DVD : Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut [HD DVD]

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- The Version You've Never Seen!
Superman II - The Richerd Donner Cut is the long awated version of Superman II, Richard Donner was unable to bring to lite. This is a very interesting and entertaining film that has been a hot subject for many Superman fans. Now we have the chance to see what Superman II would have been if Richard Donner had not been replaced by Richard Lester.

Although I am more partial to Richard Lester's Superman II this version of the film is entertaining. However there are times when the film seems to move too fast and some of the original material that helped the story has been deleted. So for some this film might be disappointing in some areas.

The special features are limited but offer a brief glimpse into the making of this film. The audio commentary is interesting in certain segments but unfortunately rehashes the commentary in the 2000 Extended Edition Commentary of Superman: The Movie.

All in all it is a decent film that has been restored for brillant sound and picture. You'll Believe a Man Can Fly, Again!

Rating:

- Completely overHYPED!!!!!!!!
The version of the second movie was NOT worth it. Sure there were extra scenes with Jor-El, but there was definitive errors in editing. For example, in the end, Superman leaves Lex Luthor in the Fortress of solitude. WTF?!?!?!? Plus, at the end, Superman reverses time like in the first film, but then goes into the diner where he got is butt kicked to fight that guy Rocky; since he turned back time, it actually never happened. Plus, there were plenty of deleted scenes altogether.

Don't waste your money!!!! Stick with S1 and S3 (with Pryor).

Rating:

- A worthy follow up to a classic!!!
Bear in mind, given the fact that Donner only shot 75 to 80 percent of the sequel, it is rough in places. That said, though, this is a superior film to Lester's follow up. The tone is right with the first film. It takes the subject matter seriously, but with a tongue firmly planted in it's cheek at times.

Let's face it. As good as Spider-Man and The Dark Knight were, the original 1978 Superman is the penultimate superhero movie. It's the standard by which so few can even come close. That is why it was so sad that the Salkinds and Spengler didn't wish to have Donner finish the second film...much less have Brando return. Donner made that first film what it was. Actually, I'd say it was Donner, Mankiewicz, and Reeves that really brought life to Superman.

I honestly believe that this cut, which includes screen tests in a few places to keep the plot cohesive, is a schematic of what could have been as great a film as the original Superman was. As much as I liked the Lester version as a kid, I watch it now and see how incredibly campy it was and just didn't have the pathos it's predecessor had. Lester is a fine director of slapstick and satire, that is a given. Donner was more respectful of the source material..verisimilitude is the term he uses. He really made me believe a man could fly when I was a nine-year-old in that darkened theater in 1978.

My only greivance with this film would be it's conclusion. I always had a problem with the "turning back time" conclusion with the first film. Doing the same here seems like a cop-out. It is, however, much better than giving Superman the power of an amnesia producing kiss.

All in all. I enjoyed watching Donner's vision much more than the action/comedy approach of Lester. I would recomend this version to the die hard fans of the original.

Only four stars because of the ending.

Rating:

- A better film... until the last ten minutes!
Overall this is a much better version of Superman II (Two-Disc Special Edition), and that was a great movie! This version has much tighter plotting, Non isn't played for laughs and Lois comes off as being a lot more competent. The action sequences are every bit as good as in the original (largely cause they are the same), and the scenes with Marlon Brando are very good.

But then, sadly, we have the last ten minutes.

*** AVAST, YE SCURVY DOGS! SPOILERS AHOY! ***

** GO NO FARTHER! **

* HERE THERE BE SPOILERS! *

This movie should've ended with Lois and Clark, as it were, up north together, having their last sweet moments, knowing they can't be together as they'd like to have been.

Instead we get the ending to Superman - The Movie (Four-Disc Special Edition), where Superman hits the big reset button and sets everything back to normal. This is insulting to the audience.

To make matters even worse, there's a scene where Supes goes back to a restaurant where a man had bullied him earlier and gives the guy his cumuppance. Well, first, I never liked that scene in the original film. But in this version it MAKES NO SENSE! Superman turned back time! How the hell do these people even remember seeing Clark get bullied by this guy?! ARGH!

That said, the film is great up until the last ten minutes or so, and I do recommend seeing it. Jus stop the movie after Lois and Clark are on the ice together.

Rating:

- The True Successor To Superman The Movie
Nearly three decades after its original release, there is a radically new version of the near classic sequel Superman II. This version, headed up by its original director Richard Donner, presents the film the way it was originally intended. The question is does this version live up to both fans expectations and to the version originally released in 1980 by director Richard Lester? The answer is a definite yes.

The biggest change in this so version is the addition of 15 minutes of new footage featuring Marlon Brando as Superman's father Jor-El. Originally deleted and replaced with similar scenes with Susannah York as Superman's mother, these new scenes are radically different in tone. This is mostly due to the Deepings of the relationship between father and son that was seen in the Superman The Movie. The scene were Clark loses his powers is a great example of this. There is genuine tension in the scene between the two characters as the son rebels against the father.

But it is the other Brando scene that serves as the best example of this: the much awaited "re-powering" scene. Here the love of the father for his son is in seen in a way that is both dazzling and touching. It may also be the single best scene of the Superman franchise. The acting by both Reeve and Brando is amazing and it is a shame that the footage appears now after the death of both actors.

But this is just the icing on the cake. The film is full of alternate/expanded scenes. Among these is the escape of the three Krypton villains (that is a vast improvement despite some bad CGI more on that later though), Lois jumping out of a window at the Daily Planet after figuring out Clark is Superman, a humorous expansion of Luthor's prison escape, the scene where Lois forces Clark to reveal he's Superman (that is also an improvement over the Lester scene despite being a screen-test). Also here are improvements to the final third of the film: a much more serious battle over Metropolis, a dramatic and virtully action-less confrontation at the Fortress of Solitude, the destruction of the Fortress at the hands of Superman and even an alternate ending.

It is worth noting that there is a significant amount of Lester footage in this version (due to the fact Donner never had the chance to finish filming the entire movie). But even this footage, re-edited here, seems to also have been improved. Without a lot of the Lester humor the footage does not seem out of place.

But this film is not perfect of course. The films biggest flaws are in its new CGI effects, its sound, and its music. The new CGI shot don't really ever match the original footage and at times it is way too obvious (the scene where Non goes flying after Superman punches him during the Metropolis battle is a perfect example of this). It is surprising that the original effects out shine those of the original effects of nearly three decades ago.

The sound and music is also another issue. The voices don't always match due probably to the age of the recordings. The voices are sometimes different in scenes were dubbing never happened and it is at times obvious. The music, reused almost entirely from John Williams score to Superman The Movie, works very well. But there are times when it doesn't work and seems out of place. It's a shame that he wasn't brought back to re-score the film. But these problems are not enough to bring down the entire film.

Overall, Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut may well be the definitive Superman film. When compared to Richard Lester's original version this film outshines and surpasses it. This film was meant to be, as it now is, the true successor to the classic Superman the Movie and it even surpasses it in terms of sheer quality. This is THE Superman film to see.

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