SUPERMAN II ...THE DONNER VERSION Harry watches the Donner Cut of SUPERMAN II! What a wonderful geek moment! Wow. Wow. Wow. Just got finished watching Richard Donner’s SUPERMAN II which got released on DVD yesterday. I picked up the whole big SUPERMAN super set – and the two things I wanted to watch immediately was SUPERMAN II followed by SUPERMAN RETURNS. Why? Because Singer and crew meant for SUPERMAN RETURNS to be seen after this cut. And frankly – I dearly loved SUPERMAN II, the theatrical cut overseen by Richard Lester – only… I hated all the bullshit stuff he pulled. Well, you see – I was a film addicted geek back a billion years ago – and I remember reading in STARLOG or some similar magazine at the time. It came out right after SUPERMAN the movie did – and it talked about the toppling of the Washington Monument in D.C. That shot – which Burton played with so wonderfully in MARS ATTACKS! Had otherwise been just a forgotten enzyme in my mind until today. Watching it topple filled me with delight. However, more so – all the BS random powers like replicating Superman and that mind-numbingly lame Super Kiss…. GONE. The fight in Metropolis is slightly grander but in particular – Supes being tossed into Lady Liberty’s torch, instead of a building was awesome. Just about everything about the film is tighter and less goofy. Is it perfect – Oh god no. You see, while this may be Richard Donner’s intended cut of the elements that he shot back while shooting SUPERMAN the movie… There’s several things that he wanted to reshoot and develop when he was supposed to go back to work on it after the release of SUPERMAN. Sadly – Donner never had that opportunity. What would Donner have done with the very end of the film? That’s something that we’ll probably never really know. However, what this is – is a cleaned up version of what would have been Donner’s starting cut of SUPERMAN II, prior to doing the reshoots and film completion. The ending where SUPERMAN reverses the planet backwards to before the Phantom Zone was broken – thus repairing all the damage that Zod and crew inflicted upon the Earth, going back to a Lois that didn’t suspect Clark as being Superman – and sure – it’s a knock off from the first film -- but dear god it’s better than multiple Supermen in the Fortress and the Magic Super Kiss. Which have always driven me crazy. Gone is the Paris opening, the Niagara jump and a lot of the shoddy sequences from the Theatrical cut that drove me bats. The film has loose ends and some things that needed desperately to be filled in by anyone that wasn’t camping it up ala Lester. But the goofiness of the made up superpowers being gone is just great. I miss Superman flying to make the diamond and a few brief moments that Lester was responsible – but this rough unfinished version is a vast improvement. Sticking to what Kryptonians can do. For real. Not made up stuff. (I’m fully aware of the irony I’m running around with) But as the end of the film played out – I had this amazing tidal wave of Nostalgia - just watching it all play out – things that I had heard hinted at over the last 26 years or so. Rumored scenes, Brando’s final farewell… it’s just a blessing. A true blessing. I’m SO amazed to finally be able to see this. It may not be perfect – but it is as close to the original intentions of Donner, Reeve and Brando – their performances and Donner’s direction. Excellent work.