Superman: Son of Jor-El

Review by Captain Khajiit — January 18, 2011 @ 8:37 pm

Bigger Superman fans that I have described the edit’s strengths and weaknesses. I very much like rather than love the original films, so perhaps I do not feel as strongly about what should and should not have gone in. The idea was interesting and the execution showed thought and care.

Video
The video was acceptable. The overall quality was above average. 8 out of 10

Audio
Very good! 9 out of 10

Presentation
Fantastic covers, a very nice static main menu, awful tiny scene selection preview boxes. 8 out of 10

Entertainment
I found this both interesting and entertaining. The faneditors had a consistent vision for the edit that they implemented successfully and showed good judgment in their selection of material. Like Brumous, I approve of the collaborative nature of the project. 9 out of 10

Overall 9 out of 10
Thank you for an immensely enjoyable edit! This is essential viewing for Superman fans and highly recommended to everyone else.

Review by STANKPAC — December 22, 2010 @ 3:51 am

Watched this the other night and overall as a whole I somewhat enjoyed it, but just barely. There are quite a few things that hinder it from being a great edit. However, the biggest compliment I can give you two is that you were able to construct a consistent story out of 2 movies. It finally felt that Superman actually had a really threat to face. People from his own planet, with the same powers…..actual villians!

Here in lies one of the major problems with this edit though, that was even mentioned by eldiablosuizo. In the original movie we all know he faces off against Lex Luthor and you might be saying to yourself, “Who really cares? True Lex, for all his scheming is no match for Superman and isn’t really a suitable villain, but he serves a purpose in the long run. In this edit Lex has been truncated down to an afterthought and not considered important. There is no background information on who this character is, why he is in this movie, and more importantly why I should care. Lex Luthor shows up out of nowhere for absolutely no reason, none whatsoever. He comes in telling Zod that not only is he searching for Superman, but the actual Son of Jor El. WTF? How does he know this? Takes them to the Daily Planet to capture Lois and tells them that they are an item. Superman and Lois only had one interview or date if you want to call it that. But, he seems to know this plus knows exactly where the Fortress of Solitude is. That is stretching it a bit thin on the whole suspension of disbelief meter, if you ask me! Secondly, the same thing can be said for Lois Lane. Clark reveals himself to the world by saving Lois in the chopper and does a few heroic acts to save the city of Metropolis. Of course, since she is the main character she is going to get the exclusive interview with Superman. After that one night with Superman and the way this edit is cut, the very next day she has already figured out Clark is Superman. Wow, I don’t know about you but that is some unbelievable intuition. Then right after that you inserted from the Donner Cut the shooting him with the gun, “It is you!” “I guess I’ve always known!”. Huh? Known what, after one interview! So much for the disguise there Kal-El!

Other things I didn’t like was that you left in “Holy skunk sweat!” Really? The floating shotgun looks pretty lame. Right after the launch of the missile by none other than John Ratzenberger, the villians are released from the Phantom Zone. However, the scene after Superman talks to Jor-El, you have the scene with the space station checking up on the astronauts on the moon, but John Ratzenberger is there playing a totally different character. Didn’t make sense to me. During the fight around Metropolis, the scene when Superman catches that tower and puts it all gingerly on top of Non, I always found that to be utterly ridiculous. Get the crap up! You have superpowers damn it! No I’ll just lay here like a tortoise on it’s back, “Please help, I can’t move this measely bar!” Wuss. Now the Daily Planet itself. That must be the best piece of real estate I have ever seen with the best view. I mean they are fighting all around various areas in Metropolis, but for some reason everyone in the Daily Planet and even including the people on the street can see everything that is going on in the fight! **WARNING** Suspension of disbelief meter verging on critical!**

Technical Aspects:
Video: Overall I thought the video looked fine. No real faults, considering they are 30 year old movies. Nice job.
8 out of 10

Audio: This was actually quite good. I only noticed one really hard cut. That was when young Clark goes to the Fortress of Solitude, meets his true father, and Jor-El begins to tell him who he is. When the mask is coming towards the screen the audio actually goes silent for a few seconds in mid speech. Found that to be strange. I think that was the only hiccup.
9 out of 10 stars

Editing: Throwing out my long winded rant about the problems I had with this edit, this was a very well edited fan-edit. Like I said before you combined 2 films pretty seamlessly, but of course at the expense of a certain character. I liked how you eliminated the guy in the boat watching them arrive on Earth. You eliminated the silly scenes after with Non and the twig, and Ursa and the snake. You eliminated the stupid line by Zod, “The Planet Houston!”. I liked how you shortened some of the fight around Metropolis to get rid of some of the poor flying effects. No stupid voice over by Lois or her falling from the sky. Glad that nonsense is gone. I especially like how you ended with Lois’s line, “Up, Up and away!”, and then showing Superman flying over the Earth off camera. The one qualm I had was when the credits roll it stopped in mid-music and then shows the whole scene of him getting back at the guy at the diner. Then fades out and credits continue to roll. I think it would have been better at the end of the credits, instead of showing the Alternate Ending sequence. Other than that, well done!
9 out of 10 stars

Entertainment: Like I said before, I was entertained but just barely. I know some of the stuff was a little critical, but I can’t in good conscious call this a definitive Superman movie. Don’t let me dissuade anyone from downloading it because it is edited really well, except for a few niggles. I just feel if this movie was tightened up a little more, you would have a really close to perfect Superman movie.
7 out of 10 stars

Overall: 8 out of 10 stars. I’ll kick it up a star because of the sheer daunting task of combining two movies and for the most part make it work!

Good Job L8wrtr and Jelio

I loved this edit. There are many hybrid superman 1&2 cuts, but this is the only one that that I feel has been able to combine the narratives in a way that did not feel like two films stuck together, but rather a singular narrative. Son of Jorel is a brilliant superman film, and really trims both lengthy movies down to the core themes and relationships. There is so much to love about this edit, it's hard to know what to mention.

Of special note is the ending. In both Superman 1 and 2, the ending was a letdown. The time travel was certainly dramatic, but was so full of plot holes that it was overall just too problematic. And the superman kiss is, well, silly. The ending of Son of Jorel is really quite something - It's poignant, emotional and powerful. And it ties all the themes together beautifully.

Also of note was the way in which Lois was treated. I loved that by combining the two films, we arrive at that fantastic scene where Lois accuses Clark of being Superman sooner. And from then on, she won't let go. This is much more believable for a character as smart as Lois. It's such a shame that the blank bullet scene was never filmed properly - It's a wonderful moment in the story, and so so much better than the pink bear scene. But of course it will forever be distracting for the poor quality of the scene and clark's changing hair style... Ah well, nothing we can do about that.

I understand L8wrtr may consider an HD upgrade of this wonderful edit in the future. If that is the case, I do have some suggestions. They're not criticisms, so much as personal preferences if this movie is to undergoe minro surgery on its way to HD land.

(Spoilers)
- While I love that you removed 'can you read my mind', I missed Lois falling and Superman catching her again. I always found that moment endearing, showing how caught up in the moment they both are that they forget the logistics of flying... but no big deal
- I would add the "I was thinking we could get a hamburger" line back in. I always find it funny, especially after clark says he wants to show lois the time of her life. It's Clark nice.
- I loved that you deleted most of the dialogue of the 3 villains in space - there's no air up there, so they shouldn't be able to talk! But then, at the very last, you had the scene of them deciding to go to earth, talking merrily on the moon. I really feel you can lose this scene without any problem. If we see them flying towards earth, we'll assume the rest. And then you can preserve the 'no talking in space' illusion. (as opposed to a trick. which is something a whore does for money).
- I felt there was room for some added sound effects to add drama to the 'clark losing his power scene', to add to the tension before the explosions start.
- I had no problem with Luthor arriving late in the piece... it's a shame that he knows where the fortress of solitude is though... I guess we can assume, being the greatest criminal mind in the universe, that he devised a way to figure it out. So at the end of the day, this is no problem.
- The line "Then die as you deserve to" sounds odd without the lines preceding it. It would make more sense to cut the "then", and just have the dialogue be "you are a coward, like your father before you. Die as you deserve to".
- I would cut Non being trapped by the very weak looking spire. There is no way in the world that would trap him.
- Lastly, there is a spelling mistake (The word 'ahead') in the alternative ending special feature, and a 20 second black hole in between the text and the actual footage. btw, I am very glad you chose the ending that you did! It is quite brilliant.

Well done Jelio and L8wrtr, this is really a gift to all of us Superman fans, and finally delivers a worthy combined edit of Superman 1 and 2. 10/10

An interesting cut, which I enjoyed despite some of the problems which have been pointed out by others. The late arrival of Luthor didn't bother me as much as I thought. What did bother me is that throughout the film everyone seemed to know so much about things that they shouldn't have. The characters had a history with each other that is not supported by the timeline.

All of the scene transitions seemed fine and I didn't discern any real problems with the audio. I thought there might have been a bit of leftover audio at about 39:30 where Jor-el was saying something that was cut but you could stil hear bits of it. It also seemed as if the video quality skipped around between higher and lower quality resolution throughout. Some of the scenes seemed fuzzy while others were sharp and clear.

The editors used the superior Donner cut for the reveal of Superman's identity, which is distracting because of the problem with his glasses switching types, but this is a limitation of the source material. I still enjoyed seeing these films in a different light and would recommend it.