MAINPAGE
Directed by : Richard Donner and Richard Lester" Superman II is a winner on all counts and is even better than Superman the movie. It shines as a perfect example of how to put a comic strip on the screen"
"Superman II was the most enjoyable time I've had in a cinema for a long time"STARBURST critic JOHN BROSNAN
"Man, this is gonna be good", announces a bystander in Superman II as
the man of steel prepared to take on a trio of super villains in the sky
over Metropolis.The second film turned out to be one of the screen's most
satisfying depictions of a comic book character.When director Richard Donner
shot Superman the movie, he also shot much of the proposed sequel. Donner
fully expected to finish the job, but did not happen. Richard Lester was
chosen to complete the second film.Donner said that he completed about
80 percent of the second film, this is true if you have seen the uncut
version.But in the normal version there is about 52 percent shown of Donner's
work.
The filmmakers had filmed a large portion of footage for Superman II
concurrently with Superman I, and now the cast and crew had to return to
England to complete the film for its 1980 release. The excitng plot containing
a super-con-frontation between Superman and three survivors from the Phantom
Zone ( marvelously played by Terrance Stamp, Sarah Douglas and Jack O'
Hallaran). It also promised a dramatic resolution of sorts to the Clark
Kent -Lois Lane-Superman love triangle which had been present for over
40 years by now.
The sensational fight scenes in which metropolis was torn apart constituted the most important new footage created for the sequel;older footage consisted of scenes shot on the sets of the Daily Planet offices and home base Hackman did all scenes during the initial production of Superman the movie."Those were pretty much in the bankeconomics of it." Although the two ," said Reeve. "It was the films seem to be a whole, the direction of the sequel was credited to Richard Lester rather than Richard Donner. And according to Reeve, Richard Lester directed the effects laden action sequences that made Superman II the closest cinematic equivalent of a comic book to date."It was fun to think of gags," said Reeve. "The fact that there was humour in this - in both parts and particularly in part two - was what made it enjoyable for me."
MY REVIEW
Superman II will always be a classic what ever version you have seen.
If you are lucky enough to have the extended version with more extra scenes
than you are closer to Donners original version. upon release this film
was just as popular as the first but something was missing from the film.
' Donner and Brando'!. Salkinds didn't want to pay for Brandos footage
even thou Brando had been paid. So they changed the script abit thanks
to the Newmans and turned it into a Lester film. Lester was brought on
to finish the rest of SII and re-do some scenes to get full credit for
the film.Lester did a very good job blending the scenes together. But as
you notice Lesters scenes seem abit different in style. lester is a different
director, he likes to have lots of laughs and campiness throught his films.
Its bad directing at all but he is not suited to Superman. Lester only
came on board to be paid for his work on the second Musketeers film. Lester
shot so much footage for film that the Salkinds ended making a film out
of the stuff left on the cutting room floor. Lester went mad, so they agreed
to pay him if he came on and helped complete Superman II. When you watch
SII now knowing all the footage that was shot by Donner you kind think
we missed out on probably the best Superman movie.
EXTENDED VERSIONS
