Darth Yub Nub said:I get the feeling that when Richard Lester was brought in to complete this movie, he viewed this same footage with his team and realized it wasn't working.
From what I read, in order for them to meet the Director's Guild requirement, Lester would have to actually direct 51% of the movie in order to be credited as director. This is why so much of Donner's work was scrapped and then re-filmed.
The opening Daily Planet scene isn't exciting or interesting. It doesn't even make sense. This is the next day following the missile caper? Luthor is sentenced that quickly? Miss Teschmacher's dialogue later on indicates he's been away for some time so it doesn't work in any logical manner.
I've fixed these issues.
That being said, I'm not even sure why Superman destroys the fortress here, but then I've never understood that. I guess Donner never got to shoot the scene explaining that.
That's been removed, mostly for continuity with Superman Returns.
one gets the sense that while Lester was faithful and comfortable using Donner material, Michael Thau and his team were extremely disrespectful towards anything filmed by Lester.
From what I've read, Donner was insistent that as little Lester footage be used in the Donner Cut as possible. Thau objected, arguing that the movie is less coherent that way, but he lost the argument.
Watch the opening scene at the Daily Planet. Why are we looking at Jackie Cooper's back as he calls for Lois and Clark? At the end why do we have Lois walking into her dark apartment only to have that followed by Jackie Cooper walking into a dark bathroom turning the lights on? I was initially confused by this, because I expected to see Lois. The entire assembly is filled with questionable choices like this.
These are fixed too.
For all the supposed care that was put into this, the final product has an air of shoddiness to it that is inescapable.
I believe they had a very low budget, and not much time to complete it, unfortunately.
I hope you get a chance to watch my version, and let me know what you think.
-T