Rating:  -
This movie is bad, but there is one redeeming plot line - the internal struggel of Superman with his alter-ego, Clark Kent. The personalities split in a junk yard fight that is truly fun and intriging; however, beyond that - the movie is a waist. Richard Pryor is poorly used and Robert Vaugne is too camp.
Rating:  -
The opening scene starts with a shot where, Mr. White, and Jimmy busy setup the Travel photo shot - bingo winner promotion at the Daily Planet. Gus Gormon plot to control the weather satellite will spoil the luck winners Wedding trip too South America. Lois is departing for the tropical islands for her next assignment. Clark and Jimmy are on assigned too Smallville to write an article about class reunions, "the prodigal son and his photographer going home".
Gus Gormon is a computer genius. Gus, receives $143.80 a week. Gus invents "Salami Slicing" routing ½ cent unpaid transactions "floating around" in the computer into his expense account. Ross Webster's accountant GL reports trace the 85k of missing to Gus. Ross calls Gus a "naughty genius". Ross never wears the same socks twice. Ross wants Gus to help him to corner the coffee market. Ross tells Gus, jail is for rapist and robbers and the rapist rob the robbers, implying a torturous option for Gus. Russ wants to create an artificial scarcity and control the price of coffee by destroying the Columbia harvests positioning him too "dictate the economy of the free market". How? Russ wants Gus to reprogram the Vulcan satellite to cause weather disturbances: rainy seasons, hurricanes, and tornados, in Columbia. Gus says he will need a small Mickie Mouse terminal to do the work. One is found in the city of Smallville.
Coffee scarcity is short-term, eventually an greenhouse method of supplying coffee would meet world demand. Russ's dream of controlling the free market was a deception.
On bus route to Smallville, a Chemical fire interrupts Jimmy and Clark journey. Jimmy wants exclusive pictures telling Clark, "Danger goes with the territory, Mr. Kent". Clark transforms into superman, the pumphouse fails, and the firemen are without water and the fire threatens a storage unit of corrosive solid acid which is about to become vapor; acid vapor that can eat through steel/everything and destroy all life on earth. Superman blows compressed currents of cooled air at a nearby lake, then he lifts the lake to the fire, and drops it, and the ice changes to water from the heat and extinguishes the flame. One fireman exclaims, "that man is a miracle.
At the reunion, Clark is anti-social and he carries on a dull dialogue with an aged teacher. Clark sees Lana and says, "Lana Lang, it is great to see you!" Lana reciprocates commenting to Clark that this is the first time since the death of his mother that he has returned to Smallville. Brad Wilson wishfully harasses Lana but Lana wards off his social interactions. Lana tells Clark, "I always wished that you would talk to me". In the comic strip, Lana was a insect superhero. Lana envy's Clark's adventures in Metropolis calling it the "the big apricot". Lana says, "Clark you never married", "I guess that's one that got away". Clark learns that Lana has a son name Rickie. Lana feels sorry for Rickie telling Clark, Rickie is the "only kid in town without a father". Lana invites Clark to Rickies birthday party and the group bowling activity. Rickie is a terrible bowler. Brad steps in and wants to showup Clark, embarrass Rickie, and overpower Lana bragging to Clark that he is a champion. Clark bowls a strike that destroys all the pins.
Gus reprograms the Vulcan satellite too cause a five years coffee crop recovery by a 250 mile/hour hurricane. Gus complains to Russ that just as the destruction started "Superman began doing his thing", "Superman is bad". Russ brainstorms and decides he wants to create an oil shortage. Russ wants Gus to reprogram the computer telling the oil tankers to converge at a certain place in the Atlantic Ocean. Gus needs to stop Superman. What can stop Superman? Kryponite. Gus says, the planet Krypton blew up; there is Krypton debris floating around in space; and Gus can use the Vulcan lasers to analyze the composition of Kryponite and synthetically reproduce it on earth. Gus wants to share in the profits telling Russ, "I'm not making enough money for this gig". Gus has manufactured a near perfect replicate of Kryptonite but 5% is an unknown element. Smallville mayor awards Superman the key to the city of Smallville. Gus impersonating a General offers Superman the Kryptonite replica, but no effects are visible. Eventually, Superman becomes evil from the influence of the Rock. Gus convinces Russ to build a supercomputer that can think. Gus uses the computer to order all the oil tankers to the Altantic, command the pumps to stop pumping, and cause irreversible damage to the computer systems. The 1970s resent of the rich oil companies is rhetorically eluded too: "Someone is always getting richer", "who suffers?", "the Small guy". Rickie yells at the evil superman, "tell them you will be getting better", "your just in a slump", and "you'll be great again". Superman recovers, defeats Gus's supercomputer that can find anyone's weak spot, and restores oil back to an energy-starved world.
Rating: -
After the brilliant first two films there was alot of pressure for the Salkind Brothers to produce another great Superman film but sadly in Superman III's case it failed & quite miserably.
The main problem lies with the script, the arch villain Ross Webster could have been stopped by the FBI with his plan for an oil monopoly so why on earth would he be a true villain to Superman is anyone's guess.
Even the supercomputer,just send a few F15 bombers & lets see how its super defence deals with that.
The only true challenge for Superman comes in the middle of the movie & that was with his evil alter ego & should (I believe someone said this earlier) have been the main story instead of this silly super computer story.
Although there were some problems concerning pre production (Margot Kidder had a row with The Producers & therefore only appears for around five minutes in this film) but the casting of Annette O' Toole didn't really affect the film as she's one of the stories strongest characters.
Apart from the Superman Vs Clark fight, & the Lana & Clark scenes, there is not much worth watching & the title joke sequence at the beginning is really cheesey.
And Richard Prior in any film let alone a Superman film is a big enough joke.
GREAT STAND UP COMEDIAN!!!!!
AWFUL ACTOR!!!!
Rating:  -
The script is extremely pretentious, although the charismatic presence of Richard Pryor be the dramatic axis as the computer wiz who will alter the normal coordinates of a world in progress.
As comedy it's Ok.
Rating:  -
I saw this as a kid, and thought it was kind'a dumb. Years later, when I saw the Superman Collection, I thought to myself, maybe it wasn't that bad, I was only a kid, so maybe I just didn't get some of it. Well it happened to be on TV last night, so I watched it. What a piece of junk. The acting was so bad, the special effects look like they were produced in the special ed class. They tried adding humor, but the slapstick was so lame it wasn't even funny. It was a total waste of time, even for a fan. I happened to love the first 2, they were awesome, so how did this end up such a piece of garbage? For instance, he uses his super breath to freeze a lake top so he can carry it over to put out a fire. Why didn't he just use his super breath to blow out the fire in the first place? Yeah lot of half thought stuff slapped together.
Anyway, I haven't seen Superman 4, but I hear it's the worst of the bunch. If that's the case, I'm not sure I even want to see it. So I would recommend buying Superman 1&2 separately for something like $26 total, and save your self from the collection.
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