Superman II: The Donner Cut or the Original?

Yeah, this is about 9 months old news, but I don't care. It takes me awhile to get up the energy and interest to write this stuff down.

This started as a review of Superman II, but frankly, I lost control over it. Since there are now two versions available of the movie, both authorized by Warner Brothers, this became less of a review of the film as a film, but more of a comparison between the two.

By now, anyone interested in the Superman films knows about the drama behind Superman II and the release of the Richard Donner cut of the film. Finally, Donner had a chance to show as best he could what he wanted to do with the film. However, he was working with limited footage, since something like 30% of what he intended to film never was. So some scenes had to be filmed with a stand in for Christopher Reeve and others had to be reconstructed with screen test footage, so the performances and appearances of the actors are off. I’m aware that many of these scenes would have been reshot, so I won’t comment on them as they appear now. But I will comment on the intent of the scenes and who I think they work as an idea.

One of the things I notice about critics of Superman II is that they have an attitude of “Richard Lester BAD / Richard Donner GOOD.” This is unfair to Lester, as he had to refilm much of the completed scenes and could have mucked them all up with gags and slapstick. Instead, he kept the feel of the original scenes, but shot them in his own way. Consider the plot dealing with Lois’s suspicions of Clark being Superman.

A lot of people hate the Lester version of the whole series of events leading to Lois’s discovery of Superman’s identity. They prefer the Donner version:

Lois begins the film suspicious, using a pen to put a hat and glasses on a picture of Superman and turns the picture into one of Clark. She makes obvious comments to make Clark uncomfortable and then goes to prove her suspicions by jumping out of the window, knowing Superman will save her before she smacks into the sidewalk. Clark uses super speed to rush to the street, uses his heat vision to open an awning, uses super breath to slow her down and guide her descent so she bounces off the awning and lands in a street vendor’s fruit cart, while he zips back up at super speed. Later, in Niagara, Lois attempts to prove her suspicions by shooting Clark. The bullet has no effect and he reveals himself as Superman. The she says she was using blanks. “Gotcha.”

Why do so many people think this is better? It’s, frankly, horrible. It’s first draft stuff. While even Donner says he would have reshot some scenes for different takes, it still shows Lois as an obsessed lunatic, who resorts to trickery to expose someone she supposedly loves. This man has saved her life at least 3 times before and she’s giddily trying to expose him. By leaping out the window, she’s putting him in the position to act PUBLICALLY and he does so. God knows why nobody notices Clark using his heat vision and super breath. Don’t say no one noticed because they’re all looking at Lois, because if you do then you’ve never been to New York City. It’s impossible for everyone there to focus on one single thing. Someone would have seen the heat beams and visually followed them to their source. So, someone would have seen Clark doing all that.

Then the whole “blanks” thing. Fine, a bullet wouldn’t hurt Superman, but wouldn’t he feel the impact? Even if there was no pain involved, there would be sensation. And again, Lois is determined to rob Superman of his privacy. Some friend. And jeez, if you were in love with someone, why put them in that position?

Now, compare this to the Lester version. Lois doesn’t suspect Clark until she sees him without his glasses for a moment. This makes SENSE, since the glasses are the primary decoy he uses. Clark supplements that with his stance, his manner and his clumsiness. She is so convinced she jumps into the rapids. Okay, this is still not “normal” but it is also survivable if she’s wrong! And it’s relatively secluded, so there’s less chance of Clark being publicly outed. Lois isn’t obsessed and manic here, she is calm and investigative. And when Clark cleverly covers himself while rescuing her, Lois accepts she was dead wrong. Perfect, rational, intelligent. So there is no need for her to insanely fire off the gun (blanks, sure, but it’s still calculating). Instead, Clark trips and drops his glasses and doesn’t burn his hand. Then she realizes the truth. She’s not triumphant, no “gotcha!” She’s amazed! Clark, even here, tries for a split second to deny it. But he can’t. See the difference? Lois is not calculating, not sneaky and doesn’t resort to idiocy or cruel tricks to get to his secret. In fact, she hardly tries at all, circumstances trip him up! It is a more adult, more mature way of handling the situation. It keeps everyone in character and shows that Lois’s love for him is real. And they even address that maybe, subconsciously, Clark wanted her to know. This tracks with his nearly telling her on their first date. Obviously, there’s a reason Lester shot totally different, new scenes instead of refilming what had already been done (as much of the movie was). It’s because this scenario stinks. It’s immature, broadly comic and does a lot of damage to Lois’s character. Even reshot for better performances, it still comes off as crazy.

Okay, moving on. The Donner Cut is a strange beast. It has a plethora of interesting scenes, some superior to the final version, some not. On the downside, the film is structured as if it followed the original idea for the end of the first Superman. According to Donner, as planned, the first film ended after the earthquake and after Superman tossed the Hackensack missile into space. I assume everything remained the same except for Lois’ death, which couldn’t have been there. Then we see the missile detonate and release the Kryptonian Villains. Zod screams “FREE!” and the movie ends. The Donner cut picks up with a very long, badly edited prologue encapsulating all of this. We see opening credits and then it goes to the Lois jumps out the window bit.

Again, the Lester version works better. It begins with us seeing the villains destroying the crystal, being sentenced and jailed. The rest of the clips catch us up over the credits! This is brilliant and the best recap ever. Then we start off with the terrorists in Paris and detonating the nuclear bomb in space. Why does this work better? Because it’s a looonnnng time before we see Superman in action again and this sequence gives us our fix in the beginning. Flashbacks don’t do that sufficiently. It also shows us the Lois is a daring reporter, not a wacko lovelorn lunatic. Lester also loses the “freeee!’ from Zod. This works for me, it wasn’t necessary for him to do this and it’s a “Khhaaaan!” moment.

The Luthor in prison sequence is better under Donner’s direction. Too many great lines are lost in Lester’s (amazingly nobody remembers that Lester – cuts – JOKES). The arrival of the villains in East Houston is more action packed and more cruel in Lester’s version and as such, more memorable. It casts them in a more evil light.

However, where Lester lets us down big time is in the Fortress of Solitude scenes. Granted, Marlon Brando made it impossible for Lester to do much more, but the Donner version is superior simply because of the father/son angle. However, the Donner edit puts a powered Superman in bed with Lois. How does that work and why would he give up his powers if he can bang Lois and still keep them? Lester got this part right.

The Donner cut of the attack on the White House is longer and more action packed. I like it. Again, Lester cut out the best Luthor bits and his stuff when he meets Zod is pared down to the essentials and nothing more. A shame.

Now comes the second great scene Donner restored: the repowering of Superman. It totally, 100% absolutely, works. It gives
Superman’s actions weight and consequence and finally reveals what the “father becomes the son” thing really meant. It also really explains how he got his powers back. It’s excellent and incredibly touching.

The villains crash through the Daily Planet and Superman arrives. BIG letdown for me is the redubbing of Superman’s “would you care to step outside” line with a sound alike saying “don’t you believe in freedom of the press?” Not only does it fall flat as an entrance line, it makes no sense! The ‘step outside’ thing was a clear reference to Clark challenging the diner bully with the same words. And, again, the odds are against him. It’s also a great, fist in the air, entrance line.

Now, this part is tricky, because extremely little of the battle was filmed by Donner (none of it, or maybe one or two shots of actors flying? I don’t know). Yet, Donner, in his obsession in cutting down as much of Lester’s footage as possible, has the fight reedited. Many of the new effects are god-awful and some make no sense. In the original, Ursa calls out “Superman” and he turns. Non comes up from behind and gets Superman in a choke hold. Ursa, with a flagpole, swings at him. Superman is able to slide out, so Ursa misses him and hits Non (how Non was going to get the better part of this deal in anyway is a mystery). All well and good. In the Donner cut, Ursa comes up, Superman makes a fist, she taunts him and Non grabs him. Cut to Superman, no longer in the hold, punching Non who goes flying. Ursa is NOWHERE to be found and we have no idea how he broke free from Non’s grip.

The real source of contention for Lester’s version is the blatant slapstick inserted into the “villain’s super breath” scene. Donner cut out some of the really idiotic bits, such as the man who loses his toupee, the ice cream which flies off a cone into another person’s face and the guy talking in a phone booth and does not notice it’s been knocked down and blown down the street with him inside. Oh, and also the roller boogie guy. That was his best contribution to the battle sequence.

However, Donner puts back a great line from Zod, but neglects to reinsert Superman’s awesome comeback!

Zod: “It is possible that you are quite simply a fool. Like father like son.”

Superman: “Somehow I just can’t hear you, Zod!”

Losing that was a shame.

Okay, after the battle, the return of the “of course not, your turbulence” line is very welcome. A great wisecrack.

And finally, the best thing Donner could do: lose the hide and seek and the Saran Wrap S. Yes, it’s all replaced with talk and negotiation, but it’s been proven a physical battle is out of the question. Superman has to trick Zod and to do so has to put him in a position where Zod feels victorious. This works extremely well and should have been kept in the Lester version.

Now we see the rest of it and none of the Donner stuff works. Superman destroys the fortress, seemingly with Luthor inside. Scratch one evil scientist. Then, after dropping Lois off (who isn’t all that upset at knowing what she knows), Superman turns back time. This was the original ending. Then he goes to the diner and beats up the bully who beat him up before. End of movie.

And boy, does that suck. Here’s why:

First, it’s the ultimate reset button. NONE of the events in the film happened! The villains are back in the Phantom Zone, Lois never learned is identity and everything is grand. But if it never happened then…

The villains can come back. Luthor will still track Alpha Waves to the fortress, Lois will still be suspicious and a bully gets his ass handed to him for NO REASON! Since he never beat up or even met Clark, Superman’s already petty revenge becomes pointless. The guy is being punished for nothing and the diner owners are getting paid for damage that never occurred. THIS is superior to the super amnesia kiss? No.

As the original version goes, the fortress survives (and Luthor is presumably returned to jail) and Lois and Superman return home. She can’t deal with knowing his identity, she’s falling to pieces. It’s too big a secret and she’s afraid she’s going to slip (again, she love him and is CONCERNED about him – none of this is reflected in Donner’s version). Superman does the only thing he can and wipes her memory of their relationship with a “super kiss.” Now, is the kiss super or was it a cover so he could put her under hypnosis? After this, Lois is backto normal, likes Clark as a good friend and pines over Superman. Superman goes to the diner and gets his revenge (I still think it’s petty for him to do this). And then, better yet and in keeping with the character, Superman delivers a new roof, complete with American Flag, to the White House. “I’ll never let you down again.” PERFECT ending.

So, let’s sum up: I much prefer the Lester version as it keeps the characters faithful to their established personalities, is edited much better (Michael Thau should never touch an editing deck ever again) and has a better balance of humor and seriousness (where Donner’s was kind of dry in some spots) Lois has real reactions, not scripted and the ending is ultimately more satisfying since the events proceeding actually occurred. However, Donner’s cut has some wonderful scenes that work extremely well and were sorely needed in the final release cut. Actually, the perfect Superman II is an edit of both.

One more word as to why I feel turning back time worked better in the first movie than it did in the Donner Superman II cut. In the first one, Superman is devastated by the death of the girl he loves. He can’t live with losing her and he remembers how he felt when Pa Kent died. He didn’t act then, but damn it, he’s going to act now. He turned back time just enough to restore Lois. He would break the rules for love, but only enough to satisfy that love. In the Donner version of II, he turns back time because bad guys wrecked shit. It’s mundane and frankly would make us wonder why he just doesn’t do that every movie. And it puts Superman in a bad light. He just goes ahead and changes history without strong emotional stimuli. Because he can. Because he’s a god. In Superman I, he was desperate, human and against warning from Jor-El, broke this law for love. It’s clear he wouldn’t do it for anything else other than to save Lois. And who knows if he’d do it again?

Looking at it, it’s obvious that Donner is still hurt by his being fired in 1978. He goes out of his way to cut out as much of Lester’s footage as he can, even the stuff that works. It’s an on objective edit and, frankly, it’s 30 years later. I think it’s time for Richard Donner to get over it. You want love? Stay out of Hollywood.

The final edit is credited to Michael Thau, who seems to have spearheaded the release of the print. I applaud his efforts in getting WB to release the prints. But then he should have let someone experienced do the edit. His work screams “amateur” and has no concept of pacing or scene construction. The prologue goes on far too long, as a fade out in the middle of it and instead of ending on a crescendo, he allows the wind to be expelled without a single thrill. He is find of very quick edits to show us three or four different views of an explosion in space, but his other edits languish. Also, rather than use the score recorded for the film (Ken Thorne’s re-orchestrating of the John Williams original), he chops up the John Williams score from the first film and lays it down without thought of effect or impact. The Donner Cut’s greatest asset was Michael Thau for getting it out into the light of day. On the other hand, he is also the production’s greatest liability in that he has no idea how to edit a film or music.

I usually don’t comment negatively on special effect on any film 30 years old, but many effects were created from scratch for the new cut. Much of the space footage was rendered for this release. Frankly, they are universally awful, worse than the effects created back in 1980. Traveling mattes, bad CGI, shots of villains moving jerkily as they spin out of control and hideously composted explosions all look like they were done on a Dell laptop. There’s little excuse for this today.

Overall, Superman II is a great film and a satisfying follow-up. As a kid, I never knew about the behind the scenes drama and never once thought the film was directed badly or by two different people. It’s a 3 our of 4 stars film.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is an interesting curio and something all fans should see. But it lowers the grade by taking all the sympathy, decency and love out of Lois’s character and turning her into a nosy, mugging, hammy shrew. The cuts are done out of spite at times and it shows.

3 stars for the official, finished film. 2 stars for the Donner cut. It’s still better than Superman III.