Review: Superman II

General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his cohorts (Sarah Douglas and Jack O’Halloran) are set free from their imprisonment in the Phantom Zone by a nuclear blast from an atomic bomb Superman (Christopher Reeve) has thrown. It was planted on the Eiffel Tower by a terrorist group, and the Man of Steel was just trying to be Earth’s protector. Now he has unwittingly unleashed a trio of supervillains who use their superpowers to bring Earth to its knees. Meanwhile, while on the job in Niagara Falls, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) discovers Clark Kent’s big secret. Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) also reappears, trying to uncover Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, and then lending his services to General Zod. E.G. Marshall lends sturdy support and the worst rug you’ve ever seen as the US President, and Clifton James plays hick Sheriff J.W. Pepper (his Bond franchise character) in all but name here. Susannah York returns as Superman’s birth mother because…Marlon Brando.

I can’t attest to the controversial Richard Donner cut (I’ll get around to seeing it eventually I hope), but this 1980 sequel from director Richard Lester (“Help!”, “The Three Musketeers”, the haunting “Robin and Marian”) is certainly lesser than Donner’s 1978 classic “Superman”. For me, that still stands as the greatest superhero/comic book movie of all-time. Lester’s effort plays like a rock-solid B-movie at best, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with that. Hell, I love B-movies, and this is a good one. But the dip in quality from the first to the second film is pretty staggering, only matched by the dip in quality of the next two entries in the series.

 

Like the first film, the best stuff is at the beginning on Krypton, though I still prefer the opening of the first film. It’s fun, though, even if Zod and co.’s holding cell looks like the cover of “Queen’s Greatest Hits” album. John Williams’ “Superman” theme is one of life’s greatest pleasures in my opinion, so it’s a shame that the film score wasn’t overseen by him. It’s in the hands of Ken Thorne (Lester’s “Help!” and “How I Won the War”) who misuses Williams’ material in my opinion. He takes the Williams theme and just isn’t half the man Williams is. It’s used in a really cheap way, and not as nicely woven into the overall score, because this time, Williams isn’t the one doing it. It’s surrounded by Thorne’s frankly ordinary compositions. In a way it sums up the whole film. It’s clearly and obviously an inferior product.

 

There’s far too many characters this time and too much stuff going on for one two-hour film. For instance, Lex Luthor shouldn’t be in this film at all. The film already has Zod and his two companions, and there is no good from adding Gene Hackman’s Luthor to the mix. Hackman was the perfect villain for the first film, but doesn’t belong in this one. Sure, the tone of Lester’s “Superman III” was comedic, but here the film is mostly played straight and Lex’s services aren’t the best fit. He’s a comic book villain, often very funny (but still a dangerous threat) but in a film that is otherwise not geared towards laughs for the most part (Clifton James’ cameo and a gag about an ice-cream are the only other examples of comedy, really). Although you could argue that there’s camp in the performances by Terence Stamp and Sarah Douglas (always good for camp value, but another sign of being a B-movie), I don’t believe Zod is the same kind of comic book villain as Lex at all. He’s a deadly serious, cold and evil bastard of a supervillain. So putting the two sets of villains in the same film sends the tone out of whack. But that’s not the main issue I have with Lex being here. The problem is he’s not remotely necessary, nor well-used. In fact, he plays like a third wheel and the role gives the talented Hackman absolutely nothing to do. His top billing in the credits is one of the biggest jokes in cinematic history. With about an hour to go, Zod and his crew have only just started their reign of terror, but Hackman’s Lex has done sweet bugger-all. He has escaped prison, visited the Fortress of Solitude, and that’s about it. He’s an afterthought in a film he really shouldn’t have been in at all. In fact, this film turns him into a coward and opportunist, instead of the cunning genius supervillain he was in the first film. He’s General Zod’s lackey, basically. Lex Luthor. Think about that. Everything with Hackman and Lex here is a big mistake (And apparently, it’s all Donner’s work. Most of the rest of the film is Lester’s).

 

Margot Kidder isn’t at her best in this one, she actually makes Lois Lane seem rather unlikeable for some reason. Having said that, I’d be in a cranky mood if I were the female lead but listed in the credits behind Sarah Freakin’ Douglas and Ned Beatty. It was amusing to find that Lois can barely speak French in this despite Canadian actress Kidder having played a French-Canadian woman in Brian De Palma’s “Sisters”. Also amusing, for completely unintentional reasons that couldn’t have been dreamed up at the time, was Kidder uttering the line: ‘Not only have I lost my mind, I’ve lost my comb!’. I don’t need to explain why that one’s funny, do I? Other than that, the only notable thing involving Lois here is the big secret she finds out, and sadly someone must’ve gotten cold feet about it, and they put the kybosh on it by the end of the film and it’s never brought up again in the subsequent films.

 

The film’s biggest problem is just how unwieldy the whole thing is. For a film that already has too many characters to properly fit into the film, there’s way too many Superman action/rescue scenes. The result is an entertaining and exciting film, but unwieldy and underdone at the same time. The first film was about the same length, but with much less clutter. Oh well, it’s certainly not boring and better than many other films of this type I could name. In fact, there was some really cool stuff in this one. The late Christopher Reeve had really settled into the title role (and especially his bumbling humanoid alter-ego) by this stage, and the best thing about this film is the dual characters of Superman/Clark Kent. You’ve gotta feel sorry for ‘ol Clark, he’s the only man in history to cock-block himself. Meanwhile, Terence Stamp is so damn good as General Zod, and if I prefer Hackman’s Lex in the original, that is absolutely not slight on Stamp. He gives the film the exact villain required, it’s just that Zod has less dimensions to him than Lex. Zod’s climactic destruction and chaos is cheesy, but lots of fun and never quite comical.

Scripted by the trio of David Newman, Leslie Newman and Mario Puzo (who all scripted the first film), some people actually believe that this film is even better than the first film, so don’t just take my word for it. It’s certainly enjoyable and worth seeing, no matter which film you prefer. I can’t say that about the next two in the series. But for me, this is still a big stepdown from the original, which as I said earlier has never been surpassed and may never be. I think that may be because although Richard Lester might’ve wanted to make a film here close in look to that of comic books, I believe Donner (who I must confess I’m a much bigger fan of than I am Lester) in the first film was able to evoke the spirit of comic book adventure whilst giving the Superman legend the grandeur and loftiness it deserves. I don’t think Lester has really gotten that point, and “Superman III” pretty much proves I’m right. But that’s a review for another day…

Rating: B-