Notes
Story Synopsis:
Jor-El (Brando) knows that his planet, Krypton, will soon to be destroyed, so he decides to send his infant son to the distant planet Earth where he will be safe. Taken in by the Kent family, the young boy, now named Clark, begins to discover he possesses some unusual powers. Knowing he must hide these powers from the mere mortals on Earth, he becomes a man of two identities: the mild mannered reporter for the daily planet, and the most versatile good guy ever...Superman! Christopher Reeve is dashing as the man of steel. The film won an Oscar® for visual effects. This DVD-18 disc offers a newly edited 151-minute cut of the film--eight minutes longer than the theatrical version. (Laurie Sevano)
DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 DVD exhibits excellent image quality for the film’s age. The DVD picture will undoubtedly satisfy die-hard fans of the film, as well as those who have seen the LaserDisc. The LaserDisc picture appears dark and poorly contrasted, with hazy images and little detail. However, on DVD, the filtered and stylistically soft images exhibit excellent clarity and definition. Contrast is improved to allow for excellent definition, even in the scenes with the Krypton council members and their glowing white costumes. Shadow delineation should satify throughout, with good definition in the darker scenes. Colors are rich and well balanced, and the scenes saturated in deep reds or vibrant blues show no sign of bleeding or chroma noise. Fleshtones are nicely rendered, and blacks are deep and solid. The scenes of Superman flying are crisp and well defined, no doubt due to the extensive restoration of the film. On very rare occasions, edges show minor enhancement, but the picture has a mostly smooth quality. The source element is very clean, with few artifacts and minor film grain revealed at times. Still, the appearance of distracting grain is greatly reduced compared to the LaserDisc. (Suzanne Hodges)
Soundtrack:
The all-new, remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a complete sonic reworking of the original soundtrack (released to select theatres during its initial run in 70mm with split surrounds). For all Superman fans, this will be an absolutely delightful and exciting opportunity to experience the glory of the vintage audio in its latest reincarnation, with full engagement of the holosonic listening space and impressive clarity. This sound mix has been essentially reconstructed from the original elements, along with a re-purposed John Williams music score (which you can experience isolated and in 5.0), new effects, and incorporation of an abundance of deep bass. The impact, breadth and distinctiveness of the component sound effects make their presence right from the opening credits, as you experience the sweeps between the screen and surround soundstages. Fidelity certainly does exhibit signs of the soundtrack’s age, as would be expected, particularly with the music and the dialogue. Nonetheless, the audio has a pleasing-sounding presence to the ears and tonality that seems to be essentially neutral, if only somewhat soft in sonic character (due to the limited frequency range of the original recording). This newly-crafted soundtrack takes effective advantage of both poignant and atmospheric distribution of sound effects, and with the exception of perhaps a few instances, they seem to have been nicely dovetailed into the vintage sonic amalgamation without over-distinction, or sounding "too new." There’s so many instances of effective, sometimes prominent split surround utilization that you simply need to experience the soundtrack for yourself. One notable example is the subtle ambient soundstage in Chapters 2, 4, and 5, as the stereo surrounds, gently engaged justly depict the subtle openness and even quiesecence of the various settings on Planet Krypton. The POV sequence in Chapter 14, as Jor-El introduces himself for the first time to his cape-crusading son is rather interesting, with a creative soundfield generation that is not only downright enveloping, but also distinguished in terms of the shifting of Marlon Brando’s voice and reverberations around the listener. Deep bass is certainly a prominent factor for this film, ranging between ambient rumbles, sometimes extending down to near-25Hz cycles, to moments of sheer impact with distinctive clarity, sub-25Hz bass extension and aggressive engagement of the .1 LFE. This channel nears full-scale intensity with moments such as the explosion of Planet Krypton and the impact of one of the 500-megaton missle bombs on the San Andreas Fault. The music, though dated in fidelity, effectively encircles the listener, and its expansive, immersive nature and John Williams’ signature themes emotionally captivates and engages you with unprecedented poignancy at times. The dialogue is presented with compelling clarity, with natural tonality compromised by the vintage recording. This is certainly one of the superior soundtrack remastering efforts, and the result is a sonic listening experience that is sure to delight and impress new and older generations of Superman fans alike. (Perry Sun)
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