Superman: The Supercut

Keeping in mind I'm a tougher critic than most, I'm going start by stating that the FanEditor himself admits in his description to doing this in between other edits, and that's where he erred.

It shows in the final product that this was a project he didn't care too much about. Aside from a number of hard cuts and awkward music cues, the story simply doesn't work.

To fit the story he wanted to tell into a decent time-span, he cut out a lot of the wonderful moments from Donner's first Superman film and, oddly, included a lot of the goofy and comedic moments from replacement director Richard Lester's Superman II. If you're aiming for a "darker" Superman, the Three Stooges-like comedy of Lester's Phantom Zone villains should've -- just like in the Superman II Richard Donner Cut -- been left on the editing room floor.

It takes more than 90 minutes to get us to the point where the FanEditor's story kicks in, and by that time he's sliced and diced so much -- with skill in most cases, admittedly -- it's hard to care.

As a story, the movie ends up not having a 3rd act or even a climax. With that in mind, it would've been a FAR superior experiment in Superman's dark side if the editor had made it a 30-minute short: By putting this into a serialized form and simply recapping the information the audience would need to understand (i.e., some sort of re-cap of the first movie and intro of the villains -- all things we should theoretically be familiar with going into this Fan Edit), it would've sped up the pace and made this a more satisfying edit. And, with such an experimental format (my suggestion I mean, not the actual Fan Edit), it would've been easier to accept the sudden fade to credits at the end of the movie, since there really isn't any sort of ending (well, there is, but it ends on 2 moments of comedy that are trying to be played as drama).

Beyond the concept of "dark Superman" at the end, the only narrative change is an edit that takes Superman's and Lois' first meeting and rolls it into the date from the Superman II wherein they sleep together. Which means the entire premise only works if you can buy that Superman and Lois Lane slept together on the first date and fell in love.

Since these characters don't seem to be that promiscuous, it's hard to buy.

Overall: It's too similar to the source materials for the most part, the couple of changes to story just don't quite track. Editing is mostly top notch, but there are a number of poor cuts, a few bad music cues, and the sounds varies quite a bit.

Very nice edit, puzzling together the more enjoyable parts of the Superman Trilogy and creating something both familiar and new at the same.
I'll be looking forward to new projects from this editor.

Alright :) i'm getting addicted to fanedits... yesterday night i was in mood watching superman (we are in need of heroes nowdays aren't we?), its been years ago when i watched the old superman movies, the new one i saw it last summer.

i like the cut! it has this great dark humor and some more seriousness about it, the plot fits.

Has some scenes that you wonder how some characters get to know some things and the half of the movie is very fast paced which i liked but if it was a little longer it would be more complete in my opinion, but as the author said its a more relaxed cut which has its advantages and disadvantages, i personally liked this more freely relaxed cut style, tight isnt always better!

i dont want to spoil much...

i recommend this cut! but i would like at least custom english subtitles so i can see it with friends and recommend to more people :)

*BEWARE MAJOR SPOILERS*

It's a proper professional edit in my eyes as the cuts and audio work well and nothing really stood out for me that looked too ajar. All good.

Nothing really changes in the narrative apart from the third act. Of course, lots of padding are completely removed - you could have cut it more in my opinion, but you probably did well to keep the story intact than make the edit look like an fanboy butchering.

I originally thought Lois' death was going to be removed, so it was a massive surprise when she actually did die...I personally hate the Superman "time travelling" narrative so I'm glad the editor in some ways took the original path he did - and of course this is where Superman III comes in handy because Super-goodie turns Super-baddie (well...more super-angry teenager, but that's no fault of the editor) and whilst Superman is basically doing nothing for the rest of the film, we simultaneously follow the Superman II plot of the Phantom Zone villains taking over the world. And that's it.

I think the last couples of minutes and the credits themselves are truly haunting and that's what makes the edit special.....at the same time the viewer is probably still thinking, "and what happens to Superman next?" and having no conclusion is probably what will upset most people. But for me personally I thought it was original and creative and I liked it.

Overall the film is still slightly too long for that incredibly short, but amazing final act which changes everything completely.

This was an incredibly smart fanedit. I totally believe that Lois died and Superman went into a drunken rage because of it.

A/V Quality - 8
This looked pretty good, but there was a lot of compression artifacts.

Editing - 9
Excellent editing for the most part. Some of the scenes in the last third felt a little disjointed, when cutting from Superman doing bad stuff to Zod and Co. doing bad stuff and then back to Superman and so on. And a couple times the audio levels sounded a bit unbalanced. And, why silent credits? You could have easily found some somber music that fits. Other than that, solid work here!

Narrative - 10
Absolutely wonderful.

Enjoyment - 9
This may be my new favorite Superman movie.