Confused about scene in Superman II

[csw621]

In Superman II, when the Krypton guys throw the bus at Superman, why doesn't he stop it, or get out of the way, or even stand there and the bus would just slice down the middle and keep going around him? Do you see what I'm saying? And don't say it's because of how hard they threw it. That doesn't make any sense because the bus is still just a regular Earth bus.

Thanks for any help, as I am very comfused.

[DoctorZero]

It's been a while since I've seen the film, but weren't there people in the bus?  I seem to recall people climbing out of it after it hit.  I could be wrong, however, since I haven't watched the entire movie in a long, long time.

[csw621]

There were people in the bus, but that still doesn't explain why he couldn't stop it. There are also major fluctuations in his powers throughout the movies, TV shows, and comic books. For example, in Superman III I think it was, Lois Lane is killed and he flies around the Earth until it actually starts spinning in the other direction, turning back time allowing him to save Lois. Now if he can move that fast, surely he could have gotten everyone safely out of the bus before it crashed, right?

[DoctorZero]

That was Superman I where he turned back time to save Lois.  Lois had a cameo in Superman III.  They used Lana instead.
But you're right.  He should have been able to actually stop the bus without sliding all the way down the street.
If you want to rationalize it, maybe the street surface couldn't hold up to his pressure against the bus, or maybe if he anchored himself the entire bus would have been smashed and the people killed.
There were a lot of flaws in Superman II.  Like how the Zone villains has more powers than Superman;  how Superman could remove his S Shield and throw it and have it enlarge to wrap around someone and still have it on his chest, how Superman could be in several places at once in his fortress.
Maybe if the original version were kept it would have been better.  Superman II was supposed to follow Superman I directly.  As I had heard, the atomic missle Luthor shot off that Superman pushed into space was supposed to have freed the Zone villains and Superman was supposed to have had his powers removed because he violated Jor-El's rule about not interfering with human history by saving Lois.  The switch in directors plus the problems with Marlon Brando's contract required a lot of what was shot during the filming of Superman I for the second film to be scrapped.

[csw621]

They didn't have more powers than him, there were three of them. Superman has always had relatively slow reflexes. He wasn't in several places at once, they were holograms. And I can't explain the S thing. It wasn't a missile, radiation waves from the hydrogen bomb in the elevator (from the Eiffel Tower) shattered the phantom square thing, subsequently freeing the three Kryptonian villains imprisoned within. And don't even get me started on the giant enveloping emblem. And as for Marlon Brando, he was only on screen for like nine minutes, why did he even have a contract?

[Johnny Nevada]

Speaking of the film and its final confrontation, did always wonder (and somewhat bothered by) what happened to the Phantom Zone villains at the end, there---they just get knocked into that pit and presumably are killed? Even for thugs as loathsome as these three, it seems to me a rather, um, Byrne-like solution... ;-)

[DoctorZero]

Well, the Zone villains could point their fingers and levitate people.  I can't recall seeing even Superman doing that in the films.  
Of course, one can rationalize that maybe they had those abilities before the sent into the Zone and that was how they tried to take over Krypton.  It might also explain why putting them into the Phantom Zone was the only solution.
Yes, the pit bothered me, too.  Seems like Superman and Lois killed all three villains at the end.
That was always the problem with the Superman movies.  A lot of things never made any sense and no attempt was made to explain it.

[The Starchild]

They don't die at the end.  I've seen the extended version of the moive, where there is a scene at the end showing the "Arctic Police" putting them under arrest and loading them into a van.  (Got it off ebay)

It also had the scene that showed Clark going back to pay for the hot dog at Niagra Falls.

Nice little touches - too bad they were cut out.