Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut

[bassman]

Richard Donner("The Omen", "The Goonies", "Lethal Weapon") was originally hired by the producers of "Superman: The Movie" to shoot an epic Superman story that would unfold over the course of two films. These two films were to be shot at the same time, but when production began to run behind and with the release date for "Superman: The Movie" approaching, focus was turned to only the first movie. When production stopped on "Superman II", Richard Donner had filmed roughly 80% of his vision.

After the huge success of "Superman: The Movie", the producers fired Donner and brought in Richard Lester("A Hard Day's Night", "The Three Musketeers") to complete, and ultimately re-shoot(due to Director's Guild regulations) and change Donner's nearly completed film. The result that was released to the world ended up being about 25-30% of Richard Donner's original vision and turned the series into a more campy joke rather than a serious character tale that Donner had created with the first film.

Now, after about 25 years(and tons of letters from fans to Warner Bros).....we can finally see what Donner had intended with the newly released "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut". While this isn't exactly as Donner had originally conceived the film, it is as close to that vision as we can ever get.

Gone is much of the campy jokes that made the audience cringe and returning is the overall tone, feel, and continuation of the first film. Not only that, but Superman's father, Jor-El(Marlon Brando) returns for guidance rather than his mother.:rolleyes: Superman II is finally here and kicks Richard Lester's a** all over the place. I HIGHLY recommend seeing this cut if you enjoyed the first Superman movie.

I know there are several Superman fans on this board and I'm curious as to what you think of this new cut. Was it worth it....or is Lester's movie the best?

While on the subject....pick up the new 14 disc "Ultimate Superman DVD Collection". Awesome stuff.:thumbsup:

[zombie04]

I got the 14 disc set on Tuesday. Haven't watched the first movie yet since I watched it earlier this year(not something you need to see time after time), I just watched Lester's cut of II, I'm holding off on III and IV, watched Superman Returns(which was better than I though it'd be, i liked how they used the original credit format), and I'm going to watch the Donner Cut of II sometime soon. I can't wait!

[capncnut]

If I get this boxed set anytime soon, I think I'm gonna start with the Donner version of II. As a kid, this cut was of mythical status and I never thought I'd see the day where it would actually be released. In fact, I never even knew it was coming out until Bassman told me the other day.

By the way, what's the box presentation like?

[deadpunk]

wait...what?...Holy Sh*t...I need to get to a video store, like...right friggin' now! Why don't I ever hear about this crap before hand?!

[bassman]

By the way, what's the box presentation like?

Friggin great, man. I'm loving it. Although, there is a slight problem with two discs but Warner Brothers has already taken steps to fix it. The "Superman III Deluxe Edition" disc is the exact same as the original release(nothing Deluxe about it) and the Theatrical Version of "Superman: The Movie" is missing it's 2.0 Dolby Audio track.

As I said though, Warner Brothers has already set up a 1-800 number to call and they'll send you a package to send in the discs and they'll send you the correct ones. This problem only happened with the "Ultimate Collection" set...not the "Christopher Reeves Set" or the single discs.

But being that I really don't give a sh*t about "Superman III".....I doubt I'll even go through the trouble.


Another cool thing about the set(amongst MANY) is that it comes with a card you can send in with $5.80 and they'll send you the 27' x 40' posters for all five of the Superman flicks:thumbsup: . In America, anyway.....I don't know if they're doing it over seas. Although, I imagine they would...

[capncnut]

But being that I really don't give a sh*t about "Superman III".....I doubt I'll even go through the trouble.

Three reasons why I can't hate Superman III.

* The scene where Superman fought himself
* The scene where Richard Pryor was drunk
* Any scene with Annette O'Toole (she was a babe back then)

Now try to name one reason why you don't hate Superman IV. :sneaky:

[MaximusIncredulous]

So far I've been reading reviews for SII - Donner Cut that are lukewarm. I'd be interested in reading the take from memebers here who get their hands on it.

[bassman]

So far I've been reading reviews for SII - Donner Cut that are lukewarm. I'd be interested in reading the take from memebers here who get their hands on it.

I think that's probably because most people expect it to be Donner's definitive cut of the film which can't happen 25 years later. It's not perfect by far. It's just the closest rough cut of what Donner had originally intended. They even went as far as to use screen tests that were never actually filmed during production.

It's definitely not a masterpiece, but more of a rough draft. Even in that stage, it's a much better film than the original cut.

[EvilNed]

Now all we need is John McTiernan's cut of The 13th Warrior.

[Rottedfreak]

Didn't like the ending
Superman reverses time, resetting the whole events of the film and then goes into a bar to beat up the guy who beat him up in the original timeline when he was depowered. Point is that should not have been in there as it means he's just went into a bar to beat someone up for no reason.

[raym]

Before I buy this, I'd like to hear some reviews first. I
m guessing this thing isn't cheap to buy lol. ^_^

I do enjoy these "recut" movies though. I got Alien 3 (The Cut you Never Saw), and LOVED it! ;)

[capncnut]

I do enjoy these "recut" movies though. I got Alien 3 (The Cut you Never Saw), and LOVED it! ;)

Is that the one you get with the boxed set? I know there's a 'special' cut of Alien 3 on there and I'm damned interested in how it differs from the original. :shifty:

The unused Vincent Ward screenplay was way better than what they went with.

[bassman]

Didn't like the ending
Superman reverses time, resetting the whole events of the film and then goes into a bar to beat up the guy who beat him up in the original timeline when he was depowered. Point is that should not have been in there as it means he's just went into a bar to beat someone up for no reason.

Watch the documentary that comes along with the disc....it explains it. But I guess I could go ahead and do it for you:D :

When the two films were first being produced together, they had to stop production on the second in order to finish the first by it's release date. When they had to do that, they decided that the "turning back of time"(originally intended for "II") was the best ending of both movies and that it should be added to the first. This was done with the intentions of filming a new ending for "II" once they went back to finish up the production.

Donner was fired and never got to finish the production on his movie. Therefor, now that he has had the chance to make the film as close as he had originally intended, he used the original ending for "II" because he had the scenes, and he definitely didn't want to use Richard Lester's ending.(The kiss that makes Lois forget.:rolleyes: Unfortunately, they did show the scene with Clark going back to the bar to fight the man, which, doesn't make much sense in this edit because time was turned back and the man should not remember him.

Donner had to make do with what he had. He couldn't go back and film new scenes 30 years later. It's like a rough cut. Even as an un-polished rough cut, it's much better than Lester's piss-poor "II" and "III" films.