This has to be the most amazing thing since sliced bread! With the advent of modern technology you’re seeing movie directors going back into old movies and redoing parts to make them what they originally wanted back in the day. This has produced some very bad things (Star Wars) and some very good things (Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s cut). With STTMP the creators went back in and added the special effects the original way they wanted them to appear. This added some extra depth to the movie and fixed some of the major plot points and slow boring sequences.

The latest movie to be given this treatment is Superman II. Both of the first two superman’s were filmed at once, and Richard Donner was fired midway though completing Superman II for really stupid reasons. Richard Liester stepped in and re-filmed about 50% of Donner’s footage, changing some major plot points, and adding a whole sub-story in a country town. Well about 20 years later through a lot of support of the fans on the Internet, and finding the actual film negatives in the old London Warner Brother’s vaults, the original version of the film has been rendered as completely as they can.

This produced a whole new Superman movie, with new scenes, new special effects and everything! The trip of the evil three kryptonians to the country town is cut out, and added is more Lois and Clark romance and back story. Instead of Lois jumping off Niagara falls, she jumps out a window at the Daily Planet, and instead of Superman using the ‘magic kiss’, he simply turns time back again. There is also the appearance of Marlon Brando now in this film, that was removed simply because they didn’t want to pay him the money to put him in the second film. Instead of Superman’s father, they opted for his mother.

I loved both Superman movies, and II rings well in my head as a child because I remember going to see it with my parents in the theater. Even today the special effects of the original theater cut hold up well. While this alternative take on the movie was the original vision as intended; and extremely interesting to watch, I have to say the way Superman II turned out originally is better with Richard Liester’s additions. These alternate original scenes seem rushed, or campy. Lines seem really oddly placed, and while they tried to recreate the special effects the way they could back then, in some parts you really debate this choice because the special effects look really really bad. Most notably the fight scene above metropolis, the flying part really stands out as a bad blue screen effect. This is one item that modern computer technology could have fixed and they decided to let go. They also included the original screen test of Clark and Lois at Niagra Falls, which has bad sound, and no alternate camera work! I can understand them trying to use as much alternative footage as possible, but using a screen test with bad microphones and no camera angles (and the actors being skinner) looks terrible.

The Marlo Brando scenes look good, and they also dealt with the way Superman got his powers back after giving them up to Lois Lane. In the originally movie I always assumed he found the green crystal, rebuilt the fortress’s computer and reversed the effects. However, in this version Marlo Brando or Jo-rel (Superman’s father), basically merges his essence with Superman thus giving him his power’s back, but forever limiting Superman’s ability to communicate with his father’s spirit.

All in all the alternate takes are interesting, but I have to say the original final result was much better. It’s interesting to note that the Ilkan’s fired Donner because they wanted the movie more campy, and the original takes seem more campy than Liester’s takes. However Liester went on to direct Superman III, which in hindsight turned out even worse. So the complexities of producing a movie can be really weird sometimes.

This is all available in the Superman Ultimate Edition Collection. We finally get to see some footage that I remembered seeing in the TV version but could never find on DVD. This included Superman blowing up the Fortress of Solitude after Lex Luthor finds it, and the great scene where Nod kills a boy and a woman screams ‘He was only a boy!’ and Ursla shouts ‘He will never become a man!’ For years I remembered this scene and I’m sure the studio will never reincorporate this into the movie, but here you get to see this scene that was re-included in some TV versions in the documentary behind the movies. (Gawd forbid we actually show the villains as really evil!)

Also included in the Superman Ultimate Edition set is the extra footage for Superman IV which shows you the original radio-active man (there was originally 2). Superman IV i felt was a good idea, but terrible execution. Thank gawd Superman Returns came around to bring some creditability back to the franchise and give us ability to continue the story onward on the big screen.