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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 429020" data-attributes="member: 23">I can relate.  With films I invariably want to give it my full attention by watching it mindfully (i.e. doing nothing else but giving the film my full attention, without distractions such as eating food, pottering about, looking at a phone or computer screen, ironing or any other "multitasking"). This really adds to the time pressure. As I've got older I also can't do late evening viewings without getting sleepy, so to watch a film of The Last Emperor length I'd probably have to begin watching no later than 6pm, which is very limiting .Like you, I've grown up watching the Lester Cut, so I don't come down too harshly on it. When I was young and less discerning, this film was up there with the original for me.I feel Lester's ill-fitting quirk is tempered a little in his Superman II by fitting around the other material. And it has the advantage of being fully realised rather than than patched together many years later which means the Donner Cut we can watch today isn't always as polished or "finished" as Lester's (such as the rough screen test footage of Lois firing a gun at Clark which appears in the Donner Cut).There is the odd scene of Lester's that I feel is an improvement. Lois jumping out of The Daily Planet window is a little too extreme, compared with her dive into the waters of Niagara Falls which plays better.Overall, though I feel Donner's vision of the film was better, and there are a number of films that just make more sense . An example of this is the Kryptonian criminals being released by the blast set off by Luthor in the first film, which is a nice touch of continuity and makes things feel more expansive (I do feel the Eiffel Tower sequence is some of Lester's best work in the film, so I'm glad we have that too, but it's a shame it  comes at the expense of the flow between the first film and this one).Watching as an adult, there are just some Lester moments that I find distracting because of the forced "quirky" tone. The taxi running into Clark and ending up dented is one. Or that man continuing to take his call after the phone box is blown onto its side by the Kryptonians. The worst offender for me is Clark tripping over the rug, which gives away his identity. Clark's bumbling awkwardness is an act, and not even the allusion to his fall happening because he deep down "wanted" it to happen doesn't hold water. Clark should be above such Freudian errors. It's literally in his superhero name.As far as Lester ruining the franchise.. he may not have done it here, but the seeds were sown. And then he was given free comic rein on Superman III.I believe Gene Hackman didn't shoot anything with Lester, so all of Lex's shots would be Donner.</blockquote>

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