I assume this whole bit would have been rewritten and shot to account for the discrepancies you pointed out.
Umm No...
Superman I was supposed to end in a cliffhanger with a Missile freeing the Villains... AND... Lois was not originally going to Die...
There was no Time Travel in the Original Shooting Script for Superman I.
When Superman II was shelved, and it was decided to focus on and Finishing Superman I, it was also decided to scrap the Cliffhanger ending.... Lois dying and the Time Travel sequence was then added...
The Rocky/bully sequences were originally shot in 1977/1978 when Richard Donner was still shooting Superman II. Richard Donner even makes a cameo in the footage. You can see him as Clark and Lois drive up to the Diner...
So Richard Donner, originally planned to have the Time Travel sequence in the film, and also Clark's return to the diner.
As I understand, the Richard Donner Cut, is supposed to be assembled as closely as possible to Richard Donner's Filming Script...
And So this error in continuity would have still occurred if Donner had be allowed to finish Superman II in 1978.
Richard Donner has said, that since the Time Travel sequence was added to Superman I, he may have created a new ending for Superman II, if he had come back.
(Having Superman time travel at the end of every movie cheats the audience, since there is no point in seeing the films.)
However, it seems Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz don't seem to really understand time travel, since even in the commentary for the DVD release in early 2000s, they still refer to Superman as "turning the world backwards", when it was actually Superman flying faster than the speed of light, and traveling "Back In Time" which is what really happened, so I bet they would not have fixed the continuity issues with the Rocky/bully sequences, even if they had come back.
The villains were already freed from the Phantom Zone when Clark encountered Rocky. Superman using Time Travel would have been pointless, unless he still planned to prevent the villains from escaping the Phantom Zone, just like what we saw in the cut released in the early 2000s.
So unless the Time Travel bit was dropped completely, the continuity issue would still have occurred.
Richard Lester's works much better for three reasons...
- Since Time Travel was already done in Superman I, you can't do that again.
- Having Superman only be able to Time Travel over the death of a loved one keeps him from being TOO powerful.
- Allow Clark's justice against Rocky work perfectly.
and...
we get to see Superman flying with the USA Flag to the White House!
"
Put A Little Love In Your Heart, and then Make Your Own Kind Of Music, on the road to Shambala!"
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GreenGoblinsOckVenom86
8 years ago
Thanks mcdemuth. I only ever watched the original Lester cut. I don't want to watch the Donnor cut which according to the TC has the same ending as the first movie which is kind of dumb. Though it does make sense with what you just posted about how that wasn't how the first movie was originally supposed to end. It is ashame how bad the later sequels were. The people behind them didn't care about the comics.
Green Goblin is great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1L4ZuaVvaw
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TheDuke007-1
8 years ago
My understanding is that the original idea was to have Superman turn back time in the sequel so that Lois doesn't know that he's Superman. However, they decided to move it up and use it in the first movie. They obviously weren't going to do it twice in a row. Keep in the mind that the "Richard Donner" cut isn't a finished product. It's just sliced together footage from filming that he had already shot. The Rocky scene would make sense because Superman wasn't going to turn back time in the sequel. How would Donner make Lois Lane forget? We don't know. Richard Donner doesn't even know because he was pulled from the project. If not the "kiss of forgetfulness", he probably would have done something similar if had been retained.
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