Erik Geiger's Blog

Several years ago I read an interview in which Margo Kidder lamented the fact that Richard Donner's version of Superman II had never been released. Having seen it myself, I now understand why.
In comparing this cut to Richard Lester's version I found every difference to favor Donner.
For whatever reason, the studio releived Donner of the helm after he shot 75% of his movie. They replaced him with Richard Lester who reshot many sequences, and shot several new ones. The result was a far different, inferior film.
But Donner's cut restores the original scenes, replacing much of the weaker material shot by Lester.
A large part of what I liked most were Marlon Brando's restored scenes. We see the absolute committment Jor-El has made both to his son and to the people of earth. Through him we see the essential dilemma of the character Kal-El, who was raised a human, but who is not and can never be one of us. We see what a terrible burden it is to be the last son of Krypton.
Many of Lois's scene were better, including the one in which she manipulates Superman into admitting his secret identity.
I was also glad to see several Richard Lester spawned idiocies gone from the film; gone was the poorly conceived and executed sequence where Lois runs afoul of terrorists in Paris, gone was the Lois falls into the river scene, gone was the bizarre powers battle in the fortress of solitude.
The end of the film was more satisfying too. While it may have been repetitive to once again have Superman orbit the planet so fast that he travel's back in time again, it worked better this time than it did in the first film, largely due to the perspective from which it was shown - the clock simply begins to run backward as Superman sets the world right. If nothing else, it made far more sense in terms of the character's traditional abilities than the kiss of forgetfulness in the Lester version - time travel stories were a staple of the Superman comics in the days when Mort Weisinger was editng them.
I never had any desire to own a copy of Superman II, not until now. Having seen the Donner cut, I will buy it, and never again will I watch Richard Lester's version of this film.