Synopsis:

Man of Steel: A Symbol of Hope' does not try to radically reshape MOS because I liked most of it already. I just wanted to tweak the character of Superman to make him feel more heroic. So if you hated everything about the original MOS, then this isn't the FanFix for you. There are several 10-minute chunks of this edit that are unchanged (aside from the regrade) but when I did change something, I hope it feels significant.

Intentions:

MOS-ASOH sticks closer to the positive character of Superman we know from the comics and from the older movies. Hans Zimmer created a fantastic "hero theme" for Henry Cavill's Superman (sometimes called 'What are you going to do when you are not saving the world?') but sadly it was not really used in the original cut of MOS. Here it is deployed appropriately for Superman's heroic or emotional moments, in the same way that John William's theme was used for Christopher Reeve. This is the most obvious change in MOS-ASOH, requiring a lot of soundFX replacement work. Excessive levels of chaos and destruction during the boringly overlong action sequences are trimmed (where possible), especially if it was Superman causing it. Superman/Clark committing acts of violent retribution, or being indifferent to the plight of those around him are excised (where possible). Clark does not now make a deliberate choice to let Pa Kent die, he just hesitates when maybe he should have acted. Some of the swearing is removed to make this film more family friendly. A complete re-grade has been done shot-by-shot to remove the green/brown tint, increase saturation/contrast and to make Superman's suit more colourful. Some scenes are re-ordered to improve pacing, or refocus dramatic moments. Some onscreen titles are added.

Change List:

- Added Hans Zimmer's bombastic "hero theme" to several scenes: 1. Jor-El leaping from the archive tower, 2. Superman flying for the first time, 3. Superman rescuing Lois from the escape pod, 4. Superman flying off to fight the world-engine and 5. The Kryptonians being destroyed. I've also added the low-key piano part of the theme to a few quiet moments (1. and 5. are only rescored in the "Extra Heroic Mix"). - Complete shot-by-shot regrade focusing on bringing colour, contrast and variety back to the image (Especially with Superman's suit). - As many examples of Superman acting in an un-Superman like way have been removed as possible. So he doesn't act in spiteful, indifferent ways and his anger and aggression is toned down. The two most obvious examples of this are the removal of the two scenes where he destroys a guys truck because the man was rude and when he smashes a US satellite out of the sky to intimidate his new friends. - Action-scenes are trimmed down quite a bit as they were often overlong CGI slog-fests, that sapped the momentum of the story. Cuts and Additions: 00.00.00 - Added FE.org and TM2YC titlecards. 00.00.33 - Replaced audio and music of opening scene with a new mix. SoundFX much lower and score much higher. I wanted the musical theme to be the first thing we take note of. Added baby heartbeat soundFX to titles. 00.01.31 - Added new title card "Krypton: A Planet in a Distant Galaxy". Okay 90% of people watching are going to know it's Krypton right-away but for me lazy assumptions are not an adequate replacement for explaining things properly to an audience. 00.01.35 - Removed first shot of Lara screaming and re-ordered shots. I wanted the first shot to be the more hopeful holding-hands one. Plus hand-holding is a visual motif that reoccurs throughout the movie. *00.07.33 - Replaced music during Jor-El stealing the Codex. I wanted the "hero theme" to play first for the father, then we will hear it later for the son. Many layers of additional soundFX added. 00.13.44 - Removed about half of the fist-fight between Jor-El and Zod. It bored me after a while. Rescored and SoundFX added. 00.16.55 - Removed Zod saying "I will find him" one time. Now he says it 3 times, instead of 4 times. Less is more I feel. 00.17.23 - Added light FX/lens-falre to partially obscure the "Flying Dildos". They still look silly but whatcha gonna do? 00.19.23 - Added new title cards for main cast/crew, plus "Man of Steel" title during space pod sequence. I felt it makes it a more solid break between prologue and main-movie. 00.20.17 - Added new title card "Earth: The present day" mirroring the earlier Krypton title card. It just makes everything a little clearer for the audience (No more place/time title cards are used in the edit after this one). 00.24.43 - Replaced audio and music during the scene of Clark crying in the cupboard, through to him on the school bus. I always hated the Grunge track that plays over this scene (sorry Chris Cornell fans), plus it's weird when no other "pop" songs feature on the soundtrack. When you've got Hans Zimmer, use him. 00.26.48 - Removed the bully calling Clark "Dick splash". There is too much swearing in a film that kids should enjoy. Replaced with soundFX meant to suggest young Clark hears what is about to happen with his super ears. 00.29.34 - Removed Pa Kent suggesting Clark should have "Maybe" let a bus full of children drown. A 20-second chunk of Pa Kent talking about Clark's destiny went with it but he says almost the exact same things later in the movie anyway. 00.33.15 - Removed Clark violently destroying the a**hole guys truck in an act of vengeful rage. It was a very un-Superman like thing to do. Remixed music and soundFX. 00.35.11 - Removed Lois' "Measuring dicks" line, to again tone down swearing. Besides, they aren't being "macho" with her and it's clear from her other lines that she's got their number. 00.38.26 - Clark reacts much quicker to the Kryptonian probe after it lashes out at him. He's got super intelligence and super speed after all. We the audience knew it was dangerous the second we saw it, so Clark should too right? 00.40.18 - Added the piano part of the "hero theme" as Clark gives Lois a reassuring look. The hero just saved the heroine for the first time, we should hear something music wise. 00.40.50 - Removed half of Lois' scream as Superman burns her wound, so it feels a little less violent. 00.42.18 - Added in an establishing shot of the 'Daily Planet' from the BvS airline commercial. Once again, I'm sure 90% of people know this the planet but it's still nice to make things clear. SoundFX added. 00.48.20 - Totally recut Superman's first flight and rescored it with the "hero theme". Superman now doesn't crash 'n' burn on his first attempt, as I felt this was anti-climatic. Hopefully this version captures Superman's joy from realising he can fly, by removing shots of him looking uncertain, aggressive, or looking all consumed by his lust for power! Footage recut to match the rhythms and beats of the new score. SoundFX and dialogue recut, replaced and remixed throughout. 00.50.38 - Lois' search for Clark also rescored with tail end of hero theme. SoundFX replaced. 00.52.25 - Toned down Clark's argument with his dad. When we are only seeing brief moments of their relationship, Clark can't be as cruel to his Dad as he is in the original cut. The scene now has the same result but more subtle. Ma Kent reacts to Clark's hurtful outburst instantly and he backs down. 00.54.03 - Removed Clark not saving his Dad because his Dad tells him not to. Recut so we see Clark just about to rush in when his Dad is suddenly killed. He dies because Clark hesitated, so hopefully the "I let my father die..." line now reads as simple regret, rather than him rationalising his awful decision to Lois. 01.08.12 - Retimed interrogation room shot so we see Lois laugh at Superman's joke about surrendering. It adds a moment to their relationship and shortens the scene a tad. 01.08.28 - Removed Lois Amy saying "Superman". I'd rather it wasn't said, than it be drowned out. It feels like the movie being embarrassed to speak his name. Plus a soldier later calls him "Superman" at a more appropriately heroic moment. 01.09.11 - Replaced score in scene of Superman surrendering with piano part of the "hero theme", timed to when he says "Thank you... for believing in me". I wanted it to underline the nobility of his sacrifice and his emotional connection with Lois. Remade soundFX. 01.21.15 - Replaced the much of the score during the escape of Lois to allow the sequence to be heavily restructured so other shots/scenes could be moved elsewhere. 01.22.28 - Swapped two shots of Lois' pod escaping, so have a long establishing shot break into a cut back to Superman waking up. 01.22.31 - Combined both parts of Superman getting his powers back, so it plays as one scene. Rescored and SoundFX added. 01.22.43 - Rescored Superman rescuing Lois with the "hero theme". Reordered shots to time with music. FX tweak of fireball. Removed Superman saying "You'll be safe here" so the landing music is not interrupted. 01.24.48 - Moved Zod arriving at the Kent farm and inserted it where Superman is sensing something is wrong. Replaced dog barking soundFX and brought it in earlier as if Superman is tuning in. 01.26.20 - Removed Superman slamming Zod through a cooling Tower. It's unfixable that he draws the baddies into a populated area but at least we can now put it down to a brief moment of anger because they attacked his mother. 01.28.10 - Recut the walk down the street so we hear Superman tell the civilians to get inside, before we see them get inside. This makes him look a little more caring. 01.29.45 - Removed a minute long fist fight with Faora with a simple match cut. Superman isn't saving anybody, there is too much bad CGI and it's just a lot of needless destruction. Plus I feel the first time we are seeing our hero in a fight, should not be him being wildly outclassed. 01.31.36 - Removed 20 seconds of Faora beating up some random soldiers. The CGI is really awful and videogame-like, plus it doesn't feature Superman, or advance the plot. 01.31.54 - Removed 10 more seconds of bad-CGI Faora where she is jumping around and performing a "Superhero landing". Now Col. Hardy just goes straight for his pistol. 01.39.35 - Brought forward the scene of Zod saying he off to get the Kryptonian ship. This way it doesn't interupt the new Superman hero sequence and probably makes more sense time/place wise. 01.40.18 - Removed the mention of the word "Terraforming" as it was over-explaining for dummies. Plus it's not actually "Terraforming", it's "Kryptonforming", or "anti-terraforming" to be scientifically accurate. 01.40.36 - Rescored the scene of Superman explaining the "black hole" plan with the "hero theme". 01.42.08 - Intercut Superman taking off, with Lois and Hardy taking off. Creating a short montage of the heroes finally united towards one goal. Rescored and soundFX added. 01.43.23 - Removed Zod's line about Jor-El lecturing him. I wanted to play down Zod's antagonism with Jor-El because they are supposed to be former allies. 01.43.37 - Removed a few seconds of Superman choking. With the energy-beam, the robot-claw and the poisonous-cloud, I felt it was one too many things for him to defeat in a bloated CGI sequence. It made it feel like a videogame boss battle. Superman now just swoops in and observes the situation. 01.44.17 - Removed a closeup shot of hundreds of people beng massacred in a giant fireball, caused by our heroes' own missiles. It's too much violence for a fun superhero movie IMO. 01.44.40 - Removed a few shots of Superman fighting back against the robot-claw, as I wanted the last thing we see before cutting to the Daily Planet being evacuated was Superman losing the battle. 01.45.37 - Removed more shots of Superman fighting back against the robot-claw. He is still in it's vice-like grip from the last shot we saw. 01.45.41 - Removed footage of Superman choking on the cloud again. 01.46.40 - Rescored and rearranged scenes so Superman appears to have been defeated by the world-engine and all is lost before we cut back to Zod and Jor-El. 01.47.20 - Rescored Jor-El saying "My son was twice the man you were Zod" with the piano part of the "hero theme". Showing the father's faith in his sons power, just as we the audience have seen him appear to be defeated. 01.47.27 - Recut the footage of Zod so he just listens in silence, sad that he cannot talk his former friend round. Before he gave Jor-El one last vindictive retort. 01.47.39 - Rescored the ship taking off and replaced the soundFX. Now this segues immediately into Superman resisting the energy beam, just after Jor-El's final line. 01.47.47 - Remixed audio during the montage of Superman destroying the world-engine. I wanted Zimmer's powerful music to be way higher in the mix and the soundFX much lower. The power of the images and the music are what make this scene, the soundFX are almost unnecessary. 01.51.02 - Removed a few seconds of Superman considering not destroying the ship. Why would Superman pause to consider letting Zod destroy Earth? 01.52.01 - Recut and rescored footage to remove the crew man telling Lois to not stand in a dangerous spot. It makes it look he died because of her stupidity. Also replaced a loud "wilhelm scream" because they irritate me now. *01.52.51 - Rescored the Kryptonians being destroyed with the "hero theme". Many soundFX layers added. 01.55.42 - Recut Zod's speech to Superman to shorten it and re-order some shots. The brief "My soul" line is cut. 01.56.55 - Recut and rescored Superman/Zod battle emerging from the collapsing building. Removed over a minute of them battling in the street, destroying buildings and blowing things up while terrified people look on. Now we do not cut to any people in the sequence. Since no footage of Superman defending the people from the mayhem exists, I'd rather they weren't there at all. It's believable they could have already fled the area around "ground zero" already. 01.59.20 - Brought forward a shot of the father reacting to protect his family, so he seems less dumb. 01.59.39 - Moved shot of Lois arriving in the station to later so she appears after Zod has died. 02.00.03 - Removed Superman's howl of rage. He just collapses in stunned silence. It underlines the sadness of what he has done, rather than his anger. Footage of Lois reacting has been reordered and soundFX replaced. 02.00.25 - FX tweak to the tear on Superman's cheek to make it slightly more visually obvious. Superman embracing Lois has been rescored and new soundFX added. 02.03.29 - Added Superman red logo and "A Symbol of Hope" to the ending title card. 02.13.36 - Added title card thanking all the people who have helped with the edit. (* Only in the "Extra Heroic Mix" but a small section of the Piano Hero theme has been mixed into the kiss scene at 01.52.51 in the "Hopeful Mix")

Additional Notes:

As of 5th December 2017, a new alternate audio mix called the 'Hopeful Mix' has been added to all versions. This was to tone down the use of the main "Hero" theme, from 5 scenes, to 3. The old/original mix will now be referred to as the "Extra Heroic Mix".

Other Sources:

- Man Of Steel (Blu-Ray) - Man Of Steel (CD Soundtrack) - Turkish Airlines: Metropolis (Commercial) - freesound.org

Special Thanks:

Thanks to all the people who offered vital feedback and general encouragement in the project thread: samspider3, SpectacularSMan, Canon Editor, DSM2337, addiesin, Zarius, bionicbob, TVs Frink, darthrush, Nic, Nerdman3000, octoroxx, DigModiFicaTion, Hardb