Search - Superman: 4 Film Favorites (Superman The Movie / Superman II / Superman III / Superman IV The Quest for Peace) on DVD

The Theatrical Legacy of Christopher Reeve (claps and boos)

R.A. McKenzie | New York | 05/20/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The good news, for a very good price, you get the first four "Superman" movies starring Christopher Reeve, in their original theatrical cuts.

The bad news, in addition to the excellent 1st film and solid 2nd movie, you're also gonna get stuck with the disappointing 3rd movie and the godawful 4th movie.

Furthermore, you don't get the 2006 Richard Donner Cut of "Superman II" that dug up older footage to reassemble the movie as close to the intended version as they could. Also, completists won't get "Superman Returns", although that's a pretty inexpensive DVD to grab these days.

In case you care, I think "Superman: The Movie" (1978) is a marvelous piece of entertainment, that only suffers from being a little too long (trimming 10 minutes down to a 2hr-10min picture would've made everything tighter, I think).

The 1980 version of "Superman II", to be fair, was very good for its time. However, the sillier elements are made worse since we found out over time that there was another version that was mostly finished before the producers fired Richard Donner (director of the 1st movie). Still, the second movie retains a lot of the fun and character that made "Superman" so much fun to begin with.

I will always enjoy "Superman III" (1983) as a comedy, but to quote my brother, Superman is a guest star in his own movie. After finishing and reshooting "Superman II", Richard Lester was hired to deliver this third outing. I'm afraid that although there are some fine elements to it (Clark Kent visits Smallville, and later becomes an evil doppelganger), the movie can't possibly be taken seriously. I enjoy the movie, but admit that it's not really a Superman feature.

In fact, "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace" (1987), as dreadful as it is, is more of a Superman movie than the 3rd movie. However, due to the well-documented troubles in production, this 4th movie is a catastrophe. This whole mess is filled with a non-sensical plot, silly scenes, ridiculous villains, and literally impossible action sequences (wait till the evil Nuclear Man kidnaps the damsel in distress...to the Moon!). Aside from a good scene here and there, the best way to enjoy this one is to create a drinking game around it...... and I don't drink.

We can all be grateful to Warner Bros. for letting Superman be treated with the great balance of seriousness and adventure so that future superhero stories could be later released as feature films. But we can also condemn Warner Bros. for letting an iconic character be so poorly handled. I dunno, half of this 4-disc sert is good, the other is a letdown. Flip a coin, I guess.

"Superman: The Movie" (1978) = 9.0 / 10
"Superman II" (1980) = 7.0 / 10
"Superman III" (1983) = 5.5 / 10
"Superman IV: The Quest For Peace" (1987) = 2.0 / 10"

Great deal for ALL four movies!

Bill M. | MA, USA | 05/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I picked this up in the store I had to do a double-take. All 4 Superman movies for $9.99? Maybe I was missing something. But no, it really was all 4 movies for just ten bucks!

The set is made up of two double-sided DVDs, with one movie on each side. The transfer of the sound and picture seemed fine to me. And there's plenty of bonus stuff here too: documentaries, commentaries, trailers, etc. But it was great to just sit down and watch each film in its entirety, which I haven't done in years.

The only reason I can possibly think of for not buying this set, is that maybe there's already another Superman DVD set with even more bonus material or they're planning yet another set soon. But if you aren't a die-hard completist, this set is all you need. And you can't go wrong with the price.
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