SUPERMAN II MOVIE MINUTE #11 - Powers Beyond Reason
Fire and Water Network All-Stars Chris Franklin and Rob Kelly bring you SUPERMAN II MOVIE MINUTE, where they analyze, scrutinize, and you'll-believe-a-man-can-fly-ize the classic 1980 film starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and Terence Stamp, five minutes at a time!
In minutes 5000 - 5500, The Phantom Zone villains land on Earth and encounter some indigenous life forms, and Lois finally finds out the truth about Clark and Superman.
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Another great episode gentleman.
In regards to Superman tripping, I’ve always felt this was Superman committing to his Clark persona. He wanted to further prove to Lois that he was NOT Superman, and what would be more Clark Kent than tripping on the rug. Unfortunately it back fired on him when his glasses fell in the fire.
As for Ursa and the snake, I agree with the theory that perhaps she hadn’t absorbed enough solar energy to make her fully invulnerable yet.
If Ursa’s (and the others’) power of invulnerability needed time to build up, then it’s awfully convenient for them that the instant they were released from the Parallelogram Zone, they nevertheless could very easily cope with unprotected exposure to outer space.
The snake biting Ursa provoked a reaction, sure, and that always seemed to me like a reaction of surprise and displeasure rather than an indication that the snake actually injured her. (An “ugh” of contempt, not an “ow” of pain.)
Note: it was a darn good-looking effect, though, wouldn’t you agree? It was a very quick cut to a close-up of the reptile, blocking out the person’s face. Presumably that’s an animal trainer being struck right then. Still, paid professional or no, I wouldn’t want to be that person!
Absolutely right. She was not hurt, only caught by surprise.
As much as I love Richard Donner, I think the Salkinds and Richard Lester made the right decision to replace Lois firing the gun at Clark, with Clark tripping into the fireplace, and revealing his secret identity to Lois that way.
Ever since I saw the original screen tests for Chris and Margot, the gunshot scene always bothered me for one simple reason…
If Lois had actually shot Clark with real bullets, would he not feel the ricochet? I mean obviously, it won’t hurt him. But wouldn’t he feel a slight “ping” as the bullet bounced off him? And if that’s the case, he’d know imedietly that Lois’ gun is loaded with harmless blanks.
(That, and if he used any of his super senses, he’d know that Lois was bluffing, and his X-Ray Vision would automatically see the gun had blanks)
Someone just opened up a debate on the Donner Cut on Superman homepage’s facebook page and I actually mentioned that Superman’s vision powers alone should have shown him that Lois was firing blanks. He really should have patted himself down as Clark and acted with relief that Lois was such a bad shot making her admit to shooting blanks.
Almost immediately someone chimed in with “well, not if she was using a gun made of lead.” Now while it might be possible to make a gun out of lead, I’m not sure it would be practical for a number reasons. (weight, accuracy, durability etc…) Rather than draw all of that out I merely pointed out that Lois was using a revolver and that even if it were made of lead it would still have open areas that Superman’s other vision powers besides X-Ray could still be used to detect the type of ammunition.
A more well known Jack O’Halloran film was Dragnet 1987, where Jack played thug Emil Muzz at the height of hilarity, though it’s uncertain how flippant Muzz would be if faced with the Big S. Also, sorry to have missed it, but last Monday , July 22, was Terence Stamp’s birthday, and depending an whether you believe the Superman II Collector’s magazine or Wikipedia, Mr. Stamp was born in 1939 or 38 respectively, wherein the 22nd would have been a Saturday or Friday.
Thanks Robert, you got the “rap” from Dragnet stuck in my head again, for the first time in like 25 years!!!
Happy belated birthday General! Please forgive our grievous forgetfulness.
Chris
Zod’s almost blase acceptance of their newfound powers is what made him so cool. Mr Stamp’s portrayal was so calculating and almost subdued, which makes the big outbursts that much better. I also appreciate more and more that Stamp wasn’t a big athletic guy on a par with Reeve. That kind of casting doesn’t happen as much today. He doesn’t have to look like a match for Reeve, his performance does it all.
Well, I don’t think think the fake gunshot may have been the best way to go for Lois discovering Clark’s identity, I do like it better than what was filmed. If this had been the only instance of clumsy Clark, I might could swallow that subconsciously Clark wanted to reveal his identity. With the earlier bit about the car running into Clark, I still think the identity reveal scene was an example of Lester and Co. thinking Clark was really stupid.
I don’t remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I think this was around the time that some of the comics hinted that Lois might already know that Clark was Superman.
While Ursa was probably shocked by the snake-bite, there may be the fact that the Villains powers aren’t fully developed. In the first movie, Clark didn’t have all his powers at the start. They developed over the course of the movie.