A special thanks to Jim Bowers for the Superman color ad. A very special thanks to www.dvdfile.com for the screenshots.
In 1978, I saw Superman on the big screen. I was 9 years old. I remember like it was yesterday. I remember being very excited to Superman on the big screen. I also remember the long lines to see the movie. There were 3 movies that I remember going to: Star Wars in 1977, Superman in 1978, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. All 3 films meant alot to me. I remember buying Star Wars figures when I was a kid. I remember reading Superman in the comics. I remember watching the old reruns of Star Trek on tv before the Next Generation appeared.
Superman does hold something very special to me. I was introduced to the 3 Phantom Zone Villains. I didn't really pay attention to them until I saw Superman 2. When the 3 Villains come to earth. Sarah Douglas playing the sexy, but very dangerous Ursa. She was great in Superman 2.
I am here to talk about the Theatre Re-Release Preview of Superman: The Movie. I travelled from California to San Antonio, Texas to see the Man Of Steele return on the big screen. 23 years had passed since I saw the first movie. I now have e-mail contact with both Jack O'Halloran and Sarah Douglas. I also have a site on both of them. I must give a very Special Thanks to Jack O'Halloran for helping me fly to Texas. I did have some trouble once I got there with the hotel. I am not going to talk about that. I was able to see Superman on the big screen. I have broken the movie into sections. I got to do what few Superman fans want, a chance to see Superman: The Movie on the big screen.
The movie begins with the original Warner Bros symbol. I know that some people will be happy with that. They rather have the old then the new Warner Bros symbol. The Main titles appear like they did 23 years ago. However this time the sound effects are much different then before. It had much better bass in your face sound effects. I know that some people might not like the new sound effects. It does take a bit to get used too. I bet Richard Donner wanted that from the beginning. The sound systems for movie theatres for very limited at the time of 1978. Now they can add more directional sound in 5 speakers and the subwoofer. I own a very nice sound system. I was able to notice what was going on around me.
The trial of The Phantom Zone. The screen at the theatre was huge. I notice alot of things during this movie. I had not seen the widescreen of Superman in a while. I did notice how Ursa had her right hand on her hips and other hand straight down. Later when they turn around. She puts her other hand down. I also notice General Zod had a red color in his black costume. It's a the little things that I had notice. The sound effects were also different. There is a great shot of Ursa on the left side of the screen and Jor-El on the right side of the screen. There is a great shot of the 3 of them. You can see hair on both Jack and Terence's chest.
Finally when it was time for the top of the building to open. It was much bigger in bass. Much like you were in there. It was also more scary. I also notice sound coming from the right rear speaker when the Phantom Zone left Krypton. It was loud, and also very cool.
This scene was extended. It was also shown on tv. I have seen the bootleg copy of the tv version. Because Krypton was mostly white. It was very hard to see the scene on the tape. This was much better.
There was much more sound effects of crystals then ever before. When the planet started to break up. You heard crystals. There was an added scene during this scene where the Council sends a guard to check out why there is a power problem at Jor-el's place. They added a bunch of extra scenes that were shown on tv with the longer version of the destruction of Krypton. It was much better then before and also a little bit more scarier. You see the young baby Kal-el's ship take off during the destruction and escapes before the destruction of Krypton. They did add a scene where the ship passes by the Phantom Zone. They are begging the ship to stop. That is not possible for the ship to do that.
After watching Superman on video many times, I always felt that the Smallville part was very slow. But watching the movie on the big screen. It seemed to flow much better. I did like the added scene where you met young Lois Lane and her parents. I remember seeing the scene on the tv extended version. It did look much better on the widescreen. You could see all 3 characters in the scene. In the scene where Jonathan was talking with Clark. You could see the mail in the mail box on the big screen. I notice that. You could also see the trunk that drives in the background in the Cemetery scene. It was cool to see the widescreen of the field on the big screen. That was amazing. I liked the added scene where they show Martha doing the morning things in the kitchen. You could see it much better then in the bootleg copy. I notice when she opened the door, that you could see the trees. When Clark is in the field after finding the crystal. You could see the smoke coming from the barn.
Clark goes to the North Pole to make his home. It was pretty much the theatre version. They didn't add extra scenes. I did notice that the picture was much better. I did notice some of the crystal were more shiny then before. The sound of the crystals when the Fortress was being built. The scene where Jor-el talks with Kal-el was very moving and very different in sound. It was much better. You felt that you were moving in the universe.
The first scene of The Daily Planet was great. It looked like it was made yesterday and not 23 years ago. When you saw the people on the sidewalk walking back and fourth. They look great.
I notice so many people working at the Daily Planet. It was amazing. The scene where Christopher Reeve is introduced as Clark Kent. There is a scene where Lois and Perry White walk to right of the camera and off screen. You can hear Lois talking to Perry in the right front speaker. I liked how that scene works.
Because of the widescreen. You could see a closer look at what Miss Techmacher was looking at on the big screen, and Lex wanting her to move away from it. I also notice how young Gene Hackman playing Lex Luthor. I had seen a bit of The Quick and The Dead on TV the night before. A more recent Gene Hackman movie then Superman. You could also hear the subways above coming and going. It was a pretty cool sound effect. The Otis introduction was the same as the theatre version. I know most people hate Otis. I didn't really mind him.
After the first night, Superman has a conversation with his Father. It's a very good and powerful scene. There is even a scene where you see them together. My only problem with this scene was that Christopher Reeve looked very young, and it didn't match with him playing Superman in the rest of the movie. They shot this early on in the beginning with Marlon Brando.
After the first night there is a scene with Clark Kent talking with a guy off the street. That is Richard Donner. I like that scene. I thought the interview scene looked fine. No major problems.
I notice some minor grain this scene. It wasn't horrible, but just minor.
The scene where Lex Luthor calls for Superman is very cool. You feel the noise in Clark's head all around you. They also color corrected Superman when he was flying looking for Lex Luthor's place.
This scene was added to the movie. It was first shown on tv. I must say that the sound was awesome during this scene. I know that many dvd owners will use this scene to demo the sound. It was perfect for it.
They had color corrected Superman's costume during the earthquake scenes. They also added much better sound. It felt like an earthquake in the movie. Since I had not seen the movie in while I had forgotten alot of scenes. After viewing the widescreen video I notice a bunch of the scenes were in the theatre version. They had only color fixed Superman's costume and added the 5.1 sound.
The new remastered movie ends the same as the original version. Superman bringing both Lex Luthor and Otis to prison. No new scenes like Return Of The Jedi.
What do I think of the new version? I like it very much. I thought it flowed really good. I thought the extra scenes that they had added were just fine. I agree with Richard Donner with only adding a bit of the extra footage, and not the long tv version. It would of been a really slow movie. The new sound does take a bit to get used too.. but in the long run, it's much better. I did notice the picture was in very good shape. There was some minor grain scenes. Since this is a 23 year old movie. I had no problem with it. I am not sure if the movie would have a good repeat viewing in the theatre that it would have in the home? Some people have better sound systems then the movie theatres. People did laugh at the funny parts in the movie. I didn't hear anyone laugh at the bad special effects that The Exorcist had last year. I did go and watch it a second time. However a little kid was talking through the whole movie. I was very pissed about that. I never had that problem before. I had to go and tell a manager to tell the kid to shut up. I was pissed that I had to leave to do that. I had watch Superman on video many times, I got really bored with the Smallville scenes. I thought they worked just fine in the movie. It seemed shorter. I don't think it was. I did notice how everyone was so young in the movie. You had forgotten what happened to all of the actors in the movie. It was the first time since 1989 that I saw Sarah back on the big screen. The last movie that I had seen with Sarah was Return Of Swampthing. Last time I had seen Jack on the big screen was Dragnet with Tom Hanks in 1987. For 2 and half hrs.. you believed a man could fly, and it was Christopher Reeve as the Man Of Steel!
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