In our rush to be prepared for Superman Returns, Stevo and I had the unfortunate obstacle known as Superman 2 facing us head on. It wasn’t backing down and neither were we. Our hopes were pretty high… after all, the first movie is pretty good, and Gene Hackman does a magnificent job playing Lex Luthor. In other words, we didn’t realize what a mess we were getting ourselves into.
To put it very bluntly: Superman 2 sucks. Although IMDB has users claiming it’s the best of the Superman series, don’t believe them. The ratings are better for the first movie; it was nominated for, and won more awards than the second movie; and honestly, the first one just had a more interesting plot. Superman 2 chooses to follow the romantic pathway between Lois and Superman/Clark, rather than really focusing on the hero fighting evil, which is what Superman is supposed to do. The love plot was interesting for maybe 10 minutes, but then grew old very fast. And, what a coincidence, while Superman is fooling around with Lois Lane, the bad guys arrive!
Even though there is an explanation online, I choose to point out the gaping plot hole left by cutting Marlon Brando’s scenes as Jor-El. Because he cannot choose to be with a mortal woman without becoming mortal, Superman gives up his powers; by entering a chamber that has the power of their red sun (Earth’s yellow sun is what gives him such extraordinary powers we find out). Upon getting beat up and then discovering the evil which has prevailed in his absence he leaves to find a way to gain his powers once more. Without the scenes of him talking to Jor-El, we are to assume that he magically gets his powers back by holding the green data crystal which led him to the North Pole and built his fortress. With the scenes, we would have seen how he got his powers back, or at least been given an explanation. Any explanation would have been better than assuming that Superman's newest power was the ability to regain his powers.
I also found it cheesy and annoying that much of the fighting is done so poorly. Some of it, done under the streets, isn’t even shown! We are just shown that their fighting is shaking the streets and buildings, causing people to stumble around whatnot. At other times, we see people who are thrown (with super human strength) merely float into something. Don’t forget that this is the movie where Superman rips a cellophane S off of his chest which makes one of the evil Kryptonians fall while flying at him (whoever thought that up should be shot). And I almost forgot to mention how dumb it looks to use the super power of blowing. The bad guys stood around with pursed cheeks, looking like idiots who wanted a kiss, for a good minute or two.
It was a let down, and the only reason I’m giving it one star, is because of Gene Hackman’s performance as Lex Luthor. He is brilliant once again and he was the only redeeming factor of this movie.