Fans of the Superman films who are looking to run out to their favorite DVD retailer tomorrow to pick up Warner Brothers’ “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” box set may want to wait a few days.
Sure, the 14-disc is loaded to the gills with everything any fan could want- special editions of all four films starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel, the new alternate Richard Donner cut of Superman II, this summer’s Superman Returns, all 16 of the Fleischer Studios classic Superman cartoons, the George Reeves 1951 feature Superman And The Mole-Men and loads of extras all packed into a shiny metal box. Just the thing any self-respecting Superman fan, myself included, would want on their shelf.
Unfortunately, the folks at Warner Brothers have let slip not one but two major mistakes in the set through their quality control system. First, left off of the Superman: The Movie disc is the film’s original 1978 Dolby stereo track. Currently, the disc only contains the remixed soundtrack from the film’s original 2001 DVD release, which many fans were not happy with. The second flub concerns the version of Superman III included in the set. Although the set was advertised as containing the new Deluxe Edition of the film which includes a commentary track, deleted scenes and more, the set is actually showing up containing only the bare-bones DVD release from 2001.
Fortunately, these two mistakes have been contained to the “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” only. The smaller “Christopher Reeve Collection” which only contains the four Superman films he starred in, is unaffected.
I have to admit that I’m shocked that not one but two major blunders to make their way out onto the shelves in this set, especially with this being a high profile holiday release. Although they have not stated so yet, I would expect Warners to set up some sort of disc exchange relatively quickly to rectify the problem for consumers. Still, this kind of screw-up is going to give some DVD consumers pause before they plunk out their hard-earned cash.
