Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

[kingdom warrior]

but it just didn't do Christohper Reeve justice.

See that's where Singer made a mistake.....Reeve did his own thing and was a great Superman. That's where it should have ended.

When Chris did Superman did he Channel George Reeves??
They paid homage by including Noel Neill and Kirk Alyn in the movie and that's it......

Superman Returns should have been it's own thing not an Homage to The Donner/Lester movies

That's why I want a Superman Reboot and let Chris's Superman rest in Peace....

[huedell]

Wow really? Superman returns had fail all over it.....as it was a clone of the Donner/ Lester movies....once you got past the Superman hype the movie was dull

The original was the best and still has a charm to it, while returns I find hard to watch....the only scene that holds weight is the shuttle scene and that's still a knockoff and a update of the helicopter scene in the original......

I didn't mind the "clone" aspect of SUPERMAN RETURNS... in fact, I thought
it was a great idea....and I liked it for the same reason you thought it was
a "fail".

A "sequel" that was a "remake" at the same time due to all the simillarities
to the first and second movies....novel idea.

I also thought that overall the actors and the dialogue were improvements
over the original take.....ESPECIALLY Spacey.

It was a great way to tie in to the old movies..improve upon them...
and mobilize so that they could move on with everything intact for a sequel.
...except for the superkid

The kid was a great idea in theory....totally building off the
Jor-El/Kal-El relationship in the orignals....the problem was...
as I mentioned above...now they were saddled with that kid...and his story
...and all that for any percievable sequel.

In the end, I agree SUPERMAN RETURNS was a bad move for the franchise
on the whole (it STILL made almost as much as Batman Begins)....but
as a standalone movie...and as it appears, a "final" movie in a Reeve trilogy
including 1 & 2 ....I think its a great Supes movie. If only in an "alternate reality" kind of way.

[kingdom warrior]

I didn't mind the "clone" aspect of SUPERMAN RETURNS... in fact, I thought
it was a great idea....and I liked it for the same reason you thought it was
a "fail".

A "sequel" that was a "remake" at the same time due to all the simillarities
to the first and second movies....novel idea.

I also thought that overall the actors and the dialogue were improvements
over the original take.....ESPECIALLY Spacey.

It was a great way to tie in to the old movies..improve upon them...
and mobilize so that they could move on with everything intact for a sequel.
...except for the superkid

The kid was a great idea in theory....totally building off the
Jor-El/Kal-El relationship in the orignals....the problem was...
as I mentioned above...now they were saddled with that kid...and his story
...and all that for any percievable sequel.

In the end, I agree SUPERMAN RETURNS was a bad move for the franchise
on the whole (it STILL made almost as much as Batman Begins)....but
as a standalone movie...and as it appears, a "final" movie in a Reeve trilogy
including 1 & 2 ....I think its a great Supes movie. If only in an "alternate reality" kind of way.

Ok point taken but why would you do a Clone/Continuation of the Chris Reeve movies??? For me I didn't want to see some guy who looked like Chris Reeve give a performance that was nothing more than a poor Imitation. I wanted to see a new story and new Direction

Meaning No wanna be Chris
No Wanna be Hackman sorry Spacey is a good actor but he was still doing real estate Luthor.
The Kid thing was silly and you would put the franchise in a hole with that...
an Uninspired Lois Lane wow could she be any duller.....
In the end all i saw was a big mess and not really a Superman movie but a Director Fan boy doing the movie he wanted to do since he was a boy.....

[huedell]

^^^I guess that's how most felt. I liked it overall, yet have simillar thoughts
as you read above...I also agree that Lois was portrayed badly...she's
probably my biggest regret while watching the movie. (Yet, she still
has that "Let's sneak on Lex's boat" moment). I liked the superkid
angle, but yes it kills the franchise...so they should've tried something
different if they really wanted it to endure with the same canon.

[kingdom warrior]

^^^I guess that's how most felt. I liked it overall, yet have simillar thoughts
as you read above...I also agree that Lois was portrayed badly...she's
probably my biggest regret while watching the movie. (Yet, she still
has that "Let's sneak on Lex's boat" moment). I liked the superkid
angle, but yes it kills the franchise...so they should've tried something
different if they really wanted it to endure with the same canon.

Yes totally Agree......

[Mikey]

There was really nothing about Superman Returns I liked ....

Lois was too young and acted like a b-tch through the whole thing.

Lex was too serious and too psycho.
IMO Spacey may have resembled Hackman, but he certainly didn't act like him.

Brandon Routh had no personality whatsoever.
Yes, sometimes he did resemble and sound like Reeve, but that was about it.
Routh was/is just plain not likable ...

The story itself was just plain BORING ..... and the idea most of it was set at night didn't help any.

Superman Returns was an all around disaster.
I'm still left scratching my head it even got made.

IMO, Superman 3 AND 4 are both 10,000 times better than Returns.

[ScottA]

I have never seen the Donner cut.

[Mikey]

I have never seen the Donner cut.

Scott, imo it's worth taking a peek at if it happens to be on, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it.

[The Toyroom]

IMO there may have been some good points in Superman Returns but for the most part it was a waste of time and money....Sure it brought in cash at the box office but now, several years later, it's generally looked upon as a mistake. And since they originally thought they could continue the Reeve franchise with this installment, they actually ended up shooting themselves in the foot as far as that. Now we're at the point where they have to reboot the whole franchise and start from scratch, and only several years out from Superman Returns so I think it's gonna be a tough/confusing sell for a new flick. Bottom line is they should jump right into the action and ignore the origin story...people know who he is by now

[Mikey]

I'd like to see a retro Superman movie based on the George Reeves TV series.

Not a comedy, but done in a light fashion ...

Superman fans are NOT Batman fans.

Batman fans want to see their hero dark and gritty

Superman fans want to see a light adventure romp.

Until the studios realize this we're never going to see a popular Superman movie again.

[huedell]

IMO there may have been some good points in Superman Returns but for the most part it was a waste of time and money....Sure it brought in cash at the box office but now, several years later, it's generally looked upon as a mistake. And since they originally thought they could continue the Reeve franchise with this installment, they actually ended up shooting themselves in the foot as far as that. Now we're at the point where they have to reboot the whole franchise and start from scratch, and only several years out from Superman Returns so I think it's gonna be a tough/confusing sell for a new flick. Bottom line is they should jump right into the action and ignore the origin story...people know who he is by now

I agree with your post in spite of me liking SUPERMAN RETURNS a lot.
Now, its time to recast and rethink and all that...and its hard to tell
about how much they are going feel the need to contort things merely
to AVOID a Reeve/Donner vibe now.

Sure no origin story...but then again...some bits and pieces of it thrown in
at opportune times might work.

[The Toyroom]

^ And NO Lex Luthor real estate schemes

[huedell]

^ And NO Lex Luthor real estate schemes

Sure...well, that's all pretty impossible now.

[Hulk]

In an ideal world, I would have preferred to see Donner's vision of Superman I & II, and really enjoyed seeing what he did to cobble together some semblance of that vision with that cut. As it stands, I enjoyed Superman Returns over Superman II on an apples to apples basis.

The real joy though, was introducing my 8 year old nephew to Superman via a 3 night marathon last summer of Superman, Superman II and Superman Returns. He quickly got over the change in actors and the increased action/violence and thoroughly enjoyed them as a trilogy. Whether Singer should have gone another direction or not will be fodder for discussion forever, in my opinion, he completed a story that Superman III and IV had taken a bit of a dump on.

And no one is to blame but DC and Warner Brothers for not reviving this property since. They have had years and countless opportunities, in the best ever market for superhero movies no less, to either continue with Routh or reboot the Man of Steel completely. If Marvel could do it with Hulk, then DC should have taken their cues and ran with one of their top two players. The fact that there isn't a movie in at least serious preproduction, filming or even awaiting a summer release is a crime.

[thunderbolt]

Returns was painful to watch once for me. I'll never watch it again. Singer singlehandedly ruined the Superman franchise and by passing on X3 ruined that run, too. Wonder how Nolan will do rebooting Supes.