DVD : The Complete Superman Collection

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- THEY SKIMPED ON II, III, AND IV
Disc 1 is where it's at: loaded with bonus material! Unfortunately, the rest have nothing as I don't consider trailers to be a bonus. I'll be angry if WB re-releases this again...next time with II, III, and IV properly loaded with all the extras. Currently, Paramount's "double dipping" by re-releasing the Star Treks again.

Rating:

- Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's SUPERMAN!
Richard Donner's take on the greatest comic book superhero is as good as they get, with Christopher Reeve as the definitive Superman, fighting for peace, justice, and the American way! Arguably the best of the Superman films, it was a huge box-office hit and spawned several sequels.

Starting off with that classic theme tune from John Williams, the film begins with an overly-extended prolouge with Marlon Brando (Who got top billing over Reeve, regardless of his rather short scren time) blasting off some nasty bad guys in a weird cosmic box thing and then sending Kal-El on his way to Earth. Along the way, Clark Kent goes to work for the Daily Planet and meets Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). Reeve's transition from geeky reporter to Superman is great. Then the action really starts to show when he dons the red cape, with a series of superbly-crafted action set pieces which showcase the Man of Steel's strong points, notably catching crims with added one-liners for coolness.

The quote goes "Every hero needs a villian", and in this one we have Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor and his bumbling sidekick Otis (Ned Beatty) attempting to destroy the California coast with stolen missiles. Luthor: "We all have our little faults, mine's in California!" There are a couple of problems; Kidder's Lois Lane is somewhat cardboard (let's face it, even though she's the centre of a major story twist, she's still a cipher). And Donner's direction gets a bit too loose-ended with the romance between the two. But even though events sometimes get too campy, we all knew that those bad guys from the beggining would be back in the inevitable next chapter. A milestone in great movie-making and a must-have on DVD.

Superman 2 sees the hero return, with a montage of action bits from the last one used as an effective opener, and then those bad Kryptonions return to wreak havoc on the world in search for Superman. Director Richard Lester takes the action to an even bigger scale, with some impressive battle scenes pitting Superman against the Krypto-meanies. And Terrence Stamp is great as Zard, the lead baddie. A side note: One thing that should not be in the film is when Superman throws that weird plastic-looking "S" at the villians (?). But regardless, Gene Hackman's Luthor is even better, Clark Kent and Lois Lane's romance is taken up a notch too, which adds to the film's boldness. And John William's score (reminiscant of STAR WARS) is fantastic. Almost as good as the original, Superman 2 uses all the same well-constructed elements to even bigger effect.

What went wrong? Richard Lester came back for directing duties for Superman 3, but it's far below the good-natured fun of the first two and Sidney J. Furie's Superman 4: The Quest For Peace is a hack job if I ever saw one. But the first two great action flicks make up for the series' decline. The digital transfer is first-rate, and the sound and picture quality is excellent. The DVD extras for Superman are very good, with commentaries, 'making of's, deleted scenes and trailers. Superman 2 is a dissapointing disc, with only a trailer and talent profiles, and parts 3 and 4 are equally un-impressive, but it makes sense, as the sequels gradually decline in quality, so do the extras. I can't say that Superman 3 and 4 are worth buying, because they are not worth it, but the fist two are must-have material.

Rating:

- The Complete Superman Collection
This is a great edition to add to your dvd collection if you like movies based on comic books.This set includes all four superman movies.Superman the movie is loaded with features and now has new expanded footage not seen in theaters.The disc also has deleted scenes,commentarys,music only soundtrack,trailers,and screen test.The dvd on superman however is a dvd-18 meaning you have to turn it over to see some of the other special features.The special features are spread out between side a and side b.The movie is on side a.Superman 11 is just a bare boned dvd with the movie,the trailer of superman ll and talent bios.To me superman 11 was actually the best of the movies.Superman 111 and Superman IV are also bare boned disc.All of the superman movies look nice and cleaned up on dvd.The box that holds this collection looks nice as well.I am looking foward to seeing Superman 5 and eventually adding it to my Superman dvd collection when it comes out may be as early as Dec 2003.But if your thinking about buying Superman the movie you better do it now.Word is Warner Brothers is being sued by the people that own some licence to some stuff that's on this disc esp the newley added scenes and the screen test.Chances are this box set will be discontinuied and Superman the movie without the boxset will probely be discontinued as well.If you like the complete Superman collection I also recommend the Batman Legacy.

Rating:

- Excellent
I am giving five stars to the collection based solely on the first two films. the third and fourth can be lamented and tossed away. but definitely keep the first two films of this collection as some of the best superhero films ever created, especially the first one.

Rating:

- The First 2 are the best
This set sounds pretty cool, the first 2 movies are must owns but part 3 and 4 are barely watchable. The tornadoe on the Wizard of Oz is more realistic than the one in Superman 4. Plus on part 3, it trys to be funny meanwhile the story is too dark to find funny or even take seriously. Richard Pryer is the only good thing about that one. Part one has fun special effects and Christopher Reeve and Kidder have great chemestry. Good movie but it's part 2 that is no doubt the best because it builds up on how the 2 feel about each other. Plus it has the best Villain of the 3 movies. Terrence Stamp is just fantastic as Zard and part 3 and 4 just couldn't top him villain wise. Part 2 no doubt needs a special edition released though. Other than that part 3 and 4 aren't really even worth owning honestly.

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