Pre-Order Superman 5-Film Collection (1978-1987) and Amazon SteelBook Exclusive (4k UHD Combo) (1 Viewer)

[cineMANIAC]

Sadly, it seems like a lot of these boxed set releases are being produced haphazardly for 4k.

Part of me thinks -- and this is just my opinion -- that with physical media on the decline, the budget is no longer there to put out quality releases. This is why we see huge issues with the Rocky boxed set and now the preferred audio being dropped from this Superman release.

It's odd. Small boutique labels seem to have a leg up on the major studios when it comes to overall product quality. The boutiques have their issues too but, generally, they do better work than the deeper-pocketed studios. Personally, I always hotly anticipate a boutique label announcement whereas with a studio release I'm usually indifferent.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Yes, I'll skip it too if indeed it doesn't include the 5.1 audio.
That 2.0 though, is it stereo or dual mono?

Its Dolby Surround, however it is one of the absolute WORST Dolby Surround mixes you will ever hear. Dialogue bleed is at full volume across all channels, the music score is occasionally in mono, the ADR is very wooly, and you have a lot of compressed sound effects taken from the James Bond archve at Pinewood that sound very thin and scratchy. Back in the day when the corrected DVD came out I wondered to myself: "If this movie sounds this bad in this mix I hate to think how the 70mm fared." Now I have no idea what happened downstream because the 70mm 5.1, while not perfect either as a lot of the same problems are the result of late-70s film technology, sounds worlds better than the 35mm 2.0. Basically if it sounds iffy in the 70mm, its a hell of a lot worse in the 35mm and the dialogue bleed is surprisingly absent altogether.

 

[Sam Favate]

Has there been any further word of the steelbooks being released individually? I'd gladly cancel my pre-order to just get the first two. Warner has usually played fair with consumers in the past by letting us know if a different arrangement would be issued at a later time (like with the various Middle Earth films and their boxes/steelbooks/individual titles).

 

[Ronald Epstein]

The street date for Superman 1978 – 1987 5-Film Collection 4K UHD has shifted from April 18 to May 9. The collection will still be available on April 18 on digital.

 

[Kent K H]

Kinda surprised they didn't throw Supergirl and Superman Returns in there and bump up the price by $25.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

The street date for Superman 1978 – 1987 5-Film Collection 4K UHD has shifted from April 18 to May 9. The collection will still be available on April 18 on digital.

On iTunes it appears Superman III and IV have updated to the new transfers. Both have WB shields closer to the original release and Superman IV has 5.1 audio, which it never had before.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

On iTunes it appears Superman III and IV have updated to the new transfers. Both have WB shields closer to the original release and Superman IV has 5.1 audio, which it never had before.

And it seems that the audio on IV has been bungled in a way that really shouldn't have been possible.

The score for Superman IV was originally to be recoded by the Graunke Symphony Orchestra, but their performance was deemed unsatisfactory in some of the bigger set pieces. These sections were re-recorded in England with the National Philharmonic, and those takes were ultimately used in final mix of the movie.

But somehow, the new remix has replaced those re-recorded cues with the original Graunke takes (which to reiterate, were never in any finished version of the movie before). How this happened is anyone's guess, but it's obvious from the very beginning. The Main Title music is very noticeably a different (and inferior) performance than what has always been heard there before (and even the fanfare over the WB logo is missing the echoes that should be there).

I really hate to complain so much about stuff like this, but this is an error that kind of defies logic.

 

[Mark-P]

And it seems that the audio on IV has been bungled in a way that really shouldn't have been possible.

The score for Superman IV was originally to be recoded by the Graunke Symphony Orchestra, but their performance was deemed unsatisfactory in some of the bigger set pieces. These sections were re-recorded in England with the National Philharmonic, and those takes were ultimately used in final mix of the movie.

But somehow, the new remix has replaced those re-recorded cues with the original Graunke takes (which to reiterate, were never in any finished version of the movie before). How this happened is anyone's guess, but it's obvious from the very beginning. The Main Title music is very noticeably a different (and inferior) performance than what has always been heard there before (and even the fanfare over the WB logo is missing the echoes that should be there).

I really hate to complain so much about stuff like this, but this is an error that kind of defies logic.

That would actually be a very easy mistake to make as I'm sure the team doing the remix knew nothing about the replaced sessions, and simply pulled all the original recording sessions from the archives to create a new Atmos mix. The re-recorded sessions were probably archived elsewhere.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

That would actually be a very easy mistake to make as I'm sure the team doing the remix knew nothing about the replaced sessions, and simply pulled all the original recording sessions from the archives to create a new Atmos mix. The re-recorded sessions were probably archived elsewhere.

If they used the original recording sessions, they still would have had to reference some kind of documentation in order to edit the cues properly.

Of course this was Cannon, so you never know how things were categorized. But even just having the original music stem or the final stereo printmaster on hand should have given them a clue.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Double post; sorry.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

That would actually be a very easy mistake to make as I'm sure the team doing the remix knew nothing about the replaced sessions, and simply pulled all the original recording sessions from the archives to create a new Atmos mix. The re-recorded sessions were probably archived elsewhere.

As someone who has worked on numerous soundtrack projects, and many with WB, that's not how things work. Music would all be kept together. And in the case of this title we know it was because the soundtrack album released in 2008 had access to all of the tapes.

 

[Lord Dalek]

This is flat out bizarre. Is it possible Warner found some sort of early six-track scratch mix done before Golan Globus scuttled the idea of a blowup of IV and remastered that? To the best of my knowledge, the only reason IV has remained 2.0 surround on the past few go arrounds was Cannon junked the stems back in the 80s.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

That doesn't make sense. Those sessions were abandoned precisely because things weren't working out. I can't see cash-strapped Cannon doing a pre-dub with unusable material. The last Munich recording date was May 18 and the first English session was May 23.

 

[Lord Dalek]

That doesn't make sense. Those sessions were abandoned precisely because things weren't working out. I can't see cash-strapped Cannon doing a pre-dub with unusable material. The last Munich recording date was May 18 and the first English session was May 23.

How much did they rerecord Neil? I'm reading the liner notes and most of the Munich tracks still appear to be there.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

The Superman / Lois flight scene cue sounds like a different take, too.

I really don't understand how this was possible. As Neil said, it's highly unlikely there was a pre-dub or any other kind of edited music element (at least one meant for the final cut) with those earlier sessions in there. And if the recordings were all together, surely the wrong ones were marked "Do Not Use" or something.

This is really weird. It seems like someone had to go to a lot of extra effort to do this the wrong way, and I feel bad for them.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

The Superman / Lois flight scene cue sounds like a different take, too.

It's been remixed but for the most part it appears to be the film take. They handle the edit where Superman says, "Hey, look at that" differently, but it was pretty clunky in 1987.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Well my handy dandy liner notes* here...

says that 3M3 is an England track. HOWEVER its bookended by Munich recordings. Very odd.


*(which are still holding up despite the binding glue being on its last legs)

 

[Lord Dalek]

It's been remixed but for the most part it appears to be the film take. They handle the edit where Superman says, "Hey, look at that" differently, but it was pretty clunky in 1987.

Could it possibly be the album take?

 

[Lord Dalek]

Surprising noone, Donner Cut II is mostly an upscale according to those who have seen the version on Youtube.

 

[Britton]

Well, this set has turned into a “must miss” for me.