My Review of "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut"

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is an edited version of the theatrical release. I never saw the theatrical release but I thought the director's cut has to be better than the original, right? Although I have never seen the theatrical cut, I have seen the first movie. It took me a while but I eventually warmed up to this movie. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to check this one out.

The movie starts off just like the first movie. We get a shortened version of how Jor El (Superman's father) had imprisoned Zod and his gang of misfits. Then we get reminded that we're not too long after the events of the first movie. Lex Luthor is now in prison trying to figure a way out. Lois suddenly has suspicion that Clark might in fact be Superman.

Due to the missiles being launched from the first movie we realize that Zod and his gang have been released from their eternal imprisonment. They now seek Earth to take it over. There's a lot of weird corny situations in this movie. I'm kind of okay with it knowing that this is a product of the 80's. This was kind of the norm in the movies of the times. Many of the situations are outlandish and don't quite make logical sense. I don't know how they meld them into the movie so well that my mind was taken off the ludicrous situations.

I think some of the distractions come from the ridiculous slapstick comedy that they have in this movie. Lois is performing some outrageous scenarios just to prove that Clark is in fact Superman. They're straight out of an Archie comic that I kind of just felt like this is par for the course. There are some situations where Lex does some pretty stupid stuff himself. Again, it's very much like an Archie and Jughead comic. With the sheer amount of this weird and wacky stuff it kind of felt on par for the lack of logic to play out normally here.

Again I kind of wished there were more Clark Kent scenes where he has to be a bumbling klutz. Instead, Clark is there to represent a mortal version of Superman. We dive deeper into Superman's origins and the mystique behind his powers.

They did a great job in keeping me interested because it does feel crazy for three antagonists with the same powers of Superman. Usually, I wouldn't think it's such a big deal since Superman is supposed to be invulnerable but they added the mortality angle to this whole movie. I'm sure everyone can tell how Superman was going to beat these three foes but they had swerve after swerve to throw us off. Even the ending was pretty wild. There are so many twists to this movie that it kept me at the edge of my seat and genuinely having a good time.

Seeing as the movie was made so many years ago, it goes without saying that the special effects are quite dated. Though there are quite a lot of practical effects so not all of it is a loss. For those that have a copy of the latest version of this movie, they will be happy that they've upgraded the sound. The audio is pretty great for such an old movie. It kept me absorbed into the movie.

Overall, I had a good time with this movie. I think I had an even better time watching this one over the first movie. It's not for everyone because it is quite cartoony and bonkers. You kind of have to know the era to really appreciate the movie. Still I would recommend this movie if you liked the first one. I think it's a little better. I have to give this one a 7 out of 10.