World The real General Zod

[Kevin Roegele]

The best thing about the new Donner-cut of Superman II will hopefully be that Terrence Stamp's General Zod lives up to his promise as a terrifying villain an not the camp cult figure he has since become.

If that makes no sense to you, or even if it does, go back and watch the opening trial scene of Superman the Movie.

Now Stamp is superb, is he not? Absolute intensity and hatred of Jor-El.

In Superman II, he has some scenes of the same caliber, most notibly interupting the President on TV to scream a challenge to Superman, but it's undone by the silliness Lester injected.

Zod should be one of the greatest comicbook movie villains, and after The Donner Cut is released I think he will be.

 

[Jul-el]

Good point.

Still found Zod to be an evil SOB,but years on I look forward to him being badder then 'eva!!

 

[I Am The Knight]

Oh yeah, I agree. I recently rewatched STM wich I hadn't seen in YEARS and Stamp was just amazing. I was shocked because Superman II was a fresher movie in my mind and Zod was never as great as he was in that opening sequence. Well he was still very cool, but as you guys have pointed out, there was a good dose of Lester's campyness in SII that made him less threatening that he was supposed to be. Now, hopefully Donner will have his say about Zod...

 

[Lead Cenobite]

I wouldn't expect too much if I were you. I don't think the villains taking over the world scene, Texas rangers, or Donner Metropolis battle was completed. And basically, that's all there is. We've seen most of Donner's footage of Zod in the Lester SII I think.

 

[kal-el1990]

even donners version of zod i dont think will be that great no offense to the guy but he doesnt look terrifiying and that suit looks weak and campy, i want to seee the armoured up zod with a helmet and have his face revealed to be a scarred looking evil SOB!!!

 

[KaptainKrypton]

I wouldn't expect too much if I were you. I don't think the villains taking over the world scene, Texas rangers, or Donner Metropolis battle was completed. And basically, that's all there is. We've seen most of Donner's footage of Zod in the Lester SII I think.

There still is a good portion of film that was filmed, but never used. My ABC cut from 1985 has numerous scenes that were nixed from the film and probably should've been kept intact. One scene involves Non throwing his red siren across the town of Houston so hard it becomes explosive and kills the town boy and his horse. It was of a different flavor to the rest of the Lester tripe that wound up in theaters. It actually showed the villains being as ruthless as they claimed to be.

 

[Binker]

One of the paralells (sorry, I know thats misspell) is that in the beginning where Jor-El banishes Zod into the Phantom Zone is like God banishing Satan. So I wonder if Donner's cut will have a more ruthless, "like he was satan himself" version of Zod.

 

[marvelrobbins]

Donner Is going to have to use Lester's scenes of east houston to fill in for the Texas Rangers and world destrucon he was never allowed to film.However we should expect them to be cut down to drop a lot of the slapstick humor as well as the crazy powers.

 

[captain_jimbo]

The best thing about the new Donner-cut of Superman II will hopefully be that Terrence Stamp's General Zod lives up to his promise as a terrifying villain an not the camp cult figure he has since become.

If that makes no sense to you, or even if it does, go back and watch the opening trial scene of Superman the Movie.

Now Stamp is superb, is he not? Absolute intensity and hatred of Jor-El.

In Superman II, he has some scenes of the same caliber, most notibly interupting the President on TV to scream a challenge to Superman, but it's undone by the silliness Lester injected.

Zod should be one of the greatest comicbook movie villains, and after The Donner Cut is released I think he will be.

Yet another reason why I can't wait for Donner's cut to come out. I'll always love Superman II, but the idea of a new version, or the original version is just mind-blowing!