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The turn of the millennium was the heyday of the ever more lavish DVD boxes, which provided us with bonus content for the first time, also in the form of director’s cuts. “Superman II”, now released as a 4k version, was the first of many such revisions: You could now compare the theatrical version created under director Richard Lester with the “Donner Cut” by Richard Donner, who was killed during filming. “Superman” and “Superman II” were produced “back to back” in 1978, something like that didn’t exist before, and that’s why Marlon Brando, who seems grumpy to the point of dissociation, can be seen a second time as Superdaddy Jor-El.
One would like it the other way around, but the thunder cut is inferior to the screen version. Less action, but more of those silly moments where Lois Lane wants to prove Clark Kent is Superman and puts herself in danger to save her. Kent’s exposure is silly in both films, after all. At Lester’s, he stumbles “Dinner for one”-style over the head of a lion’s rug, lands in the fireplace, but doesn’t burn; at Donner, Lane shoots him with the pistol – and when Kent admits he doesn’t mind bullets, she reveals that those were blanks anyway. Cleaned up.
Nevertheless, “Superman II” is more entertaining in both versions than part one. For the first time, the Kryptonian fights against other superheroes, i.e. equals – the fight scenes in which they throw cars through the urban canyons of Metropolis became the blueprint for every DC and Marvel Mayhem. Also, the villains are less forgiving than Superman, poking fun at the weak humans who have to wear clunky space suits to walk on an uninteresting moon. Their leader is an amazing Terence Stamp. His character still has the best (villain) name that can be generated from three letters. No, not Lex. But: Zod. General Zod. (DVD, Warner)
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