wife first and foremost for dealing with 729 billion questions about this scene or that scene over the last couple years. THANK YOU. I want to thank every single editor of this franchise as they've all inspired me one way or another with their various takes on the movies. Thanks to all the guys here on the site for keeping things running. Thanks to Wraith for always being happy to talk about any and all things SUPERMAN. Additional editing by Booshman and Malachi Parker (Flag Ending from Boosh and the Lois Lane/fire scene by Malachi). Special thanks to those guys for their blessing.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
I'm hopeful any viewer would barely notice anything I did. This is not an extended cut. A lot of thought was put into pacing and keeping the story moving while still respecting the general overall vision and style of Richard Donner. I'm not looking to reinvent the film or anything. My target audience is the people that DO NOT like too many changes in their fan edits. This SUPERMAN EPIC is not so much MY TAKE ON SUPERMAN as it is my take on the best way to COMPLETE this (Donner/Reeve) INTERPRETATION OF SUPERMAN with the footage available. I'm trying to make it the best it can be without forcing on my preferences of this or that.
Cuts and Additions:
Richard Donner's directors cuts of S1 & S2 are the base films.
This brings consistency to both the cinematography and the John Williams Score.
Superman The Movie is a hybrid of the Theatrical, directors cut and extended cut.
Only about 5 minutes added to Superman 78 from the 3 hour extended cut. 99% of it is before we hit Metropolis.
ZERO DELETED scenes from either version of Superman II (again for visual consistency).
Obviously scenes from Richard Lester's Superman II are included where appropriate.
"General would you care to step outside" is restored
Superman reverses the earth ONE TIME not twice.
Ursa's iconic arm wrestling scene is restored
The overall tone is a continuation of the changes made in the Donner cut of SII. I tried to keep everything more serious where possible.
More Lois Lane
More Superman
More Ursa
More Jor El
100% of the footage is from an officially released versions of Superman The Movie or Superman II. NOTHING from Superman III, IV or Returns
No intermission, I see no need. We all have a pause button.
90% of the film is Richard Donner footage. 10% is Richard Lester footage.

User reviews

7 reviews
 
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Overall rating
 
9.7
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.7(7)
Audio Editing
 
9.9(7)
Visual Editing
 
9.7(7)
Narrative
 
9.4(7)
Enjoyment
 
9.9(7)
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I have to say first of all this edit is superb. I would highly recommend it to every Superman fan. The pace is wonderful and the visuals are lovely. My nephew is a comic book fanatic and absolutely loved this. He told me he enjoyed it so much that he'd rather throw out his Superman blu ray and just watch this. Very well done.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
T
Top 500 Reviewer 13 reviews
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Overall rating
 
10.0
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10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
hi i saw your edit and thought it was great ,the edit was coherent ,quality was great and love how you used the best of both versions ,i love how you used care to step outside,and toned down some od the silly scenes and lois got to remember everything ,youre a great editor!it was a great edit ,really cool and how superman should have been released!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 1 0
Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I’ve watched several Superman 1 + 2 edits now and this is one of the strongest - I had no issues with the audio/visual quality and I think the editing makes for a cohesive whole. I’ve docked points for narrative and subsequently enjoyment due to the end scenes with Lois; the fan editor has explained well their reasoning for the scene, but it just doesn’t work for me. I’d have to have the magic kiss or back-in-time flight as an explanation :)
Apart from that I think it’s well worth watching, and I’m glad I was given the chance to do so.

(Watched on a virtual reality cinema screen via Skybox on Quest 3, stereo sound only)

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Owner's reply March 17, 2024

Thank you for taking the time to leave a nice review. Your criticism is both fair and expected. So far about half of the feedback I've gotten was people embracing this ending (more than I expected) and the other half was people strongly disliking it (which I anticipated). I wasn't originally going to say anything but at this point the cat is out of the bag so to anyone interested in my SUPERMAN EPIC the only big controversial decision I made that may be a deal breaker for some potential viewers is my choice to use the final Daily Planet scene from Donner's Superman II. The main issue being Lois' line of "I FEEL LIKE I'M SITTING ON THE BIGGEST STORY OF MY CAREER, AND I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT IT IS.." I may even make a whole video explaining why I made this decision but here I'll just run over a few quick points.

1. Technically in my cut I made sure to prove that Lois does in fact remember because she ends the scene typing "Superman saves humanity from eternal damnation" rather than "Superman takes the day off." So right there we have confirmation that Lois did not "forget" any events. 2. Now the issue w/ the scene is the use of the word "Forget." That's really the only problem (and they blow right past it anyway). I look at this scene now, the way I repurposed it, as a continuation of the banter between the two of them at the beginning of the Donner Cut only now Clark can play along, which he does. it's a glimpse into how their relationship would have been going forward which I really truly love. We have a stronger Lois that got all her crying out of her system the night before (in previous scene) that shows up to work where we get "the same old clark and same old Lois" (as promised in the previous scene). So Lois is rejuvenated but she has a problem, she is in fact going to be forced to sit on the greatest story of her career. She can't write about the fact that she knows Superman's true identity. She can't write about the fact that she knows Superman gave up his powers etc. So she is in fact sitting on the biggest story of her career and may in fact have to bend the truth to write about what happened. There's no debating that. Additionally neither Clark nor Lois should be talking openly about their situation (nor should they be kissing really) at the Daily Planet. So what we end up with is the first scene/interaction with the two of them both in on Clark's little super-secret. 3 Using this scene also brings consistency to the finale/whole film. 4. The scene features better writing, a better set, better cinematography AND SIGNIFICANTLY better performances from Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve (I don't even think it's close. Margot was 10x better under Donner's directing). 5 For me, to see Chris Reeve end this movie joking about how Superman "saved the city or saved the world or saved the universe as a little inside joke w/Lois was extremely entertaining and may even be my favorite scene in the whole Epic. I love it. I also love that it ends with Lois saying "You know you're really SUPER" which to me actually works better the way I have it, as an inside joke between the two of them, then the way it was originally written, as an inside joke for the audience. 6. Finally I think it's redundant to have Lois crying at the Daily planet after the two absolutely EXCELLENT previous break up scenes (Fortress and Lois' apartment). There's much more to say but this is already very long. So that's a little glimpse into why I made the decision I did, why I feel it's the right scene to use for this version and how I think it actually works better than the alternatives. Additionally I will be looking into a slight update with tweaked dialogue from A.I. for a future RE-RELEASE. In the meantime for anyone interested in this edit that has now been turned off by this ending decision I made, there will be two additional versions of my this edit released later this year (Superman Epic as ORIGINALLY INTENDED and Superman Epic Alternate Cut which is more for the Lester fans). Both upcoming versions have different endings that I decided on years ago as my plan all along was to give viewers options by releasing THREE different versions rather than forcing everything into a hybrid cut. Thanks for reading.

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Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I really loved this superman edit !! Wow! Everything was just great!! The editing pace were just fantastic!! I highly recommend this edit to anyone out there who is a superman movies fan!!!!!!!!! Great work!!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 1 0
(Updated: March 07, 2024)
Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
As a die-hard Reeve Supes fan, I must say that this was a solid edit by PanteraSteel.

Nothing too drastic changed nor any major scenes removed. This is simply two great films blended together back-to-back, with a few extra scenes that weren't present in the Donner Cut of II. And the transition between I and II was pretty darn seamless that I actually couldn't tell at first.

If I had one criticism it would be that the overall ending was a tad confusing. I totally get not wanting to include the magic amnesia kiss or Supes reversing time (as it already happened halfway through the edit, and even removing that scene wouldn't have helped), but it didn't really make much sense to me that Lois would act like she forgot about Clark's identity, and Clark being "jealous" of Superman. Maybe it was an act, and she was keeping her promise from the scene before. I'm not sure, it just didn't seem clear to me.

But aside from that, this version pretty much demonstrates what the original plan for the story would have been if Donner wasn't fired in the first place. It may not be accurate, but it's pretty close. Great to watch if you're feeling nostalgic.

User Review

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
D
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