The Film (4/5)

Ms. Magnificent followed hot on the coattails of Richard Donner's 1978 Superman starring the late Christopher Reeve.  Ms. Magnificent, under the original release name of Superwoman, was an obvious adult take on Superman.  As was common at the time, Ms. Magnificent isn't a copy of crucial scenes from Superman with sex thrown in, which is what modern viewers of "parodies" are used to watching.  Ms. Magnificent is an original script, written by John Finegold, and film, directed by Joe Sherman, that pokes fun of Superman.

In Ms. Magnificent, Kreeta Borgia (Jesie St. James), arch-villainess of all time, has been banished from the solar system for crimes against humanity.  Kreeta manages to set into motion a plan, at a precise time, to conquer the universe.  The fate of all of humanity, and the rest of the universe, rests in the hands of Ms. Magnificent (Desiree Cousteau), the defender of justice.

Ms. Magnificent is a whole lot of cheesy fun, in all manner of speaking.  Ms. Magnificent never takes itself seriously, which benefits the film.  The story is amusing in a campy way, and the costumes, which are campy as well, fit the movie perfectly.  The film has some excellent sets and locations that are used; all of which go a long way in making Ms. Magnificent the fun venture that it is.

However, the aspect that makes Ms. Magnificent works so well is the excellent cast.  The cast chews up the scenery in this film, especially Jesie St. James as the arch villainess, which makes the film work.  Everybody seems to over exaggerate their roles, which when combined with all the other details, makes Ms. Magnificent a total camp fest.  If you have a sense of humor, you are going to love this film.  The sex scenes are well done, which isn't surprising given the cast in the movie.  If you like adult spoofs of popular cinema, from before they went to hell, Ms. Magnificent is a must see.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

Vinegar Syndrome has done a relatively good job with their DVD release of Ms. Magnificent.  Ms. Magnificent was shot on 16mm film, and Vinegar Syndrome has used a 2K scan of a 35mm blow-up print for this release.  Ms. Magnificent is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in 480p.

This release from Vinegar Syndrome of Ms. Magnificent is as uncut as the film can be released.  Originally Ms. Magnificent was briefly released as Superwoman.  DC Comics and Warner Brothers sued producer Damon Christian and in 1980 a federal district court judge in Los Angeles, California ruled that the references to Superwoman and the "S" on her costume had to be removed from the film.  DC Comics and Warner Brothers also wanted the flying scenes to be removed; however, the judge sided with Damon Christian for them.  The "S" on Superwoman's costume was rotoscoped on prints frame by frame.  Damon Christian essentially bleeped out every time Superwoman is mentioned on the soundtrack (There isn't an actual bleep, just silence where the instances were.) along with many of the last names for some odd reason since that didn't seem to be required by the court judgment.  Originally the movie was going to be renamed Ultrawoman, but Damon Christian ended up going with Ms. Magnificent.  No known unaltered original elements exist (There is a beta tape release from before the court ruling.), however, even if original elements were found they still wouldn't be legal to release due to the court judgment.

The image quality presented on the release is relatively good.  Obviously, Vinegar Syndrome can't be downgraded due to the rotoscoping since they have to use the rotoscoped edition legally.  The image contains artifacts, print damage, and grain.  There are some jumps present.  There is a lighter band on the right side of the screen at times during the presentation.  There are also periods of a good sized white artifact present in the image.  The colors in the film look beautiful.

The audio for Ms. Magnificent is an English Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural track.  There aren't any noticeable defects within the audio.  Obviously, the portions of the sound that were removed due to the legal judgment are missing, but that isn't anything that one should use to fault Vinegar Syndrome. The dialog in the film is clear and easy to understand at all times.

Extras (0/5)

Sadly, Vinegar Syndrome hasn't included any extras on this release.  Even if they couldn't find anyone who was willing to talk about the film, an in-house produced featurette about the lawsuit and the alterations made to the movie, as a result, would have added to the release; especially for viewers who don't know why the film has modifications.

Overall

Ms. Magnificent is a spoof of 1978's Superman.  Those of you who watch recent adult movies and are aware of the adult parody scene currently, don't shudder, parodies were often much different in the old days.  Ms. Magnificent is fun to watch and mocks itself as much as it mocks the source material.  Ms. Magnificent is campy fun that shouldn't be missed.  Vinegar Syndrome has done a nice job their DVD release with good image and audio quality.