Following up a superhero tale of such operatic scale as the original Richard Donner Superman film was going to be insanely tricky, as even though the comics offered up a ton of stories to replicate from, superhero films were still not the insane money-making giants that they are now. It benefited that the original team and directed work on the sequel and even filmed in concurrently when they were making the first film, which not only made it easier to film, but also stay consistent with what came before it. This all changed unfortunately when Richard Donner was fired from the film, leaving him to be replaced with Richard Lester and leaving 35% of the film unfinished. With actors refusing to return for re-shots in support of Donner and in order to be fully credited as the director, Lester was forced to re-shoot a majority of the film with compiled footage and an additional beginning and ending. While the background history was full of extreme malice, the results were still positive enough for Superman’s sequel film. Living the typical Superman life becomes a lot trickier for Clark Kent (played again by Christopher Reeves) when his secret identity is discovered by his love interest, Lois Lane (played again by Margot Kidder). Finally having nothing else to hide, Superman agrees to become a permanent mortal to be with Lois, sucking away all his powers and making him incredibly weak. This could not be at a worst time however as three criminals from Krypton trapped in a prison known as the Phantom Zone escape and make their way towards Earth. The leader of the trio, General Zod (played by Terrence Stamp) plans to conquer the earth and tempts Superman to come and fight so he can fail and kneel at his feet, but with his powers gone forever, what other choice does he have? Despite how difficult the production for this film seems to have been, the end results still produced something not flawless, but an entertaining enough follow-up. While the background issues cause some noticeable problems in the final product, there’s still enough positives to warrant a watch.

Working on the film’s back-to-back would have allowed plot ideas and elements to be fleshed out literally in advance so nothing would feel out of place or a departure from the first film’s themes and ideas. The tone still captures a sense of importance and weight and even though the camp starts to get a bit too extreme in this film, it doesn’t feel too overboard yet. The biggest issue with the film comes down to the tension created between Donner and the producers of the film, Alexander, and Ilya Salkind. The Salkind’s constant feud with Donner even leading to his departure meant that the movie was left unfinished, meaning that with the introduction of a new director, the film would feel different even if its not obvious. While the directing still works good enough, the scale and size that Donner created was very different to Lester’s more silly unexpected style of directing, which is what lead to the film series eventual downgrade with Superman III and IV. Inconsistencies start popping up everywhere, Marlon Brando was cut from the film due to a disagreement with money, Reeve’s was almost filed a lawsuit for not returning for shoots while working on another film, and the film’s beginning and ending feel drastically different to the rest of the film, as well as feeling pretty useless in the overall picture. For the story itself, it feels like it is trying to take a few steps to break the status quo, yet immediately backtracks to not disrupt too many key elements, most likely inclusion from the new team in order to keep it a franchise. Many of the plot elements feel rushed or undeveloped; taking what could have been an interesting dissection of Superman’s dual nature and keeping it as a reason for why he cannot beat the bad guys, it is a pretty big let-down.

Most of the returning cast were put in a seriously awkward situation upon realizing that their friend wouldn’t be the same director anyone, which led to a lot of them refusing to return for reshoots, which meant a lot of characters are not shown as often, or even some not at all. This change led to a lot of reshoots that led to a lot of inconsistencies, but thankfully the cast still does a pretty good job. Reeves and Kidder are still really good as the leads, Hackman does not seem as necessary in the film as he did previously but overall, he does fine enough, and the villains while underdeveloped and pretty generic, are still pretty fun to watch. They each have unique identities and looks, the fact they are essentially evil Superman’s is a nice idea, and Terence Stamp as Zod gives a nice fun performance, with a ‘’holier than thou’’ type attitude that makes him so easily unlikeable. It doesn’t help the fact that despite being a sequel, none of the characters seem to grow or change in an impactful way, and any sense of change that was written into them gets immediately changed by the film’s conclusion, making said changes and the overall picture, very pointless.

The film’s effect still feels pretty impressive even by recent standards as the usage of green-screens and strings allow the flying to feel more real and more structured as the physicality is still there, even if sometimes the strings can be visibly seen. The fight scenes however are pretty slow and uneventful due to the restrictions and outdatedness of the technology. The writing does not hit any real strong moments like it did in the first film due to the change in direction and style without Donner’s involvement. Because of this along with the rushed story-line, it makes everything feel empty and of very little consequence, which is surprising considering that from the set-up of the story, it should feel epic and grand in scale, yet it never does. Replaced with this sense of epicness is a lot more humorous instances, and while none get to the levels of painful that the following films would get, it’s the seed that will grow the eventual badness. The sets are still the same and there’s still some very impressive shots that don’t look possible for its time, but it’s not a constant thing. Also the score, now done by Ken Thorne after John Williams refused to return after a fight with Lester, is fine enough, but not nearly as memorable as the first’s music.

Superman II could have been a really impressive follow-up because the pieces are all there; a great set-up, the same cast, the same director, the same writing, the same effects, it was all there and could have worked out if it was allowed to play out as it naturally was expected too. However, removing Donner from the film seriously damaged the end results, yet not in the obvious way. Overall the film is still likeable enough; it has a simple and impact-less but watchable story, the actors are all still pretty good, the effects are still okay, and while the tone is starting to feel a bit unbalanced between camp and epic, there’s still enough elements of both that a casual viewer won’t notice. Underneath this still leaves an unfinished story, no character growth that is not removed, dull action, and a limited sense of scale and epicness that Superman should be known for. While still being nowhere near a bad Superman movie as that would be handled with later on, it does go from an impressive high to an average medium. When you look up in the sky, it won’t be the exact same Superman, but enough of a replica that it can be watched harmlessly.