I REALLY Love HD DVDs, especially when the HD DVD version improves the story. This is *exactly* what Richard Donner did with his release of Superman II. As stated in our review of Superman: The Movie both Superman: The Movie and Superman II were filmed at the same time. Donner, however, was kicked off production before Superman II could be completed. So when presented with the opportunity to recut Superman: The Movie and Superman II Donner jumped in with both feet. The majory benficiary is the viewing audience as Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is, in a word, awesome.

Unlike the HD DVD of Superman: The Movie there is little age shown in this picture - it is crisp, bright and beautiful. Special effects have been given more attention and it pays off. There are some things that are a bit low budg, like when Zod walks on the pond, its easy to see the glass gangway. I did question how it is that Zod and his band speak English, not Russian, and can talk in space to a human in a space suit … odd … but it helps tell the story.

The big deal with this HD DVD is that Donner added alot of scenes that he shot before being kicked off the project and ultimately hit the cutting room floor. This includes many more scene with Kal_El (Superman) and Jor-El (Supe’s dad). The beauty is that these are all in HD and look great. Clearly these scenes, at some point, had been put through post-production. There is one scene that Donner wanted included that was never filmed, so Donner took the screen test footage and added it to the movie. When I watched that scene on my XBOX 360 HD DVD player it looked like crap; on the A30, it looked gorgeous. I do not know why and will have to rewatch it on the 360. (Was the A30 somehow upconverting or improving the image?) Additionally, Donner changed the beginning - it looks good, sounds good and works well.

Speaking of audio, Dolby Digital Plus is all you get. the surround sound is great and with as much action as any movie, the audio is up there with Batman Begins. The only thing this movie lacks is a TrueHD setting.

The extras could have added some more bits. There are the obligatory deleted scenes - ones even Donner did not want to use. There is a very cool nice vignette about the restoration of the movie. I would have liked to see some HDi stuff or have this take advantage of the PIP elements of HD DVD

Now, kneel before Zod, son of Jor-El.

ILHDDVD Rating 4/5 (Only a lack of TrueHD keeps this out of the top 5)
Video/Image: 4/5 (gorgeous)
Audio: 4/5 (Where is TrueHD - not on the original cut!)
recommended

Reader Ratings: (2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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