Movie Review – Superman 2 – The Richard Donner cuts

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If you saw the Superman 1978 and Superman 2 (1980) movies starring the wonderful Christopher Reeve at the cinema you may not be aware that a totally different version of the second movie also exists, in more than one cut. The two movies were shot back to back by director Richard Donner but late in production he fell out with the producers who replaced him with Richard Lester who changed and cut many scenes. The Donner cuts still exist and I saw one at a recent film festival, attended by Ursa actress Sarah Douglas. Many of the cast disliked Donner’s largely unexplained dismissal, most certainly due to going way over-budget. Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman refused to complete some scenes, with Brando being cut entirely from the second movie even after filming scenes and being paid a king’s ransom for them. The Donner cut has the escape from the Phantom Zone caused by Luther’s earthquake missiles from the first movie rather than the Eifel Tower nuke, though Superman is ultimately responsible for both blasts affecting deep space. As there is a two year gap between the original footage and Lester’s inserted scenes Reeve & Kidder (Lois Lane) visibly change weight and hair styles in mid scene in several places). As its secret location is compromised, Superman blows up the Fortress Of Solitude. Lois’s leap of faith to test Clark out as being Superman or not is not staged at Niagara Falls but from the Daily Planet skyscraper. The biggest change is the main ending. In Lester’s cut the three Kryptonian villains are brutally killed at the Fortress. In the two Donner cuts they survive. In one they are arrested by the police. In the other, that which we saw at the festival, Superman reverses time to retrap them in the Phantom Zone. This was the time travel cop-out ending pushed back into the first movie’s climax. It is sad that Donner was badly treated and the movies were left in a different state than the director originally envisaged. It is well worth seeing the second film however in all of its troubled incarnations. Arthur Chappell