Superman Redeemed

Every jounrey has a begining...and this was mine. The first fanedit I was ever interested in, and it delivers. This is an essential Digitalman masterpiece, his finest hour in my opinion, taking some of the divisive Superman movies, one counted amongst the worst superhero movies of all time, and turning them into one of the worthier entries in the franchise.

Unique creative choices give us a far better placement for the Paris bomb sequence from Lester's Superman 2 and to greatly influence Clark's mission in Superman IV. Lois and Lana both get equal screen time, a handy bit of original audio narration transitions us over to Jeremy's class very well, a deleted break-out scene involving Lex gives us one brief but glorious last look at Ms. Tessmarcher, the legendary evil supernman and junkyard duel scenes remain intac, slightly repurposed to be the consequence of a Nuclear Man attack, and, and then there's the magic worked with editing out Richard Pryor for a key scene.

t is labelled 'redeemed' because it truly redeems Lester and Furie's films, bringing out the best elements in both, and refining them. This is more than a fanedit, this is an experiance. This should be considered a canonical entry in the Superman movie franchise. It's that good, and without it, I doubt I'd be the editor I am today...and I'll speak on behalf of other editors too. If you want the A-Z essentials in how to do this stuff right, this is it. This. Is. It.

Perhaps my ears are picking up weird stuff again, but when I watched this a year or so ago I could have sworn I picked up hard cuts here and there, watching it again now I may have exaggerated that just a bit, as it now appears fine.

As someone who has always liked Superman III and Superman IV, I had to write about how much I enjoyed this fanedit. The way this edit was able to weld the stories of III and IV together into such a plausible and enjoyable story is absolutely fantastic. Using Paris as a segue between Smallville and the events of SIV even makes both events seem more significant, given that all the silly slapstick is removed. The version I found was a bit jittery visually, and I'd love to find a perfect copy but for now, this version has officially found a place on the shelf beside the other movies.

This is quite simply the best that could be salvaged from some extremely uneven movies. The fact that it all holds together as a narrative is remarkable, but A Digital Man managed to pull it off. This will be what I use from now on whenever I want to show someone the highlights of Reeve's post Donner films.

A tremendous bit of alchemy, this is exactly what fan-editing is all about. Somehow smashing together the best parts of the worst Reeve Superman movies has yielded this excellent new climax to the series (get outta here, Superman Returns!). Others have covered the seamless melding of the Nuclear Man plot with the hallucinatory meltdown of Clark/Superman in the junkyard, but needless to say, it enhances everything all around, and provides a welcome insight into the character through pure action -- which should be the goal of every superhero movie!

And, blasphemous as it may sound, I've always been a Clark/Lana guy, so to have Clark end up with his childhood sweetheart (played to perfection by Annette O'Toole) at the close of this series (after his disastrous brief relationship with Lois in the second film) feels organic, earned, touching and like a full circle to this entire franchise. And the arc that Superman goes through in this movie, both in his personal and global struggles, feels completely fitting and like he has acheived the wisdom that his hologram father unsuccessfully tried to impart in the first iflm.

As an edit that's nearly a decade and a half old, there are some technical glitches to be sure: scene transitions flicker and glitch a bit, there's inconsistency between the quality of scenes from time to time, and the battle on the moon still looks painfully fake, all of which seem like problems that could be alleviated by a fresh pass by ADM or another gifted editor. But regardless of technical quibbles, "Redeemed" now has a permanent place in my collection behind Superman The Movie "Up, Up and Away Edition" and Superman II "The Expanded Richard Donner Cut" as the tight, consistent trilogy that Christopher Reeve's flawless Superman portrayal undoubtedly deserves.

As someone who hasn't watched 3 or 4, I came in with no bias.
I thought that the fact ADigitalMan edited 2 movies together it would be noticeable. It was actually the opposite. The 2 movies worked together seamlessly. I had to search up what parts he took from both movies to understand what he edited. Overall, pretty good edit. I recommend it to anyone who wants to rewatch the Christopher Reeve movies.