It's the sort of thing you might not notice unless you see it side by side with the others, but to me it looks like there's a greenish tint, especially on the area left of his hand. The sky doesn't look as blue as it does in the 2001 expanded cut and the theatical cut.

It could just be the different frames, but it seems like that would be a drastic shift in color from one frame to the next. Perhaps it's just a difference in color that we sometimes see in different transfers of the same movie. Maybe it's supposed to be that way; I don't know.

He could be kicking up dust from running so fast. Overall, the HD DVD of Superman looks the way I remember seeing it from before. I've got the theatrical cut in the box set, but I haven't looked at it yet.

Since we're talking about Superman, my review of the Donner Cut of II is up. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=25365

I think it's a good-looking HD-DVD... one of the better new releases this week for PQ/AQ. I'm more of a Lynch fan than a Dune fan, can't compare it to the French version which I've never seen, but I'm pretty happy with it. Very nice detail, particularly on the close-ups. Not reference, but I'd say it's a keeper.

I just watched it last night.

I have to say that this is the first HD DVD that I wasn't impressed with...at all.

And I also have critiques of the editing itself as well, both picture and sound. Donner, unfortunately, couldn't let his ego aside on this one and I feel it could've been MUCH much better.

Edit: I just read your review. Now I'm scared...if this looks better than the first Movie. :(

Fantastic review, thanks! My HD copy is arriving in today's mail, apparently. Can't wait. :up:

As I said, it's coming from several different sources, so some of it looks worse, but most of it looks better. To me, the first film didn't look any better than the DVD upconverted.

As for the film itself, I presume you're talking about the decision to edit out as much of Lester's footage as possible. While I agree it would have filled in holes, on the commentary Donner talks about how different in tone Lester's footage was to his, and he didn't feel they matched at all. I'm sure someone will make their own ultimate cut with the best footage from both versions.

Thanks! Even though the movie isn't perfect, it's still a must-have for Superman fans.

Yes, it has problems, but I actually liked it better than the original. The original always seemed cheesier to me than Superman The Movie.

It had some holes and the scene in Niagra Falls where Clark's hair and glasses changes was hard to get past, but the scene was better than the Lester version IMO.

Definitely looks better than the 1st movie. When watching in particular some of the Daily Planet scenes in the 1st one, I thought it was the original SD release shown at 480P. :thmbsdwn: Like the review said, other scenes looked much better.

I haven't watched Supes 1 on HD DVD. But hearing these comments about it looking like upconverted dvd doesn't sound good. For these particular cases, I can see how someone who hasn't joined the HD crowd would be hesistant. It does make it a bit of a tough sell when there are HD DVD/BD titles out there that barely surpass the dvd in terms of video quality.

BTW - Continuity issue with Donner Cut...

And Rock, the reason Clark's hair and glasses kept changing is because they were cutting together two screen tests, which was the only footage they had of that scene.

I just talked to a good friend of mine who said that 1 looked a lot better than 2 on HD. He even pointed out the only scene in 2 that looked good to my eyes as well. Methinks I'm going to have the same opinion he does.

Yeah, I listened to the commentary about it and thats what they said. I liked the scene though and wished they had filmed it. Lester's version was a bit cheesy to me (less cheesy I guess).

Also, in the doc, they talked about the turning back time ending. They said that it was decided on before the ending for Superman The Movie and the alternate was the "magic" kiss ending that was in the Lester version.

Don't get me wrong, I still thought it was great... just those scenes weren't very good, but I still enjoyed the presentation overall. In fact, the only true disappointment I've had in 80+ HD-DVDs was End Of Days because the True-HD is messed up on my copy & I never bothered to exchange it DOH.

To be honest, having watched that ending recently, I actually loved the scene. It's the only serious scene that imho Lester directed.

I'll definitely be making my own edit of the two versions. I'm probably going to get rid of my Donner cut HD DVD.

Yeah, they mentioned they were considering the magic kiss, but Tom Mankiewicz was insistent that Clark should never kiss Lois, only Superman, so that went out the window at that point.

I disagree with him on that....doesnt he take his glasses off before he kisses her? I dont remember.

I think it would have been better than rehashing the ending to Superman The Movie....makes superman look lazy ;)

But, then, is superman so powerful that he can make someone forgot days from a kiss...oh well, comic book movie talk I guess! ;)

I canceled Excalibur for this reason and have scratched all of these off my list. I will just get the standard DVDs if the effort on the HD DVDs is mediocre.

Agreed, really nice review and I agree with all of it. Nice Job!

PS..

I know alot of people have been harsh on the Excaliber transfer but personally I feel it is still a big improvment over the original SD transfer. Sure it isnt reference quality but it is a noticable improvment.

I have come to accept that some movies will not look night and day difference between the SD and HD version. That is just something that can happen if the people shooting the film use techniques like soft focus filters and other tricks to alter the films appearance. I do not however feel that this in any way reflects poorly on the HD formats themselves. Its just the way things are period. Some movies will look absoltly stunning with absolutly no comparison between the HD version and the SD version, some will look great and still be a pretty big difference between HD and SD and then some will fall in between great and not so great in terms of the SD and HD comparison. I have come to accept this and will still purchase those movies that have only slight improvment over the SD if its a film i really enjoyed.

PS..

Sorry, i'm going to have to respectfully disagree.

I just skipped around Superman The Movie and it looked MUCH better than Superman 2, to my eyes.

Forgot to mention that I watched the Ant Bully last night and it looked amazing. My nephew was over playing me in some Gears of War and we decided to watch that as he loves animation movies. It was the first film he has seen in HD and he was so blown away that he couldnt shut up during the film. Afterwards all he said was how he absolutly had to convince his mother to buy an HDTV. I know my sister wont be very appreciative of that fact :-)

Anyways it really did look amazing and I highly recommend this one. I actually really enjoyed this film. I think it was just overshadowed by some of the other more popular animation films released this year. Definitly a top notch release!

PS..

I'm kinda hopin that one pops up in my Amazon Gold Box. :)

Just finished watching Superman Returns... great TrueHD track! The PQ... not as hot. Until I see Ant Bully, Universal takes best PQ this week for Dune & The Mummy, by a mile.

The PQ of Superman Returns faithfully recreates the look of the film in the theaters, it's a flawless transfer.

As for everyone complaining about the transfer on Superman: The Movie, as I mentioned in my review, the movie is shot soft, and the HD DVD is faithful to the look of the film. If you want to ding the disc for anything, ding it for leaving off special features, not for the transfer.