Superman 3 often considered the black sheep of the family*. At least as far as proper Superman movies go. Everybody likes to complain that this movie; That it took Superman in a different direction; It's more comedic, it's less fascinating, the environment feels different.
I often wonder what it is these people want. If you make the same movie time and time again you get stagnant, repetitive and people stop caring.
If you break away from the basic formula, they complain that you've abandoned the original concept, that you don't want to hold true to what the series was all about.
I'm not bothered about any of that, the Superman film is enjoyable enough and I like some of the surreal things Superman has to deal with. his whole Alter Ego created by the off-brand Kryptonite is still one of the most interesting things to happen to Superman in any of the film adaptations. My only complaint with this movie is it has the 'Batman problem'. We're Superman himself as a character is less prominent and has significantly less screen time than the lot of The Supporting Cast.
Speaking of secondary characters we open with Richard Pryor at an unemployment office in what is supposed to be the most forgiving city in the world.
Seems the unemployment office won't give him a cheque anymore.
He gets a bit of inspiration for a packet of matches to pursue a job in computer programming.
Then we cut into the ''opening scene'' which is the strange slapstick situation taking place in the streets of Calgary Alberta (my bad I mean Metropolis!)
And it's here that we see the first major deviation from the other two Superman films. In the first two Superman movies we have an intense opening with a super impressive score And a general Rundown of Superman Origins.
Here we just get Clark Kent walking through the street as the rest of metropolis Falls victim two or three stooges Act. It eventually leads to a man being trapped in his car submerged underwater in which Clark Kent has to react quickly turning into Superman and saving the day. While simultaneously making sure that a small boy doesn't figure out a secret identity as a photo booth I've been taking pictures at the exact moment that Clark Kent made his Superman transformation.
We then cut over to Richard Pryor again who has the magical ability to make computers do whatever he wants. I call this a legitimate super power, as he doesn't have to understand the computer to make it work for him. Maybe Richard Pryor was secretly Brainiac the whole time.
Why'll this is happening Clark Kent is trying to convince his boss to let him return to Smallville for his class reunion. The idea being that he can do a report on the whole affair. It's also at this point that we get to see the convenient excuse to get rid of Lois Lane. And she magically disappears to Bermuda never to be seen for the rest of the movie.
Richard Pryor gets hired for a local data clerk technician. He's upset because the government amongst other social institutions are taking so much of his paycheck away. I think it's a brilliant idea from one of his co-workers to try and acquire a single 1/2 cent, not just from his own paycheck but from every paycheck that the half cent gets rejected from, because neither the people nor the corporation can be bothered to acquire the Insignificant amount. In doing so he can acquire untold cash.
But don't let all that computer code get you down. Superman still prowling around. he still saving people as he usually does. He has to deal with a chemical fire out in the midwest somewhere making sure to save the building from imminent Doom due acid that if exposed to extreme heat will become volatile and could possibly destroy a large part of the state.
We than come to what's the weakest part of the movie. Clark Kent and his reunion with Lana Lang and the Smallville community. It's not a bad part of the movie but compared to everything else that's going on it just seems a bit doll. Though it has some odd relevance and he consider Richard Pryor's characters going to get involved later on to manipulate satellites in the sky. But that's when he starts working for Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn) and the real meat of the movie begins.
Mr. Webster is easily the most amusing character in this entire film. Which is a bit of a problem when you consider this is a Superman movie and Superman is kind of a B character.
Oddly enough it's Superman turning evil that makes him the head of the movie again. Once Richard Pryor creates artificial Kryptonite dresses up as General Patton and gives it to Superman as a quote and gift.
Ruining some small Italian Merchants life. As Superman constantly pushes the Leaning Tower of Pisa back and forth. All this culminating in a fight between the good Clark Kent and the evil Superman. Who inexplicably has a 5:00 shadow they love a drinking in bars. Almost looks a bit like Frank Castle.
I've always found it funny, people have complained about this movie not feeling like the other two Superman's it wasn't as awe-inspiring. And they felt as if this somehow broke away from the true Superman formula, when in reality Superman 3 is the closest resemblance to an actual Superman comic. Lots of comedic overtone and a ton of strange and bizarre events from science fiction to the simple surreal. I mean Superman fighting himself because of an off-brand piece of kryptonite created by a supercomputer using laser beams!
If that doesn't scream a traditional 1950s comic that I don't know what does. Perhaps that's the most important thing to remember all the Superman movies feel like they're 20 years behind the actual comic. Because they are betraying a different age of comic.
And when looking at traditional scripts for Superman 3 you come to realize that this film was going to be comedic regardless of having Richard Pryor. I mean they had ideas to have Mr.Mxyzptlk.
Ruining some small Italian Merchants life. As Superman constantly pushes the Leaning Tower of Pisa back and forth. All this culminating in a fight between the good Clark Kent and the evil Superman. Who inexplicably has a 5:00 shadow they love a drinking in bars. Almost looks a bit like Frank Castle.
I've always found it funny, people have complained about this movie not feeling like the other two Superman's it wasn't as awe-inspiring. And they felt as if this somehow broke away from the true Superman formula, when in reality Superman 3 is the closest resemblance to an actual Superman comic. Lots of comedic overtone and a ton of strange and bizarre events from science fiction to the simple surreal. I mean Superman fighting himself because of an off-brand piece of kryptonite created by a supercomputer using laser beams!
If that doesn't scream a traditional 1950s comic that I don't know what does. Perhaps that's the most important thing to remember all the Superman movies feel like they're 20 years behind the actual comic. Because they are betraying a different age of comic.
And when looking at traditional scripts for Superman 3 you come to realize that this film was going to be comedic regardless of having Richard Pryor. I mean they had ideas to have Mr.Mxyzptlk.
And then there's a Robert Vaughn he's not as good as Gene Hackman but he still provides the fun and solid enough villain. Especially given that his ambition isn't world domination but economic dominance. Which I guess is not all that different from Lex Luthor in the first movie who wanted to destroy the US Coast so that he could create his own private Coastline that he would sell for hundreds of millions of dollars. Because the same scheme happens here only with the idea to steal the world supply of oil or try to crippling or attempting to Cripple the coffee Market.
My only serious complaint with this movie is that Gus Gorman (that's Richard Pryor's character) doesn't get his comeuppance at the end . he's a good for nothing bum who's living off of unemployment who upon getting a job steals thousands of dollars from it gets blackmailed and willfully works to destroy the environment build a supercomputer and kills Superman! He really doesn't deserve any good ending at the end. Now in reality he doesn't get that great amending he's left in the middle of a coal mine with no job prospects but he should be in jail.
Still one of my absolute favorite shots in all Superman. He's flying up it's clear that he's in Calgary Alberta next shot New York City! I guess Metropolis has a very sprawling and intricate looking landscape Or it's an oversized MegaCity that spreads from New York State all the way to British Columbia.
My only serious complaint with this movie is that Gus Gorman (that's Richard Pryor's character) doesn't get his comeuppance at the end . he's a good for nothing bum who's living off of unemployment who upon getting a job steals thousands of dollars from it gets blackmailed and willfully works to destroy the environment build a supercomputer and kills Superman! He really doesn't deserve any good ending at the end. Now in reality he doesn't get that great amending he's left in the middle of a coal mine with no job prospects but he should be in jail.
Still one of my absolute favorite shots in all Superman. He's flying up it's clear that he's in Calgary Alberta next shot New York City! I guess Metropolis has a very sprawling and intricate looking landscape Or it's an oversized MegaCity that spreads from New York State all the way to British Columbia.
*Or at least it was the black sheep but between Superman 4, the Supergirl film and what's Superman's been in the last few years I think the 3rd movies beginning to look a lot better. Not that I ever had that big a problem with it to begin with. Out of all the Superman movies I've seen this one the most.
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