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.

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. :)