Superman II (1980) | First Time Watching Movie Reaction

The Donner Cut is a more serious take.

The reason the first one was so good is that the screenplay was written by Mario Puzzo who also wrote the Godfather movies.

Superman II is an incomplete film, there are a lot of cut out scenes which you will see in the Donner Cut that answers a lot of questions you two had, including what happened to Lex Luthor. The best scene in the Donner Cut is the missing scene that shows Superman getting his powers back, so it’s important to the story that he loses his powers. Oh, and Josh I have a terrifying fear of hot air balloons as well! The next two are still worth watching no matter what everyone says here, 3 has some cool scenes, but is a missed opportunity and devolves into more comedy with Richard Pryor. The villain in 3 should have been Brainiac, Superman’s second biggest villain after Luthor, but no Brainiac which still annoys me to this day.

Both films were written by Mario Puzo (the Godfather), and were filmed back-to-back.

Superman one Superman two and Supergirl are the correct trilogy three and four don’t connect three and four are the characters that appear in DC comic Superman issues with Superman hoop that appears in Superman one and two is from the book also I can highly recommend you guys watch the directors cut of Superman too. The Donner cut it is what the movie really should be and I can recommend Superman five the return with Brandon Roth is better than it’s given credit for but it’s problem was not that it’s a bad movie or badly made. It was very well-made. Problem is Christopher Reeves and Dana Reeves had died too soon before the movie when the movie opened George Reeves‘s death which happened in the late 50s did not affect Chris taking the part where when Brandon took the part the ghost of both him and his wife hurt the movies Box Office and the movie never got the credit. It should’ve gotten because they wrote Rushed it after Chris’s death and Dana died before they released the film and that just didn’t help.

The "Of course he's Jewish" line is an homage to Superman creators, two Jewish American students: Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1933 and he made his official comic-book debut in Action Comics #1 (published by DC Comics) in 1938. For a better Lois/Superman reveal and less stupid humor watch Superman II: The Director's Cut, by Richard Donner (that directed the first movie.

Spider-man 2 did the same kind of recap using Alex Ross paintings. I felt it was a call back to this.

This one wins every award for best villains... but yeah it's a bit silly. Sadly the producers saw how popular it was with kids, and not understanding why kids liked it tried to add more jokes and pratfalls. This is a recurring problem with all sequels of the era.

Swim Lois Swim 😂

You can say, the whole him losing his powers is pointless, and I agree. But having seem a bunch of women reacting to the first film, they totally fall in love with Superman and lois lane is their surrogate, so I can feel the movie guys thought, we need to get a scene where he sleeps with Lois. It's for the women in the general audience not us. The movie is still a mess and personally I don't think the Donner cut really helps. Superman One though is a great movie especially the 3 hour TV cut.

The Theatrical Cut is good. But the Donner Cut was what the film should have been, tying up the themes about fathers and sons of the first film with Brando. Lester added nothing of value other than competently re-shooting scenes just so he could get the credit. Donner had to fight the crook Salkinds on a ton of stuff that made the first film objectively better and was fired by those cheap-skate fraudsters as a reward. The Lester cut from a story perspective is absolutely inferior, and all he added to the material was the God-Awful slapstick crap that later doomed Superman III. Brando for God sakes.

It's first 2 movies great, 3 & 4, yes diminished returns is the nice way of putting it (same with the Batman movies). But Superman 2 is great. Smallville is quite good, if you decide to go there. The 3 bad guys in this movie are the coolest, General Zod & Co always perk up fan interest when ever someone tries to bring them back (although, of course, these guys are the best).

Josh and Alex immediately identify the difference: Richard Lester's contribution is nothing but stupid gags and slap-stick. Definitely much better than having Brando in the film... There are several plot points that make little sense until one sees The Donner Cut and how the same scenes were supposed to play out. Anyway, in sum, the Salkinds were such hacks. The ideas that Donner talked them out of were sheer cringe, including a cameo by Telly Savalas as Kojak saying to Superman "Who loves you, Baby!" That would have aged real well.

I love how Zod is just perpetually bemused and bored, and acutely aware of the fact that his companions are idiots.

Lex didn't "get his hair back". He wore wigs when he conducted business. The first movie did the same thing. How much of the the comics do you actually know about?🤔

People will tell you not to watch 3...
Ignore them. It's fun. It's got some terrible "comedy", but Robert Vaughn is always good.

4th one though... Jesus H Christ.

This is a definitely the best superman movie ever ..so far anyway

My dad and I quote this movie so much! Whenever I invite him out to dinner, he says "I cant go anywhere where I'm expected to eat fish." and I say "They have a wide selection!"

I was 11 when I watched this.
And I was very disappointed.
I thought all the characters behaved too irrationally.
I thought Superman behaved way too rashly and with no thought and betrayed his principles.
And then it ended unfairly.
Since then, I sort of grew up and recognized that people too often do betray our principles and cause our own troubles.
But at least with The Donner Cut version, there's less time to wallow in it.

I was just about 10 years old when the first Christopher Reeve Superman released Christmas of 1979. Before that, every day after school, I would get home to watch reruns of the George Reeves Adventures of Superman television series from the 1950s. There’s still a lot of love out there for George Reeves. He was a great representation of Clark Kent and Superman.

A lot of people say this is their favorite, but to me this one is almost as bad as Superman 3. They're both filled with dumb comedy, bad special effects, absolutely illogical writing, and none of the charm of the first one. At least Superman 3 falls into the so bad it's kind of fun category.

You probably should look at the Donner cut BEFORE moving on to the others at this point. It took those of us that grew up with these decades to get to see the Donner version. Also, you definitely want to look into the BTS stuff about what went on after you watch the film. Context definitely helps.

Also, this film generated a mini controversy at the time about product placement in movies. The Marlboro truck in the street fight was a big deal. The Coke sign was a big deal. There was even a segment on the TV News Show 20/20 in the year this came out discussing product placement and how it’s impacting filmmaking.

As far as I'm concerned, Christopher Reeve is Superman.

Buckaroo Pinball would be worth anywhere from about $2700 to $4500. That's only if you don't smash a stunt man into it.

They are going to watch the rest of them. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHSHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Superman 4 I cannot wait.

Sure it’s cheesy, but it sure is fun. I like this one FAR better than the first one.

Lois had already pointed out in the first movie that Clark was never around when Superman but she just waved it away, The Donner Cut is so much better. The Lester cut feels like a comedy.

My favourite Superman film!

PS The rocking in the hairs is making us seasick !

The issue with the Donner Cut was that he worked with what they had, many scenes didn't get filmed... so it's... different than this, not necessarily better, not worse.

I liked most of this Released version and Donner version as well as some deleted scenes. So I made my own version using all of these.

People who say the Theatrical Cut is superior to the Donner Cut are demonstrably wrong because they don't actually understand Mario Puzo's defining theme and primary arc of a single, long film as written. Removing Brando was a crime. The overarching arc of the two films as written as a religious parable akin to Jesus; the son becoming the father, and the father the son. It's Jor-El's unimpeachable moral compass that helps Clark understand why he must fight Zod, and it is Jor-El's final sacrifice after receiving Clark's promise to never marry, that symbolizes the final, demonstrative ascension of Superman in his final form as completely selfless and always putting the needs of humanity first. Saying that the aforementioned arc is less important than 30 minutes of inserted Dick Lester slapstick garbage is iron-clad proof of insanity and poor taste.

I do not like Richard Lester. Or his hackneyed slapstick nonsense. It is weak, and for children. Take me to my Director. Take me to Donner.

Oh man i recall the Superman theme getting me so pumped up when i was a young lad

It's funny that we review these films as adults, but as the original target audience family/children, these criticisms quickly fall away. As a child watching this movie all failings were negated by the power of imagination. The original Superman was kinda boring compared to the second as a child.

If you look closely, the ending is different. Superman moves his left arm forward as he flies off. At the end of the first film, he keeps them both by his side.

The Donner Cut is a lot less comedy and Lois proves her Clark theory by shooting him in the face with a .38 Special. The "tame for kids" version Clark trips as you saw.
Both 1 & 2 were filmed at-once but was cut in half for 2 film releases.

The 9 year old me absolutely loved this film at the cinema, and you know why, because it's a kids movie aimed at kids.

Richard Donner was originally the director of Superman II, but was replaced by Richard Lester due to conflicts with the producers.
Explanation
Donner was originally hired to direct Superman II after the success of Superman: The Movie. However, tensions arose between Donner and the producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler.
Donner and his crew were forced to stop filming Superman II before it was finished to meet the release date.
When filming resumed, Lester was brought in to "co-produce" the film. Lester completed the remaining 25% of the film after Donner had already shot around 75%.
The 1980 release of Superman II included many reshot scenes and a significant number of Donner's original scenes were removed.

In 2006, a re-edited version of Superman II called Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released. This version used footage directed by both Donner and Lester to create a complete story.

From Google A.I...

All the extra comedy stuff is all Richard Lester...makes it easier to figure out what he filmed or refilmed from what Donnor did.

The actor playing the Sheriff was also Sheriff Pepper in 2 Roger Moore James Bond films... "Live and Let Die" And The Man with the Golden Gun".

You should definitely check out at least a few episodes of the original Superman TV show, "The Adventures of Superman" (1952-1958), with George Reeves as Superman (Yes, funny that their names were similar Reeves and Reeve). Used to watch the show a lot as a kid in the 70s on re-runs. It's a bit silly (made for kids), but still a lot fun. Noel Neill, who famously played Lois Lane on the 50s TV show, had cameos in both the 1978 Superman movie and the 2006 Superman Returns movie. There was also a brilliant Superman animated series from the 1940s that you might want to check out (seventeen 10-minute reel cartoons that were made to be played at the movie theaters before the main film). Could do some quick videos, like you did with the Star Trek animated series. The animation is soooooo good in that series...well worth the watch. Also, it really gives you a feel of the initial depiction of Superman (as the first episode in the series was licensed and made just three years after Superman first appeared in comics). Also, this animated series is why Superman can fly. In the comic books at that time, Superman kind of was just able to make big leaps from place to place (i.e., "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"). But the animators thought the leaping looked funny in live-action, so they asked Action Comics (later DC) if they could have him fly instead. So, Superman actually flies in the animated series before he does in the comic books.

Zod, Terrance Stamp, is Chancellor Velorum in Star Wars Episode I. Kneel before Zod (quoted in Clerks).

You guys are gonna watch 3 and 4, aren't you? Oh boy.

That kid falling over Niagara Falls used to scare the shit outta me as a kid watching this because I was and still am afraid of heights.
I know today at 40+ years old that Niagara Falls actually isn't that tall (the kid would have already hit the bottom before Lois actually got out the "Help!") and there's actually a chance the kid would have survived the fall (maybe 1 in 20 or so).

Lois & Clark The New Adventures of Superman

Why does Superman have to become 'mortal'? At the time, there was a surprisingly well-known 1969 essay by Larry Niven on the subject of the physical danger surrounding sex with a Kryptonian, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex". "Ripping her open from crotch to sternum, gutting her like a trout."

R.I.P Gene Hackman😢