Superman I-IV 5 Film Collection - 4K Blu-Ray Review

Movie
It’s been a long time coming, but we FINALLY have the Christopher Reeve Supermen films on 4K. I personally would have loved to have seen Superman Returns thrown in there to complete the collection (Man of Steel is on 4K UHD already), but I sort of understand why they didn’t, so I expect that one to get it’s own standalone release somewhere down the line. Either way, It’s a nice looking set that actually does a ton of things right. We get a 2 disc Blu-ray case for EACH film, which includes the 4K UHD disc and the Blu-ray disc (including the Donner Cut get it’s own separate release, which is why it’s 5 films in the I-IV set), and there’s a whole ton of extra copied over from the Blu-ray release from years ago.

Superman: The Movie:
Superman: The Movie remains a tried and true classic no matter the age. Sure, it’s hammy, it’s cheesy, and it’s pure 1970s velveeta at times, but Christopher Reeve became one of the quintessential versions of Superman for a VERY big reason from this film. We’re introduced to Kal-El like most of the versions of the Man of Steel out there, through his father Jor-El (Marlon Brando) warning the Kryptonian government about the impending destruction of his world, and thusly sending his son off to Earth to escape the destruction. Upon Earth Kal-El is adopted by his parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, who raise the alien baby as their own, dubbing him Clark.

All grown up Clark (Christopher Reeve) heads off to Metropolis to work for the Daily Bugle by day, and moonlights as the Man of Steel himself, Superman (due to the powers he got from Earth’s yellow sun). However, there is an evil mastermind at work, looking to destroy countless American citizens just to get rich using explosives to destroy most of the West Coast. That man would of course be Superman’s Arch nemesis, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). Now it’s up to the man of steel to stop the dastardly villain before it’s too late, and of course keep his identity a secret from the precocious (if not beautiful) Lois Lane (Margot Kidder).

Superman: The Movie is still a fantastic movie some 45 years later. It has that right amount of cheesy comic book goodness, fantastic special effects (for the time) and an absolute picture perfect portrayal of Superman by Chris Reeve. About my only real complaint for the film is that I’ve ALWAYS disliked Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. Not only that, his slapstick portrayal of the super villain. Maybe I’m colored by modern iterations, but I’ve always liked the darker and more anti-hero version of Lex instead of the slapstick Snidley Whiplash version. Gene does a phenomenal job, and is backed up by the hilarious Ned Beatty and Valerie Perrine (Miss Teschmacher!!!!!) as comic relief, but once again. I really just would have preferred a more serious version of the character.

Superman II:
Superman II is both a great film, and also a bit of a kerfluffle at the same time. Originally directed by Richard Donner (who directed the first film) only to get fired part way through production by the Salkinds who claimed that it was due to Donner refusing to talk to them and bloating up the production budget without telling them (Donner claims that he was never given a budget, but who knows what the actual truth is). The result was that Donner was let go part way through and Richard Lester was hired to complete the project. This has garnered much controversy, with some people saying that Lester ruined what would be an epic film, and others claiming that Donner’s version was “meh” at best. All I know is that I really enjoy the 2nd film, and have watched it as much as I have the first film.

Superman II follows up 2 short years after the success of Superman: The Movie, giving us twice the action, twice the romance, and twice the special effects. Lois Lane (still Margot Kidder) is SURE that Supes is actually her team mate Clark Kent, and she’s out to get it. And...well...she finally does figure out the truth (or at least Superman lets her in on the secret after deflecting her attempts) and finally the two are able to get together like fans had been hoping for as Superman has a machine in the fortress of solitude that can take away his powers forever.

Unfortunately for Superman, and everyone else, General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his two Krytponian Lieutenants that were banished to the phantom zone at the beginning of the first film (and was rehashed as the opening scene in this film) have escaped their imprisonment and landed on earth. With Superman out of the way Zod and his cohorts lay waste to civilization, conquering the world in a matter of days. But this is movie magic, and we didn’t expect Superman to stay powerless for long did we? With the help of his father Jor-El’s sentience in hologram form, Supes regains his power and does what he does best. Kicking alien butt out of Earth’s gravity in a massive battle for the survival of the planet between himself and 3 of his own kind.

I know it’s a bit of a faux pas to admit this, but I enjoy the theatrical cut of Superman II better than the cult hit that was the Donner cut some years later. IT flows better, and while I would have been curious to see what Donner did with the film if he had been allowed to stay, but I still consider the Donner cut a sort of oddity. More of a patchwork film that is kind of a “what might have been” scenario, with some things working better, and others much worse than the theatrical cut. Luckily fans don’t have to choose as both versions are included in this boxset.

Superman II: The Donner Cut:
Well, being that the Donner cut is just a re-cut of the original film elements and spliced with older footage that Donner used to recreate his vision (partially), I’m not going to go over the plot again as it’s MOSTLY the same. The Donner cut was something fans cried out for for YEARS, and in 2006 Warner commissioned the recutting of the film into what we would later know as “The Donner Cut”. While most of the scenes are the same, the film was re-arranged, and about 20 minutes of run time trimmed, while adding in a completely different ending (which sadly was just the ending for the first film).

Most of the differences are slight, or simply change existing scenes with alternate cuts. The tone is a lot less comedic than the theatrical cut, such as changing Non (the hulking silent Lt. for Zod) from being the butt of jokes, to cutting out those bits and making him a bit more serious. Also there were scenes cut from the massive battle that were meant to be humorous as well. It’s not a huge thing, but it makes the film feel more serious and that there is more at stake.

Also, the reason for Zod and his minions escaping are different as well. Instead of a recap of the imprisonment of Zod we get to see a terrorist attack that Supes saves by throwing a hydrogen bomb into space, which subsequently frees his father’s old enemies. And of course there is the fact that Lois suspect Clark’s secret identity from the beginning of the movie.

The biggest change is that Marlon Brando returns as Jor-El, explaining how he gets his powers back and creates a heartfelt scene that shows the loss of Kal-El’s father TWICE vs. simply looking at the green crystal his father left and us guessing that’s how he got his powers back. Not to mention there’s an entire scene where Jor-El and Kal-El argue about his selfishness about giving up his powers to be with Lois.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t feel like a cohesive film. The jumps between the theatrical footage and the other additions is choppy, and the re-using of the end for the first film doesn’t sit right either. Personally I compare it to Zack Snyder’s: Justice League. A film that takes 1 step forward and 2 steps back due to the clamoring of fans for something that really doesn’t exist. It’s a nice oddity and is worth worth watching, but is slightly sub par compared to the theatrical (however, this is a very controversial opinion, as fans of the Donner cut are VERY adamant about it being the best version. So you may not agree with opinion on this version).

Superman III:
Ah yes, Superman III, the film that turned the saga into a joke. Back in 1983 Richard Pryor was on top of the world, and his films were making BANK, so the powers that be decided that they needed to shoe in the star power of Richard Pryor into a Superman movie. Genius! Right? Well, not really. Fans of both original films were let down ENORMOUSLY when the film hit theaters. It was a jumbled mess of a film that tried to blend serious super heroing, with a brand new villain (Lex Luthor doesn’t make any appearances here) and having goofy Richard Pryor do his magic, resulting in a film that jerks all over the place in terms of tone and entertainment.

In some ways Richard Lester actually created an entertaining superman movie. We’ve got a machine that can target super heroes for their powers, and an end villain that could have actually been great if fleshed out. However, it’s literally SLATHERED with Richard Pryor doing his Richard Pryor comedian stuff and gets embarrassing after a while (not because of Richard Pryor, who is a genius comedian, but because he is completely out of place with the rest of the film). The entire film is nothing but camp, Pryor gags, and sloppy editing. Proof that Superman II was a one off flash in the pan for the director.

I won’t say that Superman III is the worst of the series (that honor belongs to the 4th film), but it is a campy mess for the most part. The good thing is that Reeve is still giving it his all, and the inclusion of Annette O’Toole as Lana Lang (who would go on to play Martha Kent in Smallville years later) was a stroke of genius. She and Clark have incredible chemistry, and it adds a sort of weird fleshing out to the Clark, Lana and Lois triangle that’s always been a part of Superman’s history. Special effects were excellent, and I loved the face off between “good superman and bad superman” that happens halfway through the film due to the synthetic Kryptonite that Richard Pryor’s character comes up with. It’s not bad, but it’s not good by any stretch of the imagination sadly.

Superman: The Quest for Peace:
Oh god, someone please erase this film from my memory. I remember watching this flick sometime in my very early youth (guessing the early 90s from what I can remember of the settings) and the horrific awfulness was emblazoned onto my memory from a very early age. So much so that I completely skipped watching it when I owned the collection on DVD, and only ever once again daring to go near it when I got my U.K. version of the Blu-ray collection. Needless to say, it has NOT aged well, but then again, it never was exactly well received back in 1987. It was THE film that killed the series and had nobody wanting to touch the franchise until they sort of soft rebooted it with the Brandon Routh Superman Returns (that sadly was pretty good, but wasn’t exactly the film to restart the franchise).

Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) is back again, broken out of prison by his cousin Lenny (poor Jon Cryer). The two of them use some genetic material from the man of Steel and makes a genetic superman known as Nuclear Man with radioactive material. Meanwhile, Superman has gotten sick of the nuclear arms race that will lead to earth’s destruction, so he gathers up all of the world’s nuclear missiles and tosses them out into space. Now that Superman has effectively disarmed the world, he thinks that peace is upon them. Instead, he creates the perfect opportunity for Lex’s Nuclear man to step in and go toe to toe with the big guy.

Superman III should have been a warning to everyone involved that too much camp and comedy was a bad thing for the series. I don’t know who didn’t get the memo, but Sydney Furie went full bore into comic book camp and cheese in a way that even shocks me. The film is pure grade a crap, but at least it’s good hearted and well meaning crap. The film is best used as a comedy of sorts, with lots of alcohol involved while MST3K’ing the entire production. I mean, we’ve got a Beastmaster look alike Superman (played so over the top by Mark Pillow) who actually has a cat fight with Superman (literally, a cat fight, you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it), can shoot Nuclear beams, and Richard Cryer playing the most cringe worthy version of Ned Beatty’s side kick role ever (I had second hand embarrassment for him). Ironic, as he comes back a couple of years ago to play Lex Luthor in the CW show Supergirl, completely redeeming himself in the role too.




Rating:

Rated PG By the MPAA (For all 5)




4K Video: Video:

Superman: The Movie:
This is going to be controversial, but I’m sort of town about the video encode for the best of the series. The encode has been taken from a brand new 4K master from the original negative performed by Warner’s in house MPI facility, with tons of cleanup, new color corrections, and a solid HDR grading in DV and HDR10. To say that this will be controversial is simply because not everyone is going to like this encode, and both sides of the fence are going to find things they like, and things they dislike about the new mastering.

The smoothing and softness of the 1080p encode is gone, but in it’s place is some VERY heavy grain. The good thing is that this gives us slightly higher resolution details that we can’t see in the 1080p disc, but the flip side is that the grain is almost obtrusive and jaundicing at times too. I know that having natural grain is a good thing, but Superman: The Movie looks downright chunky with it’s grain sometimes. There’s still the softness and haze during the smallville sequences (which seems to be a stylistic choice) and the new color grading changes it from blasted out orange and cream to a more darkened and wheat color. This means less burnished reds on Clark’s cape, and a more maroon and deep blue tone to the primaries.

At the same time we have a trade off in resolution as well. Sometimes the increased resolution does the film no real favors, especially with the special effects showing the lines and creases from the superimposition, and the fortress of solitude is not exactly forgiving. That being said, we see a much sharper and cleaner image when Clark gets to Metropolis, creating a very revealing backdrop for supes. So I guess it’s give and take here. We get more resolution, but more grain, easier to see optical shots and superimposition, but also a slightly better looking image (though the softness follows throughout, making it sometimes hard to see much resolution upgrade).

Superman II:
Superman II comes to 4K UHD with a fairly great looking 4K encode, one that actually handily outclasses the old 1080p encode. The new 4K UHD offers some really interesting tweaks and highlights, with stronger colors due to the HDR application, and some tweaked color timing as well. I noticed a LOT more resolution in the backgrounds, and facial details appear less orangey and more neutral looking. The grain is still pretty inconsistent, but every variation of the film on Blu-ray and DVD has looked a bit inconsistent with the grain structure as well. Softness is still present as a stylistic choice, but the 1970s styles of coloring looks really good on 4K, with the bright reds of Miss Teschmacher’s headdress and coat looking fantastically bright and clear, and the semi translucent whites of the crystals in the fortress of solitude standing out as well. Overall, this is a very nice encode.

Superman: The Donner Cut:
I’m going to be short and sweet here. The film looks mostly like the regular theatrical release with some minor tweaks. The whole “test footage” look for some of the older material that was spliced in is pretty obvious though, with less resolution to the look, and some washed out colors and heavier grain. They just don’t look as “polished” as the rest. The material that was found on both editions is naturally identical looking, and while they definitely tried to blend to two sources together seamlessly, you can still notice when the film switches over to the reshot and older footage.

Superman III:
The old Blu-ray for Superman III was not that great. It was ok back in the day, but was washed out, blasted with orange and cream tones, and just look “faded” if you know what I mean. The new 4K UHD disc looks light years better, with colors tamed a lot more, with the orange waves pulled back, and a more neutral grading going on. The HDR application adds some real depth to the steel blues of the machine at the end, as well as the shadow detail in the cave. Bright green of kryptonite beams in the lair, or the waving grass while Clark and Lana sit and talk are fantastic. The blues and reds of the cape show up extremely well, and fine detailing is magnificent. There’s still some softness around the optical effects for flying, and the hazy look for smallville, but overall this is a quality looking encode.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace:
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is presented in a very similar look to Superman III. It’s fairly clean, with good colors (the golds of Nuclear Man’s outfit shine brightly, as do the colors on Supe’s suit), while blacks and shadow details are greatly enhanced by the HDR application. Once more, the Blu-ray for the old set looks OK, but nothing I would say is spectacular. I would say that it’s more of a “good for the day when it was released” encode rather than something that would hold up fantastically today. Fine details are solidly improved, showing better details on just about everything (sometimes to the detriment of the film). There’s still that Superman softness that follows us around, but once more, a very solid looking encode that easily trounces the Blu-ray.







Audio:

I almost gave individual reviews for the different films, but all 4 (5 if you include the Donner cut) Atmos tracks sound sooooooooooooo similar to each other that I couldn’t justify just repeating the same thing over and over again. I was a bit surprised that Warner gave this set an Atmos track, but I’m sort of glad they did. None of the 4 (5 really) films sound absolutely revolutionary in Atmos, but the new soundstage dynamics really just tweak and enhance them slightly. There’s a great sense of height presence when Superman is flying overhead, but there’s not a lot of airiness or directional shifting going on outside of the flying noises. The mix is still very much the 5.1 mix, just with a few changes to overheads and the shifting of flying noises. I got a nice sense of depth when missiles would fire off with the subwoofer, but like the mixes of old, it doesn’t get too explosive with the low end.








Extras:

Superman: The Movie

• Commentary by Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spangler
• The Making of Superman – vintage featurette
• Superman and the Mole-Men – vintage featurette
• Super-Rabbit – 1943 WB cartoon
• Snafuperman – 1944 WB cartoon
• Stupor Duck – 1956 WB cartoon
• TV Spot
• Teaser Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer

Superman II:

• Commentary by Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler
• The Making of Superman II – 1980 TV Special
• Superman's Soufflé – Deleted scene
• Fleischer Studios' Superman vintage cartoons
  • First Flight
  • The Mechanical Monster
  • Billion Dollar Limited
  • The Arctic Giant
  • The Bulleteers
  • The Magnetic Telescope
  • Electric Earthquake
  • Volcano
  • Terror on the Midway
• Theatrical trailer

Superman III

• Commentary by Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz
• Introduction by Richard Donner – featurette
• Superman II: Restoring the Vision – featurette
• Deleted scenes
  • Lex and Ms. Teschmacher head north
  • Lex and Ms. Teschmacher head south
  • The villains enter the fortress
  • He's all yours, boys
  • Clarke and Jimmy
  • Lex's gateway
• Famous Studios vintage cartoons
  • Japoteurs
  • Showdown
  • Eleventh Hour
  • Destruction, Inc.
  • The Mummy Strikes
  • Jungle Drums
  • The Underground World
  • Secret Agent

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

• Commentary by Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler
• The Making of Superman III – 1983 TV special
• Deleted scenes
  • Save my baby
  • To the rescue
  • Making up
  • Going to see the boss
  • Hatching the plan
  • The con
  • Rooftop ski
  • Boss wants this to go
  • Superman honored
  • Gus' speech
  • Hanging up on Brad
• Theatrical trailer

The Christopher Reeve Superman series has always been half good and half bad. The first two films (and the Donner Cut) are really good movies. Both of them are the peak of that era of Superman, and putting Reeve into the hall of fame with his portrayal. Unfortunately it also comes with the 3rd and 4th film, which are both a huge letdown from the previous entries. So like I said, good and bad. Still, fans of the series will definitely want this set, as it provides good video (for the most part) which completely blast the old Blu-rays out of the water, and a nice addition of Atmos for each of the 5 films. Extras are very substantial, making his a near fantastic purchase (the super soft video encode for the first film is the only technical “meh” I can say that draws it down just slightly. Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Margot Kidder, Christopher Reeve, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, Annette O'Toole, Jon Cryer, Jackie Cooper
Directed by:
Superman: The Movie - Richard Donner
Superman II - Richard Lester/Richard Donner
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut - Richard Donner
Superman III - Richard Lester
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - Sydney J. Furie
Written by:
Superman: The Movie - Jerry Seigel, Joe Shuster, Mario Puzo
Superman II - Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Mario Puzo
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut - Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Mario Puzo
Superman III - Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, David Newman
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Christopher Reeve
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC (all 5)
Audio:
Superman: The Movie - English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Latin), Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese, Japanese DD Mono 2.0
Superman II - English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Latin), Spanish (Castilian), Japanese DD Mono 2.0
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut - English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core)
Superman III - English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Latin), Spanish (Castilian), Japanese DD Mono 2.0
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Latin), Spanish (Castilian)DD Mono 2.0
Subtitles:
Superman: The Movie - English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai
Superman II - English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Korean
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut - English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Superman III - English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG (All 5)
Runtime: 601 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May, 8th, 2023