Review Detail
9.5 15 10
Overall rating
7.6
Audio/Video Quality
8.0
Audio Editing
7.0
Visual Editing
8.0
Narrative
7.0
Enjoyment
8.0
Fanedit reviewed is a combination of Superman I and Superman II Donner Cut called “The Epic Cut”. The changelist on this page currently details a different edit (of only Superman I). To be clear, the edit I watched is tagged on screen (briefly) as “S EPIC v1.05 2022 revised B”, and following comments refer to this edit.
The editor is to be applauded for allowing us to see Superman I & II as one long movie. I watched the whole 4 hours in one sitting, so that attests to the edit’s watchability! Short review; it’s fun, watch it! But it’s worth a few more detailed thoughts too. These are just things that struck me while viewing. For context, my personal experience is that I know “Superman The Movie” extremely well, after many many viewings, and have seen other Superman movies far less often (e.g. Donner cut only when it first became available).
The Krypton explosion has been replaced, and I’m not sure of the source but it doesn’t work IMO. It’s very slow and doesn’t fit the pacing of the destruction sequence as a whole.
The “Superman’s first night” section is heavily cut, IMO to its detriment. The whole bank robber car chase / boat capture, and cat in the tree scenes are missing. Without these, Superman’s initial reveal to the world is rather heavily centred on saving aircraft, and the only crimefighting element is nabbing a single burglar! Perhaps these were cut for time, but in a movie allowed to run over 4 hours, I can’t imagine Donner himself would have cut them. Conversely, I think there are elements present that would have been cut if I&II had been finished as a single movie. The main offender here is all the nonsense with Luthor, Otis, and Eve around stopping the missile convoys. It goes on way too long, and isn’t even very good.
The villains’ escape from the Phantom Zone is too sudden IMO. Superman diverts a rocket into space and it is almost instantly passing Saturn (a journey which would take years!), and then the villains are free even before the earthquake has started in California.
In the finale sequence. Perry White’s toothpaste starts travelling back in time well before Superman even creates the time warp. (Does the Donner Cut play that way, I don’t remember the details.)
The opening dedication to Geoffrey Unsworth is appended with Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner. This is fine, but the white name captions then change to one white, one blue, one red. Perhaps this is intended as some kind of subtle reference to the Stars and Stripes, but unfortunately it looks exactly like the flag of Russia!
(If the colours are a nod to the good ol’ US of A, then the later removal of the line about “the American Way” seems even more strange than it already does. He grew up in Smallville, so expressing himself that way plays fine IMO.)
The edit is dealing with varying sources so some inconsistency is to be expected. I do recall one clear error in the sound mix though; there is a line from Jor-El to the council (“You cannot ignore these facts”) which appears over a close-up of Jor-El not even speaking. The power of super-ventriloquism! In the later stages of the movie, there are a couple of instances of loud clicks on the soundtrack too (I remember that some are in the end credits sequence).
All in all, a worthwhile viewing, and we can only imagine how “Superman The Movie” would have been received in 1978 as a 4 hour film.
The editor is to be applauded for allowing us to see Superman I & II as one long movie. I watched the whole 4 hours in one sitting, so that attests to the edit’s watchability! Short review; it’s fun, watch it! But it’s worth a few more detailed thoughts too. These are just things that struck me while viewing. For context, my personal experience is that I know “Superman The Movie” extremely well, after many many viewings, and have seen other Superman movies far less often (e.g. Donner cut only when it first became available).
The Krypton explosion has been replaced, and I’m not sure of the source but it doesn’t work IMO. It’s very slow and doesn’t fit the pacing of the destruction sequence as a whole.
The “Superman’s first night” section is heavily cut, IMO to its detriment. The whole bank robber car chase / boat capture, and cat in the tree scenes are missing. Without these, Superman’s initial reveal to the world is rather heavily centred on saving aircraft, and the only crimefighting element is nabbing a single burglar! Perhaps these were cut for time, but in a movie allowed to run over 4 hours, I can’t imagine Donner himself would have cut them. Conversely, I think there are elements present that would have been cut if I&II had been finished as a single movie. The main offender here is all the nonsense with Luthor, Otis, and Eve around stopping the missile convoys. It goes on way too long, and isn’t even very good.
The villains’ escape from the Phantom Zone is too sudden IMO. Superman diverts a rocket into space and it is almost instantly passing Saturn (a journey which would take years!), and then the villains are free even before the earthquake has started in California.
In the finale sequence. Perry White’s toothpaste starts travelling back in time well before Superman even creates the time warp. (Does the Donner Cut play that way, I don’t remember the details.)
The opening dedication to Geoffrey Unsworth is appended with Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner. This is fine, but the white name captions then change to one white, one blue, one red. Perhaps this is intended as some kind of subtle reference to the Stars and Stripes, but unfortunately it looks exactly like the flag of Russia!
(If the colours are a nod to the good ol’ US of A, then the later removal of the line about “the American Way” seems even more strange than it already does. He grew up in Smallville, so expressing himself that way plays fine IMO.)
The edit is dealing with varying sources so some inconsistency is to be expected. I do recall one clear error in the sound mix though; there is a line from Jor-El to the council (“You cannot ignore these facts”) which appears over a close-up of Jor-El not even speaking. The power of super-ventriloquism! In the later stages of the movie, there are a couple of instances of loud clicks on the soundtrack too (I remember that some are in the end credits sequence).
All in all, a worthwhile viewing, and we can only imagine how “Superman The Movie” would have been received in 1978 as a 4 hour film.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
M