Superman agrees to sacrifice his powers to start a relationship with Lois Lane, unaware that three Kryptonian criminals he inadvertently released are conquering Earth.
Picking up where "Superman: The Movie" left off, three criminals, General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa, (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O'Halloran) from the planet Krypton are released from the Phantom Zone by a nuclear explosion in space. They descend upon Earth where they could finally rule. Superman, meanwhile, is in love with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), who finds out who he really is. Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) escapes from prison and is determined to destroy Superman by joining forces with the three criminals.Written by
Keith Howley <lald@ptdprolog.net>
When Superman saves the boy at Niagra Falls, a woman in the crowd of onlookers can be heard saying, "Such a nice man. Of course he's Jewish." Superman's "parents," Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, were the children of Jewish immigrants, and fans and scholars have long argued that they created the character in 1938 as a Jewish American response to the Nazi idealization of Nietzsche's ubermensch (a term that can be translated as "superman"). Superman, like the thousands of Jewish refugees who were fleeing Europe at that time, was an alien from a war-torn place. Also, his origin story bears no small resemblance to Moses's, and his original name, Kal-El, contains a Hebrew word for "God." See more »
Goofs
During the Metropolis battle, Non punches Superman in the chin. Superman goes flying back. He isn't matted in from the waist down, and buildings can be seen through him. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Krypton guard:
Alert, alert, alert.
See more »
Crazy Credits
Opening credits incorporate an extensive amount of footage from the first Superman movie. See more »
Alternate Versions
Richard Donner originally shot an opening with Lois Lane drawing glasses onto a picture of Superman, revealing his alter ego Clark Kent. And Lois calls this to Clark's attention by throwing herself out a window. Clark secretly saves her, so she has no proof. Donner also shot a scene where Lois shoots at Clark with blanks. This is when she realizes it's Superman. This can be semi-seen in the screen tests on the Superman DVD. See more »
His close relationship with Lois Lane as both Clark Kent and Superman is putting strain on our hero; she has feelings for him and he has feelings for her although she only likes one half of his personality (although she doesn't realise this). However one thing Lois can rely on is the Superman is always there to help her. So when she is looking into terrorists with a hydrogen bomb Superman comes to the rescue and throws it into space where it safely explodes. Unknown to him though, the nuclear blast frees the prisoners imprisoned in Krypton and blasted into space for eternity. So while Superman and Lois are making cooing noises at one another, General Zod and his colleagues arrive on Earth with crime on their mind to find that have super powers thanks to the power of the Sun.
I'm not sure why this film is such an uneven affair but I assume that the change of directors far into the film's production is the cause of the majority of this film's problems. By this I am referring to the messy delivery the whole film has. On a narrative level we seem to jump around between threads and themes an effect not helped by the poor continuity across the whole (caused by bits being shot much later than other bits). More than the narrative jumps is the problem with the tone of the film. It veers wildly throughout; one moment being a tragic bit about Superman becoming human, the next a load of funny lines in a comic scene. It has a weird effect on the film as a whole because it did make me feel like I was watching two different movies rammed together into one (which in essence I suppose I was). Despite the mix not really working, individual moments are generally good. The comedy, drama, "humanity" and action are mostly fun and enjoyable even it is hard to overlook the mess of them all being rammed together.
The cast deal with it quite well because most of them are put into boxes for each scene. Reeve has the hardest job because he must cope with comedy, drama and action. Despite me never being a big fan of his, he does well with his individual scenes even if he cannot hold them together into one flow. I've never liked Kidder that much and she isn't that good here even if she does do the job. Stamp is marvellously camp and OTT throughout the film and his performance is enjoyable (albeit maybe not for the reasons he meant it to be). He is support by Willoughby (sexy when I was a child) and O'Halloran (fun and contributes with a good presence and comic touch). Hackman exists in the comedy part of the film and he loves it producing a performance that genuinely uplifts the film with only a few scenes and effortlessly produces a feeling of fun that such a film needs.
Overall then this is not a great film but it is a generally entertaining one. The mishmash of tones and material is jarring but individually they sort of work. The cast helps because the serious bits are carried by the performances but it is hard not to wiggle with pleasure when Stamp and Hackman come onto the screen to liven things up with some silly fun.
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His close relationship with Lois Lane as both Clark Kent and Superman is putting strain on our hero; she has feelings for him and he has feelings for her although she only likes one half of his personality (although she doesn't realise this). However one thing Lois can rely on is the Superman is always there to help her. So when she is looking into terrorists with a hydrogen bomb Superman comes to the rescue and throws it into space where it safely explodes. Unknown to him though, the nuclear blast frees the prisoners imprisoned in Krypton and blasted into space for eternity. So while Superman and Lois are making cooing noises at one another, General Zod and his colleagues arrive on Earth with crime on their mind to find that have super powers thanks to the power of the Sun.
I'm not sure why this film is such an uneven affair but I assume that the change of directors far into the film's production is the cause of the majority of this film's problems. By this I am referring to the messy delivery the whole film has. On a narrative level we seem to jump around between threads and themes an effect not helped by the poor continuity across the whole (caused by bits being shot much later than other bits). More than the narrative jumps is the problem with the tone of the film. It veers wildly throughout; one moment being a tragic bit about Superman becoming human, the next a load of funny lines in a comic scene. It has a weird effect on the film as a whole because it did make me feel like I was watching two different movies rammed together into one (which in essence I suppose I was). Despite the mix not really working, individual moments are generally good. The comedy, drama, "humanity" and action are mostly fun and enjoyable even it is hard to overlook the mess of them all being rammed together.
The cast deal with it quite well because most of them are put into boxes for each scene. Reeve has the hardest job because he must cope with comedy, drama and action. Despite me never being a big fan of his, he does well with his individual scenes even if he cannot hold them together into one flow. I've never liked Kidder that much and she isn't that good here even if she does do the job. Stamp is marvellously camp and OTT throughout the film and his performance is enjoyable (albeit maybe not for the reasons he meant it to be). He is support by Willoughby (sexy when I was a child) and O'Halloran (fun and contributes with a good presence and comic touch). Hackman exists in the comedy part of the film and he loves it producing a performance that genuinely uplifts the film with only a few scenes and effortlessly produces a feeling of fun that such a film needs.
Overall then this is not a great film but it is a generally entertaining one. The mishmash of tones and material is jarring but individually they sort of work. The cast helps because the serious bits are carried by the performances but it is hard not to wiggle with pleasure when Stamp and Hackman come onto the screen to liven things up with some silly fun.