Superman II: The Donner Cut - Zod, Love and Consequences

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So…Superman II. A tale of TWO movies. A fact I never really knew until I grew up. But this one was always one of my favorites of the series. It had a compelling story with Clark and Lois, along with the best villain of the four…General Zod. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!! ZOD!!!

The film was riddled with problems because of this. Back when Superman: The Movie was being filmed, they were doing Superman II as well. Production problems (going over budget and being behind) led to Donner being fired from the original version. Richard Lester came in to take over the role as director. This made two different versions with the Donner cut not being released until 2006. The change in director led to a tonal shift with a little more comedy and it lacked a little more of the heart Donner intended to happen. We’ll get there in a bit.

Let’s dive into both of these versions and what they did for the movie itself. The Donner cut was put together with pieces that were previously shot for the original story and a few test scenes (scenes actors do to see if the actor is right for the role). The couple of these were a little obvious and did take me out of the movie a little, but didn’t fully take away from the importance of them for the movie.

In the start of Donner, we spend a little more time with our Zoners as they’re floating through space, knocked into the direction of Earth by the explosion and young Kal-El’s ship. We also see how the original movie was INTENDED to end. We go to the end of the first, showing him stop the first nuke and him hurling it into space…exploding and freeing the Zoners from the Phantom Zone. Cue the music, and opening credits.

In the theatrical version, we see why the Zod, Non, and Ursa were taken to the Council. It jumps a bit because Brando was not in this version, but he WAS in the Donner cut. Also, instead of the nuke from Donner’s cut, in the Lester version we start with terrorists in Paris. Over the credits a recap of what happened last time jumping into the events a few days later.

The Donner cut begins with Lois suspecting Clark and Superman are one in the same with a marker and a picture of Superman she turns into Clark. This happens JUST as Perry suggests the Niagara Falls story that’s in the theatrical version. She presses him and they use some of the same dialogue from when they were at the Falls. “Willing to bet her life” on it, she jumps out a window…yeah, she jumps out a window. Clark saves her, slowing her down, and giving her something soft to land on all before she notices it's him doing it. As she lands she looks up to see Clark at the window. Shocked and embarrassed.

In the Lester cut, she dives into the water and Clark saves her by using his heat vision to break a branch for her to grab onto until she could swim to shore.

The Lex escapes prison scenes remained mostly unchanged with Miss Tessmacher showing up in a hot air balloon (that went unheard somehow), leaving Otis behind as they head North, tracking Superman’s alpha waves. Along with the NASA and moon stuff where Zod and company arrive and kill them before setting their sights on the planet Houston (Earth). The fact they could talk in space (scientifically impossible) does vex me a little bit as an adult, but it's a comic book movie. Put on those suspenders of disbelief.

Our intrepid reporters begin their story in Niagara Falls, skipping over the scene with the Bellhop in the Donner Cut that added next to nothing to the story. But we do see Lex enter the Fortress on a waverunner type vehicle as they sneak inside to the main chamber room. Again, most of it remained unchanged, with the exception being more of Marlon Brando instead of using the bald guy doing the tree poem and Lara as the main vessel of information on Zod and the other criminals. Brando goes through each one, explaining who they are more in depth, kicking off Luthor wanting to find them and help them take over the world.

Back in Niagara, the Falls scene remained. She takes her glasses and gets a better look at Clark without his glasses. Saving the dumb kid who kept playing on the ledge of the falls. I mean, come on kid…do you really wanna die? Thankfully Superman shows up…while Clark is getting hot dogs and some OJ for Lois, freshly squeezed.

After a quick cut showing the villains arriving, we get the chemistry scene with Reeves and Kidder. Clark’s glasses are different and his hair is, well, odd. And both change twice depending on the angle of the camera. During the scene, Lois is still determined to prove Clark is Superman…by shooting him with a gun.

To review: jumped out of a window, shot Clark with a gun…sure they were blanks, but still. They went hard for those two scenes. Her plan works and he stands tall and takes off the glasses, obviously furious, not knowing the gun had blanks.

So, they head to the Fortress where he can reveal everything he couldn’t before. Their scenes in the Fortress mixed with the villains terrorizing the small Texas county town. Superman is trying to have a nice night with Lois, meanwhile Zod and his cohorts take down the National Guard sent to stop them with much better effects than in the Lester cut. The Lester cut also spent a little more time in the town when they arrive and start causing problems. The British Texas child was confusing to me even as a child in that version, thankfully missing here.

After dinner, Lois and Clark make time with each other if you know what I mean. As the baddies continue their damage, Clark talks to Jor-El about his love for Lois where he’s told that he can’t love someone and be the hero the world needs. This scene is so much stronger in the Donner cut because it's a father and a son arguing on what’s right for him. Letting him choose between living as Kal-El, Superman, or to live as a human.

The chamber to remove his powers was used in both versions. Jor-El pleads with his son, because doing it would strip him of his powers forever with no way back. All Lois can do is watch as the man she loves removes his powers so they can be together, and get a death glare from Jor-El for good measure.

Zod goes to Washington as Clark removes his powers, to claim dominion over the planet. The assault on the White House is longer, with Zod even using a gun. He meets the president, who informs him of Superman, and kneels to save the country.

Now, one thing that wasn’t great about both versions is that Clark is now human. How did they get from the Fortress to a car? They flew there! Gotta keep those suspenders on.

They stop at a diner and Clark gets into a bit of a tussle with a trucker who’s being a bit of a dick. Taking a cheap shot, causing Clark to bleed his own blood for the first time. He was beaten and broken, bleeding helplessly on the ground, needing Lois to help him up. As the diner settles, the rain starts to pour, Clark sees a news report from the President, telling them that Zod is in control and calls for Superman.

He knows he has to go back, find a way to get his powers back and save the world that he just abandoned for love. Not the worst thing in the world, but the timing was terrible. So, our hero makes his way back to the Fortress. Trudging through the snow and winds of the arctic north to get back to his Fortress. 

Meanwhile, Luthor arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, hoping to team up with them. But they change their tune when he tells them he can get them the son of Jor-El who Zod has sworn vengeance for trapping them in the Phantom Zone.

Clark finally arrives at the now still Fortress, the console damaged. Reeve gives an amazing performance as he calls out to his father. You feel his anger and frustration and guilt of failing not only his father (something a lot of people can relate to), but the world.

HIs father hears him and a single remaining crystal glows and we finally see HOW Clark got his powers back. Jor-El appears laying on the guilt trip, though he anticipated Clark returning to rectify what he did by giving up his powers. The energy that helped them communicate, the power in the crystal and that remained in Jor-El was placed into Clark, restoring his powers at the cost of being able to talk to his father again. Essentially, killing his father again. Bringing back the line that Jor-El gave in the first one: "The son becomes the father, the father becomes the son." Having this removed from the Lester is doubley bad: you don't get to see how he got his powers back and the importance of that line.

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Zod and his goons tear apart the Planet, at Lex’s behest, since that’s where Lois is. Luthor tells them to keep her close and Superman will arrive. And with a gust of wind, he arrives and the battle of the four commences.

The fight in Metropolis in the Donner cut is pretty much the same as in the Lester cut, just with more crowd shots, flying scenes, and some extended parts of the fight. They also left MUCH less damage than in Snyder’s Man of Steel. One part I do love is after Superman is suspected to be “dead”, the citizens of Metropolis try to take on Zod, but of course, they stand no chance. The winds of fate were not blowing in their direction…if you know, you know.

Superman emerges and jets back to the Fortress and Zod claims victory. In an extended version, Lois continues to believe in Superman and Lex gets Cuba by giving up the location of the Fortress of Solitude. In a deleted scene, the villains enter the fortress - As Lex said, door was open for him. Supes must have put in a small alarm system (a day short and dollar late) to buy him some time to get the traps ready for our three baddies.

The scene is less hokey in Donner’s cut. Superman has to agree to be Zod’s slave or they kill Lois Lane. No fighting with duplicates. No cellophane ‘S’. The turn with Lex and Superman’s near team up (where he knew Lex would betray him) plays out as it did in Lester’s. He goes into the chamber room, the red sunlight glows outside of it and the Kryptonian villains are doused in the radiation. Superman kneels before Zod…before crushing his well manicured hand, taking him out. Non flies…and falls immediately. Lois, not needing Superman this time, punches out Ursa. Villains stopped…and were not killed.

Cue the deleted scene! Arctic patrol came and picked them up plus Lex Luthor. Didn’t know there was a US Arctic patrol, but here they were. They rounded them up to head to jail. The sad part is that now with Jor-El gone, the power of the Fortress and its usefulness is done. Superman uses his heat vision and destroys it. 

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Lois promises to keep his secret. That she might even be a little nicer to Clark in the future. So, how does this get resolved? Not with a memory wiping kiss, that’s for sure. That’d be lame…right Richad Lester? Superman does his time travel reversal thing again. He prevents Zod from escaping, and returns the timeline back to normal. No battle in Metropolis, Lois never found out Clark was Superman. The world spins on. But here’s where it gets confusing…because of time travel so many questions remain. Is the Fortress back now? Is Jor-El back? Did Clark and that trucker have that skirmish? Why am I bringing up that? Because of this deleted scene and the scene that was in both Donner and Lester cuts…

The Clark and Jimmy scene kind of set up the diner scene that ended the movie. He bumps into a big guy trying to get on the elevator and the guy was uh…rather unpleasant. It reminded him of how he felt during the first fight he had as a human and instead of going down, he heads to a utility closet to sneak out. He shows up to the diner and they talk as if there was a fight there. Owner says he just fixed it back up. Trucker remembers him…but shouldn’t because if he reversed time and prevented all of that from happening, it never would have or should have happened.

Time travel! Just a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

There’s also another deleted scene where Lex escapes again. Steals the Warden’s car with the help of Miss Tessmacher, leaving Otis behind once again. Not that you could blame Lex for that, Otis is a bit of a doof and causes more problems than Lex can deal with.

And that was it. Ends as they all do. Flying around the Earth. Smiling for the camera. Flying off into Superman III: The Quest for More Humor…it stunk. Mostly.

George Hahn

We’ll get there. 

Overall, it still remains my favorite of the Superman movies. Loved it as a kid, cherish it more as an adult. I realize the inconsistencies (suspenders folks) but there are some things you just get a lot more.

For example, at the start of the Lester version Lois gives Clark a pep talk, telling him he needs to be more confident and that she wouldn’t say this stuff if she didn’t care for him as a friend. At Niagara, once she knows his secret, she tells him that she loves him…him, being Superman. Not Clark. Which kind of makes everything after a foolish move on Clark’s part. Because one thing I loved about the TV shows is they showed the evolution of the relationship of Lois and Clark. Hard to do in a movie, I get it. But the core of it is that Lois NEVER loved Clark. She loved Superman. The hero. The demigod that saved her that fateful night in the helicopter. Even when putting it together it was still Superman she preferred to Clark.

And he gave up his powers for her? Did he do it as Clark, the man who clearly loved her? Or as his superhero alter ego who also loved her? It’s dicey. She never truly SAW Clark. He was just this shy goofy well-meaning co-worker. She only had eyes for Superman. The two are the same, but different. Clark was a fool for love and there were consequences for it. But then, thanks to time travel, did he? He might be a little wiser, now set on his true destiny of being the hero the world needs. Having to forsake love for the greater good.

Thankfully, in most other interactions, it’s not one or the other. He can have both if he chooses to. It’s understanding the character can be in love, can devote his life to one woman, but also she knows that he’s got a greater destiny and has to take a back seat from time to time. Because she has to share him with the world. Lois admitted as much that she was selfish and didn’t want to have to share him with the world in the Lester version.

That kind of stuff I never really thought of or took into account when I was six watching these movies. But that theme plays and I’m still a six year old kid at heart. With a greater understanding and love of the character.

Despite the glaring plot holes, this is a great movie. It’s fun and it shows how challenging it is for Clark to be both Clark and Superman. Wanting to live his day to day as Clark with Lois, but having to run off and save the world from terrorists or get a cat out of a tree. He chooses to help. To do good. To make the world better. Sacrificing what his heart wants to be something greater. That’s why he’ll always be my favorite hero. Why Reeve’s version will always be my template on what a real superhero should be.

5/5 any day of the week.