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Title: Superman III (1983)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Christopher Reeve | ... | Superman / Clark Kent | |
| Richard Pryor | ... | Gus Gorman | |
| Jackie Cooper | ... | Perry White | |
| Marc McClure | ... | Jimmy Olsen | |
| Annette O'Toole | ... | Lana Lang | |
| Annie Ross | ... | Vera | |
| Pamela Stephenson | ... | Lorelei | |
| Robert Vaughn | ... | Ross Webster | |
| Margot Kidder | ... | Lois Lane | |
| Gavan O'Herlihy | ... | Brad | |
 |
Nancy Roberts | ... | Unemployment Clerk |
| Graham Stark | ... | Blind Man | |
| Henry Woolf | ... | Penguin Man | |
| Gordon Rollings | ... | Man In Cap | |
| Peter Wear | ... | Bank Robber | |
Wealthy businessman Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn)discovers the hidden talents of Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor), a mischievous computer genius. Ross decides to abuse his talents, in a way to help Webster with his plans for economic control. When the man of steel interferes, something must be done about Supes. When Gus' synthetic Kryptonite fails to kill Superman, it turns him in an evil incarnation of his former self. The tar-laced Kryptonite pits man against himself, setting up the Clark vs. Superman battle. Written by ahmetkozan
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Christoper Reeves' biography page contains a quote explaining that Richard Lester, who re-(and, some would say, mis-)directed most of Donner's footage in the second movie and did all of this, was "always looking for a gag". This film proves that beyond any doubt. Following a hard-to-read title sequence over a scene of slapstick that would have had(and quite possibly did have) Benny Hill shaking his head and averting his eyes(featuring none other than Bob Todd, who often appeared with Hill), the entire film is a long line of attempted jokes. I say attempted because Lester has little respect for or understanding of comedy(nor the character of mythology of Superman, as has been firmly established); any joke needs proper setup for the punchline to have any effect, and no joke should be *immediately* followed by another, with no room to laugh in-between. This is similar to a recent and unfortunate development in the genre of action films, where a director who doesn't understand the need for the slow-down in-between the major action sequences, to allow the audience to breathe, to take in what they've just seen. Now, without these much-needed breaks in-between, the film basically becomes one very long sketch. Had this been a TV-special with a fraction of the running time and the title "Silly Superman", perhaps it would have been tolerable. I don't care much for Pryor. Maybe fans of him will enjoy his performance. The acting is all overplayed... even in the case of newly added Annette O'Toole, who's definitely displayed her talent on Smallville. Clark continues to be a fish-out-of-water and more there for comic relief than anything else. The dialog and various actions of the characters are rarely too credible, and most of the film is marred by the overly comic-book-like tone. The humor has taken what must be the last leap downwards, not only reaching the very bottom but going through it. While the conflict seen at one point in the film, between the good-natured Clark Kent and the now-evil Superman could have proved to be interesting, it isn't used for anything, and ends up simply being an action scene. Near the very end of the film, the quality of the writing takes a solid dive... and yes, I, too, was surprised that it could manage to go any lower. Wasting the potential of an excellent science fiction idea put forth many, many years back and using it just to throw more adversity into our hero's path, the plot twist is unexpected and without any grounds in logic or any remainder of proper storytelling. As if the writer had no actual ideas left, and just threw in whatever sprung to mind. Then again, the film itself seems like one big case of that. The pacing is consistently off. The cinematography retains its comic-book look and feel. The special effects are of slightly lesser quality than the former efforts... easier to tell, less convincing. Margot Kidder, who portrays Lois Lane, confronted the producers of the film to complain about the firing of Donner on the second film... with the result that her part was cut down to an absolute minimum(though so unusually(for this film, and the other by Lester) well-explained that you wouldn't notice it unless you thought hard). To me, that seems like a juvenile act, and an abuse of power(though I will admit, I can't say for sure that I missed the character in this... Lana Lang certainly provided an interesting new development, if one of the only good things in this at all). All in all... this is probably a good place to skip this attempt at making a film series out of the character. This is not a good film at all... and from what I've heard, it only gets worse in the next one. I recommend this to those fans who *must* see every piece of film regarding the hero... and I urge you to save some episodes of Smallville, or perhaps the Singer film(soon to be plural) for after, to see a better representation as well as a more skilled execution of him. 5/10