Review: BATMAN V SUPERMAN

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
(ACTION/FANTASY)
1.5 out 4 stars 
Directed by Zack Snyder
Starring: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scott McNairy, Tao Okamoto
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action throughout, and some sensuality.
151 minutes
Verdict: A two-and-a-half hours long funeral dirge punctuated by cheap "kewl" moments and chaotic CGI action, BATMAN V SUPERMAN suggests a burnt-out "cinematic universe" only in its second film.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE IF YOU LIKED:
MAN OF STEEL  (2013)
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2  (2014)
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES  (2012)
WATCHMEN  (2009)
SUCKER PUNCH  (2011)
There's a corporate cynicism to BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE from the get-go, a sequel to 2013's much invested-in Superman reboot MAN OF STEEL, but actually a Batman movie.  The divisive superhero origin story wasn't a flop by any means, grossing $668 million worldwide, but with a hefty budget of $225 million plus an extensive advertising campaign, it was considered under expectations.  So they bring in Batman, Warner Brothers' most valuable property outside of Harry Potter, rather than just doing Superman better, and while rival Marvel Studios established the financial/cinematic viability of their characters in four separate series before tying them together in the Avengers "super-franchise", Warner/DC has opted to leap into Justice League movies as fast as they can, before they've even proven to have clear handle on their key character, Superman.
BATMAN V SUPERMAN makes quite clear director Zack Snyder's primary character interest from the opening scene where young Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered in an alleyway mugging, the fourth iteration of this same scene rendered on the big screen.  Burton did it, Schumacher did it, Nolan did it, and now Snyder.  Flash forward to a street-level perspective of the climactic action (and insane destruction) of MAN OF STEEL, where a middle-aged Wayne (Ben Affleck) runs through the wreckage in an effort to help evacuate the people from his office building in Metropolis, only to see Superman's battle with General Zod bring the skyscraper crashing down.  Action-wise, this is the most interesting scene in a movie that is full of mostly run-of-the-mill CG fisticuffs and wanton destruction, with Snyder still showing a disregard for the human casualties of his superhero war zones even when they're supposed to be a major plot point.  The monotonous destruction of MAN OF STEEL takes on an interesting twist from the vulnerable ground level, finally delivering a human cost to its bizarrely calloused predecessor, and sets up a personal motivation for Batman (Wayne's crime-fighting alter ego, you know) to declare war on Superman, but the movie never makes a point of it all beyond that.

18 months later, Superman is an understandably controversial figure, acting as a rogue combatant across the world and causing extensive collateral damage while answering to no one.  As his alter-ego Clark Kent, reporter for Metropolis' newspaper, the Daily Planet, he takes an interest in putting an end to the activities of the Batman vigilante in neighboring Gotham City, in addition to his other seemingly arbitrary Supermanning across the globe.  Batman, with the help of his butler Alfred (Jeremy Irons), taking on a Q-type role developing the gadgets, is in the midst of taking down a weapons and human trafficking ring, which he's traced to tech mogul Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) in Metropolis.  Lex Luthor, meanwhile, has set his sights on destroying Superman, pretty much just because.
As already showcased in the advertising, Luthor creates a weird-ass Kryptonian mutant called "Doomsday" using General Zod's remains, which is like a hybrid of the cave troll from THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING with Abomination from THE INCREDIBLE HULK and Marshmallow from FROZEN, turning the action wildly chaotic with more rampant destruction, lighting and nuclear explosions, and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) super-powered alter-ego of antiques dealer Diana Prince) shows up on the scene, too, to help fight the screeching, generic CGI monstrosity.

For about the first two hours, for as much happens, really not much happens, dragging along at a tedious pace with a pervasive doom & gloom atmosphere while characters monologue on the nature of gods and men with pretentious and hollow pondering.  There's very little plot or character development for this huge section of the movie, just dull and repetitive pontificating and setup.  Batman is angry, Superman is angry, and Lex Luthor is annoying.  Jesse Eisenberg has been great in dramatic roles like THE SOCIAL NETWORK and in comedic roles like ZOMBIELAND, but goodness knows what he's doing here.  I suppose it could be argued as a bold misfire, but there's never a sense of the menace or real wit that traditionally make up the character, and instead he's a shrill, mugging brat.  Snyder and writer David S. Goyer have only half-heartedly learned from the missteps of MAN OF STEEL, taking the time to point out that the island where the climactic action takes place is inexplicably uninhabited but still full of buildings to turn into debris, while both Batman and Superman are more than a little murdery.  Didn't like that Batman killed people left and right in BATMAN RETURNS?  Brace yourself.  Superman still does little saving, except in the selfish cases of his girlfriend and fellow journalist Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and his mother, Martha (Diane Lane).  It's hard to ignore the absence of heroic traits in this "superhero" movie, especially with the recent revelation of Snyder's intentions to adapt The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand's novel espousing the merits of "rational self-interest" in opposition to arguments for the "greater good".  Regardless of your personal philosophy, this one doesn't play particularly well in  mainstream superhero movie, especially a Superman movie.  Then again, now that he has Batman to play with, Snyder only occasionally even bothers showing an interest in Supes, delving into Batman as a seasoned crime fighter with a real nasty streak, who keeps the vandalized uniform of his dead partner Robin in a display case.  Ben Affleck is well suited to the role, an older The Dark Knight Returns-style take on Batman with an appealing bulked-up Arkham Asylum look, but his nastiness and unclear code make him less sympathetic than he needs to be, and his reasoning for ultimately teaming up with Superman is unintentionally funny.  The Batmobile, blending elements of its predecessors in a more sleek variation on the Dark Knight trilogy's "the Tumbler", is cool and plays a part in some of the movie's better action, and as small a moment as it was, the scene of Batman returning to the Batcave in the Batmobile (how about all that labeling?) is pretty cool.  But there are a lot of "kewl" moments that don't add up to anything, and if this is supposed to be DC's response to THE AVENGERS, nerdgasm points go to Marvel.  Zack Snyder has proven time and again that no matter his shortcomings at crafting drama or nuanced storytelling, he's no slouch as a visual stylist, so while BATMAN V SUPERMAN has some nice images, it's surprisingly how ugly most of the movie is.
The script is an improvement from MAN OF STEEL, likely thanks to ARGO screenwriter Chris Terrio whose dialogue is a lot punchier than Goyer's, but actual story is in short supply over an ungodly, truly unconscionable 150 minutes of gloom and doom with a lame lead-in to future Justice League movies.  I honestly cannot fathom this run time.
I admit that I wasn't expecting good things from BATMAN V SUPERMAN, but it's disheartening to find it so far off-base anyway.  After all, this is meant to be the leaping-off point for several superhero film franchises, including a two-part Justice League movie, but none of that feels justified right now.

Batman: Burton and a Duel of the Freaks

BATMAN
Released 23 June 1989
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Michael Gough, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Palance, Tracey Walter, William Hootkins, Jerry Hall
Rated PG-13 for unspecified reasons (action violence and some innuendo).
126 minutes

"Tell me something, my friend. You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

For people in their formative years at the time of this movie's release, it's one of the infallible classics of summer blockbusting, but mine is the perspective of one not born for a couple more years yet, and it's a movie that's never quite clicked for me.  It's certainly interesting as a landmark of post-New Hollywood blockbuster entertainment, paving the way for the current popularity of superhero movies and further defining the nature of youth-aimed big-budget entertainment previously established by the films of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.  As an individual movie however, it lacks emotional or character depth, and often feels clumsy, as though feeling around in the dark for the type of movie it wants to be without quite knowing what that is yet.

Although it's directed by Tim Burton, a stylistically highly distinctive filmmaker who at 31 was a young talent noted for his fantastical but modestly-budgeted successes with PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE and BEETLEJUICE, BATMAN is unmistakably a studio-manufactured product; still plenty stylish and finely produced, but strangely gentrified.  In contrast to the usual origin story franchise starters of today, the script arrives on a fully formed Batman, after cleverly subverting audience expectations with an opening scene that appears to be leading into Bruce Wayne's well-known childhood tragedy, as a well-to-do man and woman with their son stumble into one of Gotham City's dark alleyways, but instead of the parents being shot, as we know happens to Bruce's, the family survives after being mugged.  We're then introduced to Batman, played by Michael Keaton, who is known to the muggers as an urban legend, but discover that he's all too real when he terrorizes them on the city rooftops.  Bruce Wayne has already adopted his crime-fighting alter ego in full armored costume with bat-themed gadgets (gadgets that sometimes seem a bit impractical when seen from a perspective outside of selling toys), but he's still little more than a rumor in Gotham, where organized crime sneers at the attempts by Mayor Borg (Lee Wallace), Police Commissioner Jim Gordon (Pat Hingle) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams, aka "Lando Calrissian) to clean up the city ahead of the big bicentennial celebration.  Things really go haywire though when Gotham's big crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) tries to double cross his not altogether stable right-hand man, Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), sending him into a vat of toxic chemicals that scars his face white, with a permanent red grin, throwing him into outright insanity as he adopts the persona of "Joker", murders Grissom and takes over operations.  The rise of the Joker as not merely a racketeer but a full-blown terrorist poisoning Gotham City residents at random brings Batman out into the light as a force for justice, while as Bruce Wayne, he courts sexy photojournalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), who happens to be in town trying to get the scoop on the Batman himself.
The movie tries to be a lot of things, starting out kind of like a film noir crime story, but quickly becoming much zanier and heavily informed by German Expressionism with matte paintings of fascist architecture and and warped, stark imagery.  Batman's signature pose, arms outstretched with his cape, is reminiscent of a 1931 poster for Tod Browning's DRACULA, while the look of the city is clearly informed by Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS.  Outside of its obviously stylized architecture, the Gotham City environment always has an unmissable sense of artificiality, relying heavily on matte paintings with varying degrees of success and only a few obvious studio sets.  The biggest failure of the film's unique stylings are in the Joker's wardrobe, with the pastel scarves and baggy plaid pants, and especially the outfit in the museum sequence with his floppy, purple toque.  The look of the Joker is aiming for something New Age-y I guess, in accordance with the idea of him as a "homicidal artist", but it's kind of vague without much beneath the surface.

"I am the world's first fully functioning homicidal artist."

Honestly, I don't care much for this iteration of the Joker.  There's no denying that at least some of that comes from looking at it in comparison to the Heath Ledger take from 19 years later, but I had been initiated to the Nicholson version before that happened (I first saw this movie in 2005, after the release of BATMAN BEGINS, but I'm unsure if it was before or after I'd seen that movie), so it's not like it never had a chance.  It is somewhere in between the goofier, more colorful Cesar Romero Joker of the 1960s TV series and the menacing schizophrenic of THE DARK KNIGHT, so I guess you had to be there, but he was a jump into a dark direction at the time.  He is twisted and menacing in some very apparent but superficial ways, disfiguring his girlfriend's face and presumably killing her (both off-screen), squirting acid from a boutonniere, and poisoning people with "Smilex", which kills people and leaves the body with a Joker-like grin.  On the other hand, he's still very silly and has a penchant sub-par Prince songs (one of the most glaring out of place aspects in a movie that is sometimes a jumble of mismatched elements; however, the Danny Elfman orchestral score is quite good), has his thugs commit heinous crimes like painting a museum bust with bright green hair and a red smile, and in his spare time makes photo collages.  Nicholson is a cool Nicholson at first, prior to his pure comic book origins of falling into a vat of chemical waste (conveniently turning his skin white, lips red and hair green in the visage of a clown, but for the famous grin, there is the added and surprisingly bloody element of a bullet tearing up his face before the fall), but as the Joker, he's fully unleashed, as wild as Jack Torrance but not as scary, and plentifully psychotic but in a purely comic book way.  The choice of not only giving the Joker a clear origin and alter ego as the hood Jack Napier, but also making him the one who killed Bruce's parents was controversial for fans, but what really bugs me is the repeated line, "Ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?", explained as "I just like the way it sounds,", an ideal example of the movie's style over substance issues.  I also don't get the Joker's last gag or whatever it was intended to be, in his final moment splattered on the pavement (okay, technically not "splattered", but an unexpectedly morbid image with his head cracked open on the street) when the sound of a laugh is coming from the body like a broken record, and Commissioner Gordon pulls a satin drawstring bag from the Joker's coat pocket, presumably containing a tape recorder inside.  You never actually see what's inside the bag, and in another movie, I might expect it to suddenly explode, as the Joker's last dirty trick, but it turns out to be an utter one-off.

"Never rub another man's rhubarb!"

The Joker's goons are even wackier if not as colorful (they all seem to be wearing police jackets, berets and sunglasses), led by "Bob the Goon", played by Tracey Walter, a character with minimal lines and an awesome name who follows the Joker around everywhere.  It sounds funny, but he's just bland.  There are other henchman who, in the alleyway fight and the Cathedral-based climax, inexplicably swing swords and other unconventional weapons around while yelling and flipping towards Batman, then are dispatched with the utmost simplicity in practically slapstick fashion.  For all the complaints about Christopher Nolan that would come, Burton is truly terrible at directing action, and he's never gotten better at it for as many action scenes he's had the opportunity to improve from over the years (SLEEPY HOLLOW is probably the best he's got in that respect, but there, he's mostly getting by on the stylistic horror aspect).  However, BATMAN is probably his worst at action.
Although the decision was made to give Batman's costume a more armored appearance than the traditional tights to make him appear imposing, he never comes across as much of a martial artist or any sort of effective brawler in this version.  In fact, although he probably should have picked something up after so many nightly escapades, there's no background in BATMAN that suggest that he has any particular learned fighting skills, so there is an interesting idea that this is just a rich guy who's out there ineptly fighting crime as a mostly ordinary person.  In total contrast to the Nolan Batman, who makes a point that he's not "your average brawler", this version can be pretty adequately described as much, except for the fact that he usually has some sort of gadget on hand when needed.  In one scene, he's even unceremoniously shot down and lays on the ground as if dead momentarily before getting back to business, protected by his body armor.  One of the most influential aspects of this movie is definitely the approach to comic book costumes onscreen, which had been rendered faithfully in the Superman films, but Batman goes for a more stylish than practical, but still a little bit of both, look made of plastic and rubber.  By the 2000s, the rubber would give way to leather for a while, but BATMAN really started that sturdier, less circus performer look of superhero costumes.

As Batman, Michael Keaton was a famously controversial choice (but really, who isn't when it comes to casting Batman?) because of the more his more prominent comedic roles like BEETLEJUICE and MR. MOM, while fans of the comics were concerned that the movie would lean toward the campy approach of the TV series.  Keaton is fine, but there's not actually much to go on in this movie in particular, because the character gets very little substance while also not being as flamboyant as some of those he shares the screen with.  In an exchange between Bruce Wayne (as Bruce Wayne, as opposed to Batman) and the Joker, there is one particularly interesting moment where Bruce suddenly explodes violently, "You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts!"  In every Batman movie, Bruce is almost always subdued, unleashing it all when he's under the cowl, so for a movie that doesn't bother much with the psychology of the character, this is a unique moment.  In fact, as Bruce Wayne at this point, he's crazier than he ever gets as Batman.

The supporting cast is plenty diverse, and includes screen veteran Jack Palance as mob boss Carl Grissom, who does some pretty odd, over-the-top stuff, and Billy Dee Williams, who hoped to reprise the role of Harvey Dent in a sequel when he becomes the villainous Two-Face (he would be replaced by Tommy Lee Jones when the villain showed up in BATMAN FOREVER).  William Hootkins, another Star Wars alum, best known as the heavyset and ill-fated X-Wing pilot "Porkins", is my personal highlight of the movie as the corrupt, classically hard-boiled cop Lt. Eckhart, whose voice is awesomely gravelly and is just a cynical asshole.  Love that guy.  Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon is more prominent in this film than in any of the other three time he would reprise the role, but even here, he doesn't make much of an impact, and Michael Gough as Alfred is, well, Michael Gough.  His character gets a lot worse in later films, as he and Hingle are the only cast members to reprise their roles throughout the original film franchise.  There's also the impossibly smug Robert Wuhl, a recurring presence in movies of the late '80s and early '90s, as Vicki Vale's obnoxious working partner Alexander Knox, who calls Batman co-creator Bob Kane (looking way younger than 74 in a brief cameo as a newspaper cartoonist) a "dick", calling into question this production's sincerity.

"Hey bat-brain, I mean, I was a kid when I killed your parents. I mean, I say 'I made you', you gotta say 'you made me.' I mean, how childish can you get?"

What's funny is that for all the concerns that this movie would resurrect the overtly kid-friendly, highly campy style of the Adam West-starring series, and the subsequent relief that it eschewed that approach, BATMAN is plenty campy looking at it today.  Again, the worst of that are those dreadful Prince songs, but also those goofy action scenes and the Joker's acrobatic ninja henchman, to name a few things.  It's undeniably a product of its time, but also a slightly jumbled up studio product where not everything ties together as neatly as it ought to, conclusions are jumped to, and freaking Alfred sneaks a girl Bruce just started dating into the Batcave.  It's a movie that's more an artifact of interest and pop culture evolution than a successful film in itself.

TOP 3 OF BATMAN

1. Lt. Eckhart- "These guys are drinkin' Draino."  It's a small role, but the most "noirish" character of the noir-styled first section of the movie is awesome and appropriately over the top, even as Hootkins (what a name) delivers his lines so monotonously in his gravelly, drawling voice.
2.  Batman's Museum Entrance- I especially like the sound design of this scene, as it becomes chaotic with the Joker's "I'm melting!" routine and suddenly he uncovers his face to say, "Boo!" and laughs as it quiets down for just an instant.  Then, 'crash!', Batman comes flying in through the skylight.
3.  "You wanna gets nuts? Come on, let's get nuts!"- For whatever reason, none of the other Batmans cross over into Bruce Wayne, and while Bruce isn't much of a character in this movie, at this moment he becomes genuinely interesting and more emotionally violent than he ever does even in the cowl.  There's also a little bit of Keaton's Betelgeuse leaking through when he starts shouting, which is kind of fun.

BOTTOM 3 OF BATMAN

1. Prince Songs- The '80s and through the '90s were very good to the recording industry in providing co-marketing opportunities with pop music numbers, usually power ballads, but in the case of Batman, they were funk songs performed by Prince, shoehorned into the movie in cringeworthy fashion.  I'm not positive which ones are featured in the movie by title, but I'm pretty sure the better of the two (in terms of fitting in the movie) is "Partyman" when the Joker is throwing out money during Gotham's bicentennial parade.  It's not a great song, but the parade context is alright.  Then the other I think is "Scandalous", played on a ghetto blaster carried around by one of the Joker's henchman while they vandalize a museum.  It's an awkward and blatant case of a studio marketing mandate.
2. Action- There's a moment in the climactic pursuit in the cathedral when one of the Joker's henchman jumps at Batman from behind and just falls through the floorboards.  It's silly and probably meant to be taken as a gag, but that's basically how all the action plays out.  A guy comes at Batman, yelling and swinging weapons, and something ridiculously simple takes the guy out.  It feels like it was choreographed by an 8-year-old.
3. Robert Wuhl as 'Alexander Knox'- "You know what they say? They say he can't be killed. They say he drinks blood. They say he-"  "I say... you're full of shit, Knox. Oh, uh, you can quote me on that."  My sentiments exactly.

BATMAN RETURNS
Released 19 June 1992
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring: Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken, Michael Gough, Michael Murphy, Cristi Conway, Andrew Bryniarski, Vincent Schiavelli, Jan Hooks
Rated PG-13 for brooding, dark violence.
126 minutes

"I was their number one son, and they treated me like number two."

BATMAN RETURNS only managed a little more than half of its predecessor's enormous financial success, while also possessed of a dominant directorial vision, it's had the misfortune to be criminally underrated in the pantheon of Batman on film, and even in terms of superhero films in general.  The common argument is that "it's a Tim Burton movie, not a Batman movie", is a totally subjective argument which really adds up to nothing when you really think about.  It's undeniably a Tim Burton movie through and through, but there's no way to argue that it's less a Batman movie than any movie, good or bad, which fails to adapt source material to the utmost faithfulness.  So BATMAN RETURNS is a movie where Batman wantonly kills the bad guys (but we'll get to a little more of that in BATMAN BEGINS), and it's more about the villains than the hero (but isn't that the case with an awful lot of superhero movies, especially Batman ones?), but it's also the best Batman movie to come along until the Dark Knight trilogy.

Even though, like every other Batman movie before BATMAN V SUPERMAN, it was released in the heat of the summer season, BATMAN RETURNS is set at Christmastime in Gotham City, where the holiday trappings and events are prominently on display (continuing a trend of Christmas theming in Burton's filmography at the time, following up EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and preceding the Burton-produced THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, for which he handed off directing duties to Henry Selick so he could direct this film).  In the fairy tale-esque prologue, Burton has reunited Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens (very soon following Reubens' well publicized arrest for public masturbation) and his PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (Burton's feature directorial debut) co-star Diane Salinger as the wealthy upper-class Cobblepots, who toss their deformed and not otherwise agreeable infant son Oswald into the sewers, afloat in a basket.  33 Christmases later (is there a Christian significance to that number?), Gotham is abuzz with rumored sightings of a "penguin-man of the sewers".

"My name is not Oswald! It's Penguin! I am not a human being! I am an animal! Cold-blooded!"

Covered in Burtonesque makeup (designed by Crash McCreery and Shane Mahan of the Stan Winston Studios), Danny DeVito is Oswald Cobblepot, aka "Penguin", a comically grotesque outcast raised by the penguins living in the "Arctic World" of an abandoned zoo.  Definitely one of the wackier major Batman villains, and one that caters to Burton's interests, the Penguin is a variation on the Batman character as he exists in the film.  Born into Gotham's aristocracy, heir to a fortune and social standing, he didn't lose his parents to a crime, but instead was cast off by them.  Although born twisted, he's similarly mounted a crusade as a response to that loss.  As he growls to the Caped Crusader, "You're just jealous, because I'm a genuine freak and you have to wear a mask!"  Although Batman gets a significantly more important part in this film (as opposed to the first film, in which he was essentially a poorly define plot element), a more likely candidate for 'main character' is the Penguin.  DeVito usually plays any variation of a hapless and/or sleazy schmuck, to the extent that his character was literally "genetic garbage" in 1988's TWINS, and while the Penguin is obviously a grotesque gargoyle, he's no loser in the same sense as his usual roles.  Stout and shaped like a lumpy pear, highlighted in some scenes by the filthy onesie he wears most of the time, his skin is pale and dark around the eyes in typical Burton fashion, his fingers are fused together to resemble flippers, his hair is long and greasy, and for whatever reason, his spit and blood is blackish green.  Furthermore, he's a horny pervert.  I love this guy.

A typical pitfall of superhero sequels is over-stuffing the story with villains, such as the prime examples of SPIDER-MAN 3 and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, BATMAN RETURNS does pretty well between three villains.  Max Shreck, an original creation for the movie and named for silent film actor Max Schreck who famously played the title character in NOSFERATU, is the least sympathetic villain in Burton's eyes, marked by the dint of not being a freak.  Played by Christopher Walken as only Walken can, Shreck is the greedy, unscrupulous business titan of Gotham rivaling Bruce Wayne, and while he presses the mayor to approve his plans for a new power plant, it's secretly a ruse for storing up the city's energy and creating an artificial shortage.  An all-around rotten dude, Shreck has flooded the city sewers with toxic sludge reminiscent of pea green soup, and has even gone so far as to murder business partners who have outlived their usefulness to him, a fact which the Penguin uses to blackmail him into setting out the proper welcome when he decides to finally emerge from the shadows.  In return, with the current mayor refusing to approve his sham power plant proposal, Shreck convinces the Penguin to run for office while unleashing his circus goons on the city to make his incumbent rival look incompetent.

"My dear penguins, we stand on a great threshold! It's okay to be scared; many of you won't be coming back. Thanks to Batman, the time has come to punish all God's children! 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th born! Why be biased? Male and female! Hell, the sexes are equal with their erogenous zones blown sky high!"

Thirdly, and less a direct villain than an anti-hero with a bad streak, is Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer), Shreck's meek, bumbling secretary who has the misfortune to discover his plans for creating an energy shortage, at which point Shreck shamelessly pushes her out a window on a multi-story floor.  I don't know a lot about Catwoman in the comics, and I only saw about half of the Halle Berry movie, and it's not quite clear what happens with Selina after falling through numerous awnings before landing in an alleyway that ushers in her transformation to Catwoman.  She lies there twitching while feral cats swarm around her, chewing on her fingertips, and although she should be dead, she stands up in a daze and returns to her apartment.  I really don't care for the scene in which she tears up her apartment and makes her famous Catsuit.  It's feels like grasping for straws for images of madness without any substance, Selina licking her lips while forcing her plush animals down the disposal, randomly making a glove with out rhyme or reason beyond shallow insanity.  Another scene in which she destroys a Shreck department store has a similar vibe.  Then there's Catwoman, herself.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't find Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman that attractive, in or out of costume.  I get on the objective level that Ms. Pfeiffer is an attractive woman, but in this movie and most others (she's better in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS), she doesn't do much for me.  That's fine, sure, but this version of Catwoman seems to be endlessly lauded as an incredibly sex symbol, and while I like her fine as a character, it all feels more uncomfortable than sexy.  Annette Bening was originally cast and had to drop out when she became pregnant, and while I usually like her, it's clear that she wouldn't have had the same steely edge that Pfeiffer serves the role so well with.  But yeah, when she licks herself, or lick Batman, you know, licks stuff, and starts throwing around innuendos in her best sultry voice, it's more cringe-worthy than sexy.  It's okay, I realize that I'm in the minority on this.

"I am Catwoman, hear me roar."

Although the action is still far from great, it's a marked improvement on the first film and benefits from the spectacle and sight gags interwoven throughout.  Even without the Joker, BATMAN RETURNS packs a lot of dark and gross humor throughout, arguably undercutting the drama at times, or perhaps layering it.  DeVito's Penguin is hilariously icky, munching on raw fish, making innuendos, finally agreeing to run for mayor at the promise of "unlimited poontang", and lecherously groping at a young campaign supporter's breast under the pretense of fastening a campaign button.  There's quite a bit of sexual innuendo in this movie, but what in particular gave parents pause and later resulted in Warner Brothers' rebranding of the franchise on the next movie, was it's violence and darkness.  One such oft-cited scene shows the Penguin biting into a man's nose for making a wisecrack about his looks, bright red blood visibly squirting out, or there's the moment with Shreck's electrocuted corpse, charred crispy with gaping mouth and popped-out eyes, but these scenes are mostly layered with a macabre sense of humor, as opposed to similar scenes in the first film when the Joker monologues with a sizzling corpse or takes a bullet to the face before falling into the vat of chemical waste.  On the other hand, the action is admittedly more frequent and often more personal, but it also has a fairy tale feeling to it, too.

"Bruce Wayne? Why are you dressed up like Batman?"

Batman is definitely a darker character though, wantonly murdering bad guys and even blowing up a bunch of cute, fuzzy penguins in the movie's climax.  In his first appearance in the movie, he sets a guy on fire with the Batmobile's exhaust!  His code of ethics, if he has one, is not at all clear.  And yet, as Bruce Wayne, he's a much more likable presence than in the first film, getting to have some fun interplay with Selina; Michelle Pfeiffer doing her weird, weird thing. 

The look of Gotham is changed significantly, relying less often matte paintings and maintaining some of the fascist look of the first film but blending it with New Age and storybook elements.  Then there's Shreck's office building, a skyscraper topped by a bizarre, very Burtonesque, rotating cat head fixture.  Still, the city feels just as constrained on the sound stage sets, with exterior shots mostly limited to the same town square, a few alleyways and the abandoned zoo.  It's all covered with a holiday overlay; lights, trees, baubles; contrasting colorfully with the gray architecture.  The Christmas motif is used to wonderful effect throughout, although not necessarily figuring directly into the plot, such as the Penguin's demented stocking scene as he pulls out evidence against Shreck from a great big, grody-looking Christmas stocking including toxic sludge, shredded business documents and a dismembered hand, or on a sweeter note, the "Good will to men...and women" coda at the end of the film.  Oh, and the "Ice Princess"!  I love the Ice Princess!  Played by Cristi Conway (while not knowing her in real life, for the character, she has the perfect name), the Ice Princess is the terrifically ditzy showgirl whose job it is to light up the big Christmas tree at Gotham's tree-lighting ceremony.  "The tree lights up, and then I push the button. No-no, wait, wait, wait, wait. I press the button and then the tree lights up!", she coaches herself in her dressing room.  "A talent scout!  I don't just light trees, you know. I'm also an actress."  It's kind of broad, but it really cracks me up.  And in a movie of pretty spectacular deaths (Shreck's taser kiss, the Penguin's awkward face-plant), hers is pretty great, kidnapped by the Penguin and Catwoman, then startled at the top of a tall building so she falls, crushing the tree lighting button, lighting up the tree which then spews a hoard of bats! 

"Rat with wings...do your thing!"

It's a Burton movie first, but that's a big part of how it improves so much on the disjointed hodgepodge of the first film.  Rather than dealing with issues of vigilantism, crime and vengeance, it's a simple story about outsiders, Burton's beloved "freaks", and their doomed quests for belonging.  It's more a Burton movie than a "Batman movie" (loosely defined as that is), and that's why it's more a movie than a manufactured studio product.

Top 3 of BATMAN RETURNS

1. Danny DeVito is the Penguin- Growling with blackish green spittle and clad in a filthy onesie, hanging out with penguins in Arctic World, hopelessly, ironically libidinous, and just an all around nasty little jerk; what's not to love?  And his death scene?  Fantastic.  Caught in the explosion of missiles mounted on his little penguin friends meant to destroy Gotham, he rises out of the steaming water Captain Willard-style, picks up one of his umbrellas (most of which are weaponized), but it's not the one he wanted.  "Shit! I picked a cute one."  It's a great moment too, with the musical swelling, zoom in on Batman turning around, and the umbrella opens with a squeak and a mobile of little animals.  Deciding he needs a drink first, he turns to the water and falls flat on his face.  Oh yeah, and he drives an all-terrain duckmobile.
2. Masquerade Ball- A nice, quasi-romantic scene at Shreck's glitzy Christmas Eve party, there's some great dialogue between Bruce and Selina, and at the masquerade ball, they're the two not in costumes.
3. Ice Princess- "I think she let me go because I reasoned with her girl-to-girl." 

Bottom 3 of Batman Returns

1. Crazy Catwoman- That whole stuffing plush toys down the disposal and randomly designing a skin-tight vinyl suit (all from apparently a single jacket, I might add); it just feels forced.  Oh, and when she says, "Sickos never scare me. At least they're committed," it sounds a lot like the kind of thing that girl in the corner at the back of the classroom who always wore the same unwashed Jack Skellington hoodie might have said.
2. "Eat Floor"- Throwing Catwoman to the ground, Batman says, "Eat floor- high in fiber."  Yeah...that's terrible.
3. Alfred- Michael Gough's Alfred always sucks, and he gets a lot worse in the Schumacher movies, but when Batman is watching the news, Alfred comes up and says, "Sir, shall we change the channel to a program with some dignity and class? "The Love Connection", perhaps?"  Shut up, Alfred!  It's the news!  And then he tries to manipulate Bruce into immediately rejecting the invitation to Shreck's masquerade ball, but when Bruce pauses and decides to go, Alfred is visibly upset!  Hey, Alfred!  You don't get a say in this!  You're the help, so shut up. 

Superman: Believe a Man Can Fly

SUPERMAN
(also known as: SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE) 
Released 15 December 1978
Directed by Richard Donner
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Valerie Perrine, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Marc McClure, Phyllis Thaxter
Rated PG for peril, some mild sensuality and language.
143 minutes

"You will carry me inside you, all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son."

It's easy to think back on Richard Donner's 1978 proto-superhero blockbuster, with Christopher Reeve in his simple blue and red spandex, and forget that it's actually a pretty good, surprisingly sophisticated movie.  It's a product of the late end of the New Hollywood movement which, from the late '60s to the early '80s, reinvented the mainstream film industry with bold directorial visions, new themes, realism and complexity.  However, near the end of the decade, thanks to the influence of blockbuster filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and in the light of real-world disillusionment in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, the pessimism of early New Hollywood films gave way to a nostalgic yearning for a new kind of old-fashioned entertainment.  SUPERMAN, or SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, as it's sometimes known, combines elements of '70s disaster films like EARTHQUAKE and AIRPORT with the old-fashioned pulp fantasy of the previous year's STAR WARS.

Oddly, before it was an assured success, SUPERMAN was pitched as the first of two parts, and although in most ways it still functions as a stand-alone film, but it feels a lot like the first half of today's usual superhero origin movie.  Opening on the planet Krypton, mysterious and sterile, the prologue actually takes the time to set up the sequel, as the planet's governing council, of which the wise scientist Jor-El (Marlon Brando) is a part, condemns a trio of insurrectionists to life sentences in the "Phantom Zone" (a slightly amusing effect by today's standards, of a square window into another, imprisoning dimension).  This is entirely inconsequential to this film, but is a crucial plot point in the sequel.  But Jor-El is under the council's suspicions as well, due to his inconvenient findings of the planet's imminent and soon-coming destruction.  Unable to convince the council to act, Jor-El and his wife send their infant son in a vessel to Earth, where his alien molecular structure will make him virtually indestructible, in addition to other supernatural abilities such as super strength, flight and x-ray vision.  Raised by simple Kansas farm folk, Jonathan and Martha Kent (Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter), he eventually learns of his origins.  After reaching adulthood, he travels to the big city of Metropolis to work as a reporter for The Daily Planet, and while maintaining his mild-mannered secret identity of Clark Kent from Smallville, Kansas, he introduces himself to the world as Superman, the brightly clad savior of those in need.

"I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way."

"You're gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!"

Like many of today's superhero movies, there's some sense of irony to the comic book source material, and yet, it's in regard to different things than what would concern today's movies.  For instance, the movie mines a lot of humor from the "golly gee whiz!" attitude of the early comic books and the popular Adventures of Superman TV series from the 1950s, such as a scene where Superman helps a little girl get a cat down from a tree, and when she runs inside to tell her mom, we overhear the mom say, "What have I told you about telling lies?", followed by the sound of a slap!  Meanwhile, at The Daily Planet, contrasting with the goofy naivete of Clark and Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure), Lois Lane (Margot Kidder, a highly unconventional but not necessarily bad choice for the female lead of this film), Clark's crush and co-worker, is usually working on a story with a sex and violence angle.  At its heart, SUPERMAN is pretty old-fashioned and innocent, but they work a surprising amount of innuendo which plays very nicely in the exchanges between Superman and Lois.  Possibly the movie's most famous moment, in which Superman takes Lois out for a nighttime flight is a predecessor to the upside-down kiss from SPIDER-MAN in terms of superhero romance, and I think had no small influence on the "Whole New World" sequence from Disney's ALADDIN, but the "song" (technically a song, but not in the typical sense as it's a poem in verse spoken, not sung, by Kidder) "Can You Read My Mind" does not play well at all today, if it even did back then.  It's weird and campy in a way that undercuts the scene, and the lyrics are laughable.  The orchestral soundtrack composed by John Williams, fresh off of STAR WARS the year before, however is top notch, with the triumphant and old-fashioned fanfare, a grand and romantic theme for Krypton, and the simple goofiness of a tuba for the theme of Lex Luthor's flabby, slow-witted henchman, Otis, played by Ned Beatty.

Especially in comparison to today's superhero films, the portrayal of the villains is striking.  As the criminal mastermind Lex Luthor, Gene Hackman is both disdainful and somewhat genial, and only occasionally menacing, but at those brief moments, he is effective.  All his scenes involve his genius villainy being undercut by incompetent help though, mostly in regards to the aforementioned Otis, as well as the slightly more able and cynical Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine), who develops a schoolgirl crush on Superman and ultimately helps him escape Luthor's clutches.  There's a lot of comedy in SUPERMAN, and most of it comes from the villains.  The best of it, however, comes from Reeve as the cowardly, bumbling bumpkin alter ego of Clark Kent.  One of the funniest scenes occurs when Clark and Lois are held up by a mugger in an alleyway, and while Lois is belligerent at the business end of a gun, Clark becomes increasingly frantic, but manages to catch the attacker's bullet in an instant and fakes having blacked out from shock.
Marlon Brando, a legend of the screen from the likes of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and two Oscar-winning turns in ON THE WATERFRONT and THE GODFATHER, but notoriously difficult to work with, laid the groundwork for the casting of revered actors like Jack Nicholson in comic book films, which might have otherwise been considered trivial.  Despite the little screen time of his nonetheless significant role, Brando received top billing ahead of Hackman (a similarly reputed actor already at the time), with Reeve coming in third, and in a hilariously kooky notion, Brando suggested the Kryptonians appear as green bagels or suitcases.  The DreamWorks Animation film MEGAMIND gave Brando's role a pretty good going-over in the role of "Space Dad", and while there are some campy elements like the perfectly coiffed white hair and Brando's slight lisp, his performance is genuinely thoughtful and bears a sense of sage wisdom.

"They can be a great people, Kal-El. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son."

The story is cleanly split into three sections; the first of Superman's infancy and childhood beginning on Krypton to the moment on Earth when, having discovered his alien heritage, he hurls a Kryptonian crystal into the Arctic ice, forming the Fortress of Solitude, where he receives his education from the artificial consciousness of Jor-El.  In the second, Superman is revealed to the world and goes about doing good, from as much as preventing major accidents and stopping robberies, to something as small as bringing a child's pet down from a tree.  The third and final section brings Superman face to face with his nemesis for the first time, Lex Luthor, who decides to preemptively kill Superman before he can intervene with a nefarious plot.

Superman always works best as a character when he's a savior, as opposed to a warrior, so the trick is setting up the proper climactic disaster for him to not quite avert, but to mitigate.  That's really tricky though, and the third act of SUPERMAN is a bit spotty.  [On a little bit of a tangent, when Superman receives an ultra-high frequency invitation from Luthor to stop him before he gases the city, Supes, as Clark, slips out a window and onscreen his suit inexplicably fades away to his cape and tights.  Maybe he can do that in the comics; I don't know, I've never read them, but it's a little weird.  There's also an amusing gag earlier commenting on the old tradition of Superman switching into his costume in phone booths, when he runs to a pay phone and realizes that the idea of phone booths are a bit dated even in 1978 when pay phones were still relevant].  In an extended version of the film, there's a somewhat amusing sequence when Superman arrives at Luthor's lair, a sequence that's specifically designed to showcase Superman's powers as Luthor cracks wise with one-liners like, "You like dimples? I'll give you dimples," and unleashes a thick hail of machine gun fire on him, which just strolls through, then, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the tunnel," and blasts him with flamethrowers, and finally "Take a chill-pill," as he freezes Superman solid in a block of ice, from which he breaks free.  It's a scene that just kind of tickles me, because there's no reason for it to be there (hence it's absence from the theatrical cut), and Luther knows darn well that none of this will faze him, but it's a big special effects sequence that practically breaks the fourth wall in order to show off Superman's invulnerability. 
The exchange between the two when Superman enters Luthor's lair is one of the moments where the movie really crackles with energy as Luthor, a character who has so far been mostly comic, gets to embrace a slightly more menacing side, while still maintaining a wry amusement toward it all.

"Is that how a warped brain like yours gets its kicks? By planning the deaths of innocent people?"

"No, by causing the deaths of innocent people."

From the other side, Reeve's presence as Superman in this scene is disarming; it feels like being on the wrong side of a parental scolding.  Of course, it's a villain cliche when Luthor explains his whole plan to Superman, but gosh darn it, he does it so well.  He has it all mapped out and pretty on the floor, crushing the glass map with a pointer at the spot where a 500 megaton bomb (rerouted while in transport by some disappointingly irresponsible military personnel who become distracted by Miss Teschmacher's outrageous cleavage) will strike the San Andreas Fault, sending the west coast as we know it into the Pacific Ocean.  It's a solid scheme, opening up all of Luthor's desert wasteland real estate to a new west coast, but for whatever reason, he opted to send another diversionary missile right for where Miss Teschmacher's mom lives and failed to keep an eye on his obviously disgruntled employee/girlfriend after he tosses a Kryptonite-laden Superman into the pool to drown.  Negligence was Luthor's real crime, if you ask me.
The big destruction scenes are still impressive, especially when Superman flies directly into the glowing molten rock of the San Andreas Fault to pull the tectonic plates back together.  Disaster films were very much in vogue in the '70s, and SUPERMAN delivers on that front, with the fracturing of the Hoover Dam and a resulting flood, huge fissures in the ground, and even Lois Lane, driving out on a desert road to report on the mysterious buyer (Lex Luthor) of swathes of land, is lost when her car is swallowed up by one of these crevices, slowly and agonizingly burying her in her car full of dirt.  It's an impressive moment, hearkening back to an earlier moment in the film when a young Clark Kent laments the death by heart attack of his adoptive father, "All those things I can do. All those powers, and I couldn't even save him."  Rushing around to save cities and millions of people, Superman is still unable to save the one person he cares about most, and it could be a powerful moment, except that he decides to completely reverse time by orbiting Earth at tremendous speed so that Lois is never buried in the car in the first place.  The flying around the Earth effect looks great (it was originally intended to wrap up the second film, but was moved to the first one in case it wasn't financially successful), but the plot point sucks.  It's a cheat.  If it isn't a "time travel movie", it's almost always a better idea to leave time travel out of it, because it nullifies the meaning of any consequences when they can be reversed.

"It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history."

SUPERMAN has to be taken in with some understanding.  In many ways, it's sophisticated film from a general standpoint, but credit is also due as it set the groundwork for the modern superhero movie.  Before it, the most notable comic book-based movie was probably the 1966 feature film to the Batman TV series, BATMAN: THE MOVIE, which was a wholly different kind of beast, a campy comedy spun off from a TV show.  There had been the '50s TV series starring George Reeves (I've never seen the actual show, but I have seen the I Love Lucy episode when Reeves showed up for Ricky Jr.'s birthday party), and lots of superhero characters appeared in cheaply produced serials in the '40s, but SUPERMAN is the first big budget Hollywood production of a comic book movie, and one which treats the material with real legitimacy.

Top 3 of SUPERMAN

1. Christopher Reeve is Superman- As Clark Kent, Reeve is a very genuinely funny physical comedian, and as Superman, he has just the right combination of innocence, commanding presence and nobility.
2. Original Musical Score by John Williams- Yet another iconic musical score by John Williams, the main fanfare is deserving of its status as one of the all time great movie main themes.
3. Lex Luthor Educates Superman- The whole scene from when Superman arrives at Luthor's lair, as Luthor reveals his plan, hangs the Kryptonite pendant around his neck and attempts to drown the Man of Steel, right up until Superman escapes is just a blast in the beautiful abandoned subway station set, with the interplay between Reeve and Hackman, and the presence of real threat.  It doesn't have much in the way of special effects, but it's a thrill nonetheless. 

Bottom 3 of SUPERMAN

1. "Can You Read My Mind"- "Can you read my mind? Do you know what it is that you do to me? I don't know who you are. Just a friend from another star."  Ugh, it's gross.
2. Time Travel Superman- Okay, well I guess if things ever get really bad, we always know that Superman can just fix it by reversing time.  That's just great.
3.  N/A- I don't know.  There are a lot of little things, but there's nothing worthwhile that comes to mind as a third.

SUPERMAN II
Released 19 June 1981
Directed by Richard Lester
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas, Jack O'Halloran, Valerie Perrine, Jackie Cooper, Ned Beatty
Rated PG for unspecified reasons (sequences of action violence, some language, smoking and brief mild sensuality).
127 minutes

"Kneel before Zod!"

SUPERMAN II was planned and partially shot at the same time as the first film, but director Richard Donner didn't get along well with his producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler, so during the production of SUPERMAN, another director, Richard Lester, acted as a mediator between them.  SUPERMAN II was shot over two separate periods, and prior to the second period, Donner either willingly departed or was fired, leaving Lester to complete the majority of shooting.  Donner was uncredited for his work on the sequel, and while Marlon Brando had already finished all his scenes with Donner, a lawsuit he'd filed for profits of the first film he believed he was due resulted in his scenes being cut from SUPERMAN II.  In 2006, Richard Donner's footage and his vision for the film, as much as it could be recreated, was restored in a new and completely redefining cut released as SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT.  As such, there are two perfectly legitimate versions of this film, but I only had time for one of them.  I don't think I've ever seen THE RICHARD DONNER CUT, but for now I rewatched the original theatrical version credited to Richard Lester, since I think there's a better argument for it as the official canon of the series.
Lester previously directed A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and HELP!, both starring the Beatles, and worked with the Salkinds on another double feature shoot of THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973) and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1974; check them out sometime, they're both fun, solid adventure action-comedies), and his sensibilities are polished but somewhat more comedic than Donner's.  He's definitely more playful with the material, which can also be taken as less reverential, so Donner is usually the preference of Superman fans.

The first film opens with a scene that is disconnected from the rest of its plot, showing the sentencing of three radicals on Krypton, led by the megalomaniacal General Zod (Terence Stamp), with his right-hand woman Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and the dimwitted brute Non (Jack O'Halloran), cast out into the Phantom Zone by Superman's father, Jor-El.  This sets up SUPERMAN II, and yet, this scene is repeated in somewhat lackluster fashion in the opening of this film, glaringly absent of Brando, while the opening credits then recap the events of the first film, again, glaringly absent of Brando (Superman's mother Lara, played by Susannah York, replaces him as the parental figure).  When Superman intervenes with a terrorist plot, hurling their hydrogen bomb into outer space, the explosion breaks the Kryptonian trio free, and they subsequently travel to Earth with world conquering still very much on their minds, and now with abilities that are equivalent to the Man of Steel.

"So this is planet Houston."

Meanwhile, reporting alongside Clark Kent, Lois Lane begins to have suspicions about him and Superman, and while doing some undercover reporting at a Niagara Falls resort, his cover is blown.  No longer forced to hide, he takes Lois to the Fortress of Solitude where he forsakes his powers in order to live an ordinary life and they consummate their love.  A lot of this is pretty convenient, to be honest, introducing new plot elements when necessary, and sometimes even when unnecessary to further drive the point home.  Ironically, while the first film was ahead enough to set up the sequel's plot, SUPERMAN II sees fit to repeat that scene and then makes up a lot of exposition as it goes along.  I'll buy that a nuclear blast will break open the Phantom Zone, but when a recording in the Fortress of Solitude specifies it, it brings to the foreground how goofy that is, that Superman should be aware that hurling WMDs into space could potentially unleash a trio of supervillains, and it just so happens that when he threw that one, Zod and company were flying past.  Just let it happen and don't bring it up, because then you're making a big deal of it.  A similar issue, but one that I think works better anyway is that of Superman's logically flimsy secret identity, parting his hair to the other side and putting on some glasses, but nobody seems to notice, and the suspension of disbelief usually works.  SUPERMAN II is notably more campy than its predecessor, in part because of these kinds of plot points, and also because Lester's sensibilities are just more humorous, and in contrast to Donner's.

"They've killed Superman! What are we gonna do now?"

 "Let's go get 'em ourselves! C'mon, I know some judo!"

The idea of the hero forsaking his abilities to live a normal life, something in the vein of The Last Temptation of Christ, particularly where Superman is concerned, has been done better in later superhero sequels that it influenced (SPIDER-MAN 2, for instance), but credit is due for laying the groundwork.  On the other hand, Superman's debate, first whether to become an ordinary person, and then whether it's better to live an ordinary life with Lois or alone as Superman, is disappointingly short-lived.  Soon after Superman, or rather, merely Clark, and Lois return to civilization (how is not clear, giving that he flew her out to the Fortress of Solitude in the middle of the Arctic), Clark gets the crap beat out of him by a bullying trucker and his regrets are not exactly subtle.  Worse, at about the same time, Zod and his cohorts have arrived on Earth and begun staking a claim to the planet by way of intimidation and destruction.  Lex Luthor has also escaped from prison and discovered the Fortress of Solitude, hatches an opportunistic scheme to offer his services to Zod as having an inside track to the only one who can possibly stop them: Superman.
Zod isn't much of a conqueror, finding out soon after subjugating the President of the United States on TV and setting up residence in the White House that ruling a planet isn't very exciting without someone putting up a fight about it.  Terence Stamp isn't a great actor, rarely deviating from a very straightforward line delivery in his low, commanding voice, but given the right role, he makes an effective screen presence, and General Zod is exactly the right role.  Even though Non is the dumb one of the trio, Zod never seems terribly bright himself and motivated by little more than his own intense narcissism.  The villains are occasionally played with a 'fish out of water' angle, and when Luthor shows up, it's a new variation on the villain and his henchmen dynamic from the first film.  Luthor's still the smart one, but now he's the flunky.  The comedy in this case is less cartoony than the buffoonish antics of Ned Beatty, who gets left in the penitentiary when Luthor makes his escape, and the interplay has definitely improved.

"Even with all this accumulated knowledge, when will these dummies learn to use a door knob?"

Like the first film, there is a big plot cop-out, where it's made explicitly clear before he forsakes his powers that there would be no going back.  Obviously, no one in the audience actually believes that, but one would hope that getting back his powers would be a little trickier than picking the right crystal to restore them off-screen. 

The climactic battle between Superman and Zod, Ursa and Non is fascinating from today's perspective where epic, physically impossible and destructive (sometimes too destructive as in the case of a certain later Superman movie) battles between super beings are the order of the day, rendered in state-of-the-art CGI and massive special effects budgets.  The battle in SUPERMAN II has ambitions about equal to today's superhero movies, at least the ones from about 10 years ago like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, but is forced within the bounds of 1980 technology.  The battle frequently bounces between shots of one of the Kryptonians hurling something big at citizens, or sometimes hurling citizens, then cutting to Superman catching them, and shots of either Superman or one of the other Kryptonians dealing a blow to the other, then cutting to them hitting a building or a truck with destructive impact.  Action shot, then cut to impact shot, and repeat.  Ironically, after Superman makes a point to Lois in the first film that, "You really shouldn't smoke, Miss Lane," the production infamously accepted a reported $42,500 in exchange for a prominent brand presence in the film that most notably included a shot of Superman being thrown into a Marlboro truck with the brand logo prominently emblazoned across it (in spite of the fact that tobacco shipping vehicles are unmarked for security reasons).  Later in the same scene, a taxi can be seen in the background with a Marlboro advertisement, and throughout the movie, Lois Lane smokes cigarettes, without comment from a judgemental Superman this time.  The paid 22 appearances of the brand in the film, unmistakably aimed at a youth audience, later led to a congressional investigation of Marlboro.
SUPERMAN II is usually taken as a superior sequel to the original, and while it does do some interesting things that later contributed heavily to the modern superhero genre, it's more scattershot than the first film, largely because of the dual shoot with two different directors, but also because it tries to do a lot more, and doesn't always find the right balance between all of it.  It's another movie that is more interesting for the groundwork it lays than for what it is in itself.  These two films were originally conceived as all part of one gigantic epic, which is such an interesting idea coming out of the New Hollywood of the 1970s.

"Good afternoon, Mr. President. Sorry I've been away so long. I won't let you down again."

Top 3 of SUPERMAN 2

1. Superman Comes Clean- Even though it proves to be temporary, there's a pleasant sense of relief and a sweetness to Clark/Superman bonding with Lois when his secret identity becomes known.  It's just nice.
2. "Garbage Eating Garbage"- This moment makes me laugh a lot harder than it really should, when Clark, newly re-endowed with his powers, returns to the diner where Rocky (Pepper Martin), the bullying trucker is berating the kitchen staff, calling the food garbage.  Bespectacled, nerdy Clark walks in and says, "Gee, that's funny. I've never seen garbage eating garbage before."  Another great laugh line is when the president whispers, "Oh, God," and Zod, narcissistic as ever, responds, "Zod!" 
3. "Bye-bye, Baby!"- I like the flippant way that Lois decides to bet her life on Clark secretly being Superman, cracking, "Bye-bye, baby!" as she jumps over the guardrail into the Niagara Falls river with absurd self-assurance.

Bottom 3 of SUPERMAN II

1. Superman Gets His Powers Back- It isn't so much that he gets his powers back.  Everyone knows that no matter what Lara says, Superman will have some way of going back on his decision, but couldn't they have come up with some better way of getting there.  Have there be some sort of loophole or sacrifice he can make.  Once again, consequences are entirely inconsequential.
2.  Tonal Inconsistencies- It's more coherent than you might expect for a split production between two directors, but it's still pretty uneven, the use of body doubles is occasionally shoddy and Margot Kidder's famously troubled personal life results in distinct physical difference between her Donner scenes and Lester scenes.
3. Ending in the Fortress of Solitude- I don't mind Superman throwing a weird magical cellophane 'S' shield at Non, tangling him up.  It's a bit funny and it reminds me of a Fruit Roll-Up.  But what's with the dry ice pit that Superman throws the de-powered Kryptonians into?  Is it just water beneath the ice?  Is it a portal?  Did he just kill them?  What was that all about?