Color reproduction is light-years ahead of what has come before. Modern color correction keeps Superman's costume a consistent bright blue throughout the film. Flesh tones now appear healthy, instead of ashen. In general, all colors appear more vibrant and a far more stable. There are no major concerns with chroma noise or smearing at any time during the presentation.
Blacks appear solid and inky, but shadow detail does fall below modern levels.
Contrast is very smooth, plus in the Krypton scenes, where the blinding white costumes used to blow out everything else, backgrounds and skin tones are more readily discernable. For this release, director Richard Donner has integrated eight minutes of footage into the body of the film- there are no visual differences in quality between the theatrical cut and the additional footage. The new mix incorporates the original dialogue and music recordings, but the sound effects track did not survive intact, which necessitated re-recording the effects for the new mix. Purists, of course, will be outraged, but there is little to be done of the original recordings are beyond salvaging. The end result of this new mix is fantastic, although the new foley work sometimes sounds as though it has a more lifelike quality than the dialogue and music.