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    Superman II

    Movie » Superman II released on June 19, 1981.

    Although Superman II was shot partially in step with the first movie, director Richard Lester replaced Donner behind the camera. The film's plot picks up immediately after the original film. Despite the behind the scenes drama, the film was a box office smash.

    allstarsuperman's Superman II review

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    The Richard Donner Cut

    I can't believe it took me this long to finally watch this cut. The introduction by Richard Donner was pretty cool, I'd never even seen him before. Its cool that he finally got to tell his version of the story. And theres a bunch I agree with him on. The movie is pretty similar, but with several good scenes added, while the bad ones got cut.

    MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

    Lois & Clark:

    Lois actually finds out secret identity in a much better way. She sees a picture of superman in the newspaper and draws over it to make Clark Kent. It's a small thing, but I thought it was handled very well. She then drops a bunch of "super" references in their conversation, which is funny. She does do a very "Lois" thing and jumps out a window demanding that he would turn into Superman and save her. Clark handles this scene rather awesomely.

    After getting assigned to Niagara Falls together Clark admits he likes Lois, and he feels threatened by Superman, cause Lois seems obsessed with him. Lois already knows that Clark is Superman. She pulls a gun on him, and shoots him. He takes off his glasses and stands up straight. Its a beautiful piece. He says something like "What if you were wrong? You would've just killed Clark Kent". Lois replies, "With blanks?". I thought this was fantastic. Much better than in the Lester cut where he accidentally trips into the fireplace.

    Another great thing it builds on is Superman giving up powers to be with Lois. That's how it seemed in the Lester cut, but in the Donner cut Jor-El demands that Kal-El must give up his powers. To only protect one human that he loves and keep his powers would be selfish. When Superman finds out about Zod, Ursa, and Non he goes back to Jor-El begging. He pretty much says he has to give up Lois to get his powers back. Jor-El expels the last of his energy within the fortress to repower Kal-El.

    Zod, Ursa, & Non:

    I think they were handled better as well. We get to see them escape the phantom zone. And there is extra screen time of them destroying stuff. One of them breaks the Washington monument in half. Also during the White House invasion scene Zod picks up a machine gun and fires back at the soldiers. I thought that was pretty neat.

    Lex Luthor & Tess:

    A couple scenes were added or elongated to make Lex and Tess seem to actually have a relationship. Before it just seems that she follows him around. While in the fortress Lex actually gets a crystal of Jor-El talking about Zod, Ursa and Non. It was a pretty nice scene to add in. Also there's a pretty funny scene where Tess finally gets to go to the bathroom, cause she finds one in the Fortress. The only bad thing is this is the last you ever hear of Tess. She just disappears.

    Ending:

    The ending was similar, yet had some very good and different stuff happen. For starters the New York fight had some added scenes and was much better. After this the Fortress scene takes place. They took out the entire fight, which is good cause there was all that doofy stuff like teleportation, Illusion casting, telekinesis fight, and of cause the shield throwing. It ends relatively the same with Superman depowering them, causing them to fall to their doom.

    A couple things different now happen. He destroys his own fortress. He takes Lois back to her place, but doesn't do the wipe wiping kiss. I thought that was great. They have a conversation about keeping his identity a secret and things going back to normal. There is some very strong emotion in this scene. But something drastic happens.

    He rewinds time yet again. Causing Lois to still forget, and technically everything never really happened. This was a big problem with me. Cause if Zod, Ursa, and Non are now back in space they could run into the same bomb again and escape. Also Clark goes and beats up the bully from the dinner scene, but since he rewinded time the bully wouldn't have even remembered him. And why did he destroy the Fortress to only have it come back after rewinding time?

    All in all it was very good though, and I highly prefer it over the Lester cut.

    Other reviews for Superman II

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