Search - Superman III (Deluxe Edition) on DVD

And Superman IV Was Bad? Have You Seen This One?

D. Reed | Elkton, MD USA | 09/09/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

""After Superman: The Movie's epic storytelling and Superman II's awesome battles, how could the first two hits be topped?" Well definately not by this one! Lester takes on as director in this one (only three quarters of Superman II was his), he falls flat. The only reason this is even getting two stars is because of Christopher Reeve, who continues to give everything he's got to the character. This time acting out good and evil sides of Superman (though I will admit that Superman's "evil" deeds come across as misdemeanors at best. Even the repositioning of Pisa comes across not really being all that evil, though probably more of the writers fault than Reeve). His scenes with Lana (played by Annette O'Toole, the only other saving grace in this picture, who would later star in Smallville, which I think shames the Superman franchise, but that's only my opinion) are well acted and you can see that Clark still has a high school crush on her. Pryor is not funny. Not at all. The only reason he was in this one is because the producers saw him on Johnny Carson and he said how much he loved part II, which is a stupid reason for anyone to be cast in a film. Robert Vaughn does what he can with Ross Webster (who is more or less a clone of Luthor) but he at least comes off better than Pryor. The story is downright shameful to what they had in the first two films. Gorman miraculously discovers he has a talent for computer programming when he can't even keep a job for more than 28 minutes? And none of his previous jobs had him anywhere near computers anyway. And there's the satellite which can be reprogrammed to create weather? Yeah I have a better chance of believing people flying around in space without any oxygen. Well the Salkinds did always want to make a campy Superman film and they did it. I guess they figured that with Donner and Mankiewicz out of the way, people would see this movie just because it has Superman. They should've stuck with their original idea of having Brainiac, Supergirl and Mr. Mxyzptlk involved. In fact, Gorman was supposed to be Brainiac (which would explain the supercomputer having a life of its own) but it was not to be. Little did we know though, that twelve years from now, Batman would be facing campy problems with his third movie. Coincidence? The action sequences are subpar, the only really exciting set pieces are Superman vs. Clark in the junkyard, the Grand Canyon missile attack and to lesser extents, the chemical factory scene and the supercomputer. And I guess nobody decided to tell the editor that the wires are visible in a few scenes. Couldn't they have smudged them out? Even if they didn't do it back then, they definately could've done it now, this being a Deluxe Edition. Ken Thorne, I think, is probably the only one besides Reeve and O'Toole, who didn't mess up this picture. His music sounds better with this (and thank goodness you can hardly hear the songs. They sounded horrible). This had so much potential and it pains me to give a DC movie two stars featuring one of my favorite superheroes (I usually reserve that for Marvel's movies though this movie was better than Spider-Man 3)."

Okay, this is where the Superman series starts to get stupid

Jennifer A. Everhart | 06/14/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is Superman III, the third entry in the franchise, and probably the silliest. August ''Gus'' Gorman (Richard Pryor) was looking for a job and found one at a computer company run by a corrupt millionaire Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn), his younger sister Vera (Annie Ross), and girlfriend Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson). Meanwhile, Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) convinces Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to let him attend his High School Reunion in Smallville, while Lois (Margot Kidder) goes on a vacation to Bermuda. At the reunion, he was reunited with Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) who is now a mother to Ricky (Paul Kaethler). At Ricky's birthday party, Gus and Vera, in disguise as soldiers give Superman a messed-up chunk of Kryptonite in an attempt to kill him, but due to a minor component modification, it causes him to slowly go crazy. He became negligent at his duties and messed things up by causing an oil spill and moving the Leaning Tower of Piza straight. Then the gang plot to use the satellites to control Earth's weather. When Superman sank into alcoholism and depression in front of everyone, Ricky pleads for him to snap out of it and that plea gives him the strength to fight it. It causes him to split into two personas, the evil version Vs. Clark Kent. Clark successfully defeats his evil clone and goes to redeem himself by fixing everything, stopping the three villains, and saving Gus. In the series, this entry was okay, but the jokes and the intro were cornier. Richard Pryor was alright, but not that funny compared to his stand-up routines, and he and Richard Lester are better off in comedy films. It did have some neat ideas, like Superman saving a chemical plant from a fire, for example. Christopher Reeve's performance as a corrupted version of Superman and the battle of both versions is the highlight of this entry. Unless you are a true D.C. Comics fan, please rent this one before you buy it."