I've been wanting to watch this for years and finally had the opportunity. _Superman II_ was one of the key films of my childhood and so much of it is burned into my memories. I never knew of the turmoil behind the scenes as original director Richard Donner was replaced after completing around 75% of the movie.

This reassembled cut of the film has wonderful intentions behind it, and while the end result is FASCINATING, it's definitely not a whole piece. Only so much can be done with the fragments of an unfinished film, so I have to applaud the work that went into this.

The new version of the film follows largely the same story beats but consists of mostly new footage, and the tone feels significantly different. It's more raw, there's more emotion and a lot of the lighter comedy moments are gone. Some sequences are very different to what I was used to - for example, the entire opening in Paris no longer exists here.

What I was most struck by was Christopher Reeve's performance as Superman (and Clark Kent). Reeve was always and likely always will be the most perfect Superman actor. In this new cut, he gets to display much more powerful, emotional scenes than the original gave us. Notably, his scenes with Marlon Brando are captivating. I find myself always getting emotional whenever I watch Reeve in this role for obvious reasons, but this drives home the tragedy in a new way. It's quite wonderful.

Also, he plays Clark Kent so wonderfully on top of that. It's a shame that later films never allowed actors to have much fun as this alter ego.

Still, overall I do prefer the theatrical cut of _Superman II_. It flows better and doesn't feel as rough around the edges. The ending is better there, too. Plus the music cues are lined up in a much more satisfying way which is unfortunately lost here.