Superman III

[Pittman4Two]

I apologize, I didn't see a general thread regarding Superman III so if it's there...mods, do your thing.


What I'm wondering is (after watching the movie again last night) how the filmmakers go from the top-notch quality film of Superman II to this comic relief bomb of Superman III? I mean, it feels like I'm watching two different movies at once...a bad Richard Pryor comedy and an ok Superman movie.

There's so many plot holes that I'm sure you all know about but this one is just tough to watch.

What's everyone's thoughts on this one?

[Spare-Flair]

It was common in that era to take fantasy concepts and make a blockbuster comedy out of it. Ghostbusters was a year after Superman III but it was sort of the same tongue and cheek effect the producers were going for.

After Superman II they wanted the star power of Pryor to bring that comedy blockbuster element. Somehow they thought they would have a huge hit by combining two genres and didn't realize what a pile of crap they would create. Also, the Salkinds were cheap and didn't want to spend a lot of money. Superman III suffered from a very low budget but at least it wasn't raked like Superman IV.

Reportedly, it was a great concept before they put the Pryor angle in there and replaced Luthor with another dumb capitalist - but hey, this was 1983. Big business executives and computers were novelties that could be thought to do anything. If they hadn't used Pryor and the computer was an incarnation of Brainiac as originally planned, it might have turned out pretty well.

Nonetheless, I have a fondness in my heart for Superman III that the others can't touch since it features one of the best scenes in all of Superman cinema - the Clark vs Evil Superman fight. Oh also, the movie was filmed in my hometown Calgary.

[SFII]

yes, the Clark Kent VS Evil Superman fight in the junkyard is one of the greatest Superman movies scenes ever.

but yeah, Richard Pryor was kinda funny. but then again, i didn't think him and Superman had good chemistry. and i wish the new bad guy would've either been Lex Luthor or some other notorious bad guy from the comics.
and i didn't like Superman and Lana Lang together. i liked Lois Lane more.

but then again, Superman did a lot of cool stuff in this movie. for example, he turned a tornado upside down. lol and the fight scene in the junkyard was classic.

i remember upon seeing Superman 4: the Quest for Peace, i thought to myself, "ok, this movie has a chance to keep the franchise going, or it could kill it". especially since i remember reading that Christopher Reeve wrote the script. and i didn't have much faith in him doing that. and guess what, the movies suck'd so bad. i remember walking out of the movie theater waiting for my mom to pick me up, thinking to myself "it's a sad day. Superman is dead to me." the worst special effects ever. and Christopher Reeve was fat. and the dumbest super villian character pull'd out of Christopher's ass. and a lame plot.

[PunisherPoster]

but then again, Superman did a lot of cool stuff in this movie.

If nothing else, Superman III is still a lot of fun. One of my favorite moments is when he freezes the lake, then carries it to extinguish the fire. (I also love the, "Oh, I always make it in time" line. :) )

[matthooper]

I just saw most of it last night on TV. It's truly one of the worst films of all time. Pryor is in almost every scene, unfunny and so out of place in a Superman movie. The junkyard scene is laughable. Clark just pops out of evil Superman? It feels like it was written by a child. I could have bought that scene if it had all been in his mind, but why would a totally seperate being just magically pop out.

Superman 4 is really bad too, actually aweful, but at leaast they tried.

[SFII]

holy tobacco tar! i'm watching Superman 3 right now on the I channel. lol good luck finding it. on DirecTV it's channel 255. i think this is the first time i've ever watched anything on this channel. lol!
anyway, it's on right now. eastcoast time. watch it! :)
i love how the description of the movie is "Ersatz kryptonite laced with tobacco tar splits Superman in two: good Clark Kent and bad Man of Steel". :D

you know what, Evil Superman is kinda scary. and all he wants to do is bang chicks. :D

btw, what the hell does "ersatz" mean??

[Tzigone]

I saw it listed and tuned in when it started. First time I've seen Supes III in many, many years. I almost flipped the channel after the opening with the flaming penguin toys and toppled phone booths, though.

[matthooper]

There are huge stretches of this crapfest where there is no Supeman or Clark Kent, it's just Pryor acting stupid. Pryor is in almost every scene. Don't get me wrong, Pryor is normally funny, but in this movie he is just idiotic. Reeves must be in the film for about 30 minutes total.

...and when there is Clark Kent or Superman on film, it isn't much better. The dialogue in this movie was written by a monkey, and the story by a monkey with a head injury.

We need to thank the movie gods that Richard Lester (the director of Superman 3) only filmed a couple of scenes for Superman 2 after Donner was fired. Imagine Superman 2 fully directed by Lester.

[Dr. Fate]

I liked seeing Lana Lang, played by the lovely Annette O'Toole.

[XCharlieX]

Honestly the Superman films have action comedy, especially superman 2, but since i havent seen superman 3 recently i cant tell if Pryor was funny in it and if the movie quality itself was poor.

[captain_jimbo]

I've always been disappointed with Superman III because of the fact that Richard Pryor and the other three bad guys seem to take over the movie, and stop it from feeling like a proper Superman film. But thank God for Christopher Reeve, I love every scene that he's in, especially where the good Superman fights the bad Superman, that's fantastic!

[ReeveFan1978]

HI

It could have been better. Less Pryor for one thing. A little Richard Pryor goes a long way.

I think the lana-Clark scenes were great. I could have watched more of those. Where he showed up ol Brad.

and of course, as mentioned the junkyard scene was brilliant. Remove some of the footage of Robery vaughn, his sister and Pryor and replace with more Superman and Clark and we'd have had a winner.

MHO

EL

[captain_jimbo]

HI

It could have been better. Less Pryor for one thing. A little Richard Pryor goes a long way.

I think the lana-Clark scenes were great. I could have watched more of those. Where he showed up ol Brad.

and of course, as mentioned the junkyard scene was brilliant. Remove some of the footage of Robery vaughn, his sister and Pryor and replace with more Superman and Clark and we'd have had a winner.

MHO

EL

Exactly, wonderfully put! :up:

[ReeveFan1978]

Thanks Capt. Jimbo. I sometimes feel these last 2 movies get a bad rap. The more I see of current movies, the more I appreciate the first 4 Superman movies. LOL

EL

[SFII]

i thought the way Superman beat the super computer was less than spectacular. i would've liked to have seen Superman fly right into the thing and beat the **** outta it! lol

but the thing with Superman 3 is that it's hard to top the greatness and great fight in the previous movie Superman 2.
however, the junkyard fight between Evil Superman VS Clark Kent was a bright spot in the movie. that was cool.

[captain_jimbo]

Thanks Capt. Jimbo. I sometimes feel these last 2 movies get a bad rap. The more I see of current movies, the more I appreciate the first 4 Superman movies. LOL

EL

I know, films these days just don't seem to have the same feel to them, as the Superman films did. There's something about them, especially 1 and 2 that will forever cement them as classics.
:up:

[Dr. Fate]

I know, films these days just don't seem to have the same feel to them, as the Superman films did. There's something about them, especially 1 and 2 that will forever cement them as classics.
:up:

A lot of todays movies don't feel like real movies - they feel like advertisements crossed with video games. At least the old Superman films felt like movies.

[captain_jimbo]

There just seems to be a lot of tripe in Hollywood at the moment, that I wouldn't go to watch in the cinemas if you payed me.

[Spoarz™]

HI

It could have been better. Less Pryor for one thing. A little Richard Pryor goes a long way.

I think the lana-Clark scenes were great. I could have watched more of those. Where he showed up ol Brad.

and of course, as mentioned the junkyard scene was brilliant. Remove some of the footage of Robery vaughn, his sister and Pryor and replace with more Superman and Clark and we'd have had a winner.

MHO

EL

Yeah, I agree. I'd also change the slapstick opening credits, which just don't fit in a Superman film, they seem like something from a Carry On movie.

[Lord Blackbolt]

Some of the earlier scripts for Superman 3 were sooo much better. I had a professor in college that worked at DC. He saw some of the early scripts. One script involved the bottle city of Kandor...and Brainiac. In most of the movie Superman was stuck in the city. It was pretty epic.

But it would have cost too much......

[captain_jimbo]

I'd love to do a re-cut and get rid of Pryor and the three villains, because they took over the movie.

[Frodo]

After all of the dramatic events of Superman 2 , Superman 3 needed to address Lois and Superman's relationship . Luthor and Brainac would have been good .

[KaptainKrypton]

This film suffered from some of the worst editing decisions of the last thirty years. Instead of opting for the grand scale credit sequence like in the first two films (sans the crappy TV intro) they ran credits during a sequence of pure slapstick bulls***. Also, the scene where Clark eats "pate" just drives me up the wall. Perfectly solid chemistry between O'Toole and Reeve, and the writers just crap on it by having Kent chug Alpo. Also, there were a lot of horrible FX shots that could've been edited out, rather than replaced. Also, Pryor skiing down the side of a high-rise is retarted beyond belief. I need to get some editing software so I can actually show people what I'd do to make this film three times better than what it is: mediocre at best. I love this series of films, but each one has numerous things I'd change with regards to the editing. The heart of the films is good, but the execution is juvenile.

[lordofthenerds]

The film's main villain was a computer. Enough said.

[Spoarz™]

Did I hear that Richard Pryor was paid even more than Christopher Reeve for this movie?

[BatFitz]

Who knows...it might as well have been a Richard Pryor comedy. Which I don't mind, it's just when it's taking over a Superman movie...I get a little ticked.

[captain_jimbo]

Did I hear that Richard Pryor was paid even more than Christopher Reeve for this movie?

Yeah, he was paid double. Reeve got $2 million and Pryor got about $4 million, if memory serves me right. I read it a few years ago in a Biography of Christopher Reeve, though Reeve didn't mind, he thought it was probably fair as he was the bigger star. :confused:

[Mr. Walters]

I love Superman III, but hate the Richard Pryor comedy movie injected into it. Lana Lang, Superman's split personailty, fighting with himself, alusions to Bizaro...it's all great. But the Pryor aspect...um...why?

[Rizor]

I saw this for the first time in 12-13 years. Ugh. Can't say I thought it was a good movie. I liked Lana, and Chris Reeve was good, but everything else? Not much redeemable about it.

And what was up with Clark's hair? Couldn't pony up the cash for the good hair dye?

[SFII]

i guess during that time in 1983, Richard Pryor was the biggest comedian in the movies. and comedy was what was in, at the time. i mean, i love Richard Pryor, but it felt like watching 2 different movies. and yeah, come to think about it, it really felt more like a Richard Pryor movie than a Superman/Christopher Reeve movie. i mean, the whole plot was about Richard Pryor's character. how he hooked up with the bad guy, and how he created kryptonite, and how he built the supercomputer, and how he turned to the good side, etc.

Richard Pryor was great in The Toy, Brewster's Millions, Stir Crazy, and even later on in Hear No Evil, See No Evil. :D
that is ironic how he and Christopher Reeve both ended up in wheelchairs. :(

[Dr. Fate]

ironic how he and Christopher Reeve both ended up in wheelchairs. :(
Very ironic, and very sad. :(

[captain_jimbo]

I love Superman III, but hate the Richard Pryor comedy movie injected into it. Lana Lang, Superman's split personailty, fighting with himself, alusions to Bizaro...it's all great. But the Pryor aspect...um...why?

God knows! :confused:

[Frodo]

I love Superman III, but hate the Richard Pryor comedy movie injected into it. Lana Lang, Superman's split personailty, fighting with himself, alusions to Bizaro...it's all great. But the Pryor aspect...um...why?

I wonder if the whole Super Computer storyline was basically a substitute for Brainac. Robert Vaughn would have been a good Brainac IMO.

[captain_jimbo]

Personally I quite liked Robert Vaughn, I didn't like him as much as Hackman, but I thought he did quite well. My problem was Pryor and the two stupid women, and the length of time they were on screen.

[ReeveFan1978]

AMEN!!!!


EL
http://members.aol.com/modfrancie1966/chrisgc.jpg

"Once a girl's seen Superman in action, Niagara Falls kinda leaves you cold."



Personally I quite liked Robert Vaughn, I didn't like him as much as Hackman, but I thought he did quite well. My problem was Pryor and the two stupid women, and the length of time they were on screen.

[melfangiel]

While I love all the scenes with Clark, Lana, Supes and evil Supes, I hated the fact that Superman was basically a supporting character to Gus Gorman's storyline in the film. What's worse is that I didn't find any of the comedic scenes funny. :(

I love and hate Superman III, if that makes any sense. :O

[Spare-Flair]

I saw this for the first time in 12-13 years. Ugh. Can't say I thought it was a good movie. I liked Lana, and Chris Reeve was good, but everything else? Not much redeemable about it.

And what was up with Clark's hair? Couldn't pony up the cash for the good hair dye?

he had a bad allergic reaction to it this time around.

[captain_jimbo]

While I love all the scenes with Clark, Lana, Supes and evil Supes, I hated the fact that Superman was basically a supporting character to Gus Gorman's storyline in the film. What's worse is that I didn't find any of the comedic scenes funny. :(

I love and hate Superman III, if that makes any sense. :O

Trust me, it makes a lot of sense. :)

[Frodo]

According to Wilkipedia , One of the original Superman 3 drafts featured Lex and Brainac . Had Hackman played Luthor and Vaughn played Brainac , it would have been pretty tight IMO.

[Bad Superman]

holy tobacco tar! i'm watching Superman 3 right now on the I channel. lol good luck finding it. on DirecTV it's channel 255. i think this is the first time i've ever watched anything on this channel. lol!
anyway, it's on right now. eastcoast time. watch it! :)
i love how the description of the movie is "Ersatz kryptonite laced with tobacco tar splits Superman in two: good Clark Kent and bad Man of Steel". :D

you know what, Evil Superman is kinda scary. and all he wants to do is bang chicks. :D

btw, what the hell does "ersatz" mean??

I also enjoy tilting the Tower of Pisa, blowing out the Olympic torch, destroying petroleum carriers, drinking and picking up fights. :mad: :up:

[Cannibal Feast]

My take on what should have been Superman III.
Robert Vaughn is replaced by Lex Luthor.
Luthor somehow discovers the super-computer that can do anything.
Maybe someone builds in for him, but not Richard Pryor or any other comic relief.
Luthor uses the computer to create an evil Superman clone, instead of Superman turning bad. The clone is flawed.... Bizarro.
Luthor thinks he controls the super computer, but it turns out to actually be Brainiac and has been manipulating Luthor all along. By the time Luthor figures this out he's in over his head and actually needs Superman to save his ass (along with the rest of the world).

[PSU442]

i rewatched Supergirl last weekend (which was made almost back-to-back with SIII.) Though that movie is terrible, it tried exploring some new territory that the actually Superman franchise avoided. First: the Phantom Zone. Why the heck couldn't they explore this in Superman 3. Second: Supergirl (and Superman's) weakness to magic. That would of been better than a super-computer. The whole shadow monster was interesting, if not a little Never Ending Story-ish. And, to add insult to inury, the flying effects are better in Supergirl than SIII. Oh well...

[Super Kal]

eh, I disagree with you on the flying effects. I feel that SIII's flying effects were MUCH better than Sueprgirl.

[PSU442]

i'll have to go back and check 'em out in SIII. But i think it will be another decade before i can go back and watch supergirl again...... ugh. haha. Interesting (propaganda) documentary on the dvd though. The director states that Supergirl was a 'fantasy' film where as Superman was a 'sci-fi' film (thus explainging the magic, etc. in Supergirl.) I'd of been cool with that differentiation of the two franchises.... if SIII hadn't been a COMEDY as opposed to a sci-fi film. Never-the-less, I stand firm: magic should of been incorporated into Superman 3 instead of a supercomputer -- unless it was Braniac.

[Super Kal]

Superman III was originally going to have Mxyzptlk and Brainiac as a team in the original SIII concept...

[ReeveFan1978]

I grew rather sick of silly criminals long before Supergirl came out. It could have been so great because helen Slater made a wonderful Supergirl. But Faye and her henchwoman were just Lex and otis in drag. :)

I thought it had SUCH possibilities but never lived up to them.

ELhttp://members.aol.com/modfrancie1966/chrisgc.jpg


"Once a girl's seen Superman in action, Niagara Falls kinda leaves you cold."

[PSU442]

supergirl was severely flawed... the Salkinds at their finest. My favorite part... after returning from the Phantom Zone for the climatic show-down, Faye uses magic to make the floor Supergirl is standing on crack and shake (revealing scary light beneath.) Supergirl almost falls in a few times, the suspense is extreme... until you remember that Supergirl can FLY. Just *****ing fly, Supergirl. You'd think either the writers/the producers/or the director would of thought better of that...

[Bat Attack]

I always laugh at the part where that lady gets turned into a robot. haha. :)

[PSU442]

this just dawned on me..... peter o'toole would of made an awesome Braniac had they gone that way in SIII

[SFII]

yeah it seemed like a ghetto attempt of Bizarro(the evil superman) and Brainiac(the super computer). and even ghetto red kryptonite(the green tar composite kryptonite).
infact there's even a ghetto Lex Luthor in this one.

lol! :D

[ReeveFan1978]

I always thought Peter Otoole was drunk in his supergirl performance. It was awful. IMHO

EL

[PSU442]

I always thought Peter Otoole was drunk in his supergirl performance. It was awful. IMHO

EL

ha... yeah, you're right. i take back what i said. I think i was just so creeped out by his performance in SuperGirl that it feels like he'd make a good creepy villian. what's with trying to get SuperGirl drunk in the phantom zone.... uhh... yeah.... creepy....


still better than robert vaughn