Superman Returns – Fanedited by Booshman

Superman Returns was a bit of a hit and miss for me. A film which promised so much felt as flat as it looked. This was indeed surprising as director Bryan Singer marketed the film as a vague sequel and homage to Richard Donner’s masterpiece Superman the movie and his nearly finished Superman II. Where those films are remembered for bright visuals and serious but fun performances Singer’s film is dark and morose in comparison.

When I revisited the film on DVD and later on Blu Ray the film seemed even darker in terms of colour pallet however I was taken by a few deleted scenes. Firstly some nice extra moments in Smallville, which was one element that I thought Singer did well with. Secondly we have the infamous Return to Krypton scene. Now whilst the scene isn’t essential to the story it does add real emotional impact especially when Superman draws parallels between his destroyed home planet and the barren landscape Lex engineers with the aid of the fortress crystals.

This brings me to Booshman’s fanedit of Superman Returns as he uses this epic scene to launch his latest Superman fanedit. Two elements that most pleased me with this cut were the colour correction and the subtleties of the editing. Where’s Singer’s film almost treats the audience as idiots as he dwells on minor details Booshman’s editing allows the story to unfold in a way that the audience actually discovers something. Prime example of this is the removal of the train set scene, a pointless waste of money set piece that only serves to explain how Lex causes the blackout. By removing this scene Booshman reveals a wonderful action piece that is no longer interrupted and later in the film the audience discovers it was Lex who caused the blackout.

Whilst perhaps we live in an age where it isn’t cool for Superman to state his purpose of fighting for truth, justice and the American way Singer’s approach to this famous line felt flat. Booshman’s simple trim to the end of Perry’s dialogue from “Does he still fight for truth, justice all that stuff” to simply does he still fight for truth, justice” is less jarring.

One of my favourite edits was trimming the end dialogue between Lois and Superman on the rooftop right after they almost kiss and then Lois declares her loyalty to Richard. Instead of the silly line “I’m always around” we now have the focus on Superman’s eyes as he looks blankly at Lois, says "goodnight" then flies off. This little trim shows the power of editing as I now found myself quite moved by this scene.

A nice touch to conclude this fan cut was moving the dedication to Chris and Dana Reeve to the beginning of the end titles as I always found it clumsy that the filmmakers placed it in between credits.

Overall with editing like this and some superb colour correction, Superman Returns has never looked better. Great job Booshman!

Note: I'd give a higher rating to the narrative if not for the setup at the beginning as I would have liked to see the main titles stay. I felt having the 'return to Krypton' scene straight after the Krypton explosion recap was a bit cramped. Two other cuts that I felt were a bit abrupt were cutting Lois fainting after the plane rescue and cutting the dialogue between Lois, Jimmy and Perry after they look at the photo ("is it a bird is it a plane").

Review by mjfrom516 — June 1, 2012 @ 6:37 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by Omaru1982 — June 25, 2012 @ 12:42 am

Superman returns, many of us couldn’t wait for his return to the big screen after his last outing was almost 20 years previous and it left something of a bad taste in the mouths of many, however this was being Taken on by Bryan Singer who recently previously bougth 2 good x-men films to screen, what could possibly go wrong? Apparently quite a bit, there are lots of thing wrong with the theatrical cut, superman the stalker, some uneeded humour, lex still being camp despite more recent portrayals in other media showing him as an intelligent businessman. To name buy a few.

So Booshman sets out much like Sam Beckett, to put right what once went wrong. Does he succeed? I certainly think so. From the deleted intro which should never have been cut we get a slightly different take on the film, Unlike Neglify I don’t think the edit is too slow, in some ways the pacing feels sped up, the film still drags a little as it makes its way toward and through the third act but the film is just generally improved. Lex seems a little more serious and dedicated to his work, Kitty is no longer overly annoying either. Superman is no longer a serial stalkr and Richard just seems like a generall all around good guy (though he mostly felt like that anyway.)

The colour correction is fantastic and scenes were spliced or trimmed without any noticeable work done to them.

I think the biggest compliment I can say about the film is what my mom said;
“I never liked him [Brandon Routh] before, but he seems better in the role than I remembered.”

I always liked Brandon and thought he made a great superman, it’s a shame he never got to play the character for another film but there are obviously people who disliked him in the role, well thanks to oyou there’s at least one less.

I would probably give the original film a 6 or 7 out of 10 because I always felt that though it wasn’t great, it was an improvement over 3 and 4. This cut however I’d give a 9/10.

I watched Superman Returns about twice theartrically...I remember being in love with it at the time because I was on quite a Reeve kick, but now I see how problematic it is. I'm pleased to say this edit addresses the problems, giving the colour a much needed regrading, adding in deleted scenes that flesh out characters and motivations, reducing redundant or needless lines, and making the characters a bit more approachable. Time has taught me that SR is not a perfect sequel or even a worthy one, but as a film that contributed to my interest in fan-editing, I'm always looking for a reason to keep viewing it across my lifetime and Boosh's edit is means of doing just that. Well done.

A very well done edit. The color correction was a great decision, making a notable improvement over the look of the original. Especially appreciated the trimming of much of the bad CGI, which always took me out of the moment before. I watched this edit with my nephew, and as the scene began with Kitty driving into the crowd, he stated with annoyance, "I hate this scene. It looks so crappy." He was pleasantly surprised with your cut.

My one nitpick would be to agree with others about the opening needing some sort of seperation between the Krypton explosion and the return trip, but it didn't honestly lessen my enjoyment of the film. This edit is now my preferred version. Well done!