I got the Ultimate Collector's Edition - for free! - and have watched SR again, the first time I've seen it since going to the cinema (when i came out hugely disappointed.)
Watching it at home, on a large plasma screen, I liked it much more this time around. It felt like a very nice film, visually polished and stylish, and you could feel the amount of passion and soul that Bryan poured into it.
However, my complaints about the movie remain largely the same.
1) It's far too dark and muted - they say on the DVD extra that this is so that Superman's primary colours stand out more, and yet his colours are not that bright most of the time. The maroon cape only stands out when there is light shining through it. And it was obvious that different capes were used - sometimes it looks like a waterproof material, sometimes more of a cloth.
2) The fanfare for the flight scenes sounded dated and cheesy, it kind of worked for the end scene of him going around the globe but I hated it before that.
3) I'd have liked to have seen a 'foreshadowing' final ending, rather than the existing ending - something like the a shot of New Krypton with the crystals on it, crackling with some sort of energy, hinting at something more to come...
4) The scene with Luthor and the Vanderworth widow - I don't like the 'pleasures I've never known' line (even Bryan Singer is giggling at it when they show that scene being shot), I don't like the kid screaming when he throws his hairpiece. And I feel sure that the old woman's family (was that her family outside her room?) would have contested the will and fought it tooth and nail in the courts, and the police/prosecutors would have been very suspicious of a woman leaving her entire fortune to one of the world's top criminals.
5) The attempts at humour - Clark throwing the ball too far for his dog (the pay-off scene with the dog bringing the ball back was cut) and the Vanderworth dog surrounded by the fur and bones of its companion - come off as twisted, cruel and unnecessary. Kitty's humour, sniping at Lex, was excellent though.
6) The land plot doesn't feel as bad this time around, compared to when i first saw it, but I still feel some dialogue would have given it more sense, such as - Kitty: 'You call THIS real estate.' and Lex: 'Just wait until you see what the other crystals can do.'
7) Also, the fact the Jor-El visual is no longer an interactive program/consciousness and simply tells all the secrets to Luthor doesn't feel right. I smell a plot convenience here. I've always thought that Jor-El was more some kind of advanced interactive recording (almost sentient) that recognised Kal-El and responded specifically to him.
8) The movie climax and ending felt unsure of itself. Superman falls once from the island, and then later he falls yet again. from the edge of space. He simply disappears from the hospital, with no note or thanks, just to reinforce the Christ symbolism of the 'empty tomb'.
9) Some of the visual FX look less slick and more obviously CGI now I can watch more carefully. But in general they were very well done.
Compared with X3, the scale of SR is more grand, the dialogue better and there is more 'heart' to it - possibly this is because of the fewer characters who as a result get more screentime. X3's climax failed to expand enough to be as epic in scale as SR (the X3 storyboards were more epic - Phoenix parting the bay, destroying part of SF, bringing a dome of water over the island).
I found the SR effects on about the same level as X3, the cinematography was slightly better (more creative?) than X3, but X3's colour/brightness was better.
X3 has a better soundtrack and a greater sense of 'enjoyability' - it is less ponderous, it is not trying as hard to say 'look what i am showing you, look what I can do.'
Both movies had great stories that were not executed with 100% success. The deleted scenes for X3 would have helped, those for SR did not add much at all (aside from Clark looking through the newspapers and the unseen Krypton exploration sequence)
I like both movies. I think both of them are very different, and both of them lost the plot somewhere along the way, but SR exudes more quality as a film - you can feel the director and team 'caring' about it. Possibly a better movie (in general terms), but not necessarily a great Superman movie or a better superhero/comicbook movie. If Brett Ratner and his team ever release a 'making of' documentary that shows how much they cared and poured their soul into it, then i might be swayed a little more. X3 does of course deserve an extended edition, if not a more epic climax.
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