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#64 - Superman III
Richard Lester, 1983
I feel ya, Supes.
A superhero must contend with a corrupt businessman who plans on using an extremely gifted computer programmer to manipulate the world for his own gain.
Just as Superman laid the groundwork for all manner of superheroes, so too did he lay the groundwork for extremely underwhelming superhero threequels. It's clear from the opening credits - which don't involve scenes of space accompanied by John Williams' triumphant theme music, but instead use scenes of deathly-unfunny slapstick - that Superman III will not come close to matching the standards set by the first two films to star Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. It takes ages before Superman crosses paths with the chief villain, a totally-not-Lex-Luthor industrialist (Robert Vaughn) who plans to become rich and powerful through newfangled computers, mainly by employing a gormless but talented programmer (Richard Pryor) to help him profit.
While Pryor's a funny guy, he's wasted in an overly long cartoon of a film that is frequently absurd but never quite to the point of being truly entertaining. Even when Pryor is indulging some flaccid comedy, he's still preferable to the actual Superman-based narrative, which involves things such as Clark Kent visiting his rural hometown of Smallville and reconnecting with an old flame, to say nothing of the fact that the villain's plan to incapacitate Superman results in him turning evil (which just made me realise how much the plots of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies owe to these ones - even Batman Forever knew better). It may not be as out-and-out atrocious as the Cannon-produced schlock that is Superman IV, but at least that was short. Superman III, on the other hand, is an overly long piece of dreck that offers up the odd spot of amusing silliness (such as a missile-targeting system that resembles a computer game or Pryor skiing off the roof of a skyscraper and surviving) but is mostly a dull and charmless piece of work.
Richard Lester, 1983
I feel ya, Supes.
A superhero must contend with a corrupt businessman who plans on using an extremely gifted computer programmer to manipulate the world for his own gain.
Just as Superman laid the groundwork for all manner of superheroes, so too did he lay the groundwork for extremely underwhelming superhero threequels. It's clear from the opening credits - which don't involve scenes of space accompanied by John Williams' triumphant theme music, but instead use scenes of deathly-unfunny slapstick - that Superman III will not come close to matching the standards set by the first two films to star Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. It takes ages before Superman crosses paths with the chief villain, a totally-not-Lex-Luthor industrialist (Robert Vaughn) who plans to become rich and powerful through newfangled computers, mainly by employing a gormless but talented programmer (Richard Pryor) to help him profit.
While Pryor's a funny guy, he's wasted in an overly long cartoon of a film that is frequently absurd but never quite to the point of being truly entertaining. Even when Pryor is indulging some flaccid comedy, he's still preferable to the actual Superman-based narrative, which involves things such as Clark Kent visiting his rural hometown of Smallville and reconnecting with an old flame, to say nothing of the fact that the villain's plan to incapacitate Superman results in him turning evil (which just made me realise how much the plots of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies owe to these ones - even Batman Forever knew better). It may not be as out-and-out atrocious as the Cannon-produced schlock that is Superman IV, but at least that was short. Superman III, on the other hand, is an overly long piece of dreck that offers up the odd spot of amusing silliness (such as a missile-targeting system that resembles a computer game or Pryor skiing off the roof of a skyscraper and surviving) but is mostly a dull and charmless piece of work.