Superman: The Movie 4K UHD (1978)

[spider-neil]

I recently saw Superman: The Movie and was surprised at how good the movie is. It certainly holds up and its reputation is well earned. I can see why some people call this the best CBM ever. Personally, I think that is TDK but I get why some hold this movie as the best.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

Looking at the UHD again... Yeah I think I agree with you on the Krypton scenes.

But the rest of the transfer... Holy moly!

Statistically speaking, the UHD is still the safest way to travel.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Statistically speaking, the UHD is still the safest way to travel.

Do you like pink?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

Do you like pink?

you've lost me.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

you've lost me.

Lois Lane - 'Do you like pink?'
Superman - 'I like pink very much, Lois.'

You quoted Superman and I wanted to play too

[Geoff D]

Paraphrased, not quoted. I recognised the line (from when he super-peeps her undercrackers) but I didn't see what it had to do with the UHD. No worries

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Paraphrased, not quoted. I recognised the line (from when he super-peeps her undercrackers) but I didn't see what it had to do with the UHD. No worries

Yeah, yeah, that line went down like a lead balloon. Sue me

[ditcin]

Truthfully, I seem to remember the Krypton scenes being as presented on the UHD. I remember in the theater (original theatrical release) the costumes were glowing, and much brighter than the faces. Then when I got my Beta edition it had brighter faces - and faces seemed to get brighter with every release after that... laserdisc, DVD, BD.
Even Ilya, the producer and I covered this in our conversations and he just agreed with a, "yes, yes".

[Geoff D]

But that's just it, in the Krypton stuff on the UHD the suits don't look very bright, like at all, and in the quest for dynamic range they've uncovered all that detail in the material but decided to tone down the brightness. And yet the faces still look really subdued and dull for colour in those scenes in 4K, it's so strange.

[ditcin]

It's a shame the person that should have been address concerning the "look" of the film is no longer with us. But the studios have egos and won't even bring other production people from the film for supervision or consultation.

[spider-neil]

I love with Dolby Vision the red of Superman's cape absolutely pops.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by ditcin

It's a shame the person that should have been address concerning the "look" of the film is no longer with us. But the studios have egos and won't even bring other production people from the film for supervision or consultation.

Trouble is, Geoff Unsworth died before he could time the film so it's always been done second hand in that sense.

[david_blu]

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.

Above is what I wrote when I first got it. My opinion hasn't changed, I wish I had the ability for screen caps to demonstrate the above but as a lover of this film for over 30 years I am disappointed by this release and watch the blu ray instead. 😒

[HeavyHitter]

The theatrical BD is definitely too bright and clipped at times. Superman II is even worse; last time I watched it, I had to reduce my contrast level (thus, hurting contrast ratio) to make it more acceptable.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

The theatrical BD is definitely too bright and clipped at times. Superman II is even worse; last time I watched it, I had to reduce my contrast level (thus, hurting contrast ratio) to make it more acceptable.

Just thinking out loud... but if a movie/disc hard clips whites reducing contrast on a display wouldn't show more detail. It would just reduce contrast. Or are you saying it was too bright on your projector causing eye strain?

[CompleteCount]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Trouble is, Geoff Unworth died before he could time the film so it's always been done second hand in that sense.

Donner must have taken comfort that it caused some consternation when it came to Lester matching Unsworth's distinctive style when reshooting Supes II.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

The theatrical BD is definitely too bright and clipped at times. Superman II is even worse; last time I watched it, I had to reduce my contrast level (thus, hurting contrast ratio) to make it more acceptable.

Your TV may need to be professionally calibrated. A proper calibration will solve the various issues that you're having with your video, and will make a big difference in the picture quality. The problem might not be the Blu-ray, it could be your incorrect video settings.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Your TV may need to be professionally calibrated. A proper calibration will solve the various issues that you're having with your video, and will make a big difference in the picture quality. The problem might not be the Blu-ray, it could be your incorrect video settings.

It says in his signature it’s calibrated by a highly regarded calibrator.

[The Fallen Deity]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

The theatrical BD is definitely too bright and clipped at times. Superman II is even worse; last time I watched it, I had to reduce my contrast level (thus, hurting contrast ratio) to make it more acceptable.

Not to mention the ugly teal and orange push that's on both discs.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

Not to mention the ugly teal and orange push that's on both discs.

Yep, this is a massive upgrade