Review of Superman II (1980) by Andy N — 12 Jun 2012

After seeing Cavill dressed up in the Superman tights for the first time, I decided to revisit my favorite of the Superman flicks, Superman 2. I was talking to a friend recently who said that the action sequences don't hold up, but I think he's wrong. While the effects are outdated, they are still epic in scope. Whereas the first Superman film was the set up for Superman, Superman 2 just throws in tons of action, and three very capable bad guys who are pretty damn evil. Throw in a little romance, a little comedy, and then the subtext of, "Are super heroes necessary?" and you've got yourself an excellent sequel.

There are some issues with the film that I don't know who's to blame for it all since there's the fiasco with Donner and the studio basically having a falling out. I'm not sure who wanted to take what in which direction, but towards the end, you begin to notice a sudden shift in direction. Superman gains some powers that are completely unexplained, and so do Zod and the others. Teleportation? Telekinesis Ray thing? He even uses a piece of seran wrap with an S on it to distract a guy, and nothing else. He also has the ability to erase minds...basically, Superman gets a ton of new powers for no reason at all...and they don't even make sense for Superman to have them.

Overall, besides the last ten minutes, the story is excellent and the acting is on par with the first Superman. Terence Stamp steals the show with an amazing performance as Zod. "I see you're already used to worshipping things that fly. Rise before Zod. No...kneel before Zod." Such an awesome set of lines that is delivered so menacingly, and so cold I literally thought if the President of the United States didn't kneel before Zod, Stamp was just going to murder him because he's Terence Stamp and you obey Terence Stamp.