Superman II is a 1980 movie that is a sequel to Superman from 1978.

The movie starred: Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor; Christopher Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent; Ned Beatty as Otis; Jackie Cooper as Perry White; Sarah Douglas as Ursa; Margot Kidder as Lois Lane; Jack O'Halloran as Non; Valerie Perrine as Eve Teschmacher; Susannah York as Lara; Clifton James as Sheriff; E.G. Marshall as The President; Marc McGlure as Jimmy Olsen; and Terence Stamp as General Zod.

The story picks up from where the story in Superman: The Movie left off. Superman is attempting to save Paris, France from a terrorist nuclear bomb by flinging it into space. Unfortunately, the explosion allowed the prisoners of the Phantom Zone to be released, unleashing three super-powered villains. Superman is unaware of this while Lois discovers his secret identity, and after debating with the Kryptonian Elders (represented by his mother Lara) about being in love with a 'mortal', he agrees to give up his Kryptonian powers to marry her. Returning from the Fortress of Solitude, Lois and Clark discover both that the Earth has been conquered by Zod, and that Clark (now without his powers) can't even stand up against a diner's bullying customer, forcing Clark to return to the Fortress and plead for his powers back. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor has escaped from prison and discovered the Fortress of Solitude, and has negotiated with Zod a means to capture Superman by holding his favorite among the humans, Lois Lane.

Controversy

Off-screen problems hampered production of this movie: like other Salkind productions such as the Three Musketeers (1973) and Four Musketeers (1974), this was filmed at the same time as the first Superman movie to be a direct sequel. However, Marlon Brando filed suit over his percentage of the first film's profits, so as a response his scenes were excised from the second film. Director Richard Donner argued with the producers over their attempts to make the film 'more campy,' in his opinion, which led to his removal and replacement on the project by Richard Lester. Following that, Gene Hackman declined to return for any reshoots by Lester, which cut down the amount of scenes he appears in the final cut (or with a few scenes where a body double was obviously being used).

Despite all the difficulties, and with only a few noticeable shifts in tone between the two directors' scenes (Lester's scenes tend more to camp and humor), this is still a remarkable and coherent film, highlighted by the movie's battle sequence between Superman and the three Phantom Zone prisoners on the streets of Metropolis, which has yet to be topped by any other superhero movie.

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