Review: "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut"

There have been a lot of great comic book movies in the past decade, yet for me, I think my favorite will always be 1980's "Superman II." The gripping confrontation between Superman and the evil General Zod blew me away at age 9, and I still think in its combination of epic action and heartfelt characterization, "Superman II" outshines many of the comic movies in the years since.

Yet for a long time, fans of the movie have known that the finished film was just the tip of the iceberg and that an entirely different version of the movie lurked out there, unseen. Now, thanks to the miracles of DVD, "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut" lives, 26 years after the original movie's release.

Donner was the director of the great "Superman: The Movie," but a series of arguments with the film's producers led him to be fired midway through filming "Superman II" (which was being made simultaneously with the first movie). A new director, Richard Lester, was hired and much of "Superman II" was filmed from scratch. The final release was still a great movie, but Lester added a notably campier feeling than Donner had in the reverent "Superman I," and fans of Donner always wanted to see his version (pieces of which appeared in TV airings of the movie over the years).

In a pretty amazing bit of resurrection, Donner's film has been dug out of the vaults, and pieced together with some of Lester's cut and a few digital additions to create an entirely new movie. "Superman II: The Donner Cut" is a fascinating piece of alternate history, more or less the same movie as "Superman II" but with a quite different tone. It boasts a new beginning and opening, and tons of new footage – only about 25 percent or so of Lester's cut remains, to keep the story coherent.

Gone are lots of the slapstick moments "A Hard Day's Night" director Lester added, silly sight gags and goofy one-liners, and they aren't really missed. The general feeling is a more serious movie – General Zod (the wonderfully sinister Terence Stamp) and crew are just that much darker (one marvelous added moment shows Zod picking up a discarded machine gun during the White House siege, and with a playful evil grin, using it himself on the soldiers).

While it's become hip for some folks to diss Lester's cut, it's still the one I grew up with and I love it, even the silly bits. I could live with never seeing some of the lamer moments – Superman's "super cellophane shield throwing"? – but even so, it's got a grand epic, polished scope to it that "The Donner Cut" lacks a little.

One of the big perks of "The Donner Cut is that it restores a good 15 minutes of footage featuring Marlon Brando as Superman's father Jor-El. I was never a huge fan of Brando's mannered, sort of comatose performance in "Superman: The Movie," but oddly, his work for "Superman II" is much better. "The Donner Cut" replaces the bland Susannah York as Superman's mother to use Brando as intended. The entire sequence where Superman gives up his powers to be with Lois and then seeks them back to fight Zod is terrific here – I always hated how in the original cut that despite being told he could never regain his powers, Superman apparently regained them easily offscreen. Here, he pays a real and brutal cost for his choices, and the moral dilemma Superman faces is much richer.

It's a fanboy nitpick, though, but one moment I can't forgive is "The Donner Cut" cutting out my single favorite line from the original cut – a re-powered Superman, bristling with suave confidence, confronting Zod outside the Daily Planet building with the line, "General Zod, would you care to step outside?" – and replacing it with an idiotic one-liner about freedom of the press. The final battle shown here also suffers a bit from poorly patched-together special effects.

The ending of "Superman II" in any form has never quite worked – Superman apparently kisses Lois Lane into some kind of "super amnesia" so she forgets his secret identity? – but in my eyes, "The Donner Cut" ending is worse, basically lifting the ending of "Superman I" off and grafting it on here, so Superman turns back time and creates the ultimate deus ex machina. It's a cheat that I didn't like when it appeared in "Superman I" – and in both versions of "Superman II," the ending is a flaw that mars the movie. The best choice, of course, would have been to simply keep Lois Lane aware of Superman's identity and go on from there.

I don't know if I prefer Donner's cut to Lester's – in the form it's in here, it's really not quite a finished movie. The editing is choppy and the musical score doesn't always synch well with what's onscreen. One pivotal new sequence, the one where Lois finally confirms Clark Kent is Superman, was actually pieced together from an old screen test, but it still works quite well and features marvelous acting by Reeve and Kidder. Rounding out the disc are a commentary with Donner, a short featurette explaining how this cut came to be (seeing crate after crate filled with stored film gives an idea what an amazing chore this was), and a few more deleted scenes.

For anyone who's a diehard fan of "Superman II" this cut is certainly worth seeing, but perhaps less as a replacement than as a kind of supplement to the more famous version.

MOVIES: "Superman Returns"

MOVIES: "Superman Returns"

...It may be a bit silly, but I admit, there's nothing quite like hearing John Williams' awesome "Superman" theme music blasting into a movie theater for the first time in 19 (!) years, ever since I saw the god-awful "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace" in a theater with about six other people back in 1987.

Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" is the Man of Steel's first celluloid outing since then, of course, and if it isn't quite a total home run, it's solid entertainment and a pretty great spectacle. I'm not sure how well it'll do at the box office - it could catch on, or it could be seen as too cerebral and slow – but it more or less works. Some thoughts (Spoiler Warning, of course):

The good:
Like I said, that John Williams music is wonderful to hear again, and might just be my favorite movie theme ever. The whole movie is a deep thematic sequel to "Superman: The Movie" and "Superman II," and it's nice to see Singer paying respect to the godfather of the current superhero movie genre.

First off, some of the action in "Superman Returns" is absolutely spectacular – a dazzling plane rescue sequence in the beginning that had me holding my breath with tension; a series of incredible can-you-top-this feats of catastrophe prevention; any scenes with Superman flying, executed with stunning grace and majesty by Singer. Naturally, it's all a quantum leap above the effects in the 1978 film. You get your summer movie big-bang money's worth from this one, I think.

And overall, I'm down with Singer's approach to the material. Just like in his "X-Men" movies, he's respectful and utterly serious to the characters and story. There's a depth to "Superman Returns," with its lingering themes of alienation, fatherhood, truly adult love and hero worship. They aren't all developed perfectly, but this movie tries, and that elevates it to the higher echelon of comics flicks like the "Spider-Man" and first two "X-Men" movies or "Batman Begins."

Brandon Routh, I wasn't sure about before I saw this – he looks too formless and bland in still photos, I think – but he's a very solid Man of Steel here. He plays Kal-El darker, more stoic and restrained than the late Christopher Reeve, who always had a nice kind of twinkle in his eye, but it serves for the story this movie is trying to tell. I don't think Routh's Clark Kent is quite as successful, but the Kent side of his personality really got the short shrift in screen time anyway.

Kevin Spacey has been on most people's short list for Lex Luthor, and I think he's a fantastic choice here. He chews the scenery mercilessly, homaging Gene Hackman's performance but also turning this older, embittered Lex into more of a cruel, amoral thug. The dead steely glare in Spacey's eyes nicely fits this version of Lex, a madman whose plot in this tale is really quite insane and apocalyptic. At first I thought that was a gaping plot hole (not to spoil too much, but how is Lex's new land going to be valuable to anybody if it looks like Mordor-meets-South Dakota?), but now I can almost see that's the point. Lex is stone cold crazy here, and the rest of the world doesn't even quite get that.

A marvelous overall look to the film, dark but not "Batman" dark, with an art-deco Metropolis and a snazzy Daily Planet newsroom I'd love to work in.

The kid. I know many fanboy types are turned off any time a kid is featured in one of "their" movies, but I actually thought Lois Lane's son was a smart addition to the story and played by a refreshingly genuine child actor.

The final confrontation between Luthor and Superman is jaw-droppingly brutal and intense, and delivers a powerful punch. (I admit though I feel like Luthor doesn't get the comeuppance I feel he truly deserves at the film's end though.)

The just OK:
Sorry, Singer, but Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane is a huge misstep. She's adequate, but rarely more, and lacks the husky lived-in sexiness of Margot Kidder's Lane. Obviously this isn't a straight sequel to the old movies, but still, how are we supposed to believe this doll-faced cherub is a hard-charging reporter? Bosworth just looks too young, and lacks the spark a Rachel McAdams or Rachel Weisz might've brought to the role. She does have a nice chemistry with Routh, though.

I like the notion of Superman leaving Earth for five years and dealing with the ramifications of coming back, yet the movie sometimes left me wanting more. Why exactly did it take five years? What did he see? There's almost another movie or something to be had from that story point alone. And the way Clark Kent kind of just slipped back into his old life after five years' away seemed a bit too simplistic.

The bad:
Singer is a fine director, but his ambition nearly derails the movie a couple times. It sometimes feels like a director's cut. It's too long by about 15 minutes, and takes a little while to get going. He lays on the Superman-as-Jesus metaphors far too thickly, to the point where it begins to feel artless and forced. (Although the movie's final scenes, featuring a badly wounded hero, were terrific.)

And while I love the old "Superman" movies, there's part of me that feels "Returns" errs a little too much toward being a remake rather than a total reinvention. Beside recycling the theme music, resurrecting Marlon Brando, the carved beauty of the Fortress of Solitude and even several dialogue lines from the original, the overall plot bears an awful strong resemblance to the first "Superman" movie (Superman vs. Luthor over some world-shattering real estate scheme). It's a good movie, but if there's a sequel I'd like to see them strike out in an entirely new direction.

Jimmy Olsen. Sorry, but this kid has only worked for me in the goofy 1950s and 1960s comics.

If Krypton crystals grow in water, why doesn't the Fortress of Solitude surrounded by ice take over the planet?

Despite the movie's flaws (and really, I can't think of a comics movie that's been flawless), I do find that I keep thinking about "Superman Returns." It sticks in your head, and Singer's visual imagery feels timeless and powerful. The first superhero has a movie that nearly lives up to its potential.

MOVIES: Look, up in the sky…

MOVIES: Look, up in the sky…

Superman. He's the Man of Steel, the first and, still, the most iconic of all the superheroes, the one every other one came from. But he's also kind of... well, bland, compared to the tortured angst of Spider-Man, or Batman, or The Hulk. But he's been off movie screens since 1987. Now in this golden age of comic-inspired movies, it's his turn to get the big-bucks film experience again.

Finally, we've got a new movie trailer that gives us our first real long look at what director Bryan Singer hopes to show us with "Superman Returns," coming June 30. So far, me like. The gist – Superman is back after five years in outer space. He returns to find a Lois Lane who's got a son, a world that isn't sure it needs him, and a very, very angry Lex Luthor.

The trailer captures a lot of the joy and fun of the first two "Superman" movies.. We get lots of flying and bullet-deflecting and Kevin Spacey chewing the scenery as Lex Luthor, all of which goes down pretty smooth. I worried "X-Men" director Singer might put too psycho-analytical a spin on Superman – who's not Wolverine, after all – but Singer has gone out of his way to embrace the near-great first two Superman movies (of "Superman III" and "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace," we shall speak no more). The use of John Williams' pounding classic score is extremely welcome – I put the "Superman" theme as probably my favorite movie music other than the original "Star Wars." And check out the Marlon Brando cameo in the trailer.

The question mark remains Brandon Routh, who lacks the cheery All-American charm of Christopher Reeve, but who's also playing an older, wiser Superman. But he fits in the costume (which could make many an actor look idiotic), and his Clark Kent seems to be haltingly awkward without being buffoonish. It remains to be seen how well he'll handle dialogue scenes. Kate Bosworth makes a pretty, sassy Lois Lane, although she doesn't have Margot Kidder's husky allure. There are things that concern me – did we really need a cute kid for Lois Lane to tote around? – but the trailer shows us plenty to be excited about.

Spacey looks like he'll provide the movie's biggest moments, á la Jack Nicholson in "Batman," and I like the way he's using some of Gene Hackman's affable Luthor portrayal to create a crueler, meaner arch-nemesis, who's obviously not mellowed with age. This trailer seems to emphasize the humor – but as long as it doesn't tip into ultra campy (no bumbling sidekick Otis, for example), it ought to work. The superhero movie trend has been to go dark, dark, dark, which is fine and dandy for some, but a little wit doesn't mean we'll start seeing Batman dancing the "Batusi" again. The "Spider-Man" flicks have been best of the recent wave of capturing the simple sense of wonder of having super-powers; hopefully this one can evoke something similar. I mean, Superman can fly, y'know!

I'm hoping for a movie that provides us spectacle and awe and respect for the characters, but also has a healthy sense of fun as well. Come June 30, I'll be in line to see what Bryan Singer has come up with for the biggest superhero of them all.