11 Movies Where The Reshoots Were Painfully Obvious
6. Superman II
The original Superman movies were the first ones to truly capture the feel of a comic book on film. All was not well during the ambitious shoot however. The first two Christopher Reeve movies were shot back-to-back and director Richard Donner was constantly at odds with the producers. They ultimately decided to finish the shoot before all of Superman II was completed so they could focus on making the first movie a hit.
However, after Superman was that huge hit, the producers decided to fire Donner from the second one. Most of the footage that had already been shot was scrapped and reshot by the new director, who brought a lighter comedy touch to it.
This results in a tug of war between the tone set by the first movie and the wackiness bolted onto the second. This is most obvious in the final showdown in Metropolis, which has several dumb sight gags like a man's wig being blown off. In fact, most of the Donner footage that was used were the elements involving Gene Hackman, as he refused to return out of loyalty to Donner.
A directors cut of Superman II was released years later that restored most of Donner's footage back into it. Most fans tend to agree his was the superior version.