Superman: The Movie - The "Donner" Cut

I viewed Superman: The Movie - Donner Cut and it was absolutely fantastic. This is the definitive version of the film to be viewed with Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, making a fantastic 2-part adventure as it may have been conceived had Richard Donner stayed attached to the project through to its release. Amazing work, Wraith!
As a side note, this was my first experience on the site, and Wraith was very kind and welcoming so not only a great edit but a great guy!

Amazing edit, with no noticeable cuts or jumps. Ever since I saw the superior Donner cut of Superman 2, I've wanted a version of Superman 1 that fixes the inconsistencies between the two. This version does that, nearly to perfection. The only change I'd make is, since Lois doesn't die, there's little reason for her and Jimmy to travel West for the story, which really doesn't add to the narrative anyhow. We know what Luther is doing, as he's monologued to Superman. Her being in danger adds nothing as well. Plus, her realizing that Clark could be Superman at the end of the movie creates an inconsistency, as she has the same epiphany at the beginning of Superman 2. I don't fault the editor, as the intention is to get as close as possible to the film as originally intended by Donner.

Overall, a fantastic edit, with the only change I'd make for sure is cutting Lois realizing that Clark could be Superman, and the one I'd possibly make is removing Lois and Jimmy from traveling West. But neither of these inclusions takes away from the great experience of the edit.

Another great achievement, have long wondered what Donner's original vision would have looked like. I think I still prefer the original theatrical cut however, if for no reason other than the fact that it left a great impression on me when I first saw it at a young age and remains one of my favourite films, in my view still the peak of superhero cinema.

Some of the cuts and changes work particularly well (especially the trimmed down "Can you read my mind?"), but I do find myself missing bits like the cat rescue (showing how Superman doesn't consider some tasks beneath him) and turning back time: the absence of the latter is of course essential to this edit, but (in comparison to the original) it does feel to me a touch anti-climactic. There are a few noticeable "errors" inherent to the source that do distract me briefly (albeit I am fairly familiar with the source and was watching with a fine-tooth comb), maybe these could be addressed in an update?

Overall though, it seems that a piece of "what could have been" history hitherto missing has been found, thanks Wraith for "finding" it!

Wraith's fanedit is, once again (just like his John Wayne Alamo movie) evidence of the value of the FanEdit website. Faneditors do not merely create new storylines, they can also preserve and recreate movies as the directors and script-writers originally envisioned, before the studio executives and producers, who have far less vision, start ruining the art.

This fanedit has genuine historical value!

Wraith had created the film that Richard Donner could have - and should have - been allowed to release to the cinemas back in 1978.

The only artistic error in the movie, which is not the fault of Wraith, if that if Donner had been permitted to create this version, he would undoubtedly have refilmed the final scene with Lois at her car, with Superman (Christopher Reeve) not being teary-eyed, since Lois had not died / been revived, as in the original Superman: The Movie.

Other than that, the film is cinematically priceless.

The superman films were a big part of my childhood, watched many a time, less so as I got older but still present.

one of the last times I watched Superman was when I bought the epic 188 minute tv version, imported. it's didn't quite hit the same way as the special edition extended cut did. But I appreciate it's importance in terms of restoration and in wide screen *when we would have likely watched Pan and Scan version on tv back in the day) Anyway I digress.

Wraith has done a fantastic Job with this edit from a narrative standpoint. Krypton has always been one of my least favourite parts of the film and though some time is spent on it, it seems like only necessary time was spent here. maybe I'm misremembering but the destruction sequence seemed about 3 times longer when I was younger.

Onto young Clark, I always liked Jeff East - though its's hard to judge his performance when Reeves rerecorded his lines. I still am not fond of the train sequence as it doesn't look like he 's physically running faster than the train but that's not a visual fault I'd expect a fanedit to fix. We don't spend too much time with teen Clark overall, and I think that's the thing it's an hour before we see Reeve in the costume. The first hour just pretty much flies by. One thing I love about the first scene with the establishing shot of the Daily planet is the Fruit vendor outside, it just helps set up that that part of the Donner cut in II.
Things play out mostly as remembered for a while until the heroic deeds montage.- it was later where I was thinking about the cat in the tree and had to come back to the cutlist to check if it had been cut or if I was misremembering it as a sequence in Superman II. I didn't mind the scene for the reason that it shows Superman will take time out of being super to help someone with a problem no matter how small, but given how vicious the cat seems and the fact the girl gets smacked for "telling lies" I guess the bad reasons outweigh the good.
I loved that the date scene was shorter, again only a minute but what a difference that minute made. I'd love a revised version without any of Lois' inner monologue lol.
I couldn't remember the entirety of Lex's scheme, I remembered the car crash and the bridge, but not the squabbling in the ambulance in between.
Also I couldn't remember if Superman's makeshift dam was part of the theatrical cut or the special edition. The one thing I remember specifically being from the SE was the bullets ,fire and ice traps outside of Lex's base. On the one hand you wonder why he'd even bother trying, but on the flipside of that is maybe he wouldn't want Superman to be suspicious if he just arrived without any form of hindrance.

It's rare to find edits for Superman: The movie, I think the last one I watched years ago was the Up Up and Away edition which similarly truncated the time reversal and had Lois car simply stall- that's all I remember about that particular edit. I think the pacing here was great throughout. There was one part I forget where that had a little writing in the lower right corner, I thought it was a hiccup with the editing software but Wraith has confirmed this was intentional to confirm the source of the footage. I've amended the review to reflect this.

That small error aside, this was a great revisit to a beloved childhood franchise and made for a fantastic Sunday afternoon experience.
Thank you Wraith