Marval Movie

During the production of the first Superman movie, the production and the budget kept getting off schedule and Richard Donner had falling out after falling out with the Salkhinds, so much so that Donner just avoided them altogether. Donner was instructed to focus on just getting the first Superman movie finished. At this point half of Superman two was shot and when the first move came out it was a huge hit. But the Salkhinds were in charge and they were as sick of Donner as he was of them and he was booted out of Superman two and they brought in Richard Lester.

The Salkhinds were on good terms with Lester due to him previously directing one of their early hits, The Three Musketeers, in fact he was even one of their choices to direct the first movie. So even though most of Superman two was shot anyway, Donner was kicked off and Lester took over. Lester, legally, had to direct a certain percentage of the movie to have his credit as director. So new scenes were added and he even re-shot scenes that Donner previously did. The Slakhinds clearly had such detest for Donner, this could have not been the most financially efficient move, but they were that sick of him and so, there we have it.

Superman two's plot revolves around the three Kryptonian villains that we saw at the start of the first movie getting out of their imprisonment and reeking destruction on Earth. We then move to Metropolis were Clark Kent is still very mild menard and Lois Lane is still a witty gogetta. There is a terrorist plot in Paris and Lois is on the scene and Superman isn't far behind to the rescue. Superman throws the bomb into space and in all the vastness of the cosmos it hits the Kryptonian criminals floating mirror. They are now free and heading for Earth.

Later Clark and Lois visit a Niagara falls resort on a story and when Lois decides to clean Clark's glasses she notices that without them he looks a lot like that guy who flies around and catches her a lot...huh. It is with this...shocking revelation hat Lois Lane is beginning to put the pieces together and suspects that Superman and Clark Kent might be the same person. After one failed attempt she tosses the idea away but after a very clumsily handled scene her suspicions are confirmed.

I enjoyed Richard Lester's work on the Beatles movie A Hard Days Night, but there while the choppiness of the pacing and the editing worked to get across the quick passe and the quick punchline nature and style of the comedy, here it works less well. Some of the handling are as if Guy Richie worked on the script, with it just relying on cheap punchlines.

So Superman takes Lois to his fortress of solitude for some alone time and seeks advise, not from his father but from his mother? Another choice that was made was that they would cut out Brando from the movie, no more Jor-El, instead the focus is pushed onto the mother Lara (Susannah York). Now there's nothing wrong with having the focus be on the mother, but that's not what was built up from the first movie. The first movie was all about the father son relationship, this is of course because Brando was so expensive they didn't waste a second of his time and used him to his full benefit. Now it seems as though the filmmakers scraped him just so they could save the pennies.

The Kryptonian villains here are Ursa (Sarah Douglas) as a cool, shrill, sadistic vileness that loves what she does. Then there's Non (played by former former boxer Jack O'Halloran) as a huge lumbering brute, he's just the big tough one, theres nothing else to him him other than that, but  both the characters and the movie knows it so its OK and its used for some decent laughs. Then we have Zod, General Zod played by Terence Stamp. General Zod is one of the most enjoyable villains for a superhero movie history. He is both reasonably threatening, hilarious and so enjoyably two dimensional along with a deep voice that sounds electronically lowered. He is one of those villains that knows hes a villain and his constant demand that Superman "Kneel before him" is always a highlight that never gets old.

In the end we get a scene that makes the whole movie worth full price, even though most of it is solid. The scene where Clark Kent walks into the Daily Planet and and then has a painful heart to heart with Lois. Even though they love each-other there's is a love that can never be, because, as the old saying goes, the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. And so Clark is forced too erase Lois's memories of her knowing the truth about Clark's secret identity. This scene is on par with the death of Jonathan Kent and as anyone who has read my Superman review will know that I consider that scene one of the most prolific scenes for Superman. However how he does it is another subject altogether.

Clark erases Lois' memories, fair enough, but he does it through a kiss. How was he able to do that? when did he get that power? does this always happen when he kisses people? Questions, questions this scene raises (more so that the spinning of the Earth rotation, for some reason). For all its faults I think its because Superman never demonstrated this power in all of his previous history and so this just comes off as unnatural to fans of the Superman lore.

Even though Superman two has its problems, most of them I have knowing the behind the scenes problems, it still is a really solid sequel. It expands and raises the stakes from the first movie and expands on the sacrifices and responsibilities that come with being Superman.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4