This, the first sequel to the 1978 blockbuster SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, was a hit with audiences and critics in 1980, despite glaring continuity problems, occasionally transparent special effects, jarring tonal shifts, and a tendency to treat the material with tongue-in-cheek instead of playing it straight. For many viewers, apparently, these rather obvious problems were outweighed by the emotional satisfaction of finally seeing the consummation of the Lois-Superman love story; plus, the battle with the three super villains is loads of spectacular fun.

The movie begins with Superman foiling an attempt by terrorists to detonate the Eiffel Tower with a nuclear bomb. The Man of Steel sends the bomb into outer space, where it explodes, releasing the three super villains seen in the prologue of the first film: Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O'Halloran). Unaware of this in his frozen Fortress of Solitude, Superman discovers a method to relinquish his superpowers, so that he may engage in a mortal love affair with Lois Lane. When the super villains arrive on Earth and bring the world to its knees, Superman must restore his powers to fight them. Lex Luthor eventually shows up to ally himself with the Kryptonian criminals, leading them to Superman's hideout in the arctic. There, Superman lures them into a trap that deletes their superpowers. Realizing that his destiny is to be the Man of Steel, not an ordinary human, Superman and Lois are forced to abandon their love affair, but Superman eases her pain by giving her a magic kiss that makes her forget his secret identity as Clark Kent.

SUPERMAN II is a schizophrenic motion picture. The romance between Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Superman/Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) is handled reasonably seriously, with both actors doing a fine job of masking their characters' comic book origins in favor of playing them as believable people. The section of the story dealing with the super villains, however, tends to be jokey and even silly, constantly undercutting the menace as if afraid of alienating the family audience. (In one particularly egregious example, during a fight between the Kryptonians and the U.S. army, a jeep flips through the air in an obviously lethal crash - and then the film adds a ridiculously unbelievable shot of the driver jumping out and running away, completely unscathed.)

The problem seems to lie in the fact that the film's original director, Richard Donnor, was dismissed after completing the first SUPERMAN and most of Part II; he was replaced by Richard Lester, who re-shot and added new footage. Lester, best known for his comedies (like the Beatles films A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and HELP) apparently wanted a more comic-book tone for the action. He actually managed to turn in a reasonably exciting film, but his vision clashes with the original intent, and the intercutting of footage from the two directors creates some visible continuity errors.

The most obvious problem is that Marlon Brando, who played Superman's father Jor-El in SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, is completely absent here, without any explanation at all; instead, the virtual image of Superman's mother (Susannah York) is what consuls him in the Fortress of Solitude. This creates unintended consequences, as when a desperate Superman calls out for his father's guidance and receives no answer. Has Jor-El deliberately abandoned his son? (No, the producers simply didn't want to pay Brando the residuals they would have had to give him for using his footage here.)

Also glaringly obvious is the fact that Gene Hackman, not pleased with the dismissal of Donnor, refused to return for any re-shooting. His old footage, shot with Donnor, contributes many of the film's most amusing moments, but any new shots are achieved with a terribly obvious stunt double, waving his arms in hammy gesticulations, keeping his face away from the camera while performing idiotic pratfalls, and speaking in an obviously dubbed voice.

Outside of the romantic sub-plot, the film's highlight is the battle between Superman and his Kryptonian adversaries, who want revenge against the son of Jor-El for sentencing them to the Phantom Zone in the first movie. Some of the interaction between the four super-powered characters - as they float up to each other in mid-air - has a slightly slow-motion feel that diminishes the kinetic effect, but most of the special effects and action are properly spectacular. (Elsewhere, many of the flying shots reveal visible matte lines, where the live-action and miniature footage have been combined. These flaws were eventually touched up for the DVD release.)

The new music by Ken Thorne, based on John Williams' score for the previous SUPERMAN film, sounds like a note-for-note recreation. The script's idea of comedy is lines like "You have to learn to kick ass if you want to be a peace officer." And the film winds up by having Superman take petty revenge on a roadhouse bully who beat him up while he was mortal. All in all, it is an often-dismal affair, despite some good villainous fun courtesy of Stamp and Douglas.

TRIVIA

Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) died after completing his work on SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE. The only footage he shot was for director Richard Donnor, who receives no credit for SUPERMAN II. Yet Unsworth's name is prominently displayed in the credits as SUPERMAN II's Director of Photography, eclipsing the credit for Robert Paynter, who shot Richard Lester's footage.

THE DONNOR CUT

Although director Richard Donnor was never allowed to complete shooting of his version of the film, the so-called "Richard Donnor Cut" of SUPERMAN II was assembled by editor Michael Thau for release on DVD in 2006. Modern digital technology helped smooth over some of the gaps in the editing, and some footage from screen tests was used to fill in some missing pieces. The result is a marked improvement over the theatrical release, yet many of the same flaws (e.g., inappropriate humor) remain intact.

The Donnor Cut restores the Marlon Brando footage, deletes new scenes that were added under the guidance of Richard Lester, and retains some but not all of the footage that Lester shot from the script that was developed under Donnor. The changes are revealed almost immediately in the opening credits: not only is Donnor credited as director (along with the label "A Richard Donnor Film), but also John Williams receives sole credit for the score. (In the closing crawl, Ken Thorne, who worked on Lester's footage, gets a credit for "additional music.")

The revised cut begins with a reprise of scenes from the first film, showing the nuclear bomb that Superman deflects as it heads into space and unleashes the super villains from the Phantom Zone. (The theatrical version had substituted a new scene, in which Superman prevents terrorists from blowing up the Eiffel Tower.) Restoring the original opening creates a smoother transition back into the storyline, which continues with many threads established in Part I.

Other new scenes include one of Lois Lane throwing herself out a window in a failed attempt to prove that Clark Kent is Superman. Eventually she proves her theory by firing a gun at Clark (it turns out to be a blank, but Superman is fooled into revealing himself before he realizes this). Footage for this scene was never shot during the actual production; it was assembled from two screen tests: close-ups of Christopher Reeve are taken from his screen test (in which he performed opposite Holly Palance, Jack Palance's daughter); two-shots are taken from Margot Kidder's screen test, in which she appeared with Reeves. The actor's hairstyle changes noticeably when cutting from long shots to close-ups, but the scene is good enough to make it worth retaining, even in this imperfect form.

The film also contains the original ending, in which Superman reverses time to make Lois forget that he is Superman. Unfortunately, the new ending feels like a piece jammed into a puzzle where it no longer fits. During shooting of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, Donnor and "creative consultant" Tom Mankiewicz (whose credit is restored for this cut) opted to take what they considered their most spectacular moment and use it for the ending of the first film, assuming they would come up with something different for Part II. Eventually, SUPERMAN II wound up with Superman (in his guise as Clark Kent) giving Lois a kiss that somehow wiped her memory clean. While an obvious (and unexplained) dramatic device, the kiss worked better than the time reversal, which feels old hat since we've seen it before. Worse, it creates continuity problems: The time reversal seems to take us back before any of the events in the film take place, yet when Superman returns to the road house to get even with the bully who beat him up, everyone recognizes him, and there are a couple dialogue references to the earlier events.

The Donnor Cut also suffers slightly from decisions that seem based on ego rather than creating the best film. In the audio commentary for the DVD, Donnor relates that editor Michael Thau originally included footage that was in the script from which Donnor had worked, even thought it was ultimately shot by Lester. Donnor objected, and some of the footage was removed. In some cases, the deletions were clearly appropriate (the silly "peace officer" line, the unbelievable jeep crash that leaves the driver unharmed). In other cases, the deletions robbed the film of some of its more memorable moments, as when the super villains bust up a bar in a small town.

The Donnor Cut DVD contains a few bonus features: an introduction by director Richard Donnor, a documentary about the restoration, an audio commentary, and some deleted scenes.

The deleted scenes are most minor additions - more fun with Lex Luthor. The introduction and the documentary will give newcomers an understanding of what's going on with the revised version. The documentary, titled "SUPERMAN II: Restoring the Vision," also provides some insight into the difficulty of the restoration, which involved tracking down footage that had not seen the light of day for nearly thirty years - much of it special effects elements that had been filmed separately but never composited into the final shots.

The most interesting bonus feature is the audio commentary, which features both Donnor and screenwriter Mankiewicz. They share some amusing and informative behind-the-scenes stories, but they mostly avoid the number one topic of interest: How much of Richard Lester's footage had to be retained in the Donnor Cut? They only time they briefly address this is during the battle between Superman and the three villains, with both commentators pointing out individual shots.

Elsewhere, Donnor admits that he tried to remove as much of Lester's footage as possible, without leaving gaping holes in the plot. Unfortunately, he and his screenwriter end up referencing footage that is no longer in the cut (e.g., Superman using his heat vision to cook a soufflé), which may leave viewers scratching their heads in confusion unless they have recently watched Richard Lester's theatrical version.

Donnor says he cut this footage because Lester adopted the wrong tone, going for the "face value of Superman" rather than the heart. He also says that he did not like much of Lester's footage for the super villains because it failed to convey the appropriate threat. Yet inexplicably, the Donnor cut deletes the one time the villains actually kill someone (a young boy, which prompts the evil Ursa to gloat that he will never grow up to be a man). Instead, we are left with three Kryptonians who threaten lives but never actually take lives, diminishing their stature as dangerous foes for the Man of Steel.