Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition - Part 3

It's extremely difficult to comment on "Superman II" without having to divide it into two camps, the original theatrical version credited to Richard Lester and the original version helmed by Richard Donner (the latter of which finally saw the light of day in 2006). Of course, there's the many different versions of the extended telecasts, most notably represented by the fan-created Restored International Cut - but that's a different story for another time.

In the Ultimate Collector's Edition, the "Superman II: Richard Donner Cut" is presented as Disc 6. To read my original review on that release, click here. To borrow from the excellent graphic novel "Kingdom Come" (now why doesn't Warner Bros. turn that into a movie? That would absolutely rock!), now it's time for the democratic response, and to that I have to go back in time to the film's release.

I remember the summer of 1981 like the back of my hand. I had attended a YMCA youth camp in North Carolina when the bus I rode in passed by a movie theater. There, in large letters on the marquee sign, read the announcement "Now Showing: Superman - Part II". Little did I know at the time that whoever put that information on the marquee actually got it right.

"Superman II" was originally intended to continue the story begun in the first film and wound up one of those rare sequels that exceeded the first film's tradition and spirit. This time, however, there would be no slow build-up, no lengthy backstory to preface the events; things would start off with a bang - literally. From the freeing of the Phantom Zone villains to Lois Lane's attempts to expose Clark Kent's secret identity of Superman, to the battles in Metropolis and the Fortress of Solitude, "Superman II" offered plenty of action. Of course, I had read in David Michael Petrou's book "The Making of Superman: The Movie" that Donner had filmed most of II simultaneously with the first film and that the footage was already in the can. Even the final credit at the end of the first film touted that II would be here "next year". So what took so long?

Unknown to me, a lot of movie politics and conspiracies changed the look and tone of "Superman II". Over the next 25 years I, like many others, analyzed everything that took place during the production of both films, chief among them the many conflicts involving Donner, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler, which resulted in Lester coming aboard as an uncredited associate producer (read: go-between to Donner and the Salkinds). With the first "Superman" a success, one of the great injustices in the history of cinema occurred, as Donner was fired from the project in the summer of 1979, and Lester (along with George Macdonald Fraser) was brought in to do an uncredited rewrite on the shooting script and to reshoot many key sequences, thereby earning him sole directorial credit on II. Along the way I glimpsed scenes from Donner's version in the final theatrical version and the extended TV broadcasts throughout the 1980's. Sometimes the scenes were as sincere and believable as the footage in the first film; at other times it was more comical and disjointed. Even the father-son relationship that set up the first film was gone, as all of Marlon Brando's scenes were jettisoned in favor of Susannah York as Lara, thereby setting up an awkward (though certainly plausible) mother-son dynamic.

"Superman II" wound up one of the big hits in the summer of 1981, earning a respectable $110 million at the box office (which in today's terms rounds off to an estimated $225 million) and coming in second behind the surprise hit of the year, "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Above the surface, you couldn't tell what was going on. Beneath the scabs that permeated the final film, however, the firing of Donner, the lawsuits forced onto the Salkinds by Brando from the cutting of his scenes from II and his profits from both films, the lawsuits by Margot Kidder over delinquent salary promises (note to Pierre: you can't refute what is publicly established in print! Liar liar, pants on fire!), and the chunking of most of Donner's footage took its toll on everyone. While "Superman III" was certainly a guarantee at the time, no one knew that the franchise would soon be steered into shaky waters. Over the years "Superman II" has become a study of what can go right and wrong during a film production, and like the Donner Cut it is not, and never will be, a perfect film. Still, in all fairness to Donner, some of Lester's footage is actually quite good and has held up fairly well over time.

Now we have the "Superman II" Special Edition, issued as Discs 5 and 7 in the Ultimate Collector's Edition and individually as a 2-disc set. I wish I could say that Warner pulled out all the stops in giving much care and consideration to "Superman II", but after looking at this film I have my doubts.

First off, the film itself is presented on Disc 5 in anamorphic widescreen format and your choice of English Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 sound, or French 2.0 mono sound with optional English, Spanish, or French subtitles. This is a fairly decent step up from the previous DVD release, which offered the film only in 2.0. The sound balance is much better this time, though there's still one thing that bothers me: even in 5.1, the sound is still tinny at times. This is not Warner's fault, which did the best job it could in reproducing the sound in 5.1 from the original source material. The problem is the source material itself. Except for the extended TV broadcasts, "Superman II" has always sounded tinny, particularly in the music. This is because of the usage of one of two prints for every home video release from the initial VHS tapes of the 1980's to today. (The other version, with slightly different end credits and a richer sound to the music, especially in the main title credits, remains unreleased in any home video format beyond the extended TV broadcasts. I know this for a fact because when I saw the film in 1981, I remember this version being shown in my local theater - the key is the Howard R. Schuster and Zoptic logo title cards, which were not in the initial release but were in later releases; neither of these title cards are in the end credits in the extended versions.) A film like "Superman" is supposed to sound broad and bombastic, not tinny and almost rinky-dink. The Donner Cut got the sound right, with a richer, fuller remixed sound all the way through.

The visual print, however, is another story. It's still the same source print for the 2001 DVD release, and the visuals look almost horrible at times. There's quite a bit of color bleed-out in many places, particularly in the opening prologue and main title credits, and at times the film looks almost hazy. Add to it the fact that the visual scabs are all over the place - from the poor airbrushing of Brando out of the borrowed STM shot in the prologue, to the wires clearly evident not only throughout a good portion of the Lester footage but also in the Donner clips as well! (Check out the scene of the Russian cosmonaut just before Zod pulls him away, and you'll clearly see the wires in the film print.) So much for verisimilitude, if you ask me. In this day and age, when so many films from the past get top-notch digital restoration treatment, there's clearly been no love given to the theatrical cut of "Superman II". Warner should know better than this.

Also on Disc 5 we have a new audio commentary with Salkind and Spengler. Like their commentary on the first "Superman" film, and in juxtaposition with the Donner-Tom Mankiewicz commentary on the Donner Cut, Salkind and Spengler discuss their views on Donner's dismissal; Lester's completion of the film; the replacement of John Williams (who refused to score II without Donner there) with Ken Thorne (who at the Salkinds' request restructured all of Williams' themes for II); the many production problems and logistics in completing the film; and the reverse release scheduling of the film for the foreign markets first and the U.S. market last. Some of the thoughts Salkind and Spengler offer in this commentary are fairly valid and spot-on with established documentation; however, other comments sound nothing more like spin, basically boiling down to a "we said, he said" argument over Donner's firing, which is contrary to the facts. At times I couldn't help but laugh at their spin stories and wanted to say, "Get your facts right!" Granted, with the passage of time people's memories do become hazy, and we sometimes forget some things, and that's a given, but when a film the caliber of "Superman II" has this much documentation, sometimes it's best to get every fact straight, which is what Salkind and Spengler should have done in the first place.

In addition, on Disc 5 we have the film's second theatrical trailer, recycled from the previous DVD and laserdisc releases, presented in widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound. Why the first teaser trailer, which remains unreleased on DVD, was not included is beyond me (go to CapedWonder.com to view that teaser trailer and other trailers not included on the DVD releases). Furthermore, we are given one lone deleted scene from the Lester footage, an almost sexually suggestive scene of Superman and Lois talking about it being his first time... cooking a souffle'! This scene, one of many included in the extended TV broadcasts, is presented here in anamorphic widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound, sourced from a widescreen print of the extended version (I wonder why the extended Salkind cuts have yet to appear on DVD?) and complete with visual effects and music. At least it looks and sounds good on DVD. I only wish more Lester outtakes were included on this DVD (though another outtake is included elsewhere in the Ultimate Collector's Edition) - then again, having one outtake (or two) may be enough; all you have to do is compare this DVD and the Donner Cut to your VHS copies of the extended TV broadcasts, and you'll see just how many campy and unnecessary outtakes there are! Sometimes less is enough, and in some cases it's more than enough.

Moving onto Disc 7 we have the vintage TV documentary "The Making of Superman II", which originally aired in 1983 and was hosted by Christopher Reeve and narrated by Ernie Anderson. This program, presented in full frame format and Dolby 2.0 sound, focuses primarily on Lester's direction for the film, the staging of a number of visual effects and stunts, and interviews with the cast and crew, though there are some production clips from the Donner era included - like the final film Donner was never mentioned by name in the documentary, obviously, to keep any production problems hidden from the viewers, though serious film fans know better. As good as the documentary is content-wise, there is one very glaring problem with it: the documentary's transfer is sourced from NTSC into PAL and slowed down to compensate for the PAL speed increase (go to http://www.supermancinema.co.uk/daily_planet/dvd2006/2006_disc_issues_qa.asp for more detailed explanations). The final result looks and sounds slower and blurrier than normal. That's not good, and Warner should definitely know better than that. It's also unfortunate that while corrected pressings of the original "Superman" cut with the corrected 1978 sound mix and the Deluxe Version of "Superman III" (which I'll discuss next time) were issued, there are no plans to reissue the "Superman II" DVD with a corrected NTSC transfer of the documentary. Why isn't everything run by QA prior to release?

Also on Disc 7 is another TV special, "Superman's 50th Anniversary: A Celebration of the Man of Steel", produced by Lorne Michaels of "Saturday Night Live" fame. This strange piece, hosted by Dana Carvey and featuring clips from different incarnations of the franchise and a plethora of comedians, plays up Superman's 50th birthday in 1988 mostly for laughs, though there are some truly sincere segments with Reeve, Jack Larson (remembering George Reeves' work on "The Adventures of Superman"), and writer/artist John Byrne (who spearheaded the revamp of the Superman comics line in 1986).

But the real treasure of this set is the final eight segments of the animated Superman series produced in 1942-43. By this time Famous Studios had taken over the production reigns from Max and Dave Fleischer, but they nonetheless handled these cartoons with lots of action and excitement, with some segments featuring Superman battling the Nazis and Japanese during World War II. Pulled from mint 35-millimeter prints, these transfers look and sound absoultely sparkling for 65-year-old cartoons! Now this is a treat indeed! We even get a 13-minute feature entitled "First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series", which features interviews with film and comic historians and the late Richard Fleischer on the creation of these segments. You get to see some of the extremely rare production sketches for the series, explanations for the film noir-like visual flair for the segments (inspired by "Citizen Kane"), and a few clips of even more rare animation from cinema's early days. Simply put, short of a HD or Blu-Ray release, this is the best these cartoons have ever looked!

If I have a few concerns with this DVD release, it's that I would have wanted to see more outtakes from Lester's production, as well as Lester's involvement on the DVD in a commentary or interview format (as it turns out, Lester was invited to contribute to the new DVD releases, though why he didn't participate is a mystery) and any other publicity materials or production footage for the film. Still, this is a fairly nice complement to the "Superman" Special Edition and the Donner Cut just for the animated segments and commentaries alone, as well as for comparing both versions of II, and like the Donner Cut it makes for a good study of problematic filmmaking at its best and worst.

While both versions of II are included together in the Ultimate Collector's Edition and overseas in a complete 3-disc set, for some reason they were issued separately in the U.S., and I think this had to do with marketing. Like Warner's dual versions of the "Exorcist" prequel from Renny Harlin (the released theatrical version) and Paul Schraeder (his original cut), both versions of "Superman II" were issued individually in the U.S. for home viewing and analysis. Is this the last word on the film(s)? For that matter, which version is considerably better? Pick your poison wisely before going to the debates!

Next time I'll look at Disc 8 of the set, "Superman III", where the problems just keep on rolling. See you next time!