Superman 1978-1987 5-Film Collection (4K)

[crazy_asian_man]

Mar 25, 2023 19:16:39 GMT -5 Kamdan said:

Hmn.... I bought the digital SII on different streaming services years ago. I wonder if it all gets upgraded for download without re=purchasing... hm...

They should update based on prior experiences. Everything is in a weird transitional period now. Superman II on YouTube is the new transfer while Apple TV is showing the transfer from the DVD era. The Donner Cut of II is still the extended version for now.

Thanks for the heads up but darn.......that's annoying!

Hopefully the rest of the transfer is half decent.

One hypothesis could be that the 35mm original negatives/interpositives for that logo section are in bad shape.....hence the reason for the new synthetic recreation.

But you would think it would be fairly easy to do CG wise.

Still.....I have a blu ray copy of Coppola's The Outsiders.

And the Red Saul Bass logo is at the beginning and it looks good!

WB are all over the place.

It shouldn’t be hard for them to pull it from another source. There’s versions of it on YouTube that could be utilized. It’s hard to describe what’s off about it but it’s definitely off and they used different font for the text at the bottom. Once you’ll see it, you’ll see it. It’s frustrating to see because they did a pretty on point recreation for the latest Christmas Story sequel.

The sound mix for Lester’s Superman II didn’t sound like whole new sounds like what was done with the first film and I haven’t looked at Superman III yet, but have watched Superman IV on Apple TV and while it boasts a new transfer, it has a new problem with the sound mix. Apparently the soundtrack is using inferior takes from the German recording of the score instead of the ones from England. This is very apparent in the opening credits and in the flying sequence.

It’s really a crying shame that they made such a blunder like this because the recent remaster of IV’s score would have had its time to shine in this new sound mix but instead they decided to make it sound WORSE than what we’re accustomed to.

It feels like when it comes to the Reeve Superman properties at WB, it's hit/miss on the love and care put into it.

I still feel eternally grateful for the wonderful tin box set for the Superman collection and the blu widescreen STM extended cut. And- to a degree/despite it's flaws- the Donner cut.

Would be nice to see if they can FINALLY release a SII and SIV extended cut on blu and wide-

The tv cut reportedly sold well- and it also came out of nowhere. Here's hoping that the sales for the 4k encourages them to do so for SII and SIV (hopefully with the still unseen deleted Metro dance club scene) as well.

[The Phantom Menace]

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted, but had to share Oliver Harper’s review. Seems there’s plenty of glitches to gripe about.

[dejan]

insert code here
That's a fair review from Ollie(a fellow fan from Cambridge!).
However......
I would like to know what device he is watching them on because if it's this one:




.....he is not going to get the full color gamut that DCI-P3 contains.....that in turn will influence what he sees on screen,color wise.
To boot, that projector is not true 4K, resolution wise...it's what they call a faux K device!
That was standard for a lot of projectors back then.

If that is the case then his review is almost worthless.

But that was 5 years ago , so maybe he has upgraded since.


I have a JVC NX9 which covers almost the entire DCI-P3 spectrum......only problem is it can't hit the nits for speculars that flat panels can.
But thanks to tone mapping....it gives a good representation of HDR nonetheless.


Still, the UHDs for SII & III look phenomenal.


                    

 

[Metallo]

Apr 30, 2023 20:24:42 GMT -5 dejan said:

insert code here
That's a fair review from Ollie(a fellow fan from Cambridge!).
However......
I would like to know what device he is watching them on because if it's this one:




.....he is not going to get the full color gamut that DCI-P3 contains.....that in turn will influence what he sees on screen,color wise.
To boot, that projector is not true 4K, resolution wise...it's what they call a faux K device!
That was standard for a lot of projectors back then.

If that is the case then his review is almost worthless.

But that was 5 years ago , so maybe he has upgraded since.


I have a JVC NX9 which covers almost the entire DCI-P3 spectrum......only problem is it can't hit the nits for speculars that flat panels can.
But thanks to tone mapping....it gives a good representation of HDR nonetheless.


Still, the UHDs for SII & III look phenomenal.


                    

 

Oliver’s has been one of the reviews I’ve seen and I’ve got to say it’s so disappointing to hear about or read about all the problems with this set. I can understand some poor choices and errors but it seems like Warner made some major ones here especially with the audio.

Still… it could be worse. This set could have ended up like the Batman 4 movie 4K blu rays. That is whole situation was and still is unforgivable.

[Metallo]

Mar 25, 2023 21:49:59 GMT -5 crazy_asian_man said:

Mar 25, 2023 19:16:39 GMT -5 Kamdan said:

They should update based on prior experiences. Everything is in a weird transitional period now. Superman II on YouTube is the new transfer while Apple TV is showing the transfer from the DVD era. The Donner Cut of II is still the extended version for now.

It shouldn’t be hard for them to pull it from another source. There’s versions of it on YouTube that could be utilized. It’s hard to describe what’s off about it but it’s definitely off and they used different font for the text at the bottom. Once you’ll see it, you’ll see it. It’s frustrating to see because they did a pretty on point recreation for the latest Christmas Story sequel.

The sound mix for Lester’s Superman II didn’t sound like whole new sounds like what was done with the first film and I haven’t looked at Superman III yet, but have watched Superman IV on Apple TV and while it boasts a new transfer, it has a new problem with the sound mix. Apparently the soundtrack is using inferior takes from the German recording of the score instead of the ones from England. This is very apparent in the opening credits and in the flying sequence.

It’s really a crying shame that they made such a blunder like this because the recent remaster of IV’s score would have had its time to shine in this new sound mix but instead they decided to make it sound WORSE than what we’re accustomed to.

It feels like when it comes to the Reeve Superman properties at WB, it's hit/miss on the love and care put into it.

I still feel eternally grateful for the wonderful tin box set for the Superman collection and the blu widescreen STM extended cut. And- to a degree/despite it's flaws- the Donner cut.

Would be nice to see if they can FINALLY release a SII and SIV extended cut on blu and wide-

The tv cut reportedly sold well- and it also came out of nowhere. Here's hoping that the sales for the 4k encourages them to do so for SII and SIV (hopefully with the still unseen deleted Metro dance club scene) as well.

At this point I’d just be happy if they could just get the versions of the films they’ve included right. They always seem to screw something up to keep you on the line for the next releases hoping they do better next time. Basically making sure the hardcore fans buy everything they put out to get the best full experience they’re looking for. The piecemeal approach sucks for the fans but that’s how these companies work. Always keep the fans hooked and hoping until the next thing comes along.

As far as releasing extended versions or tv versions of the films they’re probably saving those for later. Draw it out as long as they possibly can for the next anniversary or big event. We’re long overdue for even the international cut of IV so it wouldn’t shock me if they release that down the road in yet another box set or digitally.

[atp]

What a disappointment. Very poor way to treat loyal customers.

By contrast, there is a 4K Bruce Lee collection coming out in July, and it looks truly fantastic.

[dejan]

atp ,Metallo and Kamdan

Living in the UK, I was able to get the UHDs about 2 weeks back.

I have missed off SIV, at least for the moment, although word is that it may be the best looking movie of the 4!
Now that's a first!

What has happened is essentially a complete inversion of what happened in 2001,where STM was given that splendid(for the time) digital makeover for the special edition, whilst the SII/SIII DVDs were derived from aged masters ported over from the Laserdisc era .....and it showed.

Further rescans/newer masters struck in 2006(for DVD) and 2011(for Blu Ray) still treated SII,III and IV as the second class citizens of the pack.

As it stands at the moment, it's now the other way round.
STM is stuck with that 4K scan from 2018, which is still a nice master.
But for whatever reason back then, they neglected to go all out and give it a vibrant, luminiscent edge.
Whilst the image is more detailed than it's ever been, it's still kinda flat.
This was noted at the time.

What WB have done is given all that spit and polish(vibrant HDR and full 4K resolution) to SII,III and IV.....whilst leaving STM behind.

So, IMHO, SII and III look better than they have ever looked on home video.Period.
There were reports that even back in 1981, SII had a bleached out, fuzzy appearance, so those 35/70mm prints were never truly representative of how good these films could look.
I saw it twice in 81' and 82' , but observing the quality of the picture was not foremost on my mind.....hey, it looked massive!....and that was good enough for me at the time....especially compared to the crummy TVs we all had back then!

I have the VHSs(I even have the 1979 version for STM!),Laserdiscs(Pan & Scan and Widescreen),DVDs and Blus so am in a good position to make a comparison.
Ofcourse this is all still subject to my personal bias aswell as my individual AV set up.

Detail (often refered to as high frequency) on the UHDs is several layers above the corresponding Blus.
The scene at the beginning of SII where reporters gather at the base of the Eiffel Tower is a good example of superior delination of high frequency detail , relative to the Blu.......so the cantilevers,girders and columns of the Tower's base look much sharper.
I have 2 players(one for UHD, the other a standard Blu Ray)....and toggled between the 2 disks(2023 UHD,2011 Blu Ray) on my projector.....and the difference in sharpness was clearly discernible.
 
Also, Supe's costume is almost too flashy(very striking red of the cape and shield in particular).
Photos on laptops or PCs from internet forums won't do them justice because they are limited to the rec709 color spectrum.....hence missing out on the extra gamut afforded by DCI-P3 on the actual 4K Flat Panels or projector(in my case).

Blacks are deep and inky....the best they have ever been IMHO.

So WB knocked them out of the park.

But they need to revisit STM pronto.

Am happy to answer any questions.


On edit:
Realize I did not address the sound.
It's a bit of a cop out but i have not even bothered with the Atmos tracks.
I am not interested with revisionist soundtracks.
Can't listen to Atmos anyway as i only have a standard 7.1 set up.

But for what it's worth, the original 2.0 Dolby theatrical mixes sound better on these UHDs than either the  1982 Pan & Scan and 1996 Widescreen Laserdiscs and the 2001 DVDs.
So that's another feather in the cap for these UHDs. 

But yeah, if you are an Atmos fan....then I gather there are some issues with how they have been rendered.

[crazy_asian_man]

FINALLY received my steelbook 4k collection via the WB-DC shop!!!! The set looks glorious.... but- being such a dope, I don't have a 4k player nor 4k tv.... but got it for the steelbooks.

Bummer side: no longer listed on WB-DC and apparently skyrocketed in price on ebay (from what I hear). ug.