Superman 3 [DVD] [1983] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Although modestly profitable, Superman III was enough of a disappointment to convince both the Salkinds and Warner Bros. to call it a day as far as their direct involvement in the series went. It certainly magnifies all the problems in Richard Lester's version of Superman II and throws in a slew of new ones for bad measure.

For a couple of minutes the film looks like it might have some potential, even opening in an unemployment office in a passing nod to the real world and Reaganomics, but no sooner have the main titles begun than Lester is back to his slapstick tricks, throwing in a prolonged series of silent movie pratfalls that really belong in another movie entirely. Indeed, it's a shame that Lester didn't make that movie instead, as he really doesn't seem at all interested in Superman, who, along with Clark Kent, has little to do in the first two-thirds of the picture and is sidelined in favor of Richard Pryor. A man whose 80s work not only squandered his hard-won reputation as a cutting-edge stand-up comedian but also made Eddie Murphy look like a man who's heard of quality control, he's never remotely funny here and unfortunately he's firmly in bland family entertainment mode. For the first half he's inoffensive enough before becoming an increasingly absurd and irritating figure: quite what anyone was thinking having him imitate General Patton in one scene we may never know. Worse still, in a world where Richard Pryor can survive skiing off a skyscraper completely unharmed, what's super about Superman? Yet there are far worse performances than Pryor's on display here. Pamela Stephenson overacts horribly as a blonde bimbo who reads Kant and keeps on forgetting she's supposed to be dumb while Robert Vaughn's villain seems more like a guest star on a bad children's' TV sitcom than much of a challenge to the Man of Steel. The feeling of bad TV is only heightened by a plot revolving around computers and early video game graphics that look positively primitive today - nothing dates as quickly as 'tomorrow's' technology.

To save money, the film even breaks cinema's cardinal rule of show, don't tell in one seemingly endless scene where, rather than showing the Man of Steel saving the day, Richard Pryor spends five minutes talking about what he did while wrapping himself up in a tablecloth. Well, it's cheaper than special effects... and while this doesn't cut as many corners as Cannon's fourth film, saving money is always high on the agenda. The star cast is anything but (after Pryor, Robert Vaughn's the only 'big' name in it) while Margot Kidder gets relegated to two brief scenes as punishment for publicly badmouthing the producers for firing Richard Donner from Superman II. By pushing her off the stage so quickly and replacing her with a romantic rival in the shape of Annette O'Toole's Lana Lang (forget the unlikelihood of Supes forgetting he cannot have a normal relationship), the producers simply showed how little they understood that the relationship between Lois and Clark was at the very heart of the first film's success: lose that relationship and you've only got half a hero. Or a quarter, since the plot involves some bad synthetic Kryptonite making Superman go bad.

This section does at least showcase the best of Reeve's performance as the evil Superman, showing a convincing vein of self-loathing as he drinks himself into a foul mood and circles the world doing bad deeds, and the film briefly comes alive as he literally battles Clark Kent for his own soul in a junkyard dustup. Unfortunately once he's triumphant it's on to a very pedestrian and unimaginative finale that pits him against a less than supercomputer that's largely played for laughs that aren't forthcoming. Yet poor as this is, even worse was yet to come for the franchise with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace...

Extras on the Deluxe Edition (but not the standard film-only release) include audio commentary by producers Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler, 11 deleted scenes, vintage 49-minute documentary The Making of Superman III and the theatrical trailer

I remember when I used to watch this as a kid. It was my favourite Superman film and I always used to watch it everytime it was on. What I used to (and still do) like about this one was the the 20-30 minute sequence where Superman turns bad.

The plotline sees Superman going up against Robert Vaughn's 'Ross Webster', owner of a big bussiness company, and Richard Pryor's computer whizz Gus Gorman. Together they plan to steal the world's oil for their own selfish reasons. Meanwhile Clark Kent (Superman)goes back to Smallville and is reunited with his teenage sweetheart Lana Lang (Annette O Toole), who now has a young boy called Ricky. At one point Ross Webster decides that Superman is the only thing that can stop him from claiming the oil so he and his sister Vera, girlfriend Lorelei and Gus plan to 'assasinate' Superman by creating some kryptonite. However the kryptonite they creat has something wrong with it and upon receiving it at an awards ceremony in Smallville for saving a large part of America and also Ricky's life in a seperate incident, it gradually turns Superman evil instead of weakening him. Once he turns evil, the world around him watches him as he strikes fear and disgrace into those he once protected, the innocent. This all lead to a big fight between the good side and the bad side of Superman in two different entities in a juckyard, resulting in the good side eventually apprehending the evil side and going back to righting the wrongs he did around the world.

Now I watch the film on my DVD and I have to say that, after the first two films being special effects extravaganzas, that it's quite a nice change to have this film focus more on the plotline and characters. If you think Christopher Reeve makes an excellent superhero then you should see him as the evil Superman because he also makes an excellent supervillain. It's just a shame that he didn't get many other notable roles after he donned the cape. Robert Vaughn's character, althpugh he's a good villain, he is in fact just Lex Luthor from the comics with a different name. Richard Pryor, although he's funny, he should've toned it down a little because he is a little too wacky. Annette O Toole is excellent as Lana Lang and not bad looking either. Gavan o Halirilay is great as Clark's old school bully Brad.

The only bad thing about the film is that there are some characters that are just a little too OTT and annoying. Other than that it's great. Certainly much better than Superman 4, which sucked, and Superman Returns which isn't great. *****