Superman ll (1980) Effects Comparison

A scene in the vastly different Donner Cut that shows General Zod blowing the fire away from him and towards a wooden structure was changed.
By the way, Richard Donner, the director of the first Superman, and somewhat directed the second one, has recently passed away.
RIP, Richard Donner (1930-2021)
All credit goes to Warner Bros.

[tripleg]

I'm honestly not sure if either is better than the other.

[atroyz]

No disrespect to Terrance Stamp, but the reason these effects never worked for me is that you can barely see him blowing. He doesn’t visually inhale or exhale. Yes, he is a super-being and doesn’t need to, but it would have helped sell the illusion.

[superbowlguy]

In my opinion, the Richard Donner cut is better than the theatrical cut.

[kellymulderino]

what a mess that production was. was all about power, egos, control and money

[masterjay]

Theatrical version has the fire looking more real.

[pranavnnair]

I mean, this scene is done better in the Donner cut. However, the theatrical cut is the better movie. There are several scenes in the Donner cut that are laughably bad:
1. Lois jumps out of the office building and Clark standing on the ground blowing air and using his heat vision without anybody noticing.
2. Lois shooting Clark to prove that he's Superman.
3. Clark gains his powers back by his father's hologram touching him on the shoulder which raises so many questions and doesn't make any sense.
4. Superman reverses time just to make Lois forget which reduces the impact of the time-reversal in the first movie.
There are other things as well that I just can't remember right now as I haven't seen both the cuts in a long time. Overall, the theatrical cut is superior.

[ONE-]

By today's standards in visual effects, this is a lot like comparing poop to vomit.

[ezekieltheappeal]

Any for sure, at least I get to see Zod putting that fire away. Theatrical looks a bit better but storywise, the Donner cut takes it.

[Skipper-jz]

FX was better but original overall was better. Donners cut was badly edited in a lot of places and i hated it

[sandal_thong]

The fight with the military in that podunk town wasn't in the script. Why it would be considered part of the Donner Cut is beyond me. Instead they were supposed to be setting fire to Tokyo and Moscow, which is why the world surrendered to them.

[nates.]

Neither of these are good. Theatrical cut is laughable but at least it’s meant to show that the fire deflects off Zod. In the Donner cut it just seems like the fire got on the building by complete accident rather than being moved away from Zod.

[connorbrennan]

I dunno...the Donner Cut effect reeks of digital fakery. If you want to create "updated" effects for a new cut of a classic movie, don't make it obvious.

Just look at that one shot of the dove flying away in Blade Runner: The Final Cut; looks seamless.

[acholl]

This was not Donner's shot. It's all Lester. Donner said in interviews he hated the small town scene and completely removed it in his cut.