I don't blame Donner for wanting to put together a cut of this film with as much of the footage he shot as possible, but the result is a rather dull, way-too-serious mess that is illogical to boot. It was interesting to see the new scenes, but if this was the version released in theaters in 1980, the film would not have been the success it was.
I thought Lois's suspicions of Clark being Superman were played out much better in the original. In the new one, she draws glasses on a newspaper image of Supes, and is suddenly so convinced that she leaps out of the skyscraper a minute later to test Clark. Uh... yeah. Then she shoots a blank out of a pistol at Clark in their honeymoon suite to gauge his reaction. Wouldn't Superman realize it was a blank before admitting that he is indeed Supes?
I know a lot of the new stuff is purportedly "test footage", but some of these scenes come across with less snap than a daytime soap. Scenes are stretched out so much that it kills the tension. It's been said that Donner was fighting the producers to keep the movie camp and slapstick free, but some of the now-eliminated bits are sorely missed. When the Kryptonians are super-blowing away the approaching crowd, we no longer have the oblivious guy who's laughing into the payphone even after he and it are blown over. And where is Lois's co-worker who would comically punctuate the big Metropolis fight scene with her dumb remarks: "the big one's just as strong as Superman!" (Lois pushes her). Maybe Donner cut these things simply because he didn't shoot them, but why throw away these memorable little jokes in a film otherwise almost completely devoid of humor? The sequences of Non, Zod and Ursa getting acquainted with the locals of the Midwest town, and the big sprawling city fight (the highlight of the original Superman II) are now cut up so much that they are flat-out dull. So basically, if you're going to be stuck on a deserted island forever with only a DVD player and a TV, and could only take one version of Superman II, it is my opinion that you should bring the theatrical version.
I thought Lois's suspicions of Clark being Superman were played out much better in the original. In the new one, she draws glasses on a newspaper image of Supes, and is suddenly so convinced that she leaps out of the skyscraper a minute later to test Clark. Uh... yeah. Then she shoots a blank out of a pistol at Clark in their honeymoon suite to gauge his reaction. Wouldn't Superman realize it was a blank before admitting that he is indeed Supes?
I know a lot of the new stuff is purportedly "test footage", but some of these scenes come across with less snap than a daytime soap. Scenes are stretched out so much that it kills the tension. It's been said that Donner was fighting the producers to keep the movie camp and slapstick free, but some of the now-eliminated bits are sorely missed. When the Kryptonians are super-blowing away the approaching crowd, we no longer have the oblivious guy who's laughing into the payphone even after he and it are blown over. And where is Lois's co-worker who would comically punctuate the big Metropolis fight scene with her dumb remarks: "the big one's just as strong as Superman!" (Lois pushes her). Maybe Donner cut these things simply because he didn't shoot them, but why throw away these memorable little jokes in a film otherwise almost completely devoid of humor? The sequences of Non, Zod and Ursa getting acquainted with the locals of the Midwest town, and the big sprawling city fight (the highlight of the original Superman II) are now cut up so much that they are flat-out dull. So basically, if you're going to be stuck on a deserted island forever with only a DVD player and a TV, and could only take one version of Superman II, it is my opinion that you should bring the theatrical version.