Superman III | | Cast : | Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Margot Kidder | | Director : | Richard Lester | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 17, 1983 | | DVD Released Date : | May 01, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 08, 2005 | | Summary | Disapointing, but still has it's moments overall. | Content
 | 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. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 01, 2005 | | Summary | The Beginning of the End for the Man of Steel... | Content
| Warner Brothers apparently doesn't know how to tell when a franchise is about to fail with the release of one terrible installment. It seemed the Superman franchise was destined for greatness from the beginning with A-list director Richard Donner leading the way for the Man of Steel's adventures on the big screen; however, after Donner's replacement during the filming of "Superman 2" by director Richard Lester things quickly went down the tubes. "Superman 2" though not completed by Richard Donner, it was still an excellent film that expanded wonderfully upon the original. Sadly, though this greatness was not destined to continue as "Superman 3" would all but kill the man of steel's further adventures on the big screen. One can only wonder why the "powers that be" at Warner Brothers would allow this terrible movie to make it to theaters let alone be completed during filming. Everyone would have been better off if this particular version of "Superman 3" would have been scrapped and replaced by something better, I mean with Superman having adventures in the comics since 1938 there really is not a shortage of material for earth's greatest hero.
"Superman 3", also known as the worst Superman film ever to be made, finds Superman (played again, to his credit, by Christopher Reeve) falling under the influence of Red Kryptonite which brings out his dark side and instead of helping people he causes pain and suffering. Now, this premise sounds like it holds the promise of being a great film, which may be how Warner Brothers thought it was a good idea to let people see this movie. Instead of being a serious exploration of Superman's darker side, we are left with basically a comedy film, wrapped in Superman's classic colors. Richard Pryor, who by the way never should have been allowed near this franchise, plays one of the films crappy, worthless villains. Many of the first two films characters are not seen here or merely make cameo appearances; such as, Margot Kidder as Lois Lane and Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor.
One great thing this movie did have in it was a very entertaining fight between Clark Kent and dark Superman, somehow they were split into two beings (I don't remember how this happened, not that it matters). This fight happens about two-thirds into the film, though how I got this far in this movie is beyond me, it is the best scene in the movie and it's interesting to see how the goodness of Clark Kent allows him to overcome the all-powerful evil Superman.
A terrible film, surprisingly though this did not fully kill this franchise but it came really close though. It was another four years before "Superman 4" was released to theaters. This is the reason that the currently in production "Superman Returns" picks up after the events of "Superman 2" and completely ignores "Superman 3" and "Superman 4".
"Superman 3" is rated PG for violence and language. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 28, 2005 | | Summary | The best in Superman series | Content
| Paradox rules life, reminded permanently to us in many of his novels and fables the brilliant and satyric journalist,essayist and novelist G.K.Chesterton.And a paradoxal luck seems to have fallen over the second sequel for the big screen about the famous character. Directed by Richard Lester ("A hard's day night","The knack and how to get it","Help","The bed-sitting room"), Superman III is the solid proof that an intelligent and talented director can build a good film with a poor and ridiculous character, inside a cosmetic industry as is Hollywood; and what's more important, keeping his own style.Testimony of it are the opening credits of this film, conceived as a slapstick comedy scene: Lester films a chain of visual gags and comic metropolitan "catastrophes" with his mocking,subversive and reflexive humour. I remember specially that one of the car that crash against a water bomb for exticting fire due to the effect of a bullet shot for a policeman(this is, a man paid to guarantee the security of citizens)trying to catch a bank robber,and whose conductor is about to drowning inside of his vehicle because the water of the bursted bomb, unable to go out of it. Parts of the plots reflects also the position of a director who likes to dynamite social myths and masks:behind the man who has been named the "humanist of the year",we find a corrupt and illiterate enterpriser(Robert Vaughn )who considers Atila as a model to follow and a great philosopher;a greedy man who don't like greedy people and who tries to monopolize coffee business ( and, immediately after, to control the petroleum industry ) interfering a powerful and sofisticated satellite with the purpose to provoke a climatic catastrophe that ruins the coffee plantations of Colombia ( the only country that refuse his blackmail ) with the " help " of a computer genius ( Richard Pryor ), one of his numerous anonymous employeers, who has been trapped trying to swindle the company with the help of a computer of the own company .It seems that Lester is interested in demonstrate, with his ironic style, the paradoxal double face of progress and science and everything that is selling us under the slogan " in benefit of humanity "(computers,cars,security systems conceived to serve man becomes a menace or produces the reversal function ) and in this way, as in its smart combination of action and humour,the film is very consistent.For other part,during the film the director turns down many stereotypes that are common in entertainment industry:for example,the stereotype of the fool pretty blonde,incarnated in the film by Pamela Stephenson , an intelligent woman who benefits from this topical to live without working and who likes to read cerebral books during her moments of solitude,leaving the reading of foolish magazines for her"performances". Lester,also the responsible of the second part of the series, continues exploring the contradictions of the character ( that here divide protagonism with the character played by Richard Pryor, one of the many trangressions of the film respect the previous two parts,but not a trangression for Lester himself:as he indicated us in the opening credits of " A funny thing happened on the way of the forum " he prefers liars and clowns than the classic hero,cut in one piece, of epics; and also splits in two,the good and bad Superman, by the effect of synthetic kriptonite), at time he gives us a portrait more human of Superman than the more academic and solemn first part, filmed by Richard Donner, director of one of the most uncivic film series of all time: I'm talking about the horrible " Lethal weapon " series. For those that defeat the first part because the best quality of visual-effects,I like to remind them than usually a bad director appeal to realism in special-effects to cover up his absence of talent;Lester probably prefers a cheap production but artistic freedom in benefit of the story and the characters, a story, in this case, narrated sometimes in a direct form because Lester don't like to bore the spectator with unnecesary information. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 21, 2004 | | Summary | Not the best, but still worth a watch | Content
| The best Superman movie was the original from 1978. From there, the films got progressively worse and more corny with each release (Superman II being enjoyable, Superman III being the one where you wonder what the producers were thinking making a third enstallment, and Superman IV being laughably cheesy and cheaply done). Still, Superman III remains somewhat enjoyable because it strayed from the norm. Unlike Superman I, II, or IV, Superman III is nearly Lois Lane-less. Instead, Clark Kent goes back home to Smallville to see if he can't spark something up again with childhood lover Lana Lang. In additon, there is no Lex Luger. The special effects were noticably done with a lesser budget than the ones from the first two movies of the franchise, but they don't completely ruin the film. There's a junkyard fight scene that is particularly engaging. And finally, although Richard Pryor was a questionable choice for this movie, he delivers some great one-liners and actually does a fine job with the role he plays.
The Best Quotation From the Entire Film: "I asked you to kill Superman, and you couldn't even do that one simple thing!" |
| Rating | | | Date | August 01, 2004 | | Summary | "Superman III: Super Bipolar" | Content
| "You always wanted to fly, Kent. Here's ya chance." - Superman has a severe identity crisis as he battles his alter ego, Clark Kent, in "Superman III"
The third installment to the "Superman" series is less than stellar (it doesn't compare to the first two films). With the origin story told in "Superman: The Movie" and the romance between Superman & Lois Lane explored and understood in "Superman II", my expectations were high for "III". I expected a thematic story, along the lines of the first two films, but, instead "Superman III" has a weak plot covered in Bob Hope style shtick that only goes so far.
Superman goes up against Ross Webster, a greedy international conglomerate, that wants to control the world by using the world's computer resources. One of the company's new employees, computer genius Gus Gorman, is blackmailed by Webster (after balking at recieving his first paycheck, Gorman hacks into the computer main frame and gives himself a very big raise) and is forced to help destroy Superman by concocting a home made piece of Kryptonite, that instead of killing The Man of Steel, brings out the hellraiser in him. Superman has to get his s*it together & defeat Webster & Gorman in a super computer hideout, hidden in The Grand Canyon.
Compared to the first 2 films, this is a really lame film. But, it is watchable and better than "Superman IV". You can tell the cast is getting a bit old for their britches in this one. Margot Kidder, showing her disgust over the firing of Richard Donnor during the filming of "Superman II", has about 5 minutes of screen time in "III", having Lois Lane vacation in Bermuda. Christopher Reeve is still great as Superman, but this time out, the feeling seems to be, "been there, done that". Richard Pryor seems to be stuck in first gear only generating a few laughs out of the 2 hr. film time.
The high point for the film, for me, was the cool junkyard duel between the bad Superman and the good Clark Kent. The battle in the Grand Canyon wasn't bad either, although quite outdated (Atari graphics!?! Gimmee a break!).
As for the DVD - 2.0 Dolby Digital (ouch), and a trailer for the special features. Save your money and just buy the first two films. Rent "Superman III" on a rainy day. Avoid "Superman IV" like Mytzlplyk (or however he spells it). |
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