“Yes, I am selfish when it comes to you. I am selfish. And I’m jealous of the whole world.”

Seeing the Richard Donner Cut has certainly not helped my thoughts on this movie, because now that I’ve seen that version in hindsight, the flaws are a lot easier to see here. It’s certainly not a bad film, but a gigantic drop off from the first in pretty much every regard. It doesn’t feel like a natural sequel to the original, either, with that mainly having to do with the direction of Richard Lester. It’s a lot similar to what happened with Justice League (though definitely not as crazy), in that the original director and the replacement had a completely different wavelength when it came to directing, which is pretty obvious here. It’s also pretty obvious, just like Justice League, what was originally shot and what was added in.

Now, like I said, this is certainly not a bad film at all. It still has some of the charm of the original here and there (mostly with the stuff shot by Richard Donner), and is definitely fun. There are still some very memorable moments between Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane, which I would say carried the movie. I’m also a big fan of the villains and don’t know why people seem to criticize them often. Jack O’Halloran’s Non certainly gets the smaller deal of the three and is definitely there just to be the filler third character and sort of comedic relief here and there, but Terence Stamp as General Zod and Sarah Douglas as Ursa, I absolutely love. Zod has plenty of iconic lines and is a much more intimidating and high-stakes villain for Superman, while Ursa is extremely memorable for not only her lines but also her screen presence. She’s just a fun character that is really fun to watch. Both Stamp and Douglas have the perfect looks for their roles and a certain screen presence that is hard to forget.

The other performances are obviously just as great as they were in the first movie, too. Christopher Reeve, I don’t have much to say about because he simply is and will always be Superman for me, but here I would say he gets just a little more time to shine when it comes to emotional depth than he did before, though he gets significantly more in Donner’s version. Gene Hackman returns as Lex Luthor, and while he doesn’t really have a major reason to be here, his fun screen presence is also something that adds to the movie either way. For me, though, the standout is Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane. She was fantastic before, but similar to Reeve, she gets a lot more time to be more emotionally deep, which leads to some pretty fantastic scenes where she really shows off her acting chops. The standout is easily the scene at the end: it’s truly poignant and feels completely realistic and grounded for a person in her situation.

And even at the end of the day, while I consider in my mind Donner’s version to be the official/canon cut of the film, I still think this version, while it doesn’t really feel like a sequel tonally, has a fun quality to it.. It goes all out on the camp, and while I don’t like a lot of the comedic and slapstick bits, some of them are kind of amusing every once in a while. Again, I vastly prefer Donner’s tone and vision, but I think Lester’s has a certain vibe to it that is kind of fun in a way.

However, what really makes this a weak sequel is how unfocused it is. There doesn’t be a sense of direction and there is no sense of urgency throughout, which really derails the pacing and makes it honestly quite a drag to watch at points. Just the way Superman and Lois’ little adventure is intercut with Zod and his crew doesn’t really add stakes like it does in Donner’s version (last time I’ll mention that cut while comparing by the way), and makes it even more obvious that there were some serious behind the scenes changes and issues going on, which leads to my next point.

Superman’s main arc for the film doesn’t happen until we are extremely far into the film, and is, again, intercut with what General Zod and the other villains are doing in an unnatural way when it comes to how it should add stakes and tension. I’m also not a big fan of how Superman’s arc is done either. At least to me, it kind of comes out of nowhere, and, no kidding, barely even lasts for very long, and leads to an extremely anticlimactic and random resolve that also comes out of completely nowhere and doesn’t feel satisfying in any way. With it coming out of nowhere, it also makes Superman feel a lot more selfish than he should be. What he’s willing to give up for what he wants is sudden, as I basically already said, and doesn’t feel like a decision the character from the first movie would make. This is by far what makes this a hard watch for me.

Even kind of adding onto that, I don’t like how Superman is portrayed, even aside from his character arc, mainly with his relationship with Lois. They both come off as extremely lustful and, Superman especially, kind of creepy, which really irks me the wrong way. Superman is definitely a charismatic and charming character, particularly when it comes to how he treats women, but here he’s just plain odd and overtly lustful, which definitely makes him the Superman I don’t want to see onscreen. Their romance and relationship in general also feel rushed.

I previously mentioned the tonal issues and inconsistencies, but here I’ll elaborate on that more. Like I said, Donner and Lester are completely different directors, so having them both direct the same movie is obviously going to create a lot of problems. The 1978 original was campy, and frankly, so is this, but it never went so far as to where it became slapstick and almost a parody of itself, which I feel Lester’s version unfortunately does. There are plenty of sequels out there that go for very different tones, Alien and Aliens, for example, but the first Superman and Superman II go too far as to feel like they don’t even really belong together. I’ll first point out that I don’t think Lester understands the character, which is evident by the random superpowers throughout the film. The slapstick comedy that Lester adds I think makes for even more of a drag, and I certainly don’t like the added sexual humor either.

With John Williams being replaced, the score was essentially destined to not be as good as the original, and it most certainly isn’t. The new stuff simply just isn’t good, and what is redone doesn’t have the same grandness or epic feeling that the original had. It sounds just different enough to where it doesn’t capture what made the first score so incredible, which, for those who didn’t read my review of the first Superman, is my favorite score of all time.

The last thing I’ll talk about before I end this review is the main thing people don’t like, but for me, is honestly probably the smallest issue when compared to everything else. For those who have seen the movie or have heard of this, I’m obviously referring to the ending. I just mentioned how there are random superpowers in this movie, and one of them is used to resolve a plot point that not only ruins a really compelling and emotional scene between Lois and Clark Kent/Superman, the standout scene I was referring to by Margot Kidder, by the way, but sours me more on the rest of the film. I’ll say it for the last time: it’s just random and unearned.

At the end of the day, Superman II, while not necessarily quite to the level of being bad, is a tonally inconsistent, unfocused mess with bits and pieces of what made the original so great.