I now move on to another great installment in the Superman series, Superman II. This is my review of the original theatrical version by Richard Lester. I'll review the Richard Donner Cut once I get my hands on it.

Just like the first Superman movie, Superman II is amazing. It may not be as serious as Superman: The Movie, but it serves as a pretty damn good sequel. Here is my review.

The story:

Superman foils a terrorist plot in Paris by throwing their nuclear bomb into space. However, the blast wave shatters the Phantom Zone, releasing General Zod, Ursa and Non. They fly to the moon where they murder a group of astronauts on a research mission. Meanwhile, Lois Lane finds out that Clark Kent is Superman and they spend the night in the Fortress of Solitude, not realising that Zod and co. are destroying everything in their path. Somewhere in the plot, Lex Luthor breaks out of prison and helps Zod and co. find Superman. It then all leads to a battle in Metropolis. This is only a vague description of the plot, it's much more detailed in the movie itself. The plot is very good and I think it's the strongest plot in the Superman series.

The cast/characters:

Christopher Reeve plays Superman again and still does an excellent job. Margot Kidder returns as Lois Lane and Gene Hackman plays Lex Luthor again. Both make great performances. But the performance that steals the show for me is Terence Stamp as General Zod. His performance is so good that the first person that comes to mind when I think of General Zod is Terence Stamp. Then there's Marc McClure and Jackie Cooper, not much to say there.

The special effects:

The special effects, while not as good as the ones in the first Superman movie, are decent most of the time. However, during the flying scenes, you don't get the illusion that actor is actually flying. You can clearly tell it's fake. There are a couple of shot where the effects look EXTREMELY dodgy, but I'll give them a pass. The miniatures are very well done and actually look real. Overall, this film isn't as visually appealing as the first film, but it still holds up.

The soundtrack:

The soundtrack is one of the highlights of the film. Ken Thorne does an excellent job in adapting John Williams's scores and composing them. Here are a couple of the scores from the film.

http://youtu.be/TnbLXvUBmkg

http://youtu.be/4jvt5hnbBWM

Much like the first Superman film, Superman II is awesome and I highly recommend it, even if you're not a big Superman fan. I'm gonna give it a 9/10

Next review; Superman III