I'd better add a spoiler warning - I don't think I will be spoiling anything which hasn't already been mentioned, but better safe than sorry.
I've been really looking forward to the Donner version since it was announced. After all, it's the Holy Grail, isn't it? And it's good to see the reinstated sequences, and it's good to see the departure of the cellophane S and the teleportation game etc., not to mention much of the misplaced humour (good riddance).
There are flaws - some of the old ones remain, and the recutting has created new ones: the "Planet Houston" sequence, for instance, no longer has the appalling "Please don't hurt my daddy" child (hooray), but has been hacked about so comprehensively that there is no longer any flow to it - it might as well have been cut from the movie completely (and the fact that the return to the diner at the end involves Clark exacting retribution for an offence which Rocky retrospectively never committed - very un-Supermanly! - has already been mentioned).
And I thought the screen test scene used for the Niagara Hotel unmasking was TERRIBLY jarring visually - I didn't think it fitted at all. It leapt off the screen at me and invited me to suspend my suspension of disbelief - wow, it was bad.
But my main disappointment is that, notwithstanding the new beginning and ending sequences, and various other additions and removals, in the end, the film just didn't feel that different to me.
And then I watched the various documentaries and listened to how bitter Donner is towards Lester, and wondered why. Lester was no more than an artisan for hire - he did the job he was hired for. His brief included a degree of revision to Donner's vision and, in working within that brief, he honoured Donner's vision as much as he could, it can now been seen. Donner's spleen should be reserved for the Salkinds, and not Lester - I was left with distaste at the way Donner can't even bring himself to speak Lester's name, an expression of disrespect out of all proportion to Lester's responsibility for what Donner suffered.
My feeling, scorewise, is 5 out of 10 for disappointment, but I give it 7 because it's still an entertaining film.
I've been really looking forward to the Donner version since it was announced. After all, it's the Holy Grail, isn't it? And it's good to see the reinstated sequences, and it's good to see the departure of the cellophane S and the teleportation game etc., not to mention much of the misplaced humour (good riddance).
There are flaws - some of the old ones remain, and the recutting has created new ones: the "Planet Houston" sequence, for instance, no longer has the appalling "Please don't hurt my daddy" child (hooray), but has been hacked about so comprehensively that there is no longer any flow to it - it might as well have been cut from the movie completely (and the fact that the return to the diner at the end involves Clark exacting retribution for an offence which Rocky retrospectively never committed - very un-Supermanly! - has already been mentioned).
And I thought the screen test scene used for the Niagara Hotel unmasking was TERRIBLY jarring visually - I didn't think it fitted at all. It leapt off the screen at me and invited me to suspend my suspension of disbelief - wow, it was bad.
But my main disappointment is that, notwithstanding the new beginning and ending sequences, and various other additions and removals, in the end, the film just didn't feel that different to me.
And then I watched the various documentaries and listened to how bitter Donner is towards Lester, and wondered why. Lester was no more than an artisan for hire - he did the job he was hired for. His brief included a degree of revision to Donner's vision and, in working within that brief, he honoured Donner's vision as much as he could, it can now been seen. Donner's spleen should be reserved for the Salkinds, and not Lester - I was left with distaste at the way Donner can't even bring himself to speak Lester's name, an expression of disrespect out of all proportion to Lester's responsibility for what Donner suffered.
My feeling, scorewise, is 5 out of 10 for disappointment, but I give it 7 because it's still an entertaining film.