Superman II Review

Kneel before Zod is the line, but the reason it landed is that Terence Stamp plays a conqueror who is genuinely bored by human resistance, not a ranting heavy. Putting three Kryptonians in Metropolis solves the problem the first film never did, which is that Superman had nobody to fight, and the street battle remains the template for every city level superhero set piece that followed, right down to the collateral damage the film treats as a moral cost rather than spectacle.

The production history shows in every reel. Richard Donner shot most of it, was fired, and Richard Lester reshot enough to claim the credit, which is why a scene of genuine loss in the Fortress sits next to a sight gag about a man on roller skates. The Clark and Lois romance gets the best material either character ever had and then the film erases it with an amnesia kiss so lazy it retroactively cheapens the sacrifice. The cellophane S is a low point. Even so, the depowered diner fight, a bleeding Superman losing to a trucker, is the most human the character has ever been.