Much improved version of the movie now on DVD (Superman (DVD))

Member Name: phypher

Product:	Superman (DVD)
Date:	14/05/01 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New version of the film, Great Features, It's superman

Disadvantages: Film effects looking a bit dated

Being a fan of the superman films, especially 1 and 2, I was pleased to see the release of the Expanded Edition DVD.

A number of scenes have been added to the main movie, and the number of special features on the DVD make the purchase well worth the money.

To the Movie.

The movie on the DVD is the original movie, with scenes originally cut out, put back in. There is a seperate section on the DVD for deleted Scenes, but having viewed them, they were right to keep them out.


Some of the new scenes in the movie really improve the movie. There are new scenes that are really short such as

*******spoiler alert****

the girl on the train that sees teenage clark runing beside the train is now identified as a young Lois Lane.

****End Spoiler Alert

and much longer ones such as

*******spoiler alert****

when Superman first goes to the underground train station used as the lair of Lex luthor, he has to battle through defenses. He is attacked with machine guns, which is quite cool, as there must be fifty machines guns shooting at him, and all the bullets bounce off as he walks calmly through them.
Next he is atacked by fire, and finally by ice, before returning to the scene from the original movie, where he actually just knocks the door down.

****End Spoiler Alert

A nice touch on the DVD box is that chapters that have new scenes added are highlighted, so you can buy this DVD ust to watch them if you want.

Overall, the new scenes all seem to add to the movie, and make you wonder why they were taken out. It does make the movie 2 hrs 34 mins long I suppose, which is not necessarily what the companies want in the cinemas.

As to teh special features, this is a dual layer, double sided DVD, so you can see there are loads of features.

i think the most interesting are.

1. Screen Tests. you actually get to see Christopher reeve (very
thin looking) do his screen test for the role, and you get to see many of the actresses who screen tested for Lois Lane as well as Morgot Kidder who got it. An interesting point is that they used a scene from Superman 2 (actually changed it though when they made the movie) to screen test Lois Lane for the first movie. That's what you call planning ahead.

2. Documentaries. there are four different documentaries about the movie, looking at different aspects of how the film was made.

3. Deleted Scenes. i hve to say they were right toleave these scenes out, but interesting tosee where they were going at certain points of the film.

There are also other features like a commentary by the director, and a music only audio track, but there are also out-take tracks for audio that could have been used, but was replaced at production.

In conclusion, the film is greatly enhanced with the new scenes. The special features are plentiful and the quality and choice of what to include is one of the best I have seen on a DVD. This is what the format could have been invented for.

An important point to note is that this is a Region 1 DVD, and has new protection for multi-region players, so if you are to buy iy be warned that in the end you may not be able to play it.

Summary: