Review of Superman III (1983) by Darik H — 20 Oct 2009

See, this is why producers should never be in charge of story on a movie: the thinking is always, "How can I get the most profit from the least investment?", and that can lead them to do some pretty stupid things- like casting Richard Pryor in a superhero movie.

When the first two Superman films were a hit, the Salkinds knew they wanted to do a Superman III (they'd even announced it in the credits of II) but they didn't know where to take the story- Mario Puzo had written I and II as a self-contained two-part epic, so they had to come up with III from scratch.

And while Ilya Salkind did write a treatment for a cosmic-minded, kid-friendly sequel (featuring Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk as villains who team up for some reason, and including a romance between Superman and the newly-arrived Supergirl, which, being as that they are cousins in the comics, is truly horrifying), the story that the filmmakers ran with ended up evolving out of two primary considerations: budgetary concerns and box-office appeal.

The result is a much smaller scale film than the first two, the plot entirely contrived to shoehorn Richard Pryor into Superman's world (or perhaps to shoehorn Superman into Pryor's world; most of the film feels more like a god-awful comedy than a superhero flick).

Director Richard Lester's shortcomings as an action director are much more apparent now that he doesn't have Richard Donner to fall back on (his action is flat and not terribly exciting, as if Stanley Kubrick decided to take on action), and his penchant for lame gags coupled with the already comic bent implied by Pryor's presence make this a film that you can't take seriously (unfortunately, it's not terribly funny either).

Ironically, the film is at its best when it steers away from the flimsy main plot, indulging in sentimental moments between Christopher Reeve and Annette O'Toole or pitting Reeve against himself- literally.

The story (if you must know) begins with Gus Gorman, an unemployed shmuck who finds out during a basic computer training class that he is a computer programming idiot-savant. Landing a job at Webscoe Industries, Gorman hatches a scheme to embezzle thousands of dollars through a computer manipulation (if you've seen Office Space you know what I'm talking about), but is discovered by CEO Ross Webster, a corrupt businessman who decides to use Gus' talents for his own benefit.

Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated series of events, Clark Kent returns to Smallville to write a story about his high-school class reunion (it's an 18-year reunion, for some reason- class of 1965?), and there he reunites with Lana Lang, former prom queen and Clark's would-be high school sweetheart, now divorced and with a young son, Ricky.

The two hit it off again, and romance starts to brew. After that... well, some stuff happens, and Webster gets Gus to produce synthetic Kryptonite to get rid of Superman. The substance is flawed, however, and instead of killing him, it transforms Superman into a cruel, malicious dirtbag.

Finally, the Man of Steel splits into TWO people- the degenerate Superman and the wholesome Clark Kent- and in the film's absolute best sequence, the disparate sides of the Man of Tomorrow fight it out to see who will survive.

Then, ah... more stuff happens... giant computer, blah blah blah. If any of the films in the franchise could really be said to showcase Christopher Reeve's versitility as an actor, this would be the one.

Reeve plays THREE parts this time: the upright, heroic Superman (whose character significance is greatly reduced this time around), the nerdy Clark Kent (who has evolved from previous films; no longer the uncoordinated klutz, Clark is far more self-possessed and confident, and is presented this time as the "true" personality- the actual person behind the gaudy spectacle), and the new Dark Superman, a character not so much evil as he is base and ugly, ruled entirely by the darker impulses in man's nature.

Reeve is unbelievably good in this new persona, deftly creating a mean, self-loathing, destructive mirror of the clean-cut hero that's almost unpleasant to watch. But what actually IS unpleasant to watch are all of the scenes featuring the film's villains, none of whom are from the comics and all of whom are grossly uninteresting comedy types.

At least Richard Pryor is enjoyable at times as Gus Gorman- the guy was a phenomenal comedian, so he couldn't possibly be all bad- but the man is just horribly out of place in the middle of a Superman movie, skewing the film's sensibilities in the wrong direction.

Worse still is the actual villain of the film: Ross Webster, a dime-store Lex Luthor played by Robert Vaughn who possesses no menace, no charisma, and should pose no threat to the Man of Steel. It is so painfully boring to watch this psuedo Bond villain schlep around his rooftop ski slope with his bulldog of a sister and his shrill trophy-girl that sitting through the whole thing sometimes feels like watching C-SPAN on mute.

But for all the mistakes Lester and the Salkinds made in the production of this movie, the one thing they got absolutely right was the casting of Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang. After two films with a grating, chain-smoking Lois Lane, O'Toole is like a breath of fresh air as the beautiful, wholesome good-girl Lana, who cares more for Clark than she does for Superman, and whose sweet, down-to-Earth charm harmonizes so well with Reeve's good-natured nerd that the romantic scenes become the highlight of the film- the one instance when Lester's storytelling strengths click with the character.

Unfortunately, Lester isn't the film's sole hindrance; writers David and Leslie Newman just can't dream up a story big enough for the Man of Steel, cramming him instead into a dull, episodic faux-comedy in which, to a large extent, HE ISN'T EVEN THE MAIN CHARACTER (Gus Gorman is the focus of most of the film's narrative, and he has the biggest arc).

Making things worse is that the producers cut corners in virtually every department, particularly the score, which sounds like a cheesy cover of the previous films' music and fails to deliver the scope or grandure of the original Williams themes (the bizarre opening credits swap the soaring space-flight titles for a street-level chain-reaction gag that is anything but funny- ominous portents of what is to come).

In fact, the only area in which the film is a real improvement are with the flying effects, particularly during the Grand Canyon missle battle- but hell, after two films, I would hope they'd have a better handle on flying; and while the split-screen effects for Clark vs.

Superman were okay, the rest of the effects are old hat (but at least we didn't get any more saran-wrap S-shields). Anyone who was expecting something on par with the first or second Superman films were in for a disappointment with Superman III.

While it has its moments, and introduces some interesting new characters- Lana Lang and Dark Superman, namely- it also introduces quite a few boring ones- Gus, Brad (yeah, I didn't mention him before, but trust me), etc.

, etc.- and tries to pass off Robert Vaughn as a Superman-worthy threat. More than anything, though, part III fails because they tried to make it a funny movie with a superhero in it, as opposed to a superhero movie with funny moments in it.

I don't care how much Richard Pryor loved the first Superman films, comedy and superheroes don't mix. But I guess we'd never know that if not for this movie.