"The views expressed in this article are solely the original writer's views and not
necessarily the views expressed by the translator, unless where specifically noted, or the webmaster of Superman CINEMA."

Immediately following the successful performance of Superman, the producers proceeded to make several adjustments in the production team before resuming filming on Superman II (important parts of the sequel had been filmed simultaneously with the first film).

The most obvious changes were the dismissal of director Richard Donner, who was replaced by Richard Lester, the elimination of the scenes filmed by Marlon Brando, for which he was not paid his high salaries, and the departure of John Williams from conducting the score.

All these measures have been basically motivated by the reduction of the budget. The excellent result of the first film secured the result of the second, but now it was not necessary to incur as many high expenses for a production that was equally as successful.

For the replacing of John Williams, the new director Richard Lester invited his friend, British composer Ken Thorne, to assume responsibility for the music.

The conditions of his work turned out rather simple, since his instruction was to re-use the music composed by Williams for the first film, without any type of restrictions. This last thought signifies that it could be possible to textually copy arrangements utilized in the first film, to do proper arrangements of about the same music and included taking directly from the original recording of the cues and applied to the sequences that seemed convenient. That is definitely not able to do enough to compose many proper cues that decrease the spirit of the original music.

From that point of view, all of the fans of the Williams score would have to be tranquil, however it seems a little inconvenient: because the new policy was to reduce the budget, all of Thorne's work would have to be interpreted by a reduced orchestra (mainly because of cost and the recording facilities) of which it has no antecedent already that never gets any mention about it.

The main credits indicate the following reference to the music: "Music composed and conducted by Ken Thorne"; however, immediately afterwards, the following message appears: "Based on original material composed by John Williams".

This is the truth about the music of Superman II. The general tendency of the critics has been to treat it as an insult to the original work by Williams, a work lacking in motivation and spectacle, a poor copy of a monumental work, etc. Besides, all of it is directly critical of Ken Thorne, who has not received any merit or recognition.

Before any consideration, I ought to signify that I am not in defense of Thorne, however this opinion is not one I would consider with each film. How I was able to judge a music whose work was very limited, where the creative capacity was very reduced and where I can show almost none of the style. This work is nearly limited to reorchestate cues that were already composed, but with a much more limited orchestra, in that it finally remains reflected in the quality of the sound of the music.

The prime aspect that I wanted to solve was to know exactly how much proper music Thorne contributed to this soundtrack. When one abundantly hears the album with the original soundtrack of Superman and in time committed it to memory, I proceeded to view Superman II, selecting all of the musical sequences to analyze the criteria previously pointed out.

Each cue that was selected was broken down according to the following parameters:

Proper Composition
This corresponds to the segments of each cue that are unpublished cues by Ken Thorne.

Re-Arrangements of Original Cues
This corresponds to the personal arrangements that Ken Thorne had about cues already composed for the original soundtrack.

Re-Execution of Cues Already in Existence
This corresponds to the interpretation of parts already composed for the first film, but with the orchestra of the second film.

Usage of Tracks From the Original Soundtrack
This corresponds to scenes that were musicalized with compositions extracted directly from the recording of the original soundtrack, not permitting any intervention of the musical team of the second film.

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