Whilst I was initially disappointed watching ‘Superman: The
Movie’ mainly in terms of having Lex Luthor as a villain, I fell in love with
‘Superman II’ and I somewhat hoped that ‘Superman III’ could in some ways
attempt to resemble and continue a film that had a great story and some
brilliant characters. What I got was a complete cash grab, an unintelligently
written sloppy mess that provides a terrible story, poor characters, no
excitement and tension and relies far too heavily on goofiness in order to pass
the time and attempt to match the brilliant comedy of the first two.
Superman III is based around a genius inventor named Gus who is
recruited by his boss in many of his evil schemes including one of destroying
Superman using Kryptonite whilst Clark Kent leaves for a high school reunion
party where he meets a former friend, Lana Lang with whom he has an affair for.
Next to Marlon Brando, Christopher Reeve was always the second
best actor of this franchise and once more, delivers a fantastic performance in
this film, generally bringing the same wit and charm to his character. Further
brilliant acting by Reeve is shown during Superman’s time of being evil whilst
under the influence of Kryptonite. His performance is so brilliant that it is
the only thing that is truly fantastic about this film. The rest is all either
mediocre or downright terrible
John Williams is my favourite composer of all time and Superman
is my second favourite movie score of all time and so, his classic Superman
theme is such a memorable one that I happen to love so much. The very start of
Superman III was completely wrong and I knew I was in for something bad. The
way the cheap looking titles crawl in did not resemble the brilliance of the
original and the fact that it wasn’t the classic theme playing was downright
frustrating. However, when you do get to hear the classic theme play early on
when Superman is trying to save the man drowning in his car (in the most
ridiculous fashion), I was relieved but later disappointed considering most of
the film has an uninteresting musical score that certainly doesn’t make the
Superman films seem that much better.
There were definitely some great Superman moments, particularly
early on when he is saving the man from drowning and the short scene in the
photograph booth. That was somewhat of a classic Superman moment but the best
moment of the film is most definitely when Superman bad is defeated and the
bombastic theme song starts playing. This is brilliant for many reasons and not
just because of the music but because of the character of Superman and his
determination and love for his country. However, when the film is viewed as a
whole, the few great Superman moments really fade considering the film heavily
relies on overly goofy scenes, especially with Richard Prior’s Gus
Richard Prior’s performance in this film is most definitely not
a great one but more so, an annoying one. His character is particularly
uninteresting and Richard Lester and crew thought it would be appropriate to
shove as much lame and unoriginal comedy to his character as possible to the
point that he could never be taken seriously, even when he is afraid that
Superman may be killed due to his inventions. Not only is Prior’s performance
ineffective but the story given to Gus is completely ridiculous that it betrays
the tone of the first two Superman films.
The worst thing about the film, believe it or not, is not the
overuse of comedy which at times seems like a warm welcome when compared to the
overall story told in this 2 hour waste of time. Much of the film deals with
Gus going to Vulcan Weather Satellite and altering the weather, then building a
computer to help rule everything and even steal cheques for himself. The story
told in its entirety is more awful than in separate pieces and whilst the
Superman story may seem great early on, by the end of the film it most
definitely becomes laughable.
The first two Superman films exceeded because they had great
characters. Part of the reason of Superman III’s failure is with all the new
characters and how old characters are replaced with much worse characters. This
is definitely true as Lana takes over Lois, who was a lovely woman to be
around. Lex Luthor, Superman’s nemesis is replaced by a man with absurd plans,
Webbster. Superman III is full of clichéd new characters that add nothing good
to the story.
Whilst Superman: The Movie is a classic and Superman II is a
great sequel, Superman III is an utter failure in all aspects suffering from
poor writing and directing, overuse of recycled jokes, characters that are NOT
endearing, a story that is uninteresting. This brings the film down to a joke
which is pretty much the tone of the film, throwing aside the cleverness of the
first two and making it a complete comedy film instead of a Superman film.
Whilst there were a few Superman like moments, this is soon forgotten under the
horrible mess of everything else in this awful picture.
Grade- 2/10
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