You’ll believe a man can fly for more than three hours… I first saw Superman: The Movie in the winter of 1978-79, when I was almost 12. It came out in December but I didn’t see it right away. Instead, I saw it while visiting my cousin in suburban Philadelphia some weeks after. I didn’t beg to go immediately because I wasn’t a huge Superman fan. But I was entranced by the movie and it completely altered my worldview of the Man of Steel. To this day, Christopher Reeve’s portrayal is my favorite in all media, comics included. When it hit HBO in 1980, I watched it as often as I could and by the time it left the cable network’s schedule, I’d seen Superman 25 times. That’s something of an accomplishment for a 13-year-old living in the predawn of home video. So the only thing that could really make Superman’s network debut in 1982 special would be if there were something new — and ABC gave it to us: A two-night airing in February that split Superman into two parts but added lengthier edits and a raft of never-shown scenes. (I didn’t know at the time that the Salkinds, who produced the movie, padded the film for mercenary reasons.) The cut survived subsequent airings but it eventually vanished and it became one of those things that I began to wonder if I imagined. Memory’s funny like that: You’re so sure you saw something and yet there’s no ready evidence. Anyway, 35 years after it first aired, what’s now called Superman: The Movie — Extended Cut has been released on Blu-ray. (For a thorough rundown of all the additions, check out the Superman Homepage.) How does it rate? Well, here are 13 QUICK THOUGHTS: — 1. It’s a mixed bag. There are definitely things about the additions that I like, though I’m glad that director Richard Donner’s theatrical cut excised the campier scenes among Lex Luthor, Otis and Miss Teschmacher. 2. That said, those scenes do give more depth to the dynamic between the three of them. Miss Teschmacher’s disdain for Otis is clearer. 3. The scenes I remembered most from when I was a kid were the “feed the babies” scenes, which I actually like. They’re gross and disturbing and make Lex that much more sinister. I would have liked to see...