Arts The Michigan Daily Saturday, June 20, 1981 Page9 A not-so-super sequel By TOM NUNEZ Daily arts writer If you stayed long enough to watch all of the credits roll by in Superman, the Movie, you would have noticed the quiet announcement that Superman II would be coming next year. Well, it's next year already, and so, for many of you, the long and torturous wait is over. You may find, however, that Superman II was not quite worth the wait; it offers only a mixed bag of images that pales next to the original adventure. Mario Puzo has served up the good (but somewhat predictable) story that this saga requires. There are two levels to the script - the first being the long- awaited love affair between Lois Lane and Superman/Clark Kent, and the second being Superman's battle to defeat the evil General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his cohorts, Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran). THE FILM OPENS with a series of images from the first film interspliced with the opening credits, leading us to believe that this installment will come racing out of the starting gate. In fact, it is a few mere seconds after the credits that Clark Kent does a visually impressive change to Superman in or- der to save Lois from a nuclear bomb planted in the elevator of the Eiffel Tower. Superman then deposits this bomb into outer space, where its ex- plosion inadvertently releases the aforementioned Kryptonian prisoners from their one-dimensional prison. This is where the film becomes very muddy, misdirected, and - at times - jarringly uncohesive. It's as if director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, Help) wanted to play for as many laughs as he could to cover up the fact that he didn't know what to do with the story. It seems he would have preferred to have told the story of the romance, but because there was a second element to the plot, he decided to play table tennis with the film, ping-ponging back and forth between the two. The result is a series of disorienting cuts; one minute we're with Lois and Clark, the next minute we're with the bad guys, then back to Lois and Clark, and on and on as such. LESTER ALSO has the villains doing a lot of irrelevant and uninteresting things along the way. The first two en- counters - hassling American astronauts on the moon and taking over a small Texas town - come off as time- killers. There is nothing here to make us care that these evil beings want to take over the Earth. The Texas sequen- ce is especially lead-footed as Lester trots out all of the obligatory heat- and gravity-ray effects. A little of John Williams' classic tension-building score might have aided this lackluster scene, but alas, it is nowhere to be found. Gene Hackman is still having a won- derful time with his Lex Luthor role, which makes it just as fun to watch him. It's too bad that we hardly get to see him this time around. Terence Stamp and Sarah Douglas Christopher Reeve is back as Superman to safeguard truth, justice, and the American way against the evil forces of the galaxy. Isn't it ironic that he should succumb instead to poor filmmaking? Pick Hits are seductively ominous as General Zod and Ursa. They would have been marvelous in the film that should have been made. CHRISTOPHER Reeve and Margot Kidder are the only outstanding elements in the film, as their charac- terizations grow ever more complex with their deepening relationship. In the much-heralded scene where Clark Kent reveals his true identity (among other things) to Lois Lane, Reeve bristles with a charisma and charm that overrides many of the film's faults and elicits the only real squeals of delight from the audience. The first film truly captured the essence of the legend of Superman, one of the most enduring and interesting folk heroes of modern time. It's a story that encompasses mysticism, joy, tragedy, and eternal hope. It should not be a story filled with slapstick comedy and one-liners. In the closing sequence, Superman tells the President that he is sorry and that he promises not to let him down the next time. I certainly hope he's right. SAVE STUDENT AID COME TO THE PANEL DISCUSSION ON STUDENT AID Tuesday, June 23rd-7:30 p.m. Michigan Union Assembly Hall SPEAKERS INCLUDE: -PERRY BULLARD, State Representative -JIM ZIMMERMAN, Associate Director of UM financial aid office -ROSE HOOPER, Coordinator of Academic Affairs for the graduate school -A spokesman from U.S. Sen. Carl Levin's office -The legal director of U.S..Rep. Jim Dunn's office -A spokesperson from Metropolitan Savings, one of the state's largest providers of guaranteed student loans S A MICHIGAN SPONSORED BY: PIRGIM, ASUENTY MSA, LSA-SG, GEO, Coali- tion for a Fair Budget. For more information call Pirgim 662-6597 Gang of Four MUSIC The Gang of Four - Even if they weren't the only major band playing Ann Arbor in the next two weeks, the Gang of Four would still be the musical event of the coming fortnight. Hell, they may well be the event of the sum- mer in Ann Arbor. This British quartet sandwiches heavily political lyrics into a disjointed funk sound owing as much to James Brown as the Sex Pistols. Not to be missed. Tuesday, June 30; Second Chance, $8.00.