Superman Restored

Review by Kal-El — September 2, 2011 @ 5:38 pm

Well, well… Superman Restored, the edit I stumbled upon myself :-)
No delays, straight from the top, and here we go!

**OVERVIEW**

The film has been colour corrected throughout. Given the format in which it is available, I can understand the limitations, but I nevertheless have some comments about this correction. At some points, flesh tones are amazingly realistic. One prime example being Luthor watching the crystal grow inside the Kryptonite tubing in his hands, while standing on the deck of his yacht. At other times, like the scene before where he’s talking to Lois, it has been brought so close to overkill that he looks like a pink salmon in a tuxedo. No offense, but I call them like I see them.

Overall, the reinserted deleted scenes bring additional plot development, but given the lack of action in the original theatrical cut, and the already lengthy dialogues in between, the edit could have easily done without. The infamous Return to Krypton scene has also been reinserted in full, which again raises the question why Krypton’s remains were so large, and why a gigantic House of El symbol could be seen on the floating debris. Very, very poor production choice. On to the specs then.

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TECHNICAL ASPECTS
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VIDEO:
***
Again, given the limitations of the format on which it was released, it looks very good. No hard cuts were found, and everything flows smoothly. Seeing as how the editor has over 12 years of experience in the business, you wouldn’t expect any less. Since the previously mentioned colour correction doesn’t seem on par at every given moment however, it doesn’t get a full score.

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

AUDIO:
***
I noticed one hard cut on initial viewing. Sweet Merciful Rao, don’t ask me where it was, because I can’t remember its location. I can definitely guarantee its existence though, because as a Superman aficionado, it immediately struck the wrong chord.
Lois not fading is also a great idea, which I already tended to in my Man of Tomorrow edit, but the fade from that scene into Perry’s office sounds way off. Not what I would expect from a man at this level of expertise. Those two really killed the mood at their specific points. Plenty of scenes received new scores, of which most sound really good and fit right into the film. Very nice additions.

Overall:
3 out of 5 stars

PRESENTATION:
***
No menu, since it is an m4v file. The original intro and closing credits have been kept. I’ve contacted the editor, and no plans for a DVD were made.
Overall:
2 out of 5 stars

IMPROVEMENT OVER THE ORIGINAL:
I love the original, but I despise the countless throwbacks to STM. While this edit was meant to restore proper character and plot development, all of these issues still stand. The editor did not intend to rectify Superman Returns as a true sequel to STM and S2/RDC, but merely as the film it represented on its own. Which is kind of ironic since very little material is original to begin with. Some of the deleted scenes highlight these issues even more.

Overall:
2 out of 5 stars
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FINAL SCORE: 11/20, or 2,75 out of 5
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Adds up to a fanedit score of:
7 out of 10 stars – to award the seemingly insurmountable task of rescoring much of, if not the entire, edit.