Superman II - Take Two

30 years ago, when I was but a bump in a wedding dress, Richard Donner was filming a two-part Superman movie series. Like Peter Jackson of The Lord of the Rings fame, Donner was filming his movies concurrently. Once he had finished the first movie and sent it away for post-production, the producers put a stop to his filming so they could concentrate on getting the first movie out on time.

In a move that would make an interesting movie in its own right, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind took the 75% completed sequel and had one of their uncredited producers film the rest of the movie. The discarded much of Donner's original footage and storyline and Richard Lester was credited for directing the entire movie.

Recently, Warner Bros has released, Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut. It has over 45 minutes of brand new footage that was recovered from a damp warehouse. The movie has a very different feel and a totally different ending.

I was overjoyed to see that the whole sequence with Lois Lane in Paris was cut since that was one of my least favorite part of the original cut. The new opening fits much more clearly with the first movie now.

One of the most interesting parts is a scene that was actually never filmed. It was a scene that Donner saw as so crucial to the series that he used it as the screen test scenes. They have taken the actual screen test footage of Kidder and Reeve and inserted it into the movie. It takes place in a very small set and the costuming isn't up to the same level as the rest of the movie but it is a very interesting scene. It is the moment when Clark finally admits to Lois his secret. I wasn't as happy with this scene, not only because the quality is so low, but because it replaced one of my favorite scenes - the fireplace reveal.

It is very obvious that Donner was only able to shoot about 75% of the film. He reluctantly used a few of Lester's scenes to fill in the story and I think that makes for a weak plot at times. Many of the scenes, including the climax at the Fortress of Solitude and the Niagara Falls sequences are rushed and some crucial moments are
missing. Donner's ego wouldn't let him use barely any of the footage that this usurper filmed and unfortunately, the end product suffers. I agree that the movie would have been much better if he had finished everything he wanted to do, but this new cut is still a very good movie. Definitely worth taking a look at.