Review 163: Superman II

 

Superman II is a brilliant sequel in almost every way and a rare sequel that meets, if not exceeds, the standard set by its predecessor. 

Note: This review is for both the standard film and The Richard Donner Cut. 

Picking up where Superman left off, the three criminals: General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) from the planet Krypton are released from the Phantom Zone by a nuclear explosion in space. They descend upon Earth where they could finally rule.
Clark Kent/Superman (Christopher Reeve), meanwhile, is in love with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), who finds out who he really is. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) escapes from prison and is determined to destroy Superman by joining forces with the three criminals.

The plot is just brilliant, it's essentially two converging storylines. The A story is about Zod and his thugs escaping the Phantom Zone and taking over Earth.

The B story is about Lois realizing Clark is Superman and trying to get him to reveal this fact.
Both are equally fun, interesting and exciting storylines that are wonderfully interconnected that come together nicely in the films climax. 
They also ask some very intriguing and deep questions: What would happen if Lois discovered Clark was Superman and try to force him to show her?
And how close can Superman to truly living a human life without giving up giving up his powers?

Eventually she finds out who he is and this leads Clark having to make a choice between his duties as a Superhero and his love one which leads to the inclusion of Jor-El (he appears on The Richard Donner Cut, not the standard cut) which then leads to a lot of religious alaegory such as the fall (Superman giving up his powers), resurrection (Clark returning to Jor-El to seek redemption) and his battle with evil (Supermans battle with the three Kryptonians criminals) and father/son depth and that's what the first two Superman there are also about, there about a story about a father and a son which is something a lot of men can relate to.

Returning director Richard Donner's direction is stylish, the cinematography is gorgeous, the locations are tremendous, the production design is terrific, the score by John Williams (well, actually it's recycled music from the first film, adding unreleased cues, but no matter) is spectacular, the costumes are terrific, the make up is rich, the scenery is breathtaking, the suspense is gripping, the sound effects are superb, the stunt work is incredible and the special effects and action scenes are just as good as the first.

I highly recommend watching The Richard Donner Cut in order to fully appreciate them.

The acting once again is fantastic, though special praise has to go to Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp and Marlon Brando.

Christopher Reeve has all suave stuff that made him shine in the original Superman, but here he's trying to keep his secret identity from Lois and he sacrifices his powers to be with her.
In this film, we see what he's going through: He lives among humans but can never be one of them as long as he's also their protector.
He decides to give up his greatest purpose to fulfil his own happiness. This is clearly a selfish move on his part but his chemistry with Lois and his affection for her help us as an audience to understand why he's doing this.
Later when gets into a fight in a restaurant, we instantly discover just how much of a mistake he's made.
Once he give up his powers, he's no longer pretending to be Clark Kent, he has become Clark Kent. There is no Superman or Kal-El. He always used his powers as a crutch. He could pretend to be clumsy and anti social because he always had the Superman persona to fall back on.
In the end, he has to learn that he has to sacrifice his own happiness in order to be completely devoted to saving the world.

Margot Kidder is once again superb as Lois Lane, Lois is really given a chance to shine here, because she's, witty, clever and also inquisitive about Clark's secret and is determind to make him show her what it is.
She would eventually have to realise that Clark and Superman are one and the same otherwise she be considered stupid. 

Marlon Brando is even more powerful her than he was in Superman as Jor-El, he's disappointed with Superman for choosing to be with Lois instead of protecting people and that makes him more fatherly and strict than we've seen him in Superman and then I think the real father in him.

As Zod, Ursa & Non, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas and Jack O'Halloran make for a simply ingenious trio of villains 

General Zod is a much more compelling villain than Lex Luthor, he's not a wealthy criminal mind, he's a Kryptonian and the antithesis of Superman: he's arrogant, overbearing and his commanding pressance shows us what a bad Superman could have been.
Why does he want to rule the world? Well it's because he can. He achieved power on Krypton as a General but he craved unlimited power, so he tried to rule the world, he failed and Jor-El through him in the Phantom Zone, now he's on a planet where literally nothing can stop him. He also has great lines of dry humor.

On top of that he’s purley motivated by revenge against Jor-El and the fact that he believes he should be a ruler and have everyone kneel at his feet simply because he thinks he’s better than everyone else. He has no qualms about destroying, hurting or killing to get what he wants.

Ursa and Non are also very compelling, they follow Zod around because he's just that cool: He's like "I'm General Zod, I'm so cool" and Ursa is like "of course, yeah, you're that awesome" and Non never says anything because he's big and stupid, so he follows Zod around because he has nothing better to do and the pay possibly isn't bad.

Ursa, meanwhile, is one sadistic henchwoman, Zod hurts people as a means to an end but Ursa really does seem to get off on hurting innocent people.

Gene Hackman is, once again, excellent playing Lex Luthor. In this film, he pretty much plays second fiddle to the clearly superior Zod and his cronies. However, they’re both united in their common enemy of Superman. Lex willingly offers his services to Zod to stay alive and in the hopes of ruling Australia and Zod keeps using him to he decides he's of no use to him any more.
By offering his services to Zod, Lex once again demonstrates his smarts, wits and skill at manipulation as he’ll saying anything to anyone to manoeuvre himself into an advantage and recognises that because Zod, Ursa & Non have the same powers as Superman, they have a superior fighting chance.      

I do have to give special mention to Susannah York as Superman's mother Lara (in the theatrical cut) who manages to convey the warm, maternal   required to play the character

Superman II may seem incomplete in spots, but trust me, it a rare sequel that improves if not equals the original, 4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.