Superman: The Movie 4K UHD (1978)

[Tok]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Why lossy and not lossless? It would be a waste of space and no better (possibly worse) than the 640kbps DD track. There's a reason most video companies, except Universal, use DD for the secondary tracks to a lossless DTS-MA track. They sound good and take up very little space, especially compared to lossy DTS.

I won’t be happy unless it’s 448kbps Dolby Digital… 😂

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Tok

I’m not arguing about it. Just saying that a lot depends how well the archives are maintained. WB management has rolled over several times since the SE was created. I’m not hoping that they can’t do better but the current disc is not unwatchable like some want others to believe. Perhaps they will eventually release an updated version since the current disc was rather early in 4K Blu’s lifecycle.

Warners are not the Salkinds. They know the value of their archive and treat it accordingly. This is not some long lost film, there's reams of stuff in the Warners vaults and nothing has happened to the STM C roll in the meantime.

The current disc is not "unwatchable" and no-one said it was, but it's a deeply flawed transfer in certain spots and those spots were/are ENTIRELY avoidable if they'd used the alternative roll...just like they did for the previous Blu-ray transfer of the theatrical. Not just that, practically every other modern transfer of a movie of this age (and older!) has done exactly this kind of remedial work, using other sources to patch a creaky, dupey OG negative.

It's been rumoured that the STM disc in the new UHD boxset will be a newly colour timed version which is precisely why there's this fevered speculation about what it will/won't contain, i.e. will they have the sense to properly fix it up for 4K? I hope so.

[punisher]

deeply flawed???.....gimme a break

[starmike]

Originally Posted by punisher

deeply flawed???.....gimme a break

In certain spots. Not the whole thing.

[By_His_Strypes]

I was reading some thoughts about Christopher Reeve portraying Clark Kent as a bumbling idiot, therefore it not being a good portrayal. I don't know, I think it worked wonderfully, it had many people fooled, so much so they couldn't possibly believe he was Superman. Clark was always aware, it was simply an act to hide his identity. I liked it.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by starmike

In certain spots. Not the whole thing.

Forget it Mike, it's punishertown

[starmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Forget it Mike, it's punishertown

I don't see a deed to the place that says so 😁

[punisher]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Forget it Mike, it's punishertown

yeah Mike..listen to the youtuber...he "knows" everything about every disc, every movie ever made....and he has the followers to prove it...not to mention he speaks for the dead ,aka Kubrick

Don't go away mad Geoff..just go away

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by punisher

yeah Mike..listen to the youtuber...he "knows" everything about every disc, every movie ever made....and he has the followers to prove it...not to mention he speaks for the dead ,aka Kubrick

Don't go away mad Geoff..just go away

luv u too hun xxx

[Dr. T]

Originally Posted by punisher

deeply flawed???.....gimme a break

They screwed up the main titles, which is almost a deal breaker for me, since it's one of the great opening titles. Thankfully the 6-track mix softens the blow, but really, how does that get through?

I thought the 2018 disc would be the last word on Superman: The Movie. I'm glad they're going back to it. This is a great opportunity to get it right.

[starmike]

It's one frame. Granted, it shouldn't have happened, but I wouldn't call the release "deeply flawed" because of that.

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by starmike

It's one frame. Granted, it shouldn't have happened, but I wouldn't call the release "deeply flawed" because of that.

I'd call it deeply flawed for other reasons

[david_blu]

Originally Posted by starmike

It's one frame. Granted, it shouldn't have happened, but I wouldn't call the release "deeply flawed" because of that.

This is what is wrong with the current disc, my original review of the 2018 4k disc upon release.

Originally Posted by david_blu

Finally got around to putting up my review of the new 4K UHD of Superman the Movie.

Not pleased with it.

While I do see some improvement in some scenes there are some howling errors that just ruin this for me. I don't have the ability to post 4k screen grabs so you'll have to do some AB comparisons yourself to the Theatrical Blu Ray.

First off the good:

New restored sound mix is nice, dialogue track is so clear listen to some of the Daily Planet stuff or Lex in his hideout and compare to the Blu Ray it is much better. Also great removing all those annoying new sounds they added in the modern mix.


Now the Bad:

The following are scenes that look way worse than the blu ray:

The titles, the more cyany looking title highlights have returned whilst they were more blue looking on the Blu Ray now the inner highlights are more cyan than the Theatrical Blu Ray.

Krypton Council: punchy white suits gone, they all need a liver change due to how yellow they all look

Smallville stuff looks good colour wise but no definition on anything the hazy looks as some have called it.

First shot of Metropolis street through taxi lacking colour.

Lex in the viewing room seeing the cop get catch the train, I can see the project leader here saying "we cant have red shadows on the view screen in UHD make it black" So here we drop the red shadow and now the whole scene looks devoid of red.

Chapter 20 the Helicopter rescue, Clark walks out of the Daily Planet whistling its a grey World after all, what happened compare to the Blu Ray.

This is further highlighted by the laughable change in colour of the street before Clark looks at the phone booth and then immediately after, hello Yellow. No quality control here obviously.

My most annoying change, the first part of Supes take off, not the overhead but the shot of Supes on the left of frame just after excuse me. This has to be the worst colour I have seen of this shot in 40 years across all formats. Honestly compare the colour of his costume here to any previous version and tell me it looks correct.

Start Chapter 21 and Supes flying over the city after saving Lois. Supes is now flying over Matrixopolis, GREEN lights for the city. They used to be just about borderline green/yellow now full on green.

After 40 years still cant get right Supes taking off from Lois' balcony before Clark turns up to make it match the shot before. Even though one is a projection you can still make them nearer each other than they are.

Lois car is pink/red/less red,bright pink?

Supes tunneling into to the gauntlet, the transition looks better but now his cape looks orangey red on landing not bright red.

Lex's hideout now doesnt match the de red version from earlier and is back to normal, ok good but not consistent.

Supes taking off from Lois to change the World back his suit is now a lovely shade of Cyan again despite most other versions making this the blue it should look great oversight.

The clouds: So now Supes looks like a cut and paste over the clouds this is new but they have got rid of the yellow on the left handside that plagued this scene and fixed one arm to be really blue as he flies into the clouds.

The shot of Supes flying over land whilst Lois is saying "who knows some day if he's lucky" so this looks worst than it has ever looked before.

Lastly this doesnt appear to be as sharp as the blu ray.

All in all, the bad outweigh the good massively, I am seeing errors on here never seen before, how can anyone in the industry give this 10/10 based on the errors I have explained above.

It might be a great 4k master in terms of technical babble but not in terms of what Superman should look like.

I miss the red, they could have manipulated the highlights without completely removing the red in places.

5/10 I cannot possibly recommend this title.

Please WB review the shots I have stated above and fix for the next release.

[dubhousing]

Originally Posted by By_His_Strypes

I was reading some thoughts about Christopher Reeve portraying Clark Kent as a bumbling idiot, therefore it not being a good portrayal. I don't know, I think it worked wonderfully, it had many people fooled, so much so they couldn't possibly believe he was Superman. Clark was always aware, it was simply an act to hide his identity. I liked it.

I know Superman III is derided by some, and it's certainly a flawed film. However, Christopher Reeve's performance in the film is remarkable. Along with playing two Supermen, he also basically plays two Clark Kents. In Metropolis (briefly at the start and end of the film), he's bumbling Clark, as usual. In Smallville, though, Reeve plays Clark as more relaxed and confident, probably because Clark has no need to protect his identity in a small prairie town not known to be frequented by Superman.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by starmike

It's one frame. Granted, it shouldn't have happened, but I wouldn't call the release "deeply flawed" because of that.

He didn’t say it was “deeply flawed” just because of one frame, he was offering an example. But it’s certainly indicative of the sloppiness of the work that was done: then there’s the horribly dim, yellow-faced grading of the Krypton Council scenes, the garbage mattes around baby Kal’s ship which I’ve never seen on any prior version because they set the gamma too low here, fizzing posterised noise in the highlights in several scenes, the terribad dupe neg used in the Luthor’s Lair bit with Supes and the Kryptonite (even the goddamned TV version Blu-ray uses a far betterer source for that shot), the thick vertical bands on the iconic sunrise shot at the end. It’s so rough in spots it’s almost like an “unrestored” (© C. Nolan) version.

Some peoples would say that that’s just the source being creaky as all hell and they’d be right, but given the amount of tweakery that happens as a matter of routine to new transfers of Old Movies - especially those as singularly iconic as this is - then it came as something of a shock. Doubly so when you realise that there’s a roll of film sitting right there in the vault that would take care of several of these issues, it’s so weird how Warners are just ignoring the STM SE as if it never existed.

[punisher]

I don't recall all this "hate" for Superman in 4K. I know I liked it and so did a lot of others. I could be wrong..that being said....there's only so many times some people here can cry wolf before it becomes ridiculous..like EVERY F>>>>ING RELEASE. ...

[By_His_Strypes]

Originally Posted by punisher

I don't recall all this "hate" for Superman in 4K. I know I liked it and so did a lot of others. I could be wrong..that being said....there's only so many times some people here can cry wolf before it becomes ridiculous..like EVERY F>>>>ING RELEASE. ...

I only remember a lot of complains about the transfer. I held off buying it because of reading such complaints.

[punisher]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It's gonna look soft, it's gonna look hazy and that's exactly what it should be. There will be lots of complaints about it, but only because people don't respond well to this sort of look when buying a 4K that they expect will blow their tits off. At least it's got dat Atmos doe

poor Geoff..his memory must be slipping...

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by punisher

poor Geoff..his memory must be slipping...

Reading comprehension is a hell of a thing, what is it with some people in this thread that makes them especially dense?

I haven’t made any complaints about the underlying “look” of the movie at all, Geoffrey Unsworth’s diffuse photography is mostly well served and that aspect comes through nicely on the 4K transfer. It’s the other stuff that I mentioned which undermined my enjoyment of it and has done since day 1, you’re welcome to trawl back through the thread to find and quote my review posts seeing as you went to the trouble of finding that, uh, zinger. thanks sweetie xxx

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by punisher

poor Geoff..his memory must be slipping...

You’re taking a quote out of context from his review about the general look of the film and how it was shot, not from the list of problems he had with the transfer that had nothing to do with that.

Here’s hoping the new disc corrects at least some of those problems.