Superman II - Alone Against All
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | Superman II - Alone Against All | ||
| Original title | Superman ii | ||
| Country of production | USA , UK | ||
| original language | English | ||
| Publishing year | 1980 | ||
| length | Theatrical version: 122 minutes Richard Donner Cut: 116 minutes |
||
| Age rating | FSK 12 | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director |
Richard Lester Richard Donner (no mention) |
||
| script |
Mario Puzo David Newman Leslie Newman |
||
| production | Pierre Spengler | ||
| music |
Ken Thorne John Williams |
||
| camera |
Robert Paynter Geoffrey Unsworth |
||
| cut | John Victor Smith | ||
| occupation | |||
| |||
| chronology | |||
| |||
Superman II is an American - British science fiction film from 1980 directed by Richard Lester and the sequel to Superman .
action
Terrorists take control of the Eiffel Tower. They threaten to detonate a hydrogen bomb. Superman steps in and "dumps" the bomb in space. Unnoticed, the explosion frees the three krypton criminals General Zod , Ursa and Non, who were previously trapped in the Phantom Zone .
On Earth, Lois Lane found out that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same person. Despite successful excuses, Clark finally confesses his secret identity to her. The two retire to the fortress of solitude and become lovers. Clark gives up his superpowers for Lois.
Meanwhile, the three krypton criminals arrive on earth. They have the same super powers as Superman. This makes it easy for them to subdue the world - because the only one who could stop them has given up his superpowers.
Lex Luthor escapes from prison and discovers Superman's fortress of loneliness, where he learns, among other things, that Superman's biological father Jor-El was responsible for the imprisonment of the felons. He ingratiates General Zod by exposing Superman as the son of Jor-Els and Lois as Superman's girlfriend.
Clark now realizes that he has to put his responsibility above private love happiness. He finds a way to regain his superpowers. A showdown breaks out between Superman and the three super criminals. In his fortress of solitude, he faces the criminals. He robs them of their superpowers and can defeat them.
In the end he even succeeds in making Lois forget his secret identity, as the knowledge was difficult for her to carry.
Production and publication
The film was first released in Europe in late 1980, in Germany on April 2, 1981, and only seven months later, in the USA in the summer of 1981 . Richard Donner made a large part of the recordings during the shooting of the first Superman film. Due to scheduling reasons, Donner initially concentrated on completing the same for the cinema release. The film became a commercial success. Marlon Brando , who played Superman's father Jor-El in the first Superman film, was to receive a sizeable profit share for Superman II. However, the producers ( Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind) decided to remove all scenes with Brando from the film in order to withhold this profit sharing from Brando. Concerning the continuity of Superman II, Donner and the Salkinds quarreled: Donner did not want to remove the Brando scenes that had already been filmed. So the Salkinds released Donner from the project. But this had already turned off 70 percent of Superman II. In order to be able to have a different director in the film credits, the new director Richard Lester had to be responsible for at least 50 percent of the film. So it came to new recordings of film scenes and the change of the plot, in particular all recordings with Marlon Brando were removed. Since then, Richard Lester has been the official director of Superman II.
In 2006 Richard Donner got the opportunity to reconstruct his originally planned version of Superman II due to many fan calls. This version is known as Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut , here in particular the removed Marlon-Brando scenes were used again, missing scenes were replaced with casting test recordings and partially re-shot. The film Superman II: Richard Donner Cut has been released on DVD.
criticism
On Rotten Tomatoes , 87% of 46 reviews were positive in their judgment, on Metacritic the sequel received a Metascore of 87, with 12 reviews being rated.
"Elaborate fairy tale that vacillates indecisively between mystification and naive democracy-praising, but sometimes entertains amusingly through exaggeration and irony."
Surreptitious tobacco advertising
Superman II is considered to be the first film in which surreptitious advertising was specifically incorporated in commercial form . For example, the cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris had a film sequence (scenes 333 to 341) built into the film in which Superman was hurled in close-up against a delivery van specially labeled for this film with Marlboro . In reality, however, there were no delivery vans with such labels. The surreptitious advertising also concerned the role of Lois Lane, who was staged several times while smoking in Superman II. Except for Superman Returns , Lois was not seen smoking in either the comic book or any other previous version of Superman.
Award
The film was nominated for the Saturn Award in four categories and won a film award:
- Best Science Fiction Film ( Award )
- Best Actor: Christopher Reeve ( nomination )
- Best Actress: Margot Kidder ( nomination )
- Best Score: Ken Thorne ( nomination )
More pieces
- 1978: Superman ( Director: Richard Donner )
- 1983: Superman III - The Steel Lightning ( Director: Richard Lester )
- 1987: Superman IV - The World on the Edge ( Direction: Sidney J. Furie )
- 2006: Superman Returns ( Director: Bryan Singer )
The film Superman Returns is an indirect sequel to the films Superman and Superman II - Alone Against All . Some of the storylines of these films have been continued here. Nevertheless, the plot of Superman Returns can be understood even without knowing the first two films. Especially the sets and especially the theme music by John Williams, which John Ottman was allowed to take over, make you think of Richard Donner's original.
DVD release
- Normal DVD version
In 2002 the film was released on DVD in revised image and sound quality .
- 3-disc special edition
In 2006, as part of the new Superman film, Superman Returns , which is linked to the plot of Superman II - Alone Against All , a limited 3-disc special edition of the film was released. In addition to the original theatrical version in revised quality, the special edition contains a new version of the film. This version was re-edited by the original director Richard Donner. Donner viewed and digitized all archival material of his original filming that could still be found, and tried as best he could to do without scenes that he had not filmed himself. The Richard Donner version is around 6 minutes shorter than the theatrical version and, in addition to a completely different beginning, which is directly linked to Superman I, also contains a completely different ending. In addition, Lois Lane pursues other strategies to uncover Superman's secret identity. The Richard Donner version is also not dubbed in the German DVD edition and is therefore only contained in the original English version. A making-of of this version and comments from the director on the work are also included, along with many other extras. In the course of this work, previously lost recordings of Marlon Brando as Jor-El appeared, which were used for the shooting of the new Superman film Superman Returns .
Another included DVD (the first nine are already included in the special edition for Superman I) eight of the first Superman cartoons from the 1940s by Fleischer Studios .
The special edition is currently no longer available in stores.
Web links
- Superman II - alone against all the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Superman II - alone against all at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Superman II - alone against all at Metacritic (English)
- Superman II - Alone Against Everyone in the online movie database
- Superman II - Alone against everyone in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ↑ First publications on IMDb
- ↑ Superman II - Alone Against All at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Superman II - Alone Against All at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ Superman II - Alone Against All. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Tobaccodocuments ( Memento of the original dated December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
