Mark Millar turns Roger Ebert as he reviews the new Superman DVD box set that just appeared this past week:
My God… eight hours and I’ve merely skimmed the surface. Watched the Donner cut [of Superman II] last night and was strangely moved. So much so I watched all the appropriate extras and then watched the movie again with Donner and Tom M’s commentary (which was great). Lots of friends are judging this against the Lester version which is unfair because this isn’t Donner’s cut. It’s 70% of the footage he wanted and even then it’s unedited, the score is off and the effects aren’t perfect. They also have to do their best with screen tests and bits of Lester footage so it’s much too choppy to judge as a movie… I won’t say it was a triumph, but may Allah forgive me, in the parallel world where Donner got to make this I really do think it would have been better than Superman The Movie. The Lois scene at the start is priceless and so charming and genuinely quite funny that my daughter was transfixed. Like Russell’s Doctor Who, this stuff is funny without being goofy and really lures kids in. I love Batman Begins more than any movie this decade (besides The Departed), but kids hate it. Donner really captured something that appealed to kids and adults. It’s sometimes a little TOO broad, but this was one of the best DVDs ever.
Also watched the extras on Superman 3 and 4. The Superman 3 stuff is weird because even the extras are all about Pryor and you realize those Newman pricks and Lester just wanted to make a bad, non-sweary Richard Pryor movie. I loathe that film more than I could ever loathe 4 which, deep down, was actually trying.
Much more in the link, including Mark’s next starring role:
This week’s a bit mental as I had physio yesterday (still building up after being sick at Easter), out with pals today and doing the other half of a short documentary with some media studies students tomorrow. A really nice bunch from Uni have foolishly chosen me as the subject for their degree show and last week we were at my old school, the house I was born, the chapel where I was an altar boy, etc. Tomorrow they’re here in the house and we’ll get a look around everything from the Superman cape in the hall to my crappy comic collection to the dog doing a jobbie in the garden.
