Superman II (1980)

Director:

Richard Lester

Writers:

Jerry Siegel (characters) &
Joe Shuster (characters) ...

Release Date:

19 June 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Miraculously freed from eternal orbit, the three outlaws from Krypton descend to earth, for the ultimate confrontation.

Plot:

Superman agrees to sacrifice his powers to marry Lois, unaware that three Kryptonian criminals he inadvertently released are conquering Earth.

Plot Keywords:

Superman | Criminal | Prison | Phantom Zone | Hydrogen Bomb

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Gene Hackman	...	Lex Luthor
Christopher Reeve	...	Superman / Clark Kent
Ned Beatty	...	Otis
Jackie Cooper	...	Perry White
Sarah Douglas	...	Ursa
Margot Kidder	...	Lois Lane
Jack O'Halloran	...	Non
Valerie Perrine	...	Eve Teschmacher
Susannah York	...	Lara
Clifton James	...	Sheriff
E.G. Marshall	...	The President
Marc McClure	...	Jimmy Olsen
Terence Stamp	...	General Zod
Leueen Willoughby	...	Leueen
Robin Pappas	...	Alice

Also Known As:

Superman 2 (Australia) (TV title)

Runtime:

127 min | USA:116 min (Richard Donner Cut)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (MegaSound encoding) (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:All | Brazil:Livre | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Canada:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Norway:12 (1980) | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Alexander Salkind

Trivia:

In a 2004 interview, Margot Kidder claimed that there are indeed enough scenes shot for this sequel by Richard Donner "somewhere in a vault" to make his own cut of the film. A website therefore started a petition for Warner Bros. to allow and sponsor Donner with his own cut of Superman II (1980). This claim proved to be correct and the footage was re-edited into _Superman II (2006) (V)_.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Non knocks Perry out by lifting him up into the ceiling, a crew member can be seen holding Perry's hand in the lower right corner of the screen.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Krypton guard: Alert, alert, alert.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Taking Flight: The Development of 'Superman' (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Pick Up the Pieces

Great film

Simply put, Superman II is one of the best action/comic-oriented films of all time. I'd rank it second only to the original Superman: The Movie and only X-Men is right up there.

The thing about this movie that bugs me is that I grew up watching the ABC expanded version. That's the version my dad taped for me, so for years I thought the expanded version was the only version. It wasn't until the mid-80s when I saw SII on HBO that I realized what the theatrical cut was and how much of the expanded version added to the film.

So if you ask me about Superman II expanded edition, I'd definitely rank that as the best comic oriented film all time. Hopefully, Warner Bros. will put together an interesting DVD on the film with all the supplemental footage, including the never-before-seen Marlon Brando segment that was completely removed from the picture. The making of this film was a big time headache. All of Gene Hackman's scenes were filmed by Superman I director Richard Donner, and then he was fired, and Richard Lester was brought in. So it would be really cool and really insightful if a future DVD came out on the making of the film. But I digress.

The (theatrical version) film, while a bit aged, is still tremendous fun. Christopher Reeve remains the embodiment of the Man of Steel and remains a case for one example of perfect casting. He makes the whole Clark Kent/Superman thing plausible by making Kent an insecure, bumbling reporter. Terrence Stamp is also wonderfully cast as arch-villain General Zod.

The climax in Times Square is still exciting and funny. And the whole relationship between Lois and Clark/Superman is brought to the fore-front.

I'd definitely put this film as a supreme candidate for the full DVD red carpet treatment complete because the current DVD lacks big time.