Movie Review: Superman III

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Some acting

Cons: Uneven, cheesy, just generally disappointing

The Bottom Line:

Good performances

In subpar super movie

Overall cheesy

“I’m From Metropolis.  I See Superman Every Day.”

While I’ve never watched the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, I knew their reputation.  So, even though I wanted to watch Superman III, I also knew not to set my expectations too high.  Even so, this movie disappoints.

After spending several minutes on an unexplainable series of near misses and hits in Metropolis, we meet up with Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) as he pitches a story about a man attending his fifteen-year high school reunion.  Yep, Clark wants to head back to Smallville.  Inexplicably, Perry White (Jackie Cooper) agrees to the idea, and Clark sets out.  While there, he reunites with his high school crush, Lana Lang (Annette O’Toole).

Meanwhile, computer programming savant Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) catches the eye of his boss, evil rich mogul Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn).  Ross wants to use Gus’s abilities to program computers to bend others to his will.  And his will is making more money.  Will Superman be able to stop him?

You might be wondering where Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane is in all of this.  That’s an excellent question.  She heads off on vacation near the beginning of the movie, and pops up in the last scene to set up a romantic triangle that I’m assuming doesn’t pay off in the next movie.  Essentially, she has a glorified cameo. 

They were setting up Lana as a new long term love interest here.  It’s very obvious to anyone paying attention.  Honestly, I would have liked to see that play out in another movie.  Sadly, Annette O’Toole wasn’t invited back for the next one because she was excellent as Lana.  Fortunately, she was able to transition this to playing Martha Kent on Smallville.  Because of knowing that connection and enjoying her work on that show, I was curious to see this movie.

So that’s covered the romance of it all.  What about the rest?  Honestly, the movie is just strange all the way around.  There are long sections that don’t really add much to the movie.  Some of them were attempts at humor that fall flat, at least today.  Some of them are character moments, but they go on too long.  One extended scene is used as set up for the climax, but I feel like we could have gotten something without the extended time.

Part of it is because Clark/Superman is in a parallel story to the villains without really knowing much about them or what they are up to until it is time for act three.  It feels like we are just plodding along as a result.

In the middle of the movie, Superman gets broken.  Again, this part of the movie went on too long, and I found the resolution to it a bit unsatisfying.

Which brings us to the climax, where the movie devolves (if that is possible) to a cheesy science fiction movie, complete with an all-powerful computer.

And the effects?  Can we say 1983?  Okay, so I’m sure they were state of the art at the time, but they are dated now.  I’d be more willing to go along with them if the movie were better overall.  But there is one part of the climax that is nostalgically bad, if that makes any sense.  Well, old video game players will get it.

Having said all this, I couldn’t help but think how modern some parts of the film felt.  Even back then, we were talking about the dangers of computers and what they could do to our society.  Then there’s the fact that the villain is a rich guy who wants to get richer.  Somehow, he didn’t feel nearly as much a lecture as an equivalent villain would in today’s movies.  Maybe because he was part cartoon.

And no, I don’t think any of the actors were bad.  They were playing the parts as they were supposed to.  It’s the way they were written.  Those who are playing their characters straight were pretty good.  And I did like the scene where Superman/Clark had to confront what he’d turned into from an acting standpoint.  Christopher Reeve was good there even if the scene was pretty hokey.

I do want to circle back to the humor.  While much of it fell flat for me, there were some moments I enjoyed.  And, overall, I did appreciate the lighter tone of the film.

I know the fourth movie is viewed as even worse than this one.  I’m almost afraid to watch it.  But I’ve come this far, so I’ll give it a watch.  Know what you are getting into if you decide to watch Superman III.  Yes, what you’ve heard about it is true.