As much as I endorse restoring Christopher Reeve's Superman movies from the dry, dull and current campy versions of the officially released films, I don't endorse adding scenes that create problems such as self-contradictions. This goes not only for any Superman movie, but any movie or storyline that I love in general.
With regards to the extended versions of Superman the movie starring Christopher Reeve, including the 2001 re-release, the television versions as well as the upcoming "international restored fan cut," the scene in which the little girl watching the young Clark Kent race past the train she was riding on as pictured here.
In the original release of the 1978 blockbuster film, it is unknown who the little girl is and we are meant to assume her to be a random curious little girl. If the scene was left like that, we would consider her just that in the story. But in the extended cut of the film, it turns out she is Lois Lane as a child.
She tells her parents about a man who ran past the train and her parents laugh her off in disbelief and call her by her name.
This poses a serious problem to the storyline if included in the movie. Because at the very same time we see Lana Lang as a high school girl in her late teens attending the same high school as the young Clark Kent and Brad trying to come in between them etc.
The problem is that Lana Lang is actually around the same age as Lois Lane and in fact actually a bit younger as seen in the comics, cartoons, novels etc. For Lois Lane to be a little girl in that time period and Lana Lang to be a teenage high school student contradicts all this.
Not only does it contradict the original storyline, but also contradicts one of the ending scenes of Superman 3 showing them both together. We can clearly see that Lana Lang played by Annette O'Toole is younger than Margot Kidder who plays Lois Lane. A search also reveals that Margot is almost four years older than Annette O'Toole.
A little girl in the first movie suddenly surpasses the high school girl in the third movie. I'm sure fans can clearly see the problem with this. Not that it matters so much, but if you're looking for fun and realism in one of your favorite stories and franchises, this short extended cut kills all that.
The so-called "restored international fan cut" of Superman the movie is currently in progress and is set to be released on DVD in September if all goes according to plan. I sent a message to the man who is most likely leading the project and appealed to him to leave out that small extended scene of the little girl in order to not let her be Lois Lane and just some other girl. I obviously also gave my valid reasons.
His response was quick and refusing. He claimed he had no plans to leave out any scenes created by the director. I wrote back a short message pleading him to reconsider but it seems unlikely he will be persuaded.
I didn't really want to get into an argument with him as I'm hoping to get a copy of the restored cut of the movie. Many fans of the movie series know that the restored cuts of Superman 1 and 2 will not be for sale due to copyright issues. They will be negotiated upon if I'm correct. Also if I'm correct, we may still be required to pay for the packaging and the discs.
I'm not really pleased with the current versions of the Superman films knowing how dry and campy they are leaving out so many relevant scenes which is why I'm hoping to get a hold of these extended cuts.
I actually have good intentions to create my own versions of all four Superman movies in order to correct the mistakes made by the original makers but I unfortunately lack the resources. I have yet to master some proper video editing softwares besides windows movie maker.
More so, I would have to digitally restore all the old, outdated scenes before adding them into the movies. Burning them to DVD and creating a full scene menu to make it a proper movie is still something I have yet to learn.
To add more to the difficulties, I am unable to get a hold of the most relevant scenes to restore the missing storylines of the films, such as the infamous scene of Clark Kent visiting the graves of his foster parents in Superman Four: The Quest for Peace.
This is why for now I'll have to opt for getting another fan's restored editions of the movies. This is why I'm requesting all the fans out there to catch this mistake and appeal against adding it into the film as I have. Even if it means removing one of director Richard Donner's make of the movie, it should not matter if it's for the best.
Sometimes cutting out scenes can be for the best. And as already mentioned, even if it's not that important for leaving out one small extended scene, all loyal fans know how much keeping a storyline realistic is important.
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