Superman III

Superman III (1983)

Runtime: 124 minutes

Directed by: Richard Lester

Starring: Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Annette O'Toole, Robert Vaughn, Annie Ross

From: Warner Bros.

I explain below why I skipped both versions of II for now; I'll see them sometime in May. I will be back Tuesday night with what I imagine will be a lengthy review of an appropriate movie I saw on the big screen a few hours ago. For now, the review of this movie that has gotten recent cult love... for reasons unclear to me:

Note: Next month I will spend two nights in a row watching the two versions of Superman II out there; I haven't had the time or feeling to do that as of late. From memory I know that they aren't as great as the original Superman but they certainly are better than this motion picture.

In the past few years I have seen several people online rate this movie rather highly and even say it's their favorite Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent movie and no offense to those people but I'll never understand that. Now, I can't compare it to the Bryan Singer film or the all-time polarizing works known as the entries that Zach Snyder did, but while this isn't quite as wretched as The Quest For Peace, this still isn't good and what a downturn for the franchise. It's a shame that Richard Donner had those problems with Alexander and Ilya Salkind, which resulted in there being those two versions of II and now Richard Lester did all the directing and we got a lot of goofy comedy, much of it not that humorous... even Richard Pryor did not hit a home run here as Gus Gorman, and I can't blame it on the “problems” he had before this, as even after he lit himself on fire he had good standup comedy bits. Despite his personal issues and how he apparently did not always act that nice on set, I usually think of Pryor highly as he was a very funny dude, just not always on the silver screen, as this is an example of.

I am sure everyone's familiar with the plot where Clark Kent hangs out with Lana Lang in Smallville and Richard Pryor is a bumbling computer genius (and I do laugh at what Hollywood of the early 1980's thought computers were or what they could do) who becomes a henchman of a rich businessman A-hole played by Robert Vaughn... Superman developed some new convenient powers and yes, for a segment of the movie he became a dick, which started what I presume is a still popular Superman Is A Dick meme. Now, parts of the movie do work and the general idea is fine; but, I say that there was too much comedy which did not seem appropriate for this series-even if the Reeve movies were always light in tone-and I say that was the biggest downfall of why this did not work overall. The villain's ultimate scheme being highly illogical did not help matters either.

I do have to say that while it's nonsensical, Superman As A Dick was certainly memorable and Superman vs. Clark Kent was quite the battle, if goofy at times... I just wonder what happened to Clark Kent during that dick phase; did he suddenly vanish from working at the Daily Planet? I guess so. While it could have lasted longer and been explored more in-depth, at least it was interesting. While she barely appeared in the movie because Margot Kidder supposed Richard Donner instead of Richard Lester, Lana Lang is at least a canon character and the nicest part of the movie was the relationship between her and Kent. Really, I don't fault anyone in the cast but I do have to give kudos to both Reeve and Annette O'Toole as Lana; I wished for more with them, her kid Ricky and even the drunkard Brad rather than Pryor in a wacky suit with a giant foam cowboy hat on.

Now, let me mention a few random things:

* Giorgio Moroder contributed a few songs; I think his music is pretty cool so I was fine with that. I do have to say, however, that his version of a country song with Roger Miller (yes, the guy who sang King of the Road two decades prior) was as daffy as you'd expect a Giorgio Moroder country song to be.

* The opening slapstick number over the credits, it was entertaining and all, but why was it in a Superman movie?

* The ultimate fate of Vera was also memorable, and also a little disturbing.

* Gus Gorman and his penny shaving scam, besides being immortalized in Office Space, I am amused that people have actually tried it in real life.

Like I said, this wasn't as low as the Superman character got on the silver screen, but the newfound appreciation this has in some circles does mystify me.