VHS : Superman III

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Rating:

- Superman III Is a Sad Disappointment
When I first saw "Superman III" as a child, I thought it was cool. I love Superman films and love Richard Pryor. But as I look at it today, I can see that it is an abysmal mess of a movie. From the very beginning, I could see that even the visuals looked bad. Everything looks as if it were shot in soft focus. The plot about a satellite controlling the weather and a computer powering itself is pretty implausible, even for a superhero movie. That kind of story should have been left in a comic book. Also, the special effects are awful. In the third act, where Supe dodges missiles, it's laughable. I don't know what the Salkinds were thinking when they made Supe III. The absence of director Richard Donner is evident. Though, Christopher Reeve is still great as Clark Kent and the Man of Steel.

Rating:

- Superman 3: Back to Smallville!
Gus Gorman is an out of work, down on his luck nobody with no clue of what to do with his life. That is, until a shot at some on-the-job training helps him discover his natural talent for computer programming. Suddenly, Gus is making money again, but not nearly as much as he'd like. When he learns that a fraction of a cent out of every employee's paycheck is discarded by the computers that dish out the wages, he comes up with a plan to have all that spare change paid out to his name. Soon, Gus is living high on the hog, but his carelessness makes it easy for the big boss, Ross Webster, to pinpoint the employee who's been embezzling from the company. To Gus's relief, Webster is not looking to prosecute his newfound computer genius. Instead, he puts Gus's talents to work on his plan to control the world's weather, thereby giving the already filthy rich Webster control of the world's cash crops as well!

Meanwhile, mild-mannered reporter for "The Daily Planet" Clark Kent convinces his boss, Editor-In-Chief Perry White, that his upcoming Smallville High class reunion would make a great story for the world-renowned newspaper. He soon finds himself on a bus with friend and photographer Jimmy Olsen, heading back to his hometown in Kansas, and making a brief stop along the way so that Superman can take care of an out of control fire at a nearby chemical plant. Once Clark is back home and reunited with his old flame, Lana Lang, at his class reunion, romantic sparks begin to fly. Clark is having a great time playing hero to Lana and her son Ricky, both in and out of his tights, and he even gets to befuddle local bully Brad from time to time too. Yep, everything is going hunky dory for Clark Kent, until Superman interferes with Ross Webster's plans to corner the market on coffee. Webster quickly realizes that if his next plan is going to work, Superman must be taken out of the picture first. Together with his sister Vera, girlfriend Lorelei, and lackey Gus, Webster plots to kill Superman by synthetically making his own clump of Kryptonite. Unfortunately for them, upon analysis, there is an unknown element in Kryptonite's chemical make-up. Gus foolishly uses tar to fill in the gaps, with no idea of what the result will be. Then, in full military garb, Gus presents the hunk of unknown mineral to Superman at a Smallville festival in his honor. Things don't go exactly as planned, but the little deception still seems to pay off for the dastardly group. After his encounter with the strange, synthetic kryptonite, Superman begins to grow more and more apathetic. Eventually forming into outright bitterness and anger. The man of steel soon cares about no one but himself, and is miserable with contempt for his own good-natured secret identity. While the new, downright rotten Superman, clad in darker shades of red, yellow, and blue, goes about causing trouble in the world instead of saving the weak and helpless, Ross Webster and his cronies are free to put their next plan into action: taking over the world's oil supply! However, this time Gus has a condition that must be met before he will agree to any computer hacking for Ross Webster's self-serving purposes. Gus wants a computer, a super-computer; one that even Superman would be powerless against! And, even if Superman knew of Ross Webster's greedy plans, he first has to deal with the villain within himself!

Starring the ultimate Superman, Christopher Reeve, pitted against the nasty Robert Vaughn and legendary funnyman Richard Pryor, "Superman III" is an all too underrated piece of the 4 film Superman franchise of the 70s and 80s. The film is much lighter than the first two Superman films, but why does that have to be a bad thing? "Superman III" is far from an out and out comedy, but, in essence, harkens back to the classic corniness of the Superman TV series with its take on humor, while still being completely substantial as a contemporary feature film. One is reminded of Christopher Reeve's own statement about how he tried to play a bit of early Cary Grant in his innocent, goofball take on Clark Kent, and the humor of "Superman III" plays on that fact quite well. The opening credits scene with the snowballing mishaps is fantastic! With key characters reprising their roles, a focus this time on Superman's conflict with his own dual identity, and a charming homecoming to Smallville and the girl Clark Kent left behind, "Superman III" is a wonderful part of the film series that any true fan should enjoy! Richard Pryor is at his funniest, Robert Vaughn is pure sleaze, and even in her most wishy-washy moments, one still can't imagine how Clark let Lana (Annette O'Toole) get away. The film takes a hilarious stance on the computer revolution of the 1980s, along with the greed of the corporate world, but I'm sure it's the Clark vs. bad Superman fight that most of us remember from this classic film! As for the whole Superman vs. Super Computer thing and the lack of Lex Luthor or other recurring Superman villains, what's the big deal? Superman shouldn't face the same ol' trouble makers every outing! The theme of Superman vs. machine in this film takes me back to the old Fleischer cartoons from the 1940s! Great stuff! "Superman III" didn't have it easy following the fantastic first two Superman films, but it fits nicely into the franchise as another fun-filled Superman adventure! The DVD doesn't offer much in the way of extras. All you get is the theatrical trailer and some cast filmographies. Still, the film itself is a must own for fans of the last son of Krypton! Don't sell it short! "Superman III" packs plenty more punch than it was ever given credit for!

Rating:

- Am I the only one?
Sometimes I feel like the only one who liked Superman III. Casting Richard Pryor wasn't a mistake, as a lot of people thought, this is one of 2 movies that I liked him best in (besides his concert films). I thought he was pretty funny in this, especially when he put that big foam cowboy hat on and did that drunk routine with that security gaurd. As for the story, it was pretty good. It wasn't great, that's for sure, but good. It was kind of campy and silly, but it was fun. The beginning sequences let us know that this wasn't going to be the same Superman movies we were used to with the chain reaction of funny accidents on the street. It made you smile. Fighting a super computer? Ok, that's a little ridiculous. PUtting out that chemical fire was preety cool. When he splits into good Clark and bad Superman? No, I can't forgive that one because that was pretty bad. Too obvious.

I think what turned people off from this movie was the fact that it went another direction from the previous Superman movies where he was taken out of Metropolis, dealing with other villans than Lex Luthor, and having another love interest besides Lois Lane (apparently Margo Kidder was off her meds and had her part cut for her bad behavior). I think it was pretty funny when he turned evil and bedded that bimbo myself, but I guess a lot of people didn't see it that way. And Superman drunk?!?! Blasphemy! Still, it's a Superman movie and I adore Superman movies, this included.

Rating:

- I like it!
I know that many people dislike Superman III. I've heard all of the complaints about this movie, but IMHO it's a GOOD TIME. Superman III and Supergirl (the Director's or International Cut ONLY) have both highly entertained me. SUPE III IS FUN!

Rating:

- Disapointing but has its moments..
Well the credits at the end of Superman II warned us, Coming Soon Superman III. Well here it is, Superman III and would it be a worthy addition to the Superman saga? Well.. not exactly. But that doesn't mean it's a total loss.

There were a lot of problems with this film. Everything that was great about the first two just wasn't anywhere to be found in this edition of the movie. Richard Lester now had full control of the directors seat and the movie was turned into a total humor and childish story that just didn't seem to fit right in the Superman universe. Margot Kidder's role as Lois Lane was reduced to a few minutes at the begining and end due to her still being steamed about the original Superman: The Movie's director Richard Donner's being replaced. The bad guy this time around wasn't Luthor but a billionare who even though he had no reason to be a bad guy, thought it was good to just be bad with the help of computers. And the story at points was pretty ho-hum, with Clark's old flame from Smallville, Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) along with her son take the place of Lois Lane this time around. The biggest addition to this film is comedian/actor Richard Prior who played, Gus Gorman, being the main focal point that this movie would be devoted to, that could be good or bad considering if you liked the path this movie took.

Gus is an out of work bum who takes a few classes in data processing only to discover that he is a natural wiz at computer hacking. He uses this skill to steal thousands of dollars, by making the computer give his check all the half of cents that are disregarded in paychecks by the payroll computer. When the head of the company Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn) finds out about this, instead of firing him or calling the police, he decides to use this ability Gus has to tamper with computers to his advantage. Gus is sent to Smallville to gain access to Vulcan, the weather satelite and has to reprogram it to cause bad weather, rather then just report it. After ruining the coffee crops in Columbia, Superman flies in to save the day and restores all the crops and fixes the weather there, much to the disgust of Ross.

A lab made batch of Kryptonite is created and handed to Superman at a festival in his honor. Instead of killing Superman, the home made Kryptonite turns Superman twisted and selfish and evil. He is no longer the superhero the world remembers but goes around causing trouble like blowing out the Olympic Torch and pushing the leaning tower of Pisa straight again. With Superman out of the way Ross and Gus go to work by having the oil tankers aimlessly wander the Atlantic Ocean to cause oil shortages and eventualy they build a master computer of Gus' design that will be able to do anything they want. Including..the ability to kill Superman.

The movie has a lot of fun moments but also leaves a lot to be desired at many other points. A lot of situations were meant to be funny or humorous but come off as silly and lame. A good example of this is when Gus is trying to get into the Vulcan satelite via a computer uplink he is busy tampering with other things in the process. So we have the Don't Walk icon getting into a fist fight with the Walk icon in the traffic cross walk light. Then we have someone's Bloomingdale's bill become hundreds of thousands of dollars and the husband pushes a grapefruit into his wife's face when he sees this. The whole opening sequence as well was pretty awful. A chain event of situations is caused as the main squeeze of Ross, Lorilei (Pamela Stephenson) walks through Metropolis and catches the attention of a few onlookers and hijinx ensue. In a scene that even Reeve's groaned on in real life, Gus in a pair of skies, losses control on top of the roof of a building and skies off the side of a building casualy landing on the street and skies away. And on and on and on.. this movie was full of many things like this that just weren't that amusing even though they so wanted to be. A definite change of pace over what the first two films were.

But there were some pretty good moments as well. The moment that most people love of this movie is when, Superman after affected by the bad Kryptonite turns into a bad version of himself until he finaly screams out in terror only for Clark Kent to show up before him as he splits into two versions of himself. The two now battle it out in a junk yard where it's Evil Superman vs Clark Kent destroying everything in their path as they try and out do the other. Christopher Reeve truly shines here as Superman playing both roles at the same time and playing both characters as if it were second nature. It's classic when Evil Superman is swinging Clark Kent around and says "You always wanted to fly Kent, well now's your chance!" only to send him flying into the air. Also a moment that may have actualy scared a lot of people as kids was when Ross' sister Vera (Annie Ross) gets sucked into the Supercomputer at the end and becomes a robotic version of herself with all the abilities of the computer and the look to match. Superman against the computer itself wasn't as good as it could have been but still is suspensful enough to lead to a good climax.

A lot of people say this movie killed the Superman Movies franchise but I think that while it wasn't as good as previously it isn't horrible either. It definitely lacked big time when compared to the first two, as it relied more on slapstick and uncreative moments then thrilling battles and a fun love story. I can easily see it from both perspectives. That while on one side we have Richard Prior in a ridiculous role and very unfunny moments, we also have some good Superman type elements like the man of steel flying off and freezing a lake to lift up and cause rain to fall over a chemical plant that is under fire. And some cool graphics where they have a computer like game that is being played as real rockets are being fired at Superman from the supercomputer. If you look past the bad jokes and sight gags and see what it does have , you will find a not to bad edition of Superman here.

Overall I say why not add this? Ok maybe it's not the best movie to ever have the Superman name on it, but you can do a lot worse and it is funny to at least relive the past and the early 80's through this film. It has the token annoying little kid, and the rich guy wanting to get richer at any costs and the bully from High School too. But it also has a certain charm and fun factor that I can't quite put my finger on. For some reason it's just fun to watch this movie. It's not often you will see a pretty girl sitting atop the Statue of Liberty and have Superman come in saying he won't save her "Cause he doesn't do that anymore" only for her to make seductive passes at him.

Check it out, it's good for a laugh, and not only due to the jokes that fill this film. Trust me, it's really not as horrible as it could have been. The italian guy in Pisa who breaks the Tower of Pisa figurines due to Superman making the Tower straight thus making his leaning figurines worthless, is just classic Superman humor. You can't make this stuff up.

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