Superman: The Movie 4K UHD (1978)

[doover]

If the 5.1 represents the original sound design of the 70mm six-track Dolby Stereo, why does it contain the end-credit music from the Donner version where it had to be extended to accommodate the SE credits?

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by doover

If the 5.1 represents the original sound design of the 70mm six-track Dolby Stereo, why does it contain the end-credit music from the Donner version where it had to be extended to accommodate the SE credits?

I don't think there was any extension to the end-credit music for the SE vs. the theatrical version, and I don't recall there being any additional credits for the SE.

[HunterTech]

Originally Posted by doover

If the 5.1 represents the original sound design of the 70mm six-track Dolby Stereo, why does it contain the end-credit music from the Donner version where it had to be extended to accommodate the SE credits?

Originally Posted by KC-Technerd

I don't think there was any extension to the end-credit music for the SE vs. the theatrical version, and I don't recall there being any additional credits for the SE.

There is a card after the credits that list the team that worked on the 2000 expanded version. Comparing both audio mixes and the original recording, the extension of the cue isn't on the 70mm 5.1 track, so he might perhaps be mistaken a bit.

[KC-Technerd]

^Thanks. I'll have to look at it again.

[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.

[fighthefutureofhd]

I don't get what all the fuss is over the Krypton suits. They looked as punchy and white as ever on my screen. I didn't notice any yellowing livering going on.

[Geoff D]

Their faces look completely drained of colour to me which is one reason why I hate the look of the Council scene on the UHD.

[fighthefutureofhd]

I don't know about their faces. I was only looking at the suits. I forgot about their faces. I'll have to look at that again the next time I watch it.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Their faces look completely drained of colour to me which is one reason why I hate the look of the Council scene on the UHD.

They didn't seem that way for me - though they've never been pink & rosy cheeked in any version that I can recall.

[Geoff D]

I compared that scene to all three extant Blu-rays (theatrical, SE and TV cut) and their faces are far more colourful in all of them.

[fighthefutureofhd]

I didn't notice any rosy cheeks or anything before on Blu-ray. I think it's television. You must not have it calibrated well. Or you probably don't own an OLED, which is your problem right there. You have to have OLED and good calibration. There's nothing wrong with the transfer. It's your TV.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I compared that scene to all three extant Blu-rays (theatrical, SE and TV cut) and their faces are far more colourful in all of them.

Same. Those council shots and some of the Luther stuff are the best examples of the "what the hell happened to the color and gamma?" issue. Reviewers seem to think the movie was shot that way, but the Luther stuff especially seems odd because in one shot he'll look normal, then in another shot it's grey flat city.

[Geoff D]

Yeah, I mentioned several times in the run-up to this UHD that it was shot a certain way blah blah blah but people are using that as a catch-all to explain away this transfer's problems (as people often do when a less than stellar source is given a less than stellar mastering and/or encoding) and it's just not the case, not for all of it. There's deffo something else going on.

[edit] Given how odd it looks I almost wish that this WAS the special edition cut with the extended scenes and redone opticals & dupe sections.

[Agent Kay]

Well watched yesterday and it's all kinds of lovely, some scenes are a little dark and I am still pissed it's a lossy 5.1 track but it works for me

[Bourne1886]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

I don't get what all the fuss is over the Krypton suits. They looked as punchy and white as ever on my screen. I didn't notice any yellowing livering going on.

I agree that the suits looked good,but the faces were poor.

[rubystone356]

I only have a projector that is 1080P.. the picture was a bit dark. once I set the gamma to 2.2 instead of 2.4.. then it worked much better. you might want to try that.

Jacob

[tcripe]

Watching this rn for the first time in my life. And, I gotta say this is the softest looking 4K Blu Ray I’ve seen.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by tcripe

Watching this rn for the first time in my life. And, I gotta say this is the softest looking 4K Blu Ray I’ve seen.

Geoffrey Unsworth purposefully chose to shoot in a diffuse manner for a more dreamlike/fantasy quality. It was not supposed to be tack sharp.

[GasmaskAvenger]

I got the complete Superman: The Movie experience in my possession now.



EDIT: Haven't watched the 4K UHD yet, but out of all of the three 1080p discs i'm sampled, I found the PQ for the Extended Cut to be the most pleasing for me.

[Bolty]

As someone who will only watch the 151 cut going forward I am glad I didn't break down and buy this just because it would "look so much better."