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Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition - Page 2

post #51 of 81
11/30/06 at 3:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Draracle
LOL, right, youtube

its a 4.2 gig iso file. Can I upload 4.2 gigs? Can it play ISO?
Lots of people upload big feature-length files in sections. Not ideal but it's commonly done. Beyond that, I have no idea what's involved. But it might worth looking into.
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post #52 of 81
11/30/06 at 9:47am
I'm fast becoming tempted to take a crack at this myself.

I've got a lot of free time next week and a copy of Final Cut. Meditate on this I will.
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post #53 of 81
11/30/06 at 3:20pm
I wonder if they did do a last minute recall of this..I was able to find one in Target Tuesday morning, but haven't seen any anywhere since.
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post #54 of 81
11/30/06 at 3:40pm
No recalls, far as I know. They are making the new discs, but it'll be like the Back To the Future debacle a few years back, where they'll just slowly phase out the old discs through new shipments. The only way to tell the difference will be through the UPC.
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post #55 of 81
11/30/06 at 10:50pm
So, it's been two days now and I haven't heard back (we'll call you back in 24 hours) so this whole thing seems to be going very gracefully.
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post #56 of 81
11/30/06 at 11:25pm
Call back? I just gave them my address and they said they're sending a pre-paid envelope. Weird.
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post #57 of 81
12/1/06 at 3:12am
What the hell. Fucking WB.

Well over dvdtalk people are saying various things. Sometimes they take your name and number and say they'll call back. Sometimes they take your address. One person said the woman he talked to said they still don't know what the hell they're doing so some people are doing one thing and some are doing the other. I'm gonna call 'em tomorrow and do some yellin.
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post #58 of 81
12/3/06 at 12:11am
Got it as a birthday present today......Probably won't watch any of it until tomorrow since I just got home from my parents and some friends are coming over for some serious drinking and cards.......Might put Superman returns on in the background.
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post #59 of 81
12/3/06 at 3:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fatboy Roberts
I dug it, myself. There's an economy to the film now (forced as it may be due to lack of footage in some instances) that makes it run at a nice clip as opposed to the bloated theatrical Superman II (and equally bloated Superman: The Movie)

Plus, it seems to fit, tonally, much better with Superman the Movie than the more polished theatrical cut did. I think it's a better movie even with it's mildly unfinished nature and it's questionable effects (the 1980 effects for the sequel were pretty shitty too, so the mix of shitty effects didn't really pull me out of anything while watching) than the theatrical Lester, which traded in some of the emotional honesty of the first film for padded slapstick and goofy tongue in cheek blah-blah.

For example, I don't mind losing the "I'll never let you down" crap with the President. That bit of flick always felt like Lester more smirking at flag-waving jingoism of the character than an honest moment. The movie isn't really about Superman as America's Protector anyway, it's about Superman choosing to be Superman. This cut focuses on that idea a lot more strongly than the Lester cut did.

Thau has a serious problem with transitions, though, and it tends to kneecap the film's attempt at looking more finished than it can be. There's gotta be a better way to glue together some of these sequences than clumsy fade-outs.
I agree with this assessment. As fragmented and incomplete as it feels in places, I'd still place it above Lester's film. No goofy comedy bullshit, no made-up new powers, and the return of Brando. It finally feels of a piece with the first film.

And by the way, the ending with Supes delivering the new flag to the White House doesn't even work anymore, what with the new ending. I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it, but a new flag seems pretty unnecessary.

It was really eerie seeing new Reeve/Kidder stuff, by the way. It gave a surreal feeling to the whole thing that I'm hoping will settle down in future viewings. It's too bad they couldn't commission a new score instead of hacking up Williams' cues from the first movie, as that's part of what lends the thing a fragmentary feel. It's still better than Ken Thorne's high school marching band, though.
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post #60 of 81
12/4/06 at 1:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thatgumyoulike
I wonder if they did do a last minute recall of this..I was able to find one in Target Tuesday morning, but haven't seen any anywhere since.
I was wondering about a recall as well. I went to Circuit City Wednesday and couldn't find a copy of the Ulitmate Edition OR Superman III. They had everthing else. I could understand the Ultimate Edition being sold out but c'mon, who in their right mind would by Superman III by itself?
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post #61 of 81
12/7/06 at 12:19am
Had a hard time finding the set as well, went to five stores (Best Buy, Circuit City, Borders, KMart, Target) on Friday before finding a copy at the local FYE. $10 more than everyone else, but there was a rebate covering the difference in price and I didn't feel like playing the hunting game when the price was probably going to go up this week anyway.

I don't think there's a recall. I did read The Digital Bits mention that some retailers are taking their copies off the shelves until new ones arrive (next week, I think).

It's a nice set, and I figured the extra $10 was worth the difference between waiting for an online order and having it now.
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post #62 of 81
12/7/06 at 1:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David
I agree with this assessment. As fragmented and incomplete as it feels in places, I'd still place it above Lester's film. No goofy comedy bullshit, no made-up new powers, and the return of Brando. It finally feels of a piece with the first film.

And by the way, the ending with Supes delivering the new flag to the White House doesn't even work anymore, what with the new ending. I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it, but a new flag seems pretty unnecessary.

It was really eerie seeing new Reeve/Kidder stuff, by the way. It gave a surreal feeling to the whole thing that I'm hoping will settle down in future viewings. It's too bad they couldn't commission a new score instead of hacking up Williams' cues from the first movie, as that's part of what lends the thing a fragmentary feel. It's still better than Ken Thorne's high school marching band, though.

I only got to watch the pre-credit sequence and it was amazing. Some of the effects are very cheap, but they get the job done. Cool.
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post #63 of 81
12/9/06 at 3:06am
I've only dug through some of the set's features, but the You Will Believe doc is fantastic. The way Stamp and O'Halloran share stories makes me wish that they had gotten together a few of the surviving actors and recorded another commentary for SII.

I've heard the new commentaries are not that good. Donner/Mankiewicz are apparently overly bitter (no surprise), while the Salkind commentaries are a bit on the moronic side. Thoughts?
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post #64 of 81
12/9/06 at 8:57am
All I want to know is when the corrected sets are going to be in the stores/online. I've been itching to pick this thing up and actually kept telling myself to preorder it but then I read the news on the error and was glad I didn't. It should be neat to see S:TM in its theatrical cut and original sound mix. Ever since the debacle with the star wars dvd's, preservation of a movie's original version seems that much more important. It's been a while since I saw SII, I think it was Sci Fi Channel's 5th anniversary marathon way back in '97. It's been much longer than that since I've seen III and IV.
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post #65 of 81
12/9/06 at 7:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Barg
I've only dug through some of the set's features, but the You Will Believe doc is fantastic. The way Stamp and O'Halloran share stories makes me wish that they had gotten together a few of the surviving actors and recorded another commentary for SII.

I've heard the new commentaries are not that good. Donner/Mankiewicz are apparently overly bitter (no surprise), while the Salkind commentaries are a bit on the moronic side. Thoughts?
I haven't heard the Salkind commentary yet, but I wouldn't characterize the Donner/Mankiewicz one as "overly bitter". It's just bitter enough, really, and they certainly have their reasons, but that tone doesn't dominate the track. In places, Donner is actually more diplomatic about the differences between his and Lester's approaches than I've heard before, though he does rail a bit toward the end. It's kind of a shame we couldn't get a commentary from Lester, though I'm not a fan of his contributions.
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post #66 of 81
12/9/06 at 8:21pm
I kinda got the vibe through the bonus features that Lester chose to just quietly slink into the shadows while his work on both Superman II and III consistently gets torn a new one through the set.

By the way, the commentary on Superman IV is definitely worth a listen. Problem productions always yield the best stories.
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post #67 of 81
12/12/06 at 1:57am
Lester's retirement was self-imposed. During the making of Return of the Musketeers, in 1988, an actor was killed on set after falling from a horse. When the movie wrapped Lester vowed never to direct again.

Which is really a shame, he's a fantastic director, he contributed greatly to Superman the Movie and parts of II and it's not his fault entirely that III blows donkeys. He was a hired hand and did what he was told.

His 60's work with the Beatles is brilliant and his 70's Musketeer films are tons of fun.

I saw S2 over the weekend and dig it lots. The Brando stuff is fantastic and the dumb jokes are all gone.

I have two suggestions that would make the film perfect however; lose the time travel ending and replace the screen test scene with the newlywed hotel scene, the latter was better acted and their hairstyles don't change from shot to shot.
I can live with everything else. Some of the FX could be fixed, but it's by no means a dealbreak or a trainwreck.
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post #68 of 81
12/12/06 at 2:38am
I really never liked the reveal scene in the honeymoon suite, though. Superman stumbling and dropping his hand in the fire? I think not. That never worked for me.

What would have been nice was if they had been given enough money to do CG work to extend the makeshift set and fix Reeve's hair to match the other shots.

As for the time travel ending, it just comes across as repetetive now. If they hadn't used that ending for the first one, it would be a decent ending, though. My one complaint is that including the diner scene at the end makes no sense now. Isn't he just walking into a diner and picking on a random asshole?
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post #69 of 81
12/12/06 at 3:23am
I don't mind the hotel scene since it's his way of letting Clark tell her who he really is.

Agreed on the screen test stuff.

Yes, the ending should have been minus the time travel and on the diner scene. It worked in the Lester cut and now it just comes across as just Superman getting his revenge instead of the asshole getting his comeuppance.

When the owner says, "I just had this place fixed"...from what?

Lose the time travel scene and the film works aces. As odd as the screen test scene is, I love the pay-off, the look on Clark's face is priceless.

Aside from that I love it. It will be the one I watch in future viewings. The films best asset is the nixing of the dumb jokes, especially in the "Houston" stuff.

Still, there is still tons of footage missing. The scene where Non kills a kid riding a horse to get away from the baddies. More fighting stuff.
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post #70 of 81
12/12/06 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crow
I kinda got the vibe through the bonus features that Lester chose to just quietly slink into the shadows while his work on both Superman II and III consistently gets torn a new one through the set.

By the way, the commentary on Superman IV is definitely worth a listen. Problem productions always yield the best stories.
Got to agree with the Superman IV comment. The film could have been so much better than the final product, even in its shabby form is still better than Superman III...

And with the repeat of Superman turning the world back, with the new edition of Superman II - does anyone have a better idea of how they could have wrapped up the movie....
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post #71 of 81
12/13/06 at 3:39am
The first or second? Part 2 should have ended with Supes beating up the bully or one scene earlier with Lois saying "good-bye."

I think the first film was originally set to end on a cliffhanger, but Richard Lester suggested they kill Lois and Supes go back in time.
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post #72 of 81
12/13/06 at 5:05am
I think SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT should have ended with the unused Arctic Police scene, no time reversal, followed by Lois and Supes on her balcony, then Clark beating up Rocky -- "Oh...I've been working out." -- cut to Supes flying over the Earth. Done.

Save the S2 time reversal for the deleted scenes.
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post #73 of 81
12/13/06 at 5:35am
Shit! I forgot about the artic police bit. The scene where Non kills the boy riding off on a horse is MIA too. Tons of other stuff. I assume the negatives for said footage is missing?
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post #74 of 81
12/13/06 at 7:28am
Nearly 16 days and I still haven't received the envelopes to return my dvds. Good to see how on top of this WB is. Meanwhile people who are buying the UC in stores now are getting the corrected Superman III dvd.
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post #75 of 81
12/13/06 at 12:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by General Zod
Shit! I forgot about the artic police bit.

It's a deleted scene on the dvd.
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post #76 of 81
12/13/06 at 11:44pm
Howdy, gang. Does anyone know if the corrected sets have a different UPC than the original (0-1256981912-2)? I'd like to give the set as a gift, but I'd hate for the recipient to have to deal with prepaid envelopes from WHV. I called the 800 number on Warner's site, but when I explained the issue and asked them they had no information available.
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post #77 of 81
12/14/06 at 1:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wadew1
It's a deleted scene on the dvd.

Cool, thanks. I watched the flick at a friends house and didn't get to puruse the extras.
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post #78 of 81
12/16/06 at 4:38am
Apparently they found six tons of footage when digging through various worldwide vaults for the new SII stuff, so just about everything shot was found. The scene with the boy isn't a deleted scene, but it's incorporated into one of the docs: either You Will Believe or the restoration one on the Donner S2 disc.

I agree with Litmus on the ending: use the Arctic Police stuff, then end it with "up, up and away". No, I take that back: I'd go Arctic Police/destruction of Fortress/Supes and Lois' goodbye, then end with the new Daily Planet stuff - 'you know, you're really super'. Hackman gets a nice sendoff, and Lois knows. Better than reused time-travel and beating up the bully.
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post #79 of 81
12/16/06 at 5:10am
It's amazing how people can work years on a project and not make it work, yet I've seen on these very boards half a dozen options on how to make the ending better. Too close they can't see it, perhaps? Strangeness.
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post #80 of 81
12/19/06 at 7:29am
Received my pre-stamped envelope to send back the Superman 1 and 3 discs finally. The address it seems to be going to is like maybe a 35 minute drive from my house. I wish that meant that it would only take a day for me to get my replacement discs, like netflix, but I somehow think its going to take WB much longer to fix this blunder.
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post #81 of 81
1/22/07 at 5:08pm
Got the replacement discs today. All is right with the world.

Haven't listened to the commentary all the way through yet, but hearing Ilya Salkind try his best to avoid falling on the sword for Superman III is high comedy.
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