Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
Directed by Richard Donner
Superman agrees to sacrifice his powers to start a relationship with Lois Lane, unaware that three Kryptonian criminals he inadvertently released are conquering Earth.
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What critics compared Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut to
Transporting the action to, er, Samoa – and recalling the end of Superman II, the plan is to lure Elba’s robobastard to a remote part of the world to face Hobbs and his family of native engineers/rugby players, with Shaw bringing up the rear while rebuilding the relationship with his sister.
Brutal and, at times, gut-churning, it's the most exhilarating spectacle of urban destruction since Superman II.
The imagery of him hanging in the air over Seattle, bloody and bandaged like an escaped mental patient, gives the film’s climactic battle (which is willfully reminiscent of the aerial super-powered smackdown in Superman II) an edge of sadness that goes a long way toward redeeming some of the film’s sillier conceits.
Then replaced by Richard Lester, 1981’s Superman II was a hodgepodge of Lester’s reshoots and Donner’s initial footage.
If you’re old enough to know about Superman II and its “original” version, you may know where this sits in the rare lexicon of filmmakers being allowed to finish a film they started.
The borrowed ’80’s ending resembles another couple of sequels, Superman II and Crocodile Dundee II .
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Then there is a second level that includes "Superman II," the Tim Burton "Batman" films, the last "X-Men" epic and the first "Iron Man"--all solid films that nevertheless lack that final spark that separates the good from the great.
Loki is a little too similar to Superman II ’s General Zod at times but duller—without Terence Stamp’s mix of menace and oblivious humor.
It doesn’t reveal new layers to the characters or deepen our understanding of them in the way of sequels like The Empire Strikes Back , Superman II , and The Dark Knight .
In fact, “Iron Man 3” takes the best pages from many other films like “The Dark Knight” trilogy and “Superman II.”
Now there’s a third film, which follows more of the pattern you see in a second film like “Superman II” or “Spider-Man 2.” “Iron Man 3” sees a serious crisis of conscious for Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
This idea was also attempted in Superman II , perhaps as a way to get the audience to "identify" with the superhero a bit more, but it really doesn't work.
The film's intimate psychological explorations of what it means to be invincible are probably its strongest aspects, as Logan, much like Kal-El in 1980's Superman II, loses his most important powers — the mutation, technically, that allows him to heal immediately from even the most gruesome injuries — and is thereby rendered something closer to human.
I cannot help but picture him as that friend who, after listening to a buddy complain about how Superman’s “S” symbol was suddenly used as Super Saran Wrap in Superman II, interrupts with a, “But dude, it’s about an alien from Krypton who can fly … it’s all made up, so what does it matter?!” As a result, just as he played fast and loose with transporter technology (and much more) in his Star Trek reboot, Abrams allows the “ridic” meter to hit 11 more than a few times in The Force Awakens.
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The solution the filmmakers have come up with comes across as farfetched as, and no less disappointing than, the one Richard Donner used in the original “Superman” (and intended to use in his version of “Superman II” as well).
Having apparently resolved that one failed Earthly invasion is enough for one millennium, Loki is nowhere to be found in “Age of Ultron,” but even minus his caustic wit, the new movie is a sleeker, faster, funnier piece of work — the sort of sequel (like “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Superman II” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” before it) that shrugs off the self-seriousness of its predecessor and fully embraces its inner Saturday-morning serial.