I have loved this movie ever since I first laid eyes on it and have always thought it was far far better then Superman III & IV. Helen Slater was perfect as Supergirl (I had a major crush on her), Faye Dunaway was campy as the evil witch Selena and Peter Cook was rather amusing as her boyfriend Nigel.
I first saw this movie in it's director's cut form when it aired on UK TV as a Premiere in the late 80's (yes, the director's cut "was shown" in the UK, regardless of what fans may have read on various websites. The only version shown after that was the "International Version" as it is known in the US which was missing various scenes from the director's cut but still had more footage in it then the cut-down US version. Jerry Goldsmith's score, while not as classic as John Williams Superman is still a great music score and I have never met anyone who did not name the main title music as either Superman or Supergirl to this day.
The reason this movie flopped at the Box-Office in the US was mainly because of poor-marketing, cuts to the US version by it's second distributor Tri-Star (Warner Bros. originally were to release this movie), certain slackers from the company kept leaking the movie to pirates in the US and other countries before it was even released so they decided to sell the movie to Tri-Star who ruined any chance this movie had of being a US hit in 1984 due to their disastrous decisions involving everything to do with Supergirl... Warner Bros. didn't drop it because it was a bad movie for all of you "think you know everything!" people out there!. It's a shame because this is clearly the only reason this movie never had any sequels made.
"The movie actually did very well overseas" which isn't a huge surprise to me at all because Supergirl had actual decent marketing there, they also got a different "superior" cut of the movie which was released in countries outside of the US, this being the "international version" which is now available in the US via both a separate DVD and a 2-disc DVD set which also includes the even longer "director's cut".
This movie is a fun, enjoyable movie that does not deserve the reputation it has received over the years, the DVD is also one of the best releases I know of, giving the movie the justice it deserved unlike the poor handing of Superman II by Warner Bros., "Anchoy Bay are one of the best DVD handlers out there for Special Editions!"
7/10
I first saw this movie in it's director's cut form when it aired on UK TV as a Premiere in the late 80's (yes, the director's cut "was shown" in the UK, regardless of what fans may have read on various websites. The only version shown after that was the "International Version" as it is known in the US which was missing various scenes from the director's cut but still had more footage in it then the cut-down US version. Jerry Goldsmith's score, while not as classic as John Williams Superman is still a great music score and I have never met anyone who did not name the main title music as either Superman or Supergirl to this day.
The reason this movie flopped at the Box-Office in the US was mainly because of poor-marketing, cuts to the US version by it's second distributor Tri-Star (Warner Bros. originally were to release this movie), certain slackers from the company kept leaking the movie to pirates in the US and other countries before it was even released so they decided to sell the movie to Tri-Star who ruined any chance this movie had of being a US hit in 1984 due to their disastrous decisions involving everything to do with Supergirl... Warner Bros. didn't drop it because it was a bad movie for all of you "think you know everything!" people out there!. It's a shame because this is clearly the only reason this movie never had any sequels made.
"The movie actually did very well overseas" which isn't a huge surprise to me at all because Supergirl had actual decent marketing there, they also got a different "superior" cut of the movie which was released in countries outside of the US, this being the "international version" which is now available in the US via both a separate DVD and a 2-disc DVD set which also includes the even longer "director's cut".
This movie is a fun, enjoyable movie that does not deserve the reputation it has received over the years, the DVD is also one of the best releases I know of, giving the movie the justice it deserved unlike the poor handing of Superman II by Warner Bros., "Anchoy Bay are one of the best DVD handlers out there for Special Editions!"
7/10