Superman III

1983 "If the world's most powerful computer can control even Superman...no one on earth is safe."
5| 2h5m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 17 June 1983 Released
Producted By: Dovemead Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/superman-iii
Synopsis

Aiming to defeat the Man of Steel, wealthy executive Ross Webster hires bumbling but brilliant Gus Gorman to develop synthetic kryptonite, which yields some unexpected psychological effects in the third installment of the 1980s Superman franchise. Between rekindling romance with his high school sweetheart and saving himself, Superman must contend with a powerful supercomputer.

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Reviews

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
George Taylor What do a bad story, poor casting, a blantant ad for Atari in the middle, and bad SFX equal? This movie, which is the worst of the Supermans. Richard Pryors mugging doesn't help. Just a terrible film.
kimthom-10244 quite good ... a bit too much slapstick but that happens when you get the change of a director. personally I love the Clark and Lana parts and Gus redeeming himself but its strange without Hackman or Margot kidder.It's nice that this tome around reeve is fully confident compared to the predecessors.
ryanskywalker-87402 It's hard to quite know where to begin with Superman III, the start of a decline in quality that sadly tarnishes Christopher Reeve's run as the world's most iconic superhero. Do we take on the move from the epic battle of good and evil displayed in the first two films, to the high camp, low comedy farce the Salkind's employ here? Or perhaps the fact this is clearly designed more as a vehicle for Richard Pryor than the eponymous Man of Steel himself? Or the actual story, a now hilariously outdated mesh of computer-based warfare that's about as low rent a source of villainy against Superman as you're likely to find? Lets just say that it's quite astounding Hollywood managed to later make a worse Superman movie than this one.It wants to be a comedy with elements of super heroism and comic book lore, but Richard Lester - taking the reins fully here - alienates immediately with a woeful opening farcical physical 'comedy' credit sequence that is more Benny Hill than DC (even Benny's long time stooge Bob Todd crops up!). It doesn't get much better than that, frankly - even with Pryor, who most would agree on his day was up there with the comic best, but he's saddled with a crutch of a character in Gus Gorman and a poorer script giving him little room to improvise, not helped by the fact he gets way way too much screen time (yet Margot Kidder gets two scenes as Lois Lane, mainly there to explain why she's not in the film! The real reason apparently was the Salkind's reduced her role after a spat). Throw in the dependable Robert Vaughn as a rent-a- smarm almost-Lex Luthor-but not, and Pamela Stephenson as a shrill bimbo henchwoman and you have a recipe for absolute annoyance. The biggest crime, beyond these characters, is the plot takes FOREVER to get moving and then goes almost nowhere - building to a hilariously contrived way of exploring 'Bizarro' and duplicating 'evil Superman'. The junk yard battle between Bizarro & Clark is probably the highlight, but its over before it begins and it's not zero in the way of real depth truly exploring what the darker side of Superman truly means (he spends most of it getting drunk and messing about, like the awful Pisa gag, which can quite frankly pisa-off).Does this one have any redeeming features? Well there's Reeve, the poor fella, making the best of what he must have known was bad - as ever charming and warm in the role, but despite a poor script he makes a decent go of the five@o'clock shadow Bizarro & it's a shame that darker element wasn't better explored, as Reeve gives it possibilities. Equally, his dynamic with Annette O'Toole (who just looks gorgeous throughout) as Lana Lang works, to some extent almost as well as his chemistry with Kidder, and its this relationship that keeps the piece just about on the rails - even if that too isn't explored to the depth it deserved. Beyond that, there's almost nothing to make sitting through this worthwhile.You sense Superman III was made not to truly advance or explore the character himself, but rather for other reasons - working with Richard Pryor, blending comic nonsense with 'new' technology - and it really does show. The era this was made is no excuse - even though we were years away from comic book movies on film truly growing up, there was no excuse for such a leaden, plot less, unfunny campathon as we are given here. The real tragedy? It gets worse from here...
StuOz Superman is back.In my younger days I hated this film, in fact it made me angry as it seemed so bad compared to Sup 1 & 2, but in the last ten years I have started to warm to it...perhaps because it is so much better than TV's Smallville and Lois And Clark?There are some fine action scenes with Superman, I love the retro hardware in the cave (looks like it came from the batcave in 1960s Batman) and Robert Vaughn makes a fine bad guy.However, Superman 3 is not perfect, and you might find yourself clicking the DVD picture search when the film goes back to Smallville.But all things considered...not bad.