When “Superman Returns” was announced, I thought COOL, Superman is back! They picked an unknown to play Superman and Kevin Spacey to play Lex. A bunch of us from work saw the movie on the IMAX in 3D. The storyline is decent and pacing a little slow since the movie clocks in at over 2 hours. The movie starts with Superman coming back after a 5 year hiatus. Lex cheats some old dying woman out of her money and then plots to build continents made of the crystals from Superman’s home world. Continuing Lex’s obsession with owning a continent or Island is strange. What is he going to do with this continent that barely seems habitable? Speaking of Lex, he is getting old as a villain. We need a new villain for Superman. I say bring on Doomsday or someone worth challenging Superman (as in Superman II). The Lois and Clark love story is good but seems lost since she has a new husband. What happen to her “I know Clark is Superman” thing? I did enjoy the special effects and Superman doing his usual save the day routine. Introducing Superman’s child was simply brilliant. Adding a little twist is always a good thing. I look forward to the sequel which I feel will pick up the pace and the action for us hardcore fans.

From the HD side of things the movie is very pleasing for the most part. The movie is encoded in 1080p and supports 16x9 (2.40:1) and is also a “combo disk” (available with HD-DVD version ONLY). One side of the disk is 30GB with the HD version of the movie plus extras and the other side is DVD-9 (8.9GB) featuring the standard definition version for use in standard DVD players. I viewed the movie in 1080i via my Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player. The opening scenes in the movie are a bit noisy with lots of grain in the opening scenes with Lex and the scenes with Clark and his mother. Then suddenly the quality of the movie improves greatly (go figure). The city of Metropolis and the Daily Planet are well detailed. The Daily Planet’s Globe is sharp with metallic detail present. Character detail is a bit soft for my tastes as the usual facial features are not as sharp as I like them to be. I like to see high detail in people faces but the color in the skin tones is very accurate. Faces are NOT over-saturated with color leaving with them with a natural look. Colors in general are very vivid (such as Superman’s suit) and do not bleed. Color separation is also good.

Superman’s suit is stunning. You can see every single fabric in Superman's suit which is absolutely outstanding. The scene in which Superman’s saves the plane from crashing is awesome. You almost feel as if you are tumbling out of control along with the passengers. You can make out every detail on the plane as it hurls towards the surface with Superman struggling to bring it under control. When the nose of plane ripples as he brings it to a stop at the ballgame you can see the paint and metal ripple together in realistic fashion. Another outstanding scene is when he shows up at the Robbery and steps in front of the mounted mini-gun. The sparks and bullets flying off his chest are very intense. When the crook shoots him in the eye, you can see the background “clearly” in his eye and the detail of the bullet (as it is compacted from the impact) as it bounces off his eye and falls to the ground. If HD, you would swear the scene was REAL and it feels every bit as cool as it did on the IMAX screen this summer. Another great scene is Superman’s home at the North Pole. The crystals that contain information provided by Jor-El (Superman’s father), look fantastic. The crystals are clear, lucid and sharp. They almost have a diamond like quality to them.

The Movie supports Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus and TrueHD. The Dolby Digital tracks are exactly what I expect from a movie of this caliber. The sound is sharp, precise and clear. No real complaints. The TrueHD track has more clarity in the mids and highs plus much more low level bass (which I love). The tumbling plane scene is ripe with sound from the plane screaming out of control to the sound the nose makes as it ripples when Superman brings it to a stop. The center channel dialog volume is VERY good. When Lex yells “wrong”, I almost jumped from my seat. The rear speakers are busier than the Dolby Digital version, which makes all us audiophiles very happy. TrueHD support is addictive and I hope WB keeps it coming.

The disk contains a lot of extras on the HD-DVD side:

-The Making of Superman Returns (a decent extra)
-Designing Superman (another decent extra)
-The Joy of Lex – Behind the scenes with Kevin Spacey (an excellent extra)
-How Filmmakers Recreated Jor-El (another excellent extra – special effects at its best)
-Lots of additional scenes that were cut from the movie. These extra scenes are in 1080p. If you like deleted scenes, you will like these 10+ extra ones.

Since the movie is a “combo disk” it costs on average 5 dollars more than the average HD-DVD but I feel the experience is still worth the price of admission at 29.99. If you have not experienced Superman Returns in HD-DVD, I suggest doing so this holiday.

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"True adaptability involves changing ones self to meet ones environment, not changing ones environment to meet ones needs" - Species8472

Lex Luther is ridiculous in this film.... I like the sunlight scene, wherein Superman regains his strength from the sun!

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silly questionm but any hdd commentary?
thanks