I believe the greatest mistake was made by the Salkinds, by attempting to make two huge movies at the same time. It would have been like making star wars and empire strikes back at the same time. Nevertheless, Donner did a hell of Job to try and pull it off, and superman the Movie is a classic that I grew up with as a kid. However, a lot of Donner's S II footage looks a little tired to me. Lois lane jumping out the window was silly, and some of the action fight scenes in metropolis were dreadful. It looks to me as if the Salkinds actually had no choice but to bring in someone fresh to replace a drained Donner struggling to find creative Ideas to complete the project. If Donner was allowed to concentrate on one movie at a time, I think S II would have been better than lester's version. On the commentary, Donner came across as still being very bitter, and he didn't give Lester any credit at all for what were some great scenes that improved the movie no end compared to Donner's. I think Donner was exhausted and frustrated, and you could tell that his movie was suffering. That being said, it is still a Donner / Lester movie, and much of Donner's work makes S II what it is. Both Directors combined made a great film, and if Brando's scenes were included in the theatrical version, it would be a completed movie where both directors must share the credit. The Salkinds had the money but no movie making sense. We have Lester's Version, and Donner's patched up version, and now we need the ultimate version with the best of both movies, but I'm afraid, apart from the Brando scenes, and a few others, it will mostly be the original theatrical release. Lester deserves more credit for injecting some fresh direction into a movie that we can now see was struggling.