Superman II The Richard Donner Cut.

Slightly strange. I sat down to watch it and thought "I'll only watch a bit..." But I ended up watching all of it.
Ah, you can't beat those opening titles. Good to see the gang again.
 
It works much better than I thought it would considering donner only managed to shoot about 70% of what he wanted and of course he never got to shoot an ending .

some things don't work well - Lois jumping out the window is a bit crazy and so is shooting Clark with blanks (he'd still notice no bullets hit him) . and the scene is taken from a screen test and is a bit jarring because Reeve looks quite different and it's on a cheap set.

But the Brando scenes work very well and give it much more dramatic weight . there's some nice extra romance bits as well.

Lester did add some good stuff but his 'comedy' bits are terrible and he only had to shoot about 50% to complete it anyway.

I never liked the idea of turning back time in the first film so it's even more bizarre here .

They went to enormous trouble to restore it, I thought they were just gonna show an old workprint.
 
I liked the Donner version for what it was but I just wish he had been able to finish it.. oh well.

My only problem is why did Superman return to the diner at the end to put the bully trucker in his place after he had turned back time and wiped that original confrontation from history?

It's no biggie though! :)
 
I'm not sure it works like that. He seems to be very selective about what gets changed. I don't think it's as simple as turning back time. We see the same thing in Superman 1.
 
If you mean superman 2 collectors edition then that all depenRAB if you want to see the donner cut or not.
Also the sound is now 5.1 surround rather than 2.0.
 
as david said it looks like the only thing to have been changed is lois knowing that clark is superman and that zod & co never came to earth and remained in the phantom zone,a bit of a cop out but not exactly dick donners fault,due to the obvious fact that he never finished the filming so had to make do with richard lester's shots,and the use of the screen test(they even used cgi for the missile going into space and exploding)so the way i see it he made a extremely good film with what he had at his disposal. :)
 
I personally really loved the Donner Cut. I doubt very much I will watch the Lester version again, now that I have a version available to me that is far more in touch with the original then Lester's version ever has, or will be. It's not perfect, or better then the original no, but it's probably the closet we are ever going to get, and I am grateful for that. When I was young I loved all of the Superman films, yet growing up, the only one that has ever retained its timeliness, greatness and magic with me is the original. Lester's II has declined badly in quality over the years, and as for III & IV... III is bad, and IV is abysmal. I actually viewed it recently on a fairly large LCD display, and there is just no justifiable excuse for the terrible special effects it has (even by 1987 standarRAB). Supergirl, which came in-between both films may me fairly stupid on occasions, but at least it was fun and entertaining (also retaining fairly good special effects for the time). Heck, it's a masterpiece when compared to the last two Reeve Superman films. The latest offering being Superman Returns may have lacked the spark of the original, but at least it was fairly entertaining, and it put the Superman franchise firmly back on the map again, with at least one more sequel to come, which I am sure will be an improvement in all areas. Brandon Routh was a truly amazing find (in terms of his appearance) I'm sure his acting (while not being painfully awful) will improve as he becomes more comfortable with the role also.
 
When I watched the Donner Cut, I'd completely forgotten about the comedy terrorists at the beginning........

It was interesting to see the screen test inserted for the bit they hadn't filmed and it worked very well........

I preferred it to the Lester version.........I don't know what the SalkinRAB were up to after he'd created such a great original film.

C. Kent - yes that's my real name, although the C is not for Clark which is a nickname :D

Oh darn, I forgot my suit had a "Do Not Tumble Dry" instruction.

Gotta fly...........
 
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