10 Amazing Facts About Superman2

[Music] in 1981 Christopher Reeve returns his iconic role of Superman in Superman 2 the action packed sequel that sees the return of the Kryptonian villains led by General Zod played by Terence Stamp whom once free from the Phantom Zone had to earth to rule and conquer where they team up with Lex Luthor played by Gene Hackman whom after discovering the fortress of solitude promises to lead them to the son of jor-el himself all while Lois Lane played by Margot Kidder discovers that Clark Kent is Superman where the two fervor explore their love where Superman decides to become a mortal man so he can live a normal life with Lois at a time when the world needs Superman the most he realizes that he made a mistake and must somehow get his superpowers back so he can defeat Zod once and for all so today we are going to kneel before Zod and pick fights with bullies in diners as we look into 10 amazing facts about Superman - let's check it out number 10 Richard Donner directed over half the movie despite the fact that Superman 2 is solely credited as being directed by Richard Lester who by the way was the director of the beatles movies a hard day's night and helped richard donner actually shot most of the movie the shoot for Superman 2 began in 1977 when Donna was filming the first Superman movie as the two films were being filmed back-to-back however the famous conflict took place between the producers the soul coins and Perry Spengler whom weren't so happy with the director on the account of the production's increased budget and lent the time it was taking to complete the projects so Donna was told to only focus on Superman in the movie and to return to Superman - after the first movie's release however after Superman the movie was released and was a huge hit production resumed for Superman - in 1979 only now Richard Lester was in the director's chair along with most of the production crew who were brought on board by Donna also being replaced Lester had the task to complete the movie of which Donna had already shot 75% of but despite this Donna refused to have his name in the credits so the directing was only attributed to Lester to be fair though it must be said that there are two different stories as to why'd Donna didn't return Donna claims that he was fired due to the conflict that he had with the producers whereas the salkinds maintained that Donna was offered to come back they said that he wouldn't if fellow producer pureé Spengler returned number nine changes made to the film with Lester coming on board creative changes were made to the original vision of Superman too with new scenes subplots and reshoots to replace scenes already filmed by Richard Donner for example in the original script the Kryptonian villains were freed after Superman launched a missile into space at the end of the first movie with the Lester cut the movie starts from a terrorist siege in Paris which ends with Superman throwing an elevator armed with a hydrogen bomb into space which causes the Phantom Zone to explode Donna had filmed a scene where Louis tries to make Clark Kent admit that he is Superman by jumping out of a window of The Daily Planet whereas in the Lester cut Lois and Clark are on a reporting assignment in Niagara Falls where Lois jumps into a river in an attempt to see Clark Superman it up there are actually plenty of changes but the ones that fans find the most damning was the removal of Marlon Brando's jor-el who was a huge part of the movie as an important part of the story was derails conflict with Superman's desires to become human which actually results in jor-el using up the last of his energy for kal-el to regain his powers it is said that the sole coins didn't want to fork out all the cash to pay brando for using his scenes so the scenes were refilmed with Susannah York reprising her role as Lara Superman's mother which on a narrative level makes no sense as it was jor-el who imprinted himself onto the green crystal he put in kal-el ship that he sent him to earth in it just doesn't make sense that Laura or any other Kryptonian would be present in that crystal I think that people tend to point fingers at Lester but he was just asked to do a job and he did apparently he came on board as direct as a favor by the salkinds who hadn't fully paid him yet for directing the three musketeer movies that they produced number 8 physical changes in the cast [Music] considering that Superman 2 consists of some of the movie using footage from 1977 along with footage filmed in 1979 and 1980 you can clearly see changes in the actors particularly Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder when I was a kid this stood out like a sore thumb before I was old enough to know the production backstory of Superman 2 I just couldn't figure out why in some scenes Reeve was slimmer and looked younger and why in other scenes he was more muscular and looked more matured and why in some scenes Margot Kidder looked youthful and healthy and in other scenes she looked gaunt and pale with different hair now granted she had just come off the shoot of Amityville Horror which apparently was a draining shoot but when you think about it it actually makes sense because some of the scenes had a free year gap in between them that physically the actors were going to change speaking of actors Gene Hackman refused to return to complete his scenes after Donna was fired but luckily for the production most of his scenes were already shot with Donna - which other scenes involving the character were filmed with a stunt double where you can only see the back of his head along with lions dubbed by someone who had a similar voice to Hackman Kyra also publicly voiced her displeasure of the soul coins firing gone up which popular rumor suggests left to her role in Superman free as a mere cameo number 7 the controversial kiss memory-wipe ending the end of Superman 2 sees Clark Kent kissing Lois which makes her forget her ordeal and her knowledge that Clark Kent is Superman and this ending gets a lot of flack but I have to ask is it really worse than the original Donna ending which sees Superman turning back time by spinning the world backwards which as we all know according to physics would not work in the original Donna ending Superman for some reason destroys the fortress of solitude but that was pointless as he then turns back time and thus the fortress of solitude would never have been destroyed and also yeah I just don't like the idea of time being turned back so the entire events of the movie never happened as it has a sort of it was just a dream after all feel about it and makes the movie itself feel pointless especially considering that none of the events in the movie ever happened in the Ender I'm more of a fan of acknowledging the events of the movie and seeing the characters grow from them rather than oh look it never happened after all I mean don't get me wrong the Leicester kiss is a silly solution and does justifiably get a lot of slack from fans but yes seriously is any worse than the alternative ending and in addition to that the super kiss isn't too far off from the comics as in some of the old comic books Superman did have powerful kissing techniques that could make people Dazed and Confused forgetful and even bring back their memory hmm I'm starting to think that that S stands for snogging well I guess it depends on taste as to which ending you like best personally I prefer the memory mine white kiss over the whole yet look the whole film never happened anyway approach number 6 Terence Stamp was like a real general Terence stabs General Zod is truly a celebrated character and a highlight of Superman too so much so that still even to this day fellow nerds around the world are still saying kneel before Zod and he was really into his character so much so that when he Sarah Douglas and Jack O'Halloran who played Zod's minions Ursa and nan were on set stabbed always acted as their general who was in charge of which they went along with in order to stay in character and at one time O'Halloran wasn't where he was supposed to be in order to film a scene as he was off doing his own thing and everyone was too scared to say anything I mean after all he's a big guy and a professional boxer in real life so stamp took matters into his own hands and screamed at him you bastard you get here now which he actually did yeah the point is Terrence dam can be a scary and intense guy when he wants to be as Stamp also has one of my best lines in the movie where he says to luffa why do you say this to me when you know I will kill you for it I seriously love the way he says it he seems generally disappointed it's like why would you say that why do you say this to me when you know I will kill you for it yeah General Zod isn't so much angry but more shocked as to why anyone would want to say anything that'll annoy him brilliant number five deleted scenes Superman's who has plenty of deleted scenes some of which have turned up over the years and have been shown on TV versions some of them are interesting and some of them are just strange like the scene where Superman makes a souffle in the fortress of solitude whereas some of them are just plain dark like as in one scene where jor-el orders that that kid be killed yeah remember that kid who says please mister general please let my daddy down yeah in a deleted scene he tries to escape and Nan froze the police siren lie to him causing him to explode yeah holy gravy Superman suit actually kills a kid Wow not even the Dark Knight went that dark and what's worse is the earth seems absolutely thrilled and delighted that the kid is dead then another scene where the Kryptonian villains invade the White House where Zod kills one of the guards with a machine gun making the character seem that bit more brutal and sadistic some of the scenes were eventually put into the 2006 Donna cut but there are still several curious deleted scenes out there to be discovered so if you want to see Jimmy Olsen biting naan then go out and discover them for yourself apparently in 1984 the Seoul coins made a special cut of Superman 240v which had 30 minutes of extra footage that was not seen in the theatrical cut but these deleted scenes were nothing compared to the apparent deleted character that was going to appear in Superman - number 4 deleted character in a very early draft of the script that was going to be a villain called jackal who was part of the Kryptonian General Zod gang who was meant to be more humorous and to be the movies comic relief he was described as being a psychotic prankster who made jokes that only he could understand I wonder if co-producer Ilya Salkind was modelling this villain of the classic Superman villain mixing pixel ik who he tried to use for Superman 3 where the character eventually evolved into the Gus Gorman character and if Jack L was to be used I wonder if he would have been played by Dudley Moore as he was whose sole kind had envisioned to play mixi pixel ik however for better or worse probably for better The Jackal character was scrapped from Superman soo number 3 alternative posters so a series of posters will use to market the movie the most well-known version was this one with Superman in the foreground ready to take on the three Kryptonian villains while metropolis is on fire in the background I like this poster even though you can't really see the villains there was another version used which takes place during the day but to me it just looks bland I much prefer the version with the pink evening glow in the background it looks more powerful then there was this alternative poster which doesn't even feature Superman but mainly focuses on the movies villains with earth looming behind them this is actually a shot taken from a scene in the movie where Zod and his gang stand in the road in front of the cop car it looks great and sinister and sends a clear message that Zod is on his way I guess my biggest issue is the lack of Superman then there was this European one which features Superman flying down into the city to take on the Kryptonian fugitives and this one just doesn't do it for me it has an awkward angle and Superman just doesn't look anything like Christopher Reeve or how Superman looks in the movie at all but yeah it's an OK picture but just not the best Superman to picture I could also remember in 2006 when the two-disc special edition DVD was announced on a Superman website along with its cover fans were outraged Christopher Reeves Superman s was replaced with the Superman Returns one fans voiced their displeasure in droves so the S was put back to how it really was US fans are like that the smallest detail can set us off number two only one acts are promoted the film yeah going back to the Donna and salkinds Feud something that looms over Superman two of which it can never escape it's no secret that most of the cast were not happy with the replacement of Donna in fact when it came time to promote the movie none of the actors got on board Superman twos bandwagon except one that being Sarah Douglas who played the Kryptonian villain s Ursa Douglas has maintained that she kept neutral between the Donna and Sol cons dispute and didn't take any sides and thus she was the only actor from the movie to go on press tours and of around the world promotions so you've got to give her credit for observing Superman 2 as a film and not in a negative light at least though the cast did attend the premiere Hank even oiled Swardson Egger attended that's pretty cool if only we got a Superman versus Terminator movie now that would have been awesome number one an online petition led to the Donna cut never underestimate the power of online fan petitions but year's fans have heard about alternative scenes that Richard Donna had shot from Superman too particularly the scenes involving Marlon Brando and thus in 2006 there was an online fan petition to see a Superman - Richard Donner cut which led to Donner returning to the world of Superman to help work on his cut of the movie and to track down old unused Superman - footage from the Warner Brothers archives the Donner cut came out on DVD ran about the same time that Superman Returns also hit home media I like the Donner cut in the sense that I find it fascinating as it's an insight as to what Superman sue could have been but it feels like an incomplete movie er I feel like there are parts of the movie missing in order to give Donner sole directing credit of which I know I'm not the only one to say this several people have along with scenes being used for the movie that were actually screen tests filmed in 1976 and even some new footage being filmed for the cut both of which to me just sticks out like a sore thumb I almost see it as an experimental film footage from all sorts of different times and resources being chopped together in an attempt to make a coherent film I've noticed over the years that some DVD and blu-ray box sets released Superman - the Donna cut as a replacement to the original Superman suit and I don't know this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth I mean by all means have the Donna cut as a companion piece or an alternative but maybe not entirely replace the cinematic version like it never happened after all for 26 years the theatrical version of Superman 2 was the one that we all knew and loved of all its faults and highs and lows wherever you like Donna's vision of Superman - or Lester's I think both should be equally acknowledged and celebrated I like Superman sooo yeah it's not perfect and you can start to see some of the Richard Lester slapstick comedy that was prominent in Superman for a slip between the cracks in the movie here and there but it's still a very fun and enjoyable movie and I like the premise of what would happen to the world if Superman became human and the questions that asks in is choosing his own once and needs over being the savior of humanity a selfish act or does he indeed have the right to live his life as he chooses which is a great and classic superhero dilemma and of course General Zod well you can't go wrong with good old zotti boy from Superman - anyway I'm minty and in Superman to Lex Luthor I wanted to be the ruler of Australia that means he probably could have been my Lord and Master it's interesting see ya [Music]

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

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Rating: 4.9114079 out of 5

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Id: 6Wac1A00wCQ

Length: 17min 27sec (1047 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 12 2019