Superman II

After the painful conclusion of Superman I, I had concerns walking into this movie, regardless of the solid yet outdated IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores. Unfortunately, this movie skipped the strong opening of the first movie and went straight into the slow and unimpressive action sequence phase.

Just like the last movie, there are some enjoyable performances, particularly from Reeve, Hackman, and particularly Terence Stamp as General Zod and Sarah Douglas as Ursa. It also featured some terrible special effects and action sequences. There is a an additional element of abysmal attempts at comedy that just will not stop. For just one example, in a scene where a huge wind is being blown there are about five minutes worth of lame gags such as a guy in a phone booth being knocked over and continuing to talk, or a guy happening to roller skate through the wind and being blown down the street. Taking the comedy away, it is a challenge to create an interesting action sequence involving four beings that can’t be hurt. This movie doesn’t rise to that challenge, and I would happily have skipped through all of the resulting action scenes.

The final resolution is decently done, but I wouldn’t watch this film except out of curiosity over a relic from the past.