Synopsis:

Clark Kent must reconnect with his past in order to defeat the corruption of his own vanity as the Man of Steel. He must also stop the potentially world ending plot of Lex Luthor who hopes to rule mankind through manipulating the nuclear arms market and making an evil clone of Superman. Will Clark force the world into peace and become the very despot his father imprisoned on Krypton, or will he achieve victory though the humble small-town morals of truth, justice, and the American way?

Intentions:

Two of my favorite movies as a 10 year old boy were Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. As I have matured, I have come to lament these two films. There are such beautiful gems in both films that are completely buried in a sea of boring, silly, and pointless things. For 15 years+ now, I have had the desire to try and salvage something good out of Superman III, as the corruption and subsequent redemption of Superman (crystalized in the junkyard battle) is still one of my favorite Superman moments across all media. About 6 months ago I was introduced to Adigitalman's Superman Redeemed fan edit which is archived on this very site. I was blown away at the stroke of genius of marrying the plots and good moments from 3 and 4. Surprisingly, the two films fit together so well that they created NEW themes, seemingly from nowhere, that elevated both films past their original presentations. However, I was a little disappointed in the brevity and lack of character and story development that led to the great payoff moments. Therefore, I wanted to build upon what Adigitalman had already accomplished. This cut gives us a moment to breathe and contemplate Superman's turn to vanity and apathy which is catalyzed by the scratch from Nuclear Man in Superman 4. So, with all that being said, I have edited together Superman 3 and 4 (with excerpts from Superman 2 and a few shots from Superman Returns) to create a pleasing and thematically rich film that actually focuses on the character of Superman/Clark Kent… unlike the failures of 3 and 4 which really seem to focus on plot points/messages/and extraneous characters slathered over by some very poor effects in the case of 4. To be 100% clear… I give full credit for the conception of this work to Adigitalman and his fan edit “Superman Redeemed.” The goal here is to more flesh out and fully realize his idea into a seamless film. Also, I have improved the visual and sound quality by sourcing the footage from a Superman 3 blu ray and Booshman’s color corrected Superman 4. The ultimate hope is to restore a good final taste in the mouths of us Chris Reeve Superman fans when watching anything after the first two films. Also, I really wanted to give some closure to the Lois Lane and Superman/Clark Kent romance which was left hanging forever, sadly.

Change List:

-Added new Opening Credit sequence which recaps the events of the first two films (a harmonized version of Superman The Movie and Superman 2 The Richard Donner Cut). -Added title card that states the thematic thrust of the film regarding Superman's arc. -Truncated Daily Planet scene to cut out any talk of Ross Webster and co. in III. -Cut the details of Jimmy Olsen's fall/injury in the chemical plant fire (in III) so there is no mention of a broken leg, thus allowing him to appear walking later in the edit. -Truncated Lex Luthor's prison break from IV to eliminate the whacky looney toons quality of it. -Cut the dramatic first reveal of Superman from Superman II when Clark flies off to Paris. Since we have already been reintroduced to the man of steel in my edit, this feels redundant, and I've never been a fan of the transformation effect in said scene. -Excised clips of Superman flying to save Lois in Paris from the Eiffel Tower to increase tension and remove some dated looking shots that I'm not a big fan of. -Mashed together a bunch of broadcasts of world leaders/pundits talking about the increasing nuclear arms race from Superman IV cut to Superman flying through canyons (in III) as a transition to the school room scene with Jeremy in his class discussing the crisis. -Cut out Nuclear Man goofily spinning Lenny around in Lex's Penthouse to reduce cringe levels. -Essentially borrowed an exact replicated scene from Superman Redeemed (fanedit) where Clark is reading and contemplating Jeremy's letter to Superman and hearing the voice of Jor El adding some wisdom bombs. -Recut and reordered audio of Jimmy Olsen talking to Jeremy outside the UN building to avoid any mention of "Mr. Warfield" in IV. -Truncated the scene of Lana rebuffing Brad on the phone. I like the idea of wondering what her solution is until the reveal that she's Perry's new secretary. -Eliminated the worst effect in Superman 4 (when Supes and Nukes first fight and fall off the building Lex is in). Instead of following their fight down the length of the building (in terrible green screen) and then watching a tiny Superman slide diagonally across the screen for no apparent reason, we hold on the broken railing for an extra second or two and then cut to Superman chasing Nuclear Man. -Cut the Great Wall of China sequence short to completely remove the magical Superman fixit eye beams. -Used pieces of a scene in IV where Lois lambasts the Warfields in the Daily planet and takes Superman's cape. This is now a quick exchange between Lois and Lacey transitioning us to Clark sick in his apartment since Lacey is wondering where he is, and Lois does not know. Lois is visibly upset, telegraphing that everyone knows that Superman was defeated. -Since, in this cut, Superman is first made very sick by the Nuclear Man scratch, is saved by the influx of energy from the crystal power module given to him by his mother in his infant ship, I inserted an altered image of a Daily Planet newspaper showing that the world knows that Superman is in fact alive. This then cuts to his survival being celebrated by the town of Smallville at little Ricky's birthday he promised to attend earlier in the film. -Truncated Luthor's hostile takeover of his crime syndicate for pacing and palatability. -After Superman makes use of the energy module to survive the radiation poisoning scratch, I inserted a few altered shots of Superman Returns when Superman flies up to the sun in order to regain his energy. I used a portion of the evil Superman theme to accompany the imagery, broadcasting to the audience that this might not be an entirely good thing (since the sudden influx of crazy amounts of energy combined with this radical radiation poisoning corrupts his behavior and judgment). His sickness, while no longer fatal, has now become a corrupting agent within him. This is depicted in the subsequent evil Superman scenes from Superman 3. -trimmed the ends of both times we see Superman acting upon (messing up and fixing) the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The full reactions of the Italian merchant are just too goofy. -Added a fabricated 80's news broadcast playing from an off-screen TV over the scene of Nuclear Man waking up to the sunshine in Luthor's penthouse. I used real 80's news snippets found on YouTube and then sandwiched Vera's audio (Superman censured by the UN) from Superman III as the actual news story. -Added poignant voiceovers to evil Superman's flight to the junkyard battle. Also added the eerie evil Superman theme to the background as well. -Heavily cut down the Superman vs Nuclear man confrontation outside of Lex's Penthouse in the streets. Really detest a lot of the silly powers they gave to Nuclear man. I made it destructive and utilitarian to heighten the seriousness. I also had to remove any mention of "the woman" aka Lacey as she does not exist as that same major character in my edit. She simply functions as minor character and friend to Lois Lane (Co-worker at the Daily Planet). -Completely recut the eclipse sequence after the moon battle to eliminate ALL of Lacey in space. I also used a different and far more epic piece of music from Courage's end title music (IV) since this is the climactic moment of the film. I also added a shot from earlier in IV of Nuclear man flying in space and added a matte to remove Superman's hands clutching at his boots. This fades out to give the impression of darkness overcoming Nuclear Man as Superman blocks the sun with the moon. Added a few appropriate sound effects as Nuclear Man loses power. -Totally removed the diamond ring scene with Brad, Lana, Clark, and Ricky at the Metropolis Hotel, as it seems to imply a serious romance between Clark and Lana. In my cut I wanted that relationship to be a reminiscence of what could have been. In my edit, Lois is the main love interest. -Truncated the final Daily Planet scene where Lois is introduced to Lana (Perry's new secretary). I removed "three week" from Perry's first line talking about Lois' vacation from the beginning of the movie (III) to keep the timeline ambiguous. The scene cuts away after Lana compliments Lois's writing. This is to avoid the whole gigantic diamond ring plot point. It also adds a "uh oh... is Clark going to end up with Lana?" question for the audience... only to be resolved in the post credit sequence. -Added a new mid credit ("end credit") sequence at the end of the film that finally gives the Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder romance a satisfying conclusion. I used this as an opportunity for additional thanks/credits/acknowledgements. The flying sequence is also re-colored into a vintage sepia tone to punch up nostalgia and palatability. I made these additions for two reasons: there's simply no avoiding the fact that this sequence is just visually terrible. Specifically, the green/blue screening is horrendously done. By crushing all color into the tans, browns, and blacks at least the color loss in the characters isn't so off putting. And secondly, by adding some more credits for the eye to engage with, you don't ONLY focus on the bad effects. Hopefully, this sands off the rough edges a bit.

Additional Notes:

-Elimination of all subplots not directly related to Superman/Clark Kent in both films (Superman 3 & 4). This leaves two main plots that tie together pretty well with some help from the Paris H-bomb incident in the Theatrical Cut of Superman 2. -Removed Characters that distract from the new plot such as: Ross Webster, Guss Gorman, Mr. Warfield, etc... -Removed as many cringey components of the films as possible (Lacey in outer space, looney toons style elements of Lex's prison break from Superman 4, Nuclear man's levitation, reverse time, and bazooka melting powers). -Borrowed Booshman’s color corrected edit of Superman 4 to try and improve the look of the footage. -There are an almost uncountable number frame trims and cuts... as well as audio blends and L cuts to smooth over the transitions from one film to the next. -I replaced several pieces of music throughout both the Superman 3 and 4 excerpts to help highlight some of the plot and theme differences in my cut. -Thanks to the help and expertise of INIGHTMARES there is a beautiful upscale to the footage which heightens the visual fidelity... and also helps to soften the aging of some of the actors, as we are cutting to different films made over the course of basically a decade.

Other Sources:

I used several pieces of music from John Williams, John Ottman, Alexander Courage, and Ken Thorn from their respective Superman films. I would like to give a shout out to Gilles Nuytens on YouTube who makes fantastic extended versions of each film's main suite/theme.

Special Thanks:

To Artisdead and Inightmares for mentoring me through this whole project. If it were not for them, the edit would be quite inferior and it would exist only in my private collection. Thank you, gents! To Wraith for his inspiring Epic Cut and his great insight and work on my opening credit sequence.