Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

There can be very few hardcore Superman fans that haven’t heard how Richard Donner simultaneously filmed Superman the Movie and Superman II and how, after finishing post-production on Superman I, he fell out with his producers the Salkinds. They refused to let him finish his move and hired an alternative director, Richard Lester. It was ultimately Lester’s interpretation of Donnor’s movie that was released to the public. The basic plot of both films is the same — an atomic explosion releases three Kryptonian criminals from the Phantom Zone to wreck havoc on Earth just as Superman has given up his powers to be with Lois Lane — but Lester’s style is lighter and less epic than Donner’s style.

The Lester Cut of Superman II is still a great film in its own right, but it lacks the gravity that Donner’s direction and Brando’s Jor-El brought to Superman I. It doesn’t date too well either; the attention to detail and the additional money that was spent on Superman I make it fairly resilient to dating, but some parts of the night time battle in Metropolis really show their age. Despite that you really can’t go that wrong with these three badguys and Stamp’s Zod is definitely on of the all time great screen villains. The net result of Lester’s changes set the tone for the rest of the original Superman films — big action, creative in their own way, fairly light-hearted, but not awfully attentive of the source material.

Well three decades after the original Warner Brothers have acquiesced to fan pressure and have allowed Richard Donner and his associates to release their own cut of Superman II. The new Donner Cut is a rather odd beast. The reconstruction uses as much of his original material as possible, but there are some sequences and shots that he didn’t have chance to film, some of them rather pivotal. There are also some sequences, most notably the Paris sequence, hand-in-the-fire reveal, and the infamous kiss that were entirely Lester’s vision and are missing from Donner’s version. In their place is a window sequence straight out of the old comics and a hotel scene that is cobbled together – rather successfully I might add – from two different screen tests.

If you’ve been her before you may know how much I love Superman I. When I reviewed it noted that

He [Superman] is cocky when flying with Lois, he grandstands for effect around criminals, and his actions in the finale can only be described as a tantrum. He is a god-child, an adolescent immortal amid a race of mortals who his own people would have treated as children.

Well Donner’s Superman II continues the evolution of that character and with the new Reeves/Brando exchanges we finally get to see the pay off. Donner’s Superman II is really about Superman coming of age, standing on his own two feet, and as the immortal lines says “The son becomes the father.” The new cut just adds so much depth to Superman’s struggle with his heritage that it overrides most negative aspects about the restoration. Susanna York worked well in the Lester cut as the mother, but it’s a different dynamic and one that doesn’t quite carry over the weight of Brando’s Jor-El.

One negative aspect about this film is that its missing the final work any director would give to a film – the reshot scenes, the additional effects, pick ups, etc – plus the material Donner hadn’t had change to film. It doesn’t even had a full score – recycling what it can from Superman I. Together these affects limit what I might call the polish of the film, so casually watching the two films side-by-side would make you think that the Lester Cut is better because its had more money spent on finishing it. The Donner Cut seems to have had just enough of a budget to finish it for DVD release.

Listening to Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz’s DVD commentary is hard. Donner comments are very interesting, but it feels like he’s still bitter over the fate of the film and it is obvious that its painful for him to watch any of the changes Lester made. And quite frankly I wouldn’t blame him for any of that. He also makes several references to how if he’d finished this film he could well have seen himself and Mankiewicz making many more Superman films and you just keep thinking “if only.” As to Richard Lester, even he admits that he doesn’t do the same kind of epic films that Donner was aiming for. His version of a Superman II is still a fantastic film. Certainly a lot of that is due to the work Donner put in on it, but the producers were going to get somebody to finish it and I for one could imagine it being a lot worse.

Ultimately the two versions of Superman II are still just alternate versions of the same film. The plot is better in the Donnor Cut, but the finish is better in the Lester Cut. The Donnor Cut is more serious (which fans like) while the Lester Cut is more flippant (which non-fans expect). Its also interesting to note that Rotten Tomatoes professional reviewers give equal rating to each version (7.2 out of 10) while the amateur reviewers at IMDB rate the 2006 version at two points higher than the old version.

So, as a Superman fan, I’d say that the Donner Cut is the better version, just because it continues the fantastic father-son dynamic that from the first film, but quite frankly there isn’t much in it — the gravitas of the new material just about balances the polish they sacrificed to create the new version.