Review of Superman II (1980) by Victor L — 01 Jan 2010

After the first film blew the world away with its special effects and excellent performances, The Salkinds went straight ahead with continuing their 2 picture deal they had with WB & DC Comics. Richard Donner had already filmed 70% of Superman II, while filming Superman: The Movie, so you would think he would be bought back in to finish the last 30% of the film. Well think again, Donner & The Salkinds had a hard time getting along during the making of the first film and when they decided to continue with this film they bought in long time friend and collaborator Richard Lester to reshoot several scenes and finish up the film.

First off, any scenes in this version that has Gene Hackman are Donner shots, Hackman refused to return, seeing as he fulfilled his contract. Most of the end fight was also shot by Donner and the diner scenes.

The main scenes that were shot or reshot for the Lester version consist of; The terrorist scene in Paris, the full Niagara Falls scene(part was filmed by Donner, but completed by Lester), the reveal to Lois that Clark is Superman,all the fortress scenes with Superman's mom Lara(originally Marlon Brando shot his scenes for Superman II, but he threatened to sue if the scenes were used in a non-Donner version), the final fortress fight scene and the super kiss ending.

I still love this film, many of what I've seen in the Donner version may have made the film ten times better, but this is still a great film to watch. Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder have a chance to fully show their chemistry as their respective characters. My only problem with this; is that Lois is in love with Superman, not Clark and he seems fine with that. That's not something I see anyone being fine with. Still the performances are good and entertaining. My favorite thing about this film has to be the villains, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas and Jack O'Halloran are great in their roles as the Kryptonian Super-villains General Zod, Ursa and Non. I still find it to be the best performance done by the 3 actors to date, even over Stamp's performance as Jor-El in Smallville.

I do love the fight at the end as well, many of which is a Donner shot, but Lester does chime in with a few shots. The music of course is still one of the scores ever for a superhero film.

The rest of the cast performances are also great, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Valerie Perrine and so on will always be my favorite in their performances of their characters.

The DVD special edition shown on the 2 disc or 14 disc sets are terrific. Commentary is done by Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spenglar and once again they provide great insight on the behind the scenes; through their point of views. We also get 7 more Max Fleitcher cartoons and a behind the scenes documentary that was filmed in 1980. Warner Brothers has really delivered the goods on this one. 5 out of 5 stars.