Superman Resolved

As many of my fellow forum members know, I LOVE SUPERMAN! LOVE HIM!!!
After a certain bionic astronaut, he is my ultimate hero.

And I even enjoy SUPERMAN RETURNS. I don't love it as much I want to, but I do appreciate it for some wonderful moments.

I have watched many Superman Returns fan edits over the years, and I can say this latest one is very good. Not perfect, and not my preferred fan edit, but it is good.

The editor shows strong storytelling ability, trimming much of the fat and exposition without losing the emotional core of the story. Lois is slightly less annoying which is very good. I think Lex may have been slightly over edited, but Spacey's performance is a tricky balancing act to edit with his mood swings from menacing to over the top ham. Also, I missed that there was no sense of closure for Lex in this version.

The boldest portion of the edit is the final act and while I like the concept, I am afraid for me the execution does not work. It is choppy and is betrayed by uneven audio changes and cuts. I give kudos for attempting the idea but there was just not enough source material to make clear to me as a viewer what was happening.

The video quality was very good but I noticed a few places where the audio transitions or fade-ins could have been smoother.

All in all, a nice piece of work from a very promising new editor. I look forward to see what he does next. :)

Well watching this edit accomplished one thing for me. I NEVER want to watch this movie, ever again. This is no fault of the editor. Its just that the source material is so screamingly boring. I know the pacing was set to mirror the pacing of Superman, the Movie, but it just drives me nuts. Some movies can be watched over and over. This is definitely not one of them.

Regarding the Edit. All of the audio and video edits seemed seamless except when Lex pushes Superman over the cliff. Maybe it feels like an edit because it plays so different from the original. This edit choice is my only gripe among the editor's choices. I would prefer to leave the shanking of Superman in the movie. Lex would not take Superman for granted; just being satisfied to beat him up and push him into the sea. That is the main reason I gave a 7 on the narrative.

I apologize for ranking my enjoyment so low, but I really do hate this movie.

Cool edit. Enjoyed watching it. Great quality and editing. Don't miss this one!

Well this certainly was an invigorating edit to watch. I wasn't much of a fan of the original, mostly due to lack of action and an annoyingly written Lois, but I believe this to be the best version of this film I have seen. I agree with ALL the cuts made, they really made sense to me (though one of them was a bit jarring) it wasn't too noticeable. I applaud b3nmitchell's dedication and thought to the pacing of this edit. I quite enjoyed it!

This was a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, b3nmitchell has effectively streamlined the film, cutting away much redundancy and improving the character dynamics overall. But on the other hand, not everything works as well as intended, and cutting away personality extremes from all of the characters (good and bad) leaves everything feeling a bit lifeless.

First the good: this is a very professional editing job in most places. The cutting is frequent but invisible. Going back and watching some of these scenes in the original cut after watching "Resolved," I was amazed by how many changes the editor implemented without my realizing it. The poor writing and casting of Lois Lane was one of the biggest stumbling blocks of the original film, and while she is still the biggest problem here (seriously, Kate Bosworth is just awful in the role), she's not as intensely hate-able due to a lot of irritating lines being cut. The pacing is also much improved over the overly-ponderous original's, with many redundancies and weak plot threads cut away. For the most part, these were all very good decisions. Removing the ridiculous other half of Luthor's plan alone is a massive improvement.

As for the bad, there are a few issues. The biggest for me is that Kevin Spacey's perfectly over-the-top-with-an-edge performance as Lex Luthor has been seriously neutered here. I feel like editor b3nmitchell has mistaken personality for "melodrama" and in doing so has robbed the film of one of its greatest assets. I loved the unhinged playfulness that Spacey brought to the role, and having his performance toned down next to the (necessarily) toned-down Lois Lane saps the film of much of it's dynamism. I also had some problems with the way the ending was handled.
***SPOILER***
The sequence built for Richard's rescue of Lois and Jason doesn't really work. It's really a credit to how well the rest of the film was cut, but this scene sticks out like a sore thumb. The cuts come swiftly and without rhythm, with the result being a choppy, confusing mess. It was a good try, but it's easily the weakest spot in the whole edit. Also, while the final confrontation between Luthor and Supes (a greatly altered scene all the way through Superman's lifting of the island) is really beautifully handled, it felt weird that Luthor would just toss his nemesis off a cliff without relishing the moment. Had there been a way to include Luthor's line "Now fly" just before he does so, this scene would have been perfect. Also, I know the last scene with Luthor and Kitty trapped on the island was a bit silly, but is it really better than him just getting away? Even as a post-credits sequence, I would have liked to have had that closure.
***END SPOILER***

In the end, this edit could not save Superman Returns for me, but I did find it to be an improvement over the original. I'm going to recommend watching it should you be interested, as there is some impressive editing on display here and there are still sequences in the movie that are a lot of fun. Just don't expect it to turn back the earth's rotation for you; this is still the Superman story we were given.

The DVD was perfect, with great audio and video quality and some really beautiful handmade menus.