Superman Part II

The fourth version of Superman II I have seen (after Lester, Donner and Booshman's Redux cuts) and probably the best. Cutting straight to the villains being freed is bold and energetic, but I think a brief recap (just the trial and banishment) would help reinforce who these people are, over two hours (at least) having passed since we last saw them.

Otherwise almost perfect. A couple of edits feel a little noticeable, and I do miss the extra scenes at the ending contained in Booshman's Redux (Arctic Patrol and Jimmy's new camera), but as far as I am concerned this is my go to version for now.

I really like how this plays off the first one better than a lot of versions of II does. It's also a good move I've seen rarely, leaving the secret known. A brave choice and a less clumsy way to deal with the problem of how Lois was to forget. I have no complaints, and was very happy I got to see it.

I loved it. A wonderful job by Ollie, who's created a version of SMII I can enjoy instead of watching and thinking "If only they hadn't fired Donner, what could have been..."

I think Ollie's done a great job in selecting which scenes to use in from the wealth of material available. The blank bullets scene may be my favorite of those first two films (continuity issues aside).

Ideally, this film would include the trial scene - IF that scene hadn't already appeared in the first one. Because it did, I completely agree in cutting it. I do have some quibbles. I thought some of Lex and his minion's humor could have been toned down a little (maybe cut out the search for the bathroom in the Fortress entirely). I also thought the battle of Metropolis could be trimmed a bit more (for pacing reasons and to reduce the product placement). My two other small quibbles is that I think the scenes jumped back and forth between Zod/Ursa/Non's attack and the Superman/Lois at the Fortress maybe bit too much, and while I love the dedication in the beginning, it sounded *slightly* wordy to me - maybe "He made us believe a man could fly" would be enough.

But again, those are quibbles. I'm rating this a ten out of ten in every category. This is a high quality edit with amazing pacing and seamless cuts. It opens with a punch, and really holds your attention until the very end. With the more distracting elements of the Lester cut gone and with vastly improved editing in comparison to the Donner cut, this film allows the audience to truly engage with the movie and Clark's struggle. I would be remiss if I did not also give some high praise to the new ending, courtesy of booshman, who's own SMII Redux edit I'll soon be watching.

Wonderful. Ollie's edit felt very organic and flowed a hell of a lot better than Thau's edit or the let's-invent-thirty-new-superpowers original edit that I grew up on. The streamlining aspects of the piece and the inclusion of some of the best bits of Thau's at-times abysmal reworking along with some of the Lester pieces definitely felt natural. And that was the key. Nothing felt...jarring. Rather, it was quite smooth in transition and execution. My gripes are few, if any, and have ZERO to do with the implementation of such scenes. Instead, my gripes are with the original source material. They revolve around the blank bullets scene, which has always stuck out like a sore thumb to me and which I've never liked (even the acting and dialogue felt forced...as a screen test likely should). The other is in some of the fight-scene FX in Metropolis. Primarily the usage of the Statue of Liberty (which I also thought looked much less realistic than it's counterpart flight-and-kick sequence from Lester's cut).

Other than that, any flaws inherent to the source were Thau's fault (herky-jerk music editing in a couple of portions to support use of Williams' original music) or the issue of having to use as much Donner footage as possible. But this was leaps and bounds better than either released version.

The thing I lament the most is that some of the old Superman Cinema regulars (hell...even me) weren't invited to help save Thau from himself when he cut the thing together. Otherwise, if I could get this in Blu-Ray with lossless audio, I'd have it replace the versions in my Motion Picture Anthology in a heartbeat.

Kudos to you, Ollie. Nice work. :)

All right, for starters: sorry for having let so much time pass by. Now, I was really trying to look after a version of "Superman II" that could be the right version, not aversion which was good but felt incomplete, or a version finished by another director and furthermore absolutely ignored the feel of completeness that was due, since Richard Donner had planned the second one not as a 'sequel' to the first one, rather the second episode, "Part II", which would have completed his storyline. This was an incredibly well done edit, and really did give a lot of what was needed. I was never a big fan of Superman, but was always willing to sit through the first two films as Richard Donner had intended them. But then "The Richard Donner Cut" made me wish "Superman: The Movie" didn't have the same ending as its sequel. Then, your cut. This really solved many, many of the problems I originally had with both the original cuts, let alone the blank bullets scene, which I would have probably edited differently, to cut out Clark's changing hair, but I don't even know if it would have been possible. The cuts were always seamless, and the film was satisfying. Continue with this!! Go on! And I loved the fact that the ending wasn't recycled!! Congratulations!!!

Canon Editor