Superman II

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Superman II
Original movie poster
Directed by	Richard Lester Richard Donner (uncredited)
Produced by	Ilya Salkind Pierre Spengler
Written by	Comic Book: Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster Story: Mario Puzo Screenplay: Mario Puzo David Newman Leslie Newman Creative Consultant: Tom Mankiewicz
Starring	Gene Hackman Christopher Reeve Ned Beatty Jackie Cooper Margot Kidder Sarah Douglas Jack O'Halloran E.G. Marshall Terence Stamp
Music by	Ken Thorne John Williams (Themes)
Cinematography	Robert Paynter (Lester footage) Geoffrey Unsworth (Donner footage)
Editing by	John Victor-Smith
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 4, 1980 June 19, 1981
Running time	127 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$54,000,000
Preceded by	Superman
Followed by	Superman III
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Superman II is the 1980 sequel to the 1978 feature film Superman. It was the only Superman film to be helmed by two directors. For this reason the film is surrounded with controversy since original director Richard Donner had completed, by his estimation, roughly 75% of the movie in 1977 before being taken off the project. Many of the scenes shot by second director Richard Lester (who had been an uncredited producer on the first film) in 1979 are refilmed Donner sequences. It was released in Europe and Australia in late 1980 but not distributed in the United States until June 1981, which is unusual for such a major production.

According to statements by Donner, roughly 25% of the theatrical cut of Superman II contains footage he shot, including all of Gene Hackman's scenes. In 1984, when Superman II premiered on television, 24 minutes were re-inserted into the film (17 mins in US ABC TV). Much of the extra footage was directed by Richard Donner. A brand new re-cut of the film, restoring as much of Donner's original conception as possible, entitled Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, was released in November 2006.

Taglines:

• The three outlaws from Krypton descend to Earth to confront the Man of Steel in a cosmic battle for world supremacy.
• The adventure continues.
• The Man of Steel meets his match!
• The Man of Steel is back, and better than ever!

[edit] Plot

The film begins with a prologue in which General Zod and his co-conspirators, Ursa and Non, are banished to the Phantom Zone by the Kryptonian elders as punishment for their crimes. The story then moves forward in time. Clark learns from Perry that Lois is in France to cover terrorists who have seized the Eiffel Tower and have a hydrogen bomb. As Superman, he races across the ocean to Paris. In the course of rescuing Lois, Superman throws the hydrogen bomb out of the atmosphere and into deep space, where it explodes. The shockwaves shatter the crystalline conduit into the Phantom Zone, now floating near Earth. Zod, Non, and Ursa are released. Lex Luthor, meanwhile, has escaped prison with Miss Teschmacher's help, leaving a hapless Otis behind. He uses a gadget he constructed in prison to find Superman's arctic Fortress of Solitude, where he learns from a hologram about the three Kryptonian villains and their prison's only weakness: it could be shattered by a nuclear explosion in space. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, he hurries south, convinced his device has detected the three criminals' alpha wave signatures.

Superman and Lois Lane at the Fortress of Solitude.

Clark and Lois are on assignment in Niagara Falls, Ontario, investigating what Perry calls a "honeymoon racket." Superman rescues a boy who falls over the railing, and Lois suddenly decides it is far too convenient that Clark disappears every time Superman shows. She tries to prove it by jumping into the Niagara River and screaming for Superman to save her. Clark never changes identities but, unbeknownst to Lois, uses his heat vision to break off a tree branch for Lois to use to stay afloat. Later, as she dries off in the hotel room embarrassed and dejected, Lois asks Clark for a brush. As Clark brings it over, he trips over the head of a bear-skin rug and his glasses fall into the fireplace. Clark quickly snatches them out of the fire with his bare hand. Realizing that his hand wasn't burned, Lois determines that Clark is Superman. After some hesitation, Clark admits the truth and takes Lois to the Fortress of Solitude. He shows her the crystals which created and control the operations; Lois leaves the primary green crystal under her purse, outside the control panel. After a conversation with the hologram of his mother Lara about the consequences of being in love with a "mortal," Superman agrees to give up his powers to begin a relationship with Lois.

Before he enters the "crystal chamber" and undergoes the painful depowering process, his mother tells him that once he has given up his powers, there is no return and that he shall remain a mortal human for the rest of his life. He emerges from the chamber a human, and tells Lois that his sacrifice was made for her. The two retire to his bedchamber and sleep together. Meanwhile, the three Kryptonian criminals have devastated a joint NASA-Soviet Moon expedition, killing three moonwalkers. They fly to Earth, which they believe to be a planet called "Houston", having overheard radio transmissions between the moon mission and mission control in Houston, Texas. They wreak havoc on a small town, easily defeat the U.S. military's response, deface Mount Rushmore and arrive in Washington DC to attack the White House. General Zod demands the surrender of the President of the United States and eventually the entire world. Returning from the Fortress of Solitude, Clark finds that without his powers he can't even defend himself against a diner's bullying customer. His despondent mood worsens when, in horror, he watches the President announcing the surrender of Earth to General Zod. The President suddenly pleads for Superman's help; Zod issues a challenge to Superman to face him. Realizing the danger posed to the world and the terrible mistake he made, Clark returns to the Fortress in search of a way to restore his lost powers. Arriving in the dark sanctum, he falls into despair, shouting for his father. He sees the green crystal glowing where Lois accidentally left it.

Lex Luthor visits a bored Zod at the White House and negotiates a means to bring Superman to the villains by holding Lois hostage. He also reveals that Superman is the son of Jor-El, their imprisoner. They arrive at the Daily Planet offices and seize Lois, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Superman, his powers fully restored. A destructive battle ensues among the four Kryptonians as Superman struggles with the new experience of battling multiple enemies of his power level. When Superman seems to be dead, the people of Metropolis try to attack the Kryptonians, but their efforts are in vain as the three blow them back with super-breath. Superman emerges and flies off, seemingly in defeat. Luthor convinces the villains that they must pursue Superman to his Fortress. Superman manipulates Luthor into tricking the criminals, counting on Luthor to double-cross him. Superman is forced into the same depowering chamber he used before, and the red light that drains super-powers is actually set loose on the Fortress while Superman is safe inside the chamber. Superman feigns weakness and then crushes Zod's hand after seemingly accepting it in submission. Lois easily dispatches the now-powerless Ursa, and Non leaps towards Superman, only to find he can no longer fly. All three villains fall into the depths of Superman's fortress, apparently to their dooms.

Back in Metropolis, Superman uses a form of telepathy (a kiss) to erase the knowledge of his dual identity from Lois, returning them to their usual status quo. Later, Clark takes revenge on the customer who bullied him at the diner, and the film closes with Superman restoring the American flag atop the White House and assuring the President that he'll always rescue the Earth.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Score

Main article: Superman music

[edit] Controversy and cult status

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Off-screen problems hampered production of this movie: like other Salkind productions such as The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), this was filmed at the same time as the first Superman movie to be a direct sequel. However, Marlon Brando filed suit over his percentage of the first film's profits, so as a response, the Salkind's excised his scenes from the second film. Director Richard Donner argued with the producers over their attempts to make the film "more campy," in his opinion, which led to his removal and replacement on the project by Richard Lester. Following that, Gene Hackman declined to return for any reshoots by Lester, which cut down the number of scenes in which he appears in the final cut (or with a few scenes where a body double was obviously being used).

2006 DVD rerelease.

Another reason behind Richard Donner's removal may have been that the Salkinds were upset that Donner went over their originally planned budget for the movie. Warner Brothers ended up getting more and more involved in the race to complete the film, allowing the studio to receive more profits from the film's box office take than the Salkinds had originally agreed to. With their power slipping away, Donner was unfortunately made the scapegoat.

Despite all the difficulties, and with only a few noticeable shifts in tone between the two directors' scenes (Lester's scenes tend to be more campy and humorous), it was noted by critics to be a remarkable and coherent film, highlighted by the movie's battle sequence between Superman and the three Phantom Zone prisoners on the streets of Metropolis. Scenes filmed by Donner include all the Gene Hackman footage, the moon sequences, the White House shots, Clark and the bully, and a lot of the footage of Zod, Ursa and Non arriving at the Daily Planet. Since the Lester footage was shot almost two years later, both Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve's appearances look different between the Lester and Donner footage. Reeve appears less bulked up in Donner's sequences (filmed in 1977), as he was still gaining muscle for the part. Kidder also has dramatic changes throughout; in the montage of Lester/Donner material, shot inside the Daily Planet and the Fortress of Solitude near the movie's conclusion, her hairstyle, hair color, and even make-up are all inconsistent. Indeed, Kidder's physical appearance in the Lester footage is noticeably different; during the scenes shot for Donner she appears slender, whereas in the Lester footage she looks frail and gaunt.

In the years since the film's release, the controversy continues to be fueled, while the film itself has achieved cult status. In 1983, Alexander Salkind's production company pieced together an "Expanded International Cut" of the film for television using approximately 24 minutes of footage not shown in the theatrical release, some of which was original Richard Donner footage shot before Richard Lester became director. The "new" footage expanded on the film's many subplots, including a further explanation of the villains' task on Earth, Superman and Lois' romance, and an alternate ending involving Lex Luthor, the three Kryptonian villains, and the final fate of the Fortress of Solitude. This 146-minute expanded version was released throughout Europe and Australia in the 1980s (the initial expanded U.S. ABC and Canadian CBC telecasts, though edited differently, were derived from the European/Australian TV edit).

In 2005, several Superman movie fans attempted to bring the film closer to Donner's original vision by creating their own professionally-made video restoration of the "International Cut" and offered free DVDs of it on one of the many Superman fan sites, but their efforts were thwarted by Warner Bros., who reportedly threatened legal action.

All four Superman films received Special or Deluxe Edition releases in 2006 coinciding with the release of Superman Returns. It was confirmed that Ilya Salkind has released Donner's footage for a separate Superman II disc and that Donner was involved in the project. According to an interview conducted by website supermanhomepage.com, Ilya confirmed that Time Warner now owns all of the footage shot for 1978's Superman, 1980's Superman II, 1983's Superman III, 1984's Supergirl, and 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace including distribution rights. SE restorationist Michael Thau worked on the project alongside Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, who supervised the Superman II reconstruction. Despite some initial confusion, Thau confirmed that all the footage shot by Donner in 1977 was recovered and transferred from England. The new edition was released on November 28, 2006 and called Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. The new cut also features less than 20% footage filmed by replacement director Richard Lester.

[edit] Trivia

• Superman II was released in Europe and Australia (December 4, 1980) before being released in the United States (June 19, 1981).
• The original script had the nuclear missile from Superman: The Movie releasing Zod and companions from the Phantom Zone, instead of the Eiffel Tower bomb.

• In the version of the film planned by Richard Donner, Superman flies around the Leaning Tower of Pisa at incredible super-speed, accidentally causing it to stand up straight. This was dropped by Richard Lester, but re-used in Superman III, where evil Superman straightens the Tower of Pisa on purpose.

• Some scenes from the Metropolis battle may have been shot and then cut: the destruction of the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty's arm being destroyed, melting of the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Ursa's reshaping the faces on Mount Rushmore.

• In one TV version, a US "polar patrol" is shown picking up the three Kryptonians and Lex Luthor at the end of the film. Without this ending, it appears that Superman has let the Kryptonians die, though Superman has a strict code against killing and their deaths aren't necessary once they are depowered. The ending of this version also has Superman, with Lois standing beside him, destroy the Fortress of Solitude.

• Superman also uses the rare "super-kiss" to make Lois forget he is Clark. While this was a real power Superman had in the comics, it was rarely used, and eventually removed.

• Richard Donner briefly appears in a "walking cameo" in the film. In the sequence where the de-powered Clark and Lois are seen approaching the truck-stop diner by car, Donner appears walking "camera left" past the driver's side. He is wearing a light tan jacket and appears to be smoking a pipe.

• In the scene where the young boy falls over the rail at Niagara Falls, as Superman is rescuing him, a woman's voice can be heard saying in a stereotypical New York/Jewish accent, "Of course he's Jewish." "He," obviously referring to Superman. The creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were both Jewish; as was Batman creator Bob Kane.

• Selected premiere engagements of Superman II were presented in Megasound, a high-impact surround sound system similar to Sensurround.

• In an episode of Family Guy, Peter remembers a scene in which Superman throws the crest from his chest, where Superman and Non discuss how it was only a minor inconvenience.

• 4 comics bridge Superman II and Superman Returns, entitled Krypton to Earth, Ma Kent, Lex Luthor and Lois Lane. See Superman Returns for more details.

• In the 2006 documentary You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman (included in the DVD set The Ultimate Superman Collection), Sarah Douglas says she was the only cast member to do extensive around-the-world press tours in support of the movie, as she was one of the only actors who held a neutral point of view in the Donner/Lester controversy.

[edit] See also

• Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
• List of films recut by studio

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Superman II

• Superman II at the Internet Movie Database
• Supermanii.com
• The Superman Sourcebook, at The Thunder Child
• Superman II at Rotten Tomatoes
• Movie Reviews (Christopher Reeve Homepage) - Superman II
• Superman Homepage: Superman II - Movie Synopsis/Review/Critique
• louandbud.com: Chris Reeve - Page 2