I watched the Donner Cut of Superman II over the weekend, and it was pretty interesting. It's VERY different, there's a whole new take on the unmasking of Clark Kent and a bunch of the goofiness has been excised. Big, big parts of the story are completely made over, with tons of unused footage from 1980; I really want to watch the Lester version now so I can map the changes better.
What really struck me this time, however -- this movie is scary. During that whole Metropolis fight scene, there's never a lack of bystanders or falling concrete. Nobody's running away, they're just right back there, screaming or gawking. I was talking to a friend of mine who said he'd been watching that fight with his five-year-old and the kid asked to turn it off. It's intense. Supes clocks Richard Keil and he goes through that building like a spear going through a piece of cheese. It reminded me of what Alan Moore said about DC Comics characters, that they're more primal than the Marvel ones.
Also: Christopher Reeve is AWESOME as Superman. What's-his-name can't even touch him.
10 comments:
Hey, I didn't know Superman used strings to fly.
I recently watched this as well and liked it better than the theatrical release. I can't believe how much "new" Brando footage there is.
I'm not surprised, since the original movie was so obviously an edited-together fuckup (at the time).
They said in one of the supporting docs that Lester was satisfied with the amount of footage they had at one point, but he had to shoot more so that he'd shot more than 50% of it so he could get solo director credit. So he shot some more.
Donner's a real director. (I mean he's not David Lean, but he knows how to shoot a big-budget movie.)Richard Lester's just the clown who made A Hard Day's Night and a bunch of British TV comedy.
I was watching a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes over the weekend and I noticed that Donner directed "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". Cool.
Yeah! His imdb page reads like a TV Guide from the 60's or 70's. Six Million Dollar Man, Gilligan's Island, Kojak, The Banana Splits -- it's all there.
I finished the Donner cut last night. What an awesome movie! I'm not as familiar with the original but goddamn! Some observations:
1) The villains, all 3 of them, are awesome.
2) Clark is an idiot for relinquishing his powers. My research told me that in the Lester version, he needed to do so in order to have "relations" with a human. In the Donner cut, they had already done the deed before he gave up his powers which is just foolish. And how could Lois let him do that for her? Their relationship doesn't hold up to further scrutiny when you think about it. Why would she let him do give up his powers? Seems rather selfish to me. And he doesn't trust her enough with his secret that he erases her memory?
3) The bad guys are awesome and I love it when Zod uses the machine gun for fun.
Watching it, I imagined Lois was overwhelmingly relieved when the bad guys arrived and nuked her "too much too fast" new boyfriend.
Ha!
I watched Superman Returns for the 2nd time recently and it was a trying experience. They should have called the film "Lois Lane's Feelings, With Special Guest Appearances by Superman". First time around I thought it blew away X-Men 3. But now I see I was gravely wrong. I'm glad X-Men 3 grossed more, Brian Singer never should have left the series!
I fell asleep during a chunk of Superman Returns and have yet to watch the whole film. I agree, too damn long with not enough action. I still liked it though.
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