Superman Redeemed

You'll believe a man can fly! This edit earns a place in the line-up of Superman movies, replacing much of III and all of IV.

Comparing ADigitalMan's Redeemed to Dangermouse (for III), Batson's Quest for Cash (for IV) and the originals, this edit offers the most enjoyment and least cringing. Spoiler alert:
- Linking Evil Superman to Nuclear Man is brilliant. It allows the stories to be merged and the transition is excellent.
- Do I miss Richard Pryor? Yes, but his story was separate from Superman's until the final battle. Leaving in any Pryor would have required leaving in that Evil Robot battle, including Vaughn as not-actually-smart and unconvincing villain.

The DVD quality is acceptable. A blu-ray remake of this would be quite awesome.

You will believe a sequel can not suck! (plot spoilers ahead)

The original Superman III was a SERIOUS misfire, and Superman IV was execrable. Now can you fix them?

By removing the lame subplots and sticking with the comic-book action! On its own merits, this movie would be rated a 6-7, but compared to the originals this is an amazing accomplishment! Starting with the S3 Smallville plot, we have an amazing restored scene of Otis & Ms. Tessmacher springing Luthor from prison. His S4 plot for creating Nuclear Man unfolds slowly, and is very well paced. Adigitalman pulls off an audacious coup when he includes the Paris H-bomb scene (removed from his excellent S2 edit) as the trigger for Superman's "Quest for Peace".

But ADM's eye for story connections hits its zenith when he makes Nuclear Man's poison wound (S4) the cause of Superman's heel turn (S3). This is inspired storytelling, and it makes these two movies a single story that serves as the fitting finale that Christopher Reeve deserved.

ADM has saved these two movies. Masterful editing fuses a great Smallville plot with a pretty interesting nuclear arms story. Having the separation caused by the bad guy was brilliant. I love how we see so clearly that Lois loves Superman but Lana loves Clark Kent. The ending with the implication that Clark and Lana are engaged is great and made me very happy. The best possible Superman trilogy is the original theatrical, ADM's edit of 2, and this movie. When I feel the urge to watch Superman, ADM is who I go to.

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.

I got this edit awhile back to watch after Son of Jor-El. I figured cutting the 4 films into 2 might be a good 1-2 punch of nostalgia. Unfortunately, my nostalgia was the strongest element of these films.

Look, Christopher Reeve was phenomenal. Donner had a good take on Superman as well. With movie sensibilities evolving since the 80s, and with the MCU having developed especially, these old superhero films just don't hold up well. The writing, the plot, the tone, a lot of the music cues, the performances... there are so many elements that go into the cheesy, overly-performative style of an 80s goofy-yet-lovable screwball adventure. I remember it really working for the time, especially in the first film, but it just seems ridiculous now.

This is no fault of the fan-edit. The video looks about as good as most from the 80s, and the audio is pretty good for the most part, with edits mostly smooth. In terms of the footage that was selected for this film, it's probably most of the best parts of the two movies. I actually did really miss some elements of Superman III, (I LOVE Robert Vaughn in anything) like the mechanized deathtraps and a few Pryor bits. But the bits that were selected make a story that's better than either the theatrical version of Superman III or IV. That said, "you can't polish a turd"... it's just still so terribly problematic. Changing the orbit of the moon? Governments willingly shooting all their missiles into space? C'mon. Also, the narrative bits just don't really have time to breath, so time compression and pacing of subplots stick out as issues. The action bits between are fun, but those 80s effects are just horrible now. They don't age endearingly like old Harryhausen stop-motion.

All in all, if you're a huge old Superman fan, maybe this will give you your fix. Or if you want to show a Superman film to your kid, this might work. But it doesn't really hold up next to MCU films, and no faneditor can fix that. Admirable effort by ADigitalMan, however! He did as good a job as possible.