Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980/2006)

The cut of the film that Richard Donner intended. And to think, it only took about 30 years. Directed by Richard Donner.

After Richard Donner was fired by the producers after the release of Superman: The Movie, Richard Lester was hired to shoot Superman II, even though most of it had already been shot under Donner's direction. After almost 30 years, there was enough fan interest in seeing the Donner cut that Warner Bros was finally willing to do it. It turned out that all of his originally shot footage was still in storage in Britain, so that was the starting point for this cut. A few scenes hadn't been shot, and in at least one case, they simply substituted a screen test that Reeve and Kidder had done for the scene.

The unfortunate part is that while I really enjoy Donner's 1978 Superman, I really only enjoy the first 75%. After that point (right around when Lex launches his masterplan), it starts to get a bit goofy, and unfortunately, that's right where this cut picks up and continues in that vein. There are some nice moments (I do like the scene where Lois shoots Clark to prove he's Superman), and while I think Terence Stamp looks kind of bored, he's still a great presence. But in the end, there's just too much goofiness here to allow me to really enjoy it. And the movie repeats itself - once again Superman goes back in time (the logistics of this are never very clear) to undue everything that happened, even after he's won - why doesn't he do this ALL the time?

And while I liked the idea of Superman choosing to give up his power, it seems kind of rushed - and the scene where Jor-El sacrifices himself AGAIN to give Kal-El a chance at life is really moving, but doesn't quite have the emotional connect I wanted.