The problem (and you'll understand once you've seen the "Donner Cut") is that Superman reverses time after destroying the Fortress, which means it's back together when he's done. The 'rewind' gimmick bugs me even more here than it did at the end of I. I mean, basically, he could have reversed time at any point in the film-- why wait til the end?

What makes the time-travel bit just bearable in I is that it works emotionally, if not logically. Lois is DEAD, and an enraged, grieving Superman draws on some primal reservoir of superpower we're not sure he knew he had. There's no such motivation in the "Donner Cut", which I'm continuing to state in quotation marks because it's really the Michael Thau Cut.

On top of all this, we're lacking an explanation of how I should end in order to lead into the new edit-- does Superman just turn back time after every adventure? I guess the true solution would be to somehow cut I and II together into a single film (as originally originally intended), drawing from both Donner and Lester footage.