Well, Friday night I was able to visit a Wal-Mart for the purpose of purchasing the “Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition”, which the Wal-Mart website read was carried by Wal-Mart. It wasn’t. At least, it wasn’t at the store I went to. I made due with the last copy of Superman II: The Donner Cut (widescreen of course) they had in stock and one of the remaining widescreen editions of Superman Returns.
I was disappointed in the Superman Returns because it didn’t have any special features! I was really counting on seeing all those shot that were in the trailers but not in the theatrical release. Apparently, the marketing for Superman Returns includes standard movie, which I bought, and a separate “special edition”. So, I spent 40+ dollars instead of the 70 bucks I had planned, but I didn’t get nearly everything I wanted.
It’s not so bad. The whole reason I was even there that night was because my little sister was leaving her kids at Grandma’s house for the weekend and didn’t want to come up all the way. It’s sort of the halfway point.
Anyway, my sister saw that I was contemplating buying the Superman Returns movie and mentioned that if I did buy it and later found the collection I had gone for, that she would buy Superman Returns from me. So, I agreed. Today she phoned from Target where she had found the “Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition” and I told her to get it. It was indeterminate whether the collection contained the regular Superman Returns or the special edition, she’ll be here tomorrow with both the collection and a separate special edition copy of Superman Returns. 🙂
According to my information, which is from the Wal-Mart website, the “Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition” does not come with the special edition of Superman Returns, so I just told her to get both and bring the receipt. So, as of tomorrow, I will have spent about a hundred and forty dollars on the Superman Movies. Which is about as much as all the movies sell for individually. Only, I’ll have three copies of Superman Returns. :-s Hmmmn.
At any rate, Superman II: The Donner Cut was way awesome! Although, there were a few scenes form Lester’s version that I think would have made the movie more enjoyable. And, they still left out a few good scenes that I would have liked to see in the cut; like both times Lex left the Fortress of Solitude, the first time after he finds out about the three Krypton bad guys, the second time under arrest. Were I to edit the film I’d cut out the whole time travel ending and leave it the same as the other version right after Superman drops off Lois. Oh, and I’d cut the shot were Superman vaporises the Fortress of Solitude. So, my ending would be Donner’s ending with Lex getting arrested, cut the vaporization, Lois being dropped off, cut the flying around the world, finish with Lester’s kiss of forgetness, the whitehouse scene, and then back to Donner’s café and the rest. Roll credits.
Super Returns was a might better on the T.V. screen, but not as much as I had hoped. The movie was filmed so claustrophobic, at times it actually seemed as though the top and bottom was actually cropped out to give the appearance of a letterbox movie. That really is my only complaint about that movie. Usually when a film maker choses the widescreen format, it’s because he wants to get as much visual candy as possible. I can’t understand why Singer would zoom in on all these shots in way that actually removes the action from the frame. I can’t stand all the close-ups with all those heads and chins lobbed off. I mean one of the best parts about letterbox frames is the ability to have a standard close-up and all the location or even two close-ups in one frame. I don’t remember the X-Men being that bad or the Usual Suspects, or any other Brian Singer movie that I have seen.
