It's been somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty years since the last time I saw the theatrical version of Superman II, but after doing a bit of reading I think I have a pretty strong grasp of the differences between the two films. In some ways, the Donner cut is a big improvement, particularly in how it intertwines the sequel's story with that of the original. Marlon Brando was completely sliced out of the initial release, and while his performance is an egregious display of glum theatrical sleepwalking, his role actually adds several essential wrinkles to the story. General Zod and his envoy are also treated with more awe and respect, granting their eventual stare-down with big blue a more stern, serious slant. At the core of its being, though, this remains a thoroughly campy, semi-serious film with a ridiculously nonsensical plot and a pathetic recycled ending that might actually be worse than the reviled "amnesia kiss" of the original cut. Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve efficiently play their parts, but aren't put in the position to recapture the magic of their date in the original Superman, while Gene Hackman underachieves badly once again as Lex Luthor, this time relegated to a second-fiddle bad guy. A marginal improvement over the horribly-aged initial release, it's packed full of grand logic holes and stiff, contrived moments of peril.

I've been wanting to watch this for years and finally had the opportunity. _Superman II_ was one of the key films of my childhood and so much of it is burned into my memories. I never knew of the turmoil behind the scenes as original director Richard Donner was replaced after completing around 75% of the movie.

This reassembled cut of the film has wonderful intentions behind it, and while the end result is FASCINATING, it's definitely not a whole piece. Only so much can be done with the fragments of an unfinished film, so I have to applaud the work that went into this.

The new version of the film follows largely the same story beats but consists of mostly new footage, and the tone feels significantly different. It's more raw, there's more emotion and a lot of the lighter comedy moments are gone. Some sequences are very different to what I was used to - for example, the entire opening in Paris no longer exists here.

What I was most struck by was Christopher Reeve's performance as Superman (and Clark Kent). Reeve was always and likely always will be the most perfect Superman actor. In this new cut, he gets to display much more powerful, emotional scenes than the original gave us. Notably, his scenes with Marlon Brando are captivating. I find myself always getting emotional whenever I watch Reeve in this role for obvious reasons, but this drives home the tragedy in a new way. It's quite wonderful.

Also, he plays Clark Kent so wonderfully on top of that. It's a shame that later films never allowed actors to have much fun as this alter ego.

Still, overall I do prefer the theatrical cut of _Superman II_. It flows better and doesn't feel as rough around the edges. The ending is better there, too. Plus the music cues are lined up in a much more satisfying way which is unfortunately lost here.