Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

[Raf]

Lotsa spoilers in this thread, but really, if you're worried about spoilers in a 26-year-old movie, I don't know that I can help you all that much. ;)

If you don't know the back story, here it is. Superman and Superman II were supposed to be filmed back-to-back, the way Lord of the Rings was done. But the original director was fired before everything was done, and the new director changed some things around for part 1 and, with more impact, for part 2. This movie, now available on DVD, attempts to give the "vision" of the original director for Superman II.

If I had known this would have been the end result, I would have barged into the Warner Brothers offices and cried out, with passion, NO! DON'T DO IT! THE PEOPLE!

This movie is a mess.

I'm not even talking about the worst of the worst scenes (the confrontation between Lois and Clark at the honeymoon suite is taken from two different screen tests, with Christopher Reeve looking dramatically different from shot to shot. The result is nothing short of jarring, even if you're willing to forgive the fact that they never got around to shooting the scene with high production value).

The real travesty in this edition is the fact that for some reason (arrogance? stupidity?), Richard Donner felt he had to fix things that weren't broken. Result? Punch lines with no set up. For example, Clark promises to get Lois orange juice, "freshly squeezed." But the previous scene, in which Lois explains her newfound obsession with orange juice, is not in this edition. So there's no gag in the "freshly squeezed" line.

And the Lois/Superman romance is gone. I'm not saying the fact that they are in love is gone. I'm saying the chemistry has simply vanished. There's a poignant moment in the original where Lois says she's in love with him, and he responds, "We'd really better talk." Gone. The fact that these two are ridiculously in love with each other is not apparent until he's with her in the fortress of solitude. And what's a woman to say when Superman comes onto her at his home in the north pole? Looked like a classic case of date rape to me.

Which brings us to our villains. Most of their work is the same (though there's a MUCH cooler explanation about how they broke free from the Phantom Zone).

The beginning of their terrorism at the small town of East Houston, Idaho is not shown.

I'm going to say that again: They don't show the scene where they first get into fights with locals in town. No arm wrestling sequence. No tossing someone out the front window. No shot of Non trying to figure out how heat vision works.

You DO get the scene where Non figures OUT heat vision and uses it successfully. He's got the same smirk on his face, the one that says "look what I did!" But, like the freshly queezed orange juice scene, it's got no setup. Dumb. Simply dumb.

And someone, I don't know who, turned the volume on the music down real, real low. This is most evident in the scene where Superman makes his triumphant return. Well, it seemed triumphant in 1980. This time around, it just seems matter of fact. Hey, look, he's back.

And why, dear God, why did they ruin (that is, omit), one of the best lines in the movie?

"General, would you care to step outside?"

Gone. The. Line. Is. Gone.

Unforgivable.

Replaced with, "General, haven't you ever heard of freedom of the press?"

Not a bad line, but really, the 1980 line is so much better because it's a real, honest to God, let's throw hands NOW challenge!

Now, how does Superman get Lois to forget who he is? Simple: he presses the rewind button and takes us back to the beginning of the movie.

Dear God, I'm not kidding. He turns back the clock.

Never mind that the events of the movie are about to happen again (perhaps now according to the original film's superior execution).

For curiosity's sake, this is an interesting movie to have. But the original release is the better one. At least in that one, unlike the Donner cut, Lois and Superman will always have Paris.

[Ca_dreaming]

Nice review!