Superman is probably my favorite superhero movie. I watched it many times as a kid, and when I watched it as an adult I also enjoyed the production aspects of it thanks to the DVD: how they made him fly, how much money was spent and the relationship between the director and the producers.

My fondness of Superman prompted me to get this uber collection of everything related to the Superman movies, a 13 discs collection that contains tons of extra material, as well as other incarnations of the Man of Steel. I had already seen all the movies previous to this release, but there are some items that I couldn’t refuse to have.

First of all the Donner Cut of Superman II, then the old Flescher animated series. And also the many documentaries about the character.

Let’s break down this collection:

Superman The Movie: the first 4 discs are all dedicated to the first movie. As I said, this may be my favorite superhero movie of all time. Not the one I consider the best (that would be X-Men 2 or Spider-Man 2 or Batman Begins), but the one I prefer to re-watch. The first 3/4 of the movie are perfect. You have the ice cold Krypton, then the countryside Smallville, and finally the busy Metropolis. Christopher Reeves is absolutely perfect in both Superman and Clark’s roles. Margot Kidder is a fun and enthusiastic Lois, who falls in love with Superman. I am not completely sold on Luthor by Gene Hackman, he was a little bit too goofy for me tastes. Even though Otis was very funny, it still felt a little bit too much. And yes, the ending sucks, almost like a “it was all a dream” ending; but that ending allowed for a very touching and surprising scene: the death of Lois. Great dramatic performance by Reeve, again.
Rating: 4 Stars

• Disc 1 contains the original theatrical cut of the movie from 1978, including a new audio commentary by the film’s producers, Pierre Spengler and Ilya Salkind.
• Disc 2 is the extended cut that was released previously on DVD, including the great commentary by director Richard Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz.
• Disc 3 is the extra features from that same DVD edition. These extras are very interesting, especially for people who don’t know the history behind the production of the movie.
• Disc 4 contains new material: the vintage The Making of Superman: The Movie; the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men (a very old looking and almost cheesy Superman, I couldn’t watch it all); the first nine of the original Fleischer animated Superman shorts, I remember watching these as a kid and enjoying them. Looking at them now I am amazed by the artist quality of it, it just looks beautiful, almost like a painting coming to life.

Superman II: the next 3 discs are about the second movie. Having dealt with the origin in the first one, this movie could focus on a new story, in this case the 3 Kryptonian villains. Lois finds out Superman’s secret, and Superman gives up his powers for her. Which I found hard to understand. Why does it have to give up being Superman? He can do both! The scenes with the villains were fun, although the effects look dated today. But when Superman comes back to fight them is still a rush for me. I hated that they showed some random powers in the Fortress of Solitude, that never made sense to me. And the S thrown by Superman looked really bad. Overall a fun movie, but it lacked the magic of the first one.
Rating: 3 Stars

• Disc 5 is the original theatrical release of the movie, with commentary by the producers and deleted scenes.
• Disc 6 is the new Richard Donner Cut, which is the main reason I wanted this set. This cut does make more sense than the other one, tying it up closely with the first movie. Simply put, Richard Lester was hired to complete the movie after the producers fired Donner. However Donner already shot most of the movie, so Lester had to re-write and re-shoot a big chunk of it. Lester took some of the original scenes and re-wrote the same scenes with different places and slightly different setting. But the end result of the scene is the same. Also he took out all Marlon Brando scenes, and inserted scenes with Kara and some anonymous member of the Krypton council. Donner’s cut is better, but it is not really complete. If he hadn’t been fired he could have continued to make good Superman movies for a long time.
• Disc 7 contains the vintage The Making of Superman II, the Superman: 50th Anniversary TV special, and the remaining eight remastered Fleischer shorts, completing the collection.

Superman III & IV: the next two discs are the remaining Christopher Reeves movies.

• Disc 8 is the third movie, and it also contains a new commentary with Spengler and Salkind, the vintage The Making of Superman III TV special, new deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer. I watched this movie in the theater, and it was ok. Rewatching it I really hate it, because this was more a Richard Pryor movie than a Superman movie. I just hate it. The only redeeming factors are the Smallville scenes, where we meet Annette O’Toole who is now playing Martha Kent in the Smallville TV show; and the fight between Superman/Clark and the evil Superman. It was great to see Reeves evil portrayal of Superman. Rating: 2 Stars
• Disc 9 is the forth movie, which also includes a new audio commentary with screenwriter Mark Rosenthal, along with new deleted scenes and the film’s trailer. This movie was a total mistake, and it sank the Superman franchise for many many years. I didn’t find any redeeming qualities in this movie at all. Rating: 1 Stars

Superman Returns: these two discs are dedicated to the new Bryan Singer movie.

• Disc 10 is the movie without any extras. All space is dedicated to video and audio quality, which is not disappointing at all.
• Disc 11 contains all the extras: deleted scenes (not extraordinary), a brief video on resurrecting Brando’s performance as Jor-El, and an easter egg showing many takes of the “Wrong!” line by Luthor. But the meat of this disc is the 3 hours documentary Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns. This chronicles the production of this epic movie from casting to final release. We follow the cast and crew through the various sets and locations, and see plenty of behind the scenes footage. At times Singer and the crew are “performing” for the DVD crew, which I personally didn’t find amusing. I want to know how life on the set is, and not be entertained by them. Although one could argue that that is actually what happens on set. A great documentary nonetheless, and a must see for fans of the “behind the scenes”.

More Documentaries: the last two discs contain other feature length documentaries about the Superman character and movies in general.

• Disc 12 contains the documentary Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman. This was produced by Bryan Singer and it chronicles Superman’s history from the printed page to the TV and the movies. This is very well done, as it explains Superman’s popularity related to American history. Since I had no idea of the various TV incarnations before the 1978 movie, I learned a lot from this doc. The later years, including the movies and TV shows have less time dedicated to them, but I knew more about them so I wasn’t bothered by it.
• Disc 13 is another great documentary: You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman. This is a new documentary about the Superman movies, and it features new interviews with almost everyone involved. In particular we get the perspective of the producers, the Salkinds, which I had never seen in interviews before. One of his point is that Superman III made money, but it was only because of the inertia of the first two movies. At that point it was a successful franchise, but it doesn’t mean that III was a good movie. There are other features including one on the mythology of Superman, as well as the aforementioned Snafuperman short, the Super-Rabbit and Stupor Duck Looney Tunes shorts and the never-before-seen 1958 The Adventures of Super Pup TV pilot in its entirety. The tribute to Christopher Reeve features many of his friends and colleagues praising him and talking about working with him. I wished they could have made a biographic documentary about Reeves life and work, that would have been more interesting.

This set contains everything you wanted to possess about the Superman movies. Noticeable extras are the feature length documentaries, the remastered Fleischer animated Superman shorts, the Superman II Donner Cut. Well worth it.