Review of Superman III (1983) by Filipeneto — 10 Nov 2021

After seeing "Superman II", I thought the franchise couldn't get any worse... I was wrong. Despite retaining some small merits, this film is far worse and really shouldn't have been missed by those involved, especially Christopher Reeve. In fact, the actor even considered not acting in the film, and his participation was only guaranteed at the last minute, as I found out after some reading, which I did after seeing the film.

For me, this movie has the worst script conception I've seen, within the Superman movies. In practice, it is a duel between the hero and a wealthy villain, called Webster. Initially, he wants to ward off competition from Colombian coffee by influencing the region's climate through a satellite, commanded by him thanks to a hacker he discovered in his own companies. When the superhero ruins his plans, he starts chasing him to kill him and get out of his way. Amidst this, the hero still has time to go to an alumni meeting of his old high school, where he meets an old flame, the former prom queen, Lana.

The franchise lost its footing after the departure of Richard Donner, and there is nothing that can save the film from being considered terribly bad. The plot is surreal because it is so bad, unrealistic and false. The hero, until now seen as a well of integrity, and in theory in love with Lois Lane (who in this film virtually disappears), is almost put in the bed of two other women, in what we might consider a huge moral flaw. I could give lots of examples of other situations and moments without logic or meaning, but it would be redundant.

Reeve does what he can in the role of Superman, but the actor made little effort, he wasn't really in the project with body and soul and his performance reflects that lack of will to be there. It sticks to the basics and doesn't shine. Annette O'Toole also manages to honor the basics, but she can't give us much more. Richard Pryor is moderately funny, but barely succeeds at making us laugh. Jackie Cooper and Robert Vaughan also don't bring any spark or charisma to the film. Pamela Stephenson is irritating, and Margot Kidder was almost relegated to the trailer, as she only appears for about five minutes.

Technically, the film has some (few) redeeming virtues, such as the rather well-conceived cinematography, the satisfactorily conducted editing, and the light, relatively fast pace of the film, which avoids tiring the audience with an excessively long duration. Also, the soundtrack did reasonably well, even though the most famous pieces of music I've heard are pretty much the same as in every Superman movie. There are also one or two scenes worthy of anthology for their impact and notoriety, such as the fight between Superman's ego and alter-ego. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't go much further: the sets aren't very well done, there are a lot of cheap and unbelievable visuals and specials, and the movie generally looks cheaper and more fake than its predecessors.