DVD : Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- I liked it!
I got this dvd in the super ultimate collectors edition set that also included Superman I , II , III and IV. I watched Superman I- beautifully restored and reprinted in vibrant color with outstanding sound. The next night I watched the special info that comes with this disk regarding the restoration of the Donner cut and then watched the film.
WOW! I know that having 2 films where Superman resets time is a cop out- but to be fair that was not supposed to happen in the first film...this aside. If I had seen Donner's cut of Superman II back in the 1980s I would have paid to see more Superman movies. As it was I always hated the Lester film's cop out ending with the memory erasing kiss.
I loved the scenes that were restored to Donners vision and the fight scenes were amazing. Use of Marlon Brando was very effective in the fortress- his work was missed in the Lester edition.
Overall- well worth viewing- a must for any true Superman fan!

Rating:

- I wanted to like this more than I did
I was one of the thousands of Superman fans who had petitioned Warner Brothers to release this material. I always thought that Richard Lester's version of this film was enjoyable and well-made, but I'm also a bigger admirer of the style established by Dick Donner for the original film. The prospect of seeing all of the Marlon Brando material, seeing some of the story as it was originally written, and seeing the entire film in the Donner style was a tempting prospect indeed. I've just now seen this film (via a Netflix rental), and walked away with mixed feelings.

First, the good. Most (not all) of the restored Donner material is fascinating. Yes, Brando's performance here is more pomp and circumstance than it is substance, but it's still wonderful to be able to see all of it. The sequences involving Superman voluntarily relinquishing his powers (and then later regaining them) have more meaning and impact than they did in the Lester cut, and in many ways, they make more sense. The sequences involving Lois Lane's suspicion that Clark Kent has a secret identity are (almost) completely "new"; at first, I was a bit off-put by the bizarre aggressiveness of Lois' tactics compared to the Lester cut, but upon further reflection, I decided that this tenacity fit in perfectly with her character. In any event, they were great fun to watch.

Now, the bad. As much fun as it is to be able to finally see all of this material in one place, the film in its totality is a bit of a mess. Donner did not shoot all of the required scenes for Superman II, so there were portions where he and his producer/editor Michael Thau had no choice but to use the Lester material. In the documentary that accompanies the film, Donner admits that it was difficult for him to even watch the Lester material, so most of the final editing was (presumably) turned over to Thau, who seemed to have been given the direction to use as little of it as possible. The result tells the story adequately, but seems disjointed and abbreviated in places, as other reviewers have noted.

I have no doubt that if Donner had originally shot 100% of the film and had all of that material available, the result of this retroactive cut would have come across far better. I also have no doubt that my familiarity with the Lester cut influenced (most likely subconsciously) my expectations of the Donner cut. And I, like many other reviewers, did not care for the ending -- which, we're told, is the original ending that was penned by Mario Puzo at the time that the films were first written. The deus ex machina of the "super-kiss" has been replaced by an even more blatant attempt to wrap up an inconvenient unresolved plot point. At least the consequences of the "super-kiss" were a bit more localized in scope!

Still, despite all of this, I'm giving this DVD four stars for the following four reasons: 1) The child-like, goofy grin that I had on my face when watching all of this "new" material that we fans have been requesting for years. 2) The ability to see the storyline of Superman II in the style of Richard Donner (albeit imperfectly). 3) A generous helping of extras, including even more restored Donner scenes that were not used in the final cut, a brief featurette, and full-length commentary from Donner and and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz. 4) The fact that Warner Brothers even released this DVD at all.

It is impossible to overstate the last point; the fact that this cut was ever assembled and released to the public is a perfect example of digital democracy in action. Warner Brothers would never have done this had it not been for the thousands of us out on the Internet who demanded it. It would have been very easy for them to ignore such requests, but they didn't. For that reason, I'm going to purchase my very own copy in the hopes that any future requests of this nature will be proven to be financially viable options for Hollywood.

Rating:

- Kneel before Zod... all over again!
Richard Donner (Director of the LETHAL WEAPON movies, etc.) who directed the first SUPERMAN movie, was 75% finished with SUPERMAN II when the producers fired him. They brought in Richard Lester (A HARD DAY'S NIGHT) to finish the film.

I've always thought SUPERMAN II is a fun film; when the supervillains are tossing manhole covers and buses at Superman, it really captured the feel of comic books in a way that hadn't been done before.

But, 25 years later, the studio gathered together the old footage and decided to release a version that was more like what Richard Donner had in mind.

Marlin Brando is back in the film in this version (he'd been axed over salary demands), so Suzanna York is out.

There are more scenes with Gene Hackman.

Lois and Clark's trip to Niagara Falls takes a very different direction.

And the supervillain fight has less slapstick in it.

This film is a strange artifact. It's not a better film than the Richard Lester version (I think one of the reasons the producers canned Donner, besides for the film going over-budget, was that they felt he was trying for a tone that was too epic and not comic-book enough). But if you're a fan of the original film (and perhaps even more if you disliked the original SUPERMAN II), it's a fascinating bit of alternate history.

Rating:

- this isn't the "cut" this IS the movie, the other was the cut.
Richard Donner gets emotional about his movie, and rightly so. This is the better of the two versions, Listers being a campy rehash of the prologue and a few comedic dirogotive new yorkers and hicks added in place of some classy elements. Stamp's General Zod is much more sinister and presentable here as a more formable foe to Superman, as he should be. Ursa and Zod's lines are adde in place of some campy new yorkers corn ball coments and the silly coke sign stuff. The Superman transforming into human scene has more meaning here and is more on the lines of father/son ethos and has more wieght. The morbid skull scene is removed for superman and replaced with an already fully dressed Kent BEFORE entering the red chamber instead of the fanciful change clothes metomophisis crap in the Lister film edits. Cute louis outfit. Who cares if the love scene is played out before, not after his humanization he's superman, not an animal, the purpose of this is not to reduce the sex labedo of a krytonian alien, but to have a long term relationship with Louis.. What would the nieghbors think...

Rating:

- Superman II the Richard Donner Cut
I was very surprised how different the 2 movies were,(this one and the other Superman II) I enjoyed both equally.

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