Blog post revisitations are becoming quite a popular thing here on this blog (and could be sign of laziness for coming up with new ideas for new posts maybe!) so why not do yet another one.
And this one is on another Superman film: Superman III, which was poorly recieved by audiences and critics at the time of its release and its reputation hasn't really improved over time either, but is it really all that bad???? Well let's find out.......
And the usual warning applies here: PLOT SPOILERS WILL BE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So the film starts with Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) who is unemployed and down on his luck when the social security cut off his money. However he soon finds out he has a knack for computers, as he takes a job with the firm Webscoe and manages to embezzle $85,000 in half cents from the organisation. After Gus unintentionally draws attention to himself by buying a fancy sports car with his money, the CEO Ross Webster (Robert Vaughan) brings him up and decides to use his talents for hacking for his own ends.
Meanwhile Clark Kent (Reeve) get's permission from Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to do a story on his hometown school reunion in Smallville. Enroute to Smallville however, Clark and Jimmy's bus is stopped by the police due to a series of fires at a nearby chemical plant but Jimmy and Clark sneak off the bus. Jimmy runs off to take pictures at the plant whereas Clark changes into Superman and he helps put out the fires by freezing a nearby lake and dropping it over the plant itself. Jimmy while taking pictures however get's injured at the plant but he is soon rescued by Superman.
After this Clark returns to Smallville and rekindles his friendship with his childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole, lovely). Lana is now single and a divorcee with a young son Ricky (Paul Kaethler) however she is still pestered by her ex-boyfriend from high school, Brad Wilson (Gavin O'Herlihy).
Meanwhile Gus, is being manipulated by Webster into doing his dirty work as he makes him hack into one of Webscoe's small computer offices (coincidentally also in Smallville) where he contacts the Vulcan satelitte, which controls the weather, and makes it create a torando to destroy Colombia's coffee crop, as a result of the country refusing to do business with Webster. However Superman intervenes and stops the tornado and dries up the crops, which incenses Webster. As they now decide to try and get rid of Superman, Webster's busty blonde nutrionist Lorelei (Pamela Stephenson) tells Webster that kryptonite is the only thing that can hurt Superman. Wesbter then gets Gus to use the Vulcan satelitte to track the whereabouts of Krypton's former location in hopes to find a chunk of Kryptonite. The computer scans show up an unknown element in the kryptonite, which Gus substitutes as tar (taken from the content of cigarettes).
Superman on Ricky's birthday turns up, and the event is turned into a parade, where Gus and Webster's sister Vera (Annie Ross) drive up, dressed in an army uniforms, Gus gives a speech to the audience and hands Superman the chunk of synthetic kryptonite, which was made up from the elements scanned by the Vulcan satelitte. However the kryptonite appears to have no effect on him, at first that is, but soon after, the kryptonite starts to make Superman behave strangely, as he becomes moody, apathetic, and commits some petty acts of vandalism, such as straightening the learning tower of Pisa and blowing out an olympic runner's torch just at the crucial moment of lighting the olympic flame.
Webster also takes advantage of Superman's immoral behaviour as he get Lorelei to lure Superman into helping them with their oil scam, as they get all the oil tankers to go to a certain destination, except one, which Superman flies to and punctures the hull, to bleed the oil out into the sea. This also causes chaos in Metropolis as the oil pumps stop pumping after Gus hacks the computer systems controlling them.
Meanwhile Superman's mood worsens, as his sinks into depression, which culiminates with him sitting in a bar getting drunk, smashes bottles of alcohol, simply by flicking peanuts at them. With Lana and Ricky arriving in Metropolis, they witness the drunken Superman walk out of the bar, growling at the spectators, he flies off, while Ricky calls out after him, with his words echoing in his head, Superman's torment reaches its limit, as he flies into a junkyard and let's out an anguished scream.
In the junkyard Superman persona splits into two, as Clark Kent emerges from himself, as the two of them fight it out for their right to live, and after repeated attempts to kill off Clark, the bad Superman puts Clark in a car crusher, but Clark bursts out of it and strangles the bad Superman who vanishes. At this point Clark opens his shirt, revealing his Superman suit, as he flies off and repairs the damage he did to the tanker and goes off to find Webster.
By this time Gus has ideas to build a supercomputer, which he has written out blueprints for and the computer is essentially an invincible machine that can counter attack and find their weaknesses and wipe out them out. Intruiged by the possibilities of what the computer can do for him, Webster agrees to have the computer built. The supercomputer once fully built, is ready in time for Superman arriving as the man of steel must try and find a way to defeat Webster and his formidable machine....
THOUGHTS
Despite the mixed reviews that Superman III got at the time, it has to be said there is still much to enjoy in it despite its overly comedic tones. And one of the things that really works in the film is Clark's development as a character, as he no longer is as bumbling and awkward as he was before and now he is more confident and self assured. And Clark's scenes with Lana are also nicely played, especially the way they keep talking at cross purposes. The idea of Superman turning evil is also a good one and his fight with himself in the junkyard is one of the film's highlights. And even though Gus Gorman wasn't well received as a character given I think his own story of going from rags to riches and eventually back to rags again makes for an amusing plot development in itself.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: may contain spoilers!!)
As for the performances well things are pretty good overall here as the cast do pretty well with their respective roles.
And to kick off Christopher Reeve once again is great as Superman and his bumbling alter-ego Clark Kent. Reeve has quite a few highlights in the film that include the scene where Superman arrives at the chemical plant to help out put out a series of fires there. And in the scene Superman flies off to a lake and freezes it, lifting up the entire frozen lake he flies over the plant and drops it and it melts and turns it a big wave of rain that puts out of the fires.
Then there is the scene where Clark is with Lana and her son, Ricky, at a bowling alley but Rick is terrible at bowling and Lana's ex, Brad turns up to try and help the boy bowl properly but Clark interrupts. And in the scene Clark says to Brad "I just don't think Ricky needs a bowling lesson infront of the other kids" and he sets Ricky up in position to bowl and he says "OK, Ricky, there you go, now give it your best shot". However as Clark walks back to sit down, he trips into a cigarette ash stand and the ash from the stand causes Clark to sneeze just as Ricky bowls and the ball speeds along at a super fast rate and it destroys the bowling pins, leaving Ricky and everyone else amazed. And Lana amazed says "Gesundheit!" and Clark says akwardly "Thank you".
Another good scene is when after Superman is given the synthesized Kryptonite, he is at Lana's home and he starts to feel the effects of it and begins to behave strangely. And in the scene Lana tells Superman there is an accident on a bridge and can he help but instead of Supe going to help he simply says to Lana "Well, there's no rush. Don't worry I always get there on time. Come on, let's relax a little". And they both sit down with Lana looking very awkward as Superman stares at her saying "You know its unusual to find a pretty girl like you all by yourself". And Lana feeling very uncomfortable says "Look, shouldn't you be doing something about that bridge?" and Superman unaware says "What bridge?" but then he takes a moment and realises what she means and he get's up "You're right. I have to get going".
Then comes the scene where the now evil Superman flies to the Statue of Liberty where Lorelei is sitting on the top of it in a fake plea for help but is there to lure and seduce him. And he says to Lorelei "Well I hope you don't expect me to save you because I don't do that anymore!" and Lorelei says "Oh, I'm long past saving!". And Lorelei looks up at Superman and says "Well don't let me keep you from anything" and Superman says "I'm not in a rush. What did you have in mind?" and she says "Lots of things!" and Superman grabs her by the arm and picks her up saying "Oh yeah?". And Lorelei says "If you just do me one little favour first!" and Supe says "What's that?" and she tells him "Well. See, there's this little boat, and its not going where it's supposed to go and....".
And then there is one of the film's main highlights, the confrontation in the junkyard between the evil Superman and Clark Kent. And the scene has some good moments that include the evil Superman goading Clark into fighting him and Clark says "I can give as good as I get!" so the evil Superman angrily yells "Well!! Come on!! Come on!!" as Clark charges at him and pushes him into a bath of acid, but the evil Supe simply emerges from it unscathed and blows some acid onto Clark's jacket, runing it. And then there is the moment where the evil Superman grabs Clark as they stand near the top of a crumble car heap and evil Supe says "You always wanted to fly, Kent, now's your chance!" and he throws him off the heap down below.
Another good moment in the film comes when after Superman turns good again he flies off to confront Webster at the Grand Canyon, who uses the supercomputer to lunch some aerial missile assaults at him, which Superman survives and then he heads inside a cave where Webster is. And in the Superman says to Webster "Alright, Webster, the game's over!" and Webster says to him "Never underestimate the power of computers! What do you think?". And Superman says "I think its typical of people like you, Webster! All the four of you wan't to do is help yourselves!" and Gus who is there awkwardly says "Four... of us? Hey, man! I'm not with them, Superman!" and Superman says "You could have fooled me, Mister!" and walks toward them only for Vera to launch a couple of the computer's attacks at him.
And lastly there is the scene where Superman having defeated Webster and his computer, flies with Gus back to Metropolis. And Gus says to him of the computer "I'm not gonna argue with you! A man that can tricky my machine can anything! How did you beat my defenses?!" and Superman says "Well your defences were pretty good as long as the machine didn't know it was in trouble. All I did was go in there with a plain old can of acid and it didn't know when that stuff hots it'll eat through anything". And as they fly on Superman quips to Gus "I guess it died of acid indigestion!" and Gus groans at Supe's corny joke and Gus asks what of Webster and his two ladies and Superman says "Well they'll have to deal with the police now, its not your problem anymore". And Gus nervously asks "Are we in Metropolis yet?" and Superman says "Nope, we're just gonna make a quick stop right over there!" and they land in a coal mine where Superman finds a diamond for Lana.
Moving onto Richard Pryor who plays the neurotic Gus Gorman and his casting was criticised at the time and to this day many people think that Pryor was horrible miscast in the film. However I think Pryor wasn't given anywhere near enough credit for his performance as Gus Gorman and he plays the part with some nice comic neurosis and bumbling awkwardness.
Pryor has some good scenes and as a few examples for starters there is the film's first scene where he get's his unemployment benefits cut off because of his frequent unsuccessful attempts to hold down a job. And the clerk (played by Nancy Roberts) Gus talks to at the labour exchange says to him "Mr Gorman, the city of Metropolis is generous to a fault" and Gus says "I'm not the fault!". And the clerks says to him "You know what you are, Mr Gorman?" and Gus says "Don't call me a bum! I'm not a bum!" and she says to him "I was going to say...you are no longer eligible!".
Then there is the scene where when Gus has just started his job with Webscoe he talks with one of the employees about how the computers when they divide up the wages for employees that there are half cents just floating out there, which gives Gus the idea to embezzle the company's half cents. And as the two of them go to get their lunch, the employee asks Gus "How many sugars do you want, Gus?" and Gus says "One and a half!".
Another good scene is when Gus is orderd to go and see Webster after he pulls the embezzlement stunt and gives himself away by buying a fancy sports car. And Gus says to Webster "I don't want to go to jail because there are robbers and rapers and rapers who rape robbers!". And in the scene Webster reassures Gus he won't having him put in jail and instead wants him to use his hacking skills for his own ends. And in the scene Webster introduces his sister, Vera but he first says to Gus "Gus, have you ever heard of Vulcan" and Gus says to Vera "Hi, Miss Vulcan!".
Another noteworthy scene comes when Gus arrives at one of Webscoe's computer offices in Smallville and we see Brad is a security guard there and Gus turns up wearing a ridiculous cowboy type suit (complete with an oversized cowboy hat!) and he opens a case filled with drinks and the two of them get drunk together until Brad passes out. And in the scene Gus goes to use the office computer but it requires two security cards to be slotted in by two people to activate it and Gus, very drunk, looks at a sign which Gus reads "Both keys at the same time?!". And he stands up and says drunkenly to the computer "You think you've won, don't you?! The Philly flash!" and he goes off to get unconscious Brad and sits him down and ties string around his hand and puts the key in his hand and pulls the string at the same time and they slot both keys in. And Gus then sits down ready to hack and says to himself "Now we'll see what we'll see!".
Then later there is the scene when Gus and Vera turn up at Superman's welcome parade in Smallville and they are both dressed in military uniforms. And Gus addresses the crowd using a loud drill sergeant type voice and he says to them "Now we all know last week half of this great nation of ours almost bit the bullet, if it wasn't for this man right here!" and he points to Superman and the crowd applaud. And Gus says "And all I can say is thank the lord for Superman!" and he continues after moe applause "Superman, you saved our bacon and I want to show our gratitude". And he takes out the synthetic piece of kryptonite and hands it Supe saying "This is a token of our appreciation for you saving us from a chemical plant disaster!".
And another good scene comes when Webster presents his plan to Gus for him to hack the computers so he can carry out his scheme to control all the oil but Gus starts to make some demands of his own. And Gus says to Webster "You know you get your way all the time and its not right! I wanna know when I get a taste". And Webster says to him "Well you've already had a taste of freedom, unless you prefer jail?" and Gus asserts himself saying "No you can't run that jail number on me anymore, cos you know I'm more use to you out here doing things for you then being in jail doing nothing for nobody!". And Webster asks him "What do you want?" and Gus takes some rough drawings out of his pockets and he says to Webster "There are plans, blueprints!" and Webster says "For what?" and Lorelei looking at the prints says "A computer". And Webster says "We already have computers" and Gus says "No, not like this. There isn't a computer like this anywhere. You see we have to build it!". And Webster intrigued by the idea says to Gus "Tell me" and Gus says "Well first of all, anyone that attacks this machine or anything, the computer counter-attacks it, I mean it finds their weaknesses and wipes them out!".
Then there is the scene when Gus finally arrives at the cave where his supercomputer is and he looks at it, amazed and he says "Baby! Its daddy!" and he goes up to join them. But when Superman arrives and Vera uses the computer to try and kill him with a kryptonite ray, Gus has a change of heart and says "Superman! No!" and he goes off to pull the screw out to deactivate it. And when he does, Webster goes after him and Gus says triumphantly as he has switched it off "I GOT IT!!" and Webster angrily says "Give me that screw!" and Gus says "THIS screw?!" and Webster says "THAT screw!" and Gus says "Never!" and puts it in his mouth. And the two of them struggle but Gus manages to punch Webster but he ends up swallowing the screw himself but it is shortlived as the computer turns on again and feeds off the powerline across the country to keep itself going. And Gus says "Its feeding itself. It wants to live!".
And lastly there is the scene near the end where Superman drops off Gus at a coal mine but he offers him to go to Metropolis but Gus, terrified of flying says "No I think I'll walk from here". And Superman asks a couple of mine workers if their boss has a computer and one of them says he has a little one and Superman then says "Well you tell him he could do alot worse than to give Gus Gorman here a job". And Gus looks touched and says "Why, thank you, Supe" and Superman says "Take care" and flies off leaving Gus amazed and impessed at Superman's generosity and he says "Take it easy, man!".
Robert Vaughan is also great in his role as the main villain, Ross Webster, the CEO of Webscoe who is out to destroy Superman so he can carry on his nefarious plans.
Vaughan has some good scenes aswell that include his first scene where Webster talks to one of his employees, Simpson, and he tells him "My friend, you are yesterday. Whomever pulled off this caper, is tomorrow!". And then Webster says "No he won't slip up at all. He'll just go on quietly taking the bread from our mouths and he'll keep a low profile and won't do a thing to call attention to himself. Unless he is a complete and utter moron!". And then Webster looks down below from his office window and sees Gus pull up in an outrageously expensive looking sports car.
Another good scene is just after Gus hacks into the Vulcan satelitte and makes it create a tornado over Colombia and Webster up on the roof of his apartment building, which has a large ski slope attached, laughs his head off watching the news of Colombia. And he says "Turn it off! If I laugh any harder I'll split my sides!" and he skis down the slope and says "Poor little Colombia!". But then Gus not long after comes in and tells Webster, Vera and Lorelei that Superman saved Colombia and Gus says "Superman was bad!" and Webster angrily says "I'd say he was" and he angrily looks down, sitting in his deckchair "No! No! NO!" and he angrily hits the rests of the chair and it collapses on him. And Webester get's up and says "He ruined it! The lousy do-gooder ruined it! I've got to get rid of him!".
And when they start talking about how Superman can be hurt and about Kryptonite, Webster says "You know what happens when a planet explodes? Derbis! Pieces floating in space. So all we need to do is find out where in heaven Krypton used to be and get good ol Gus to contact the Vulcan satelitte!". And as Gus says to Webster "I don't think I'm making enough money for this gig!" Webster wearily says to Gus "Gus, if there's one thing I can't stand, that's greed!".
Then there is the scene when Gus calls Webster to let him know that the synthetic piece of kryptonite failed to kill Superman. And Gus nervously says to him on the phone "Well there was an unknown element in the kryptonite and Superman didn't die". And Webster says disgusted "I ask you to kill Superman and you can't even do that one simple thing!" and he drops the phone, leaving Gus on the other end hanging.
And lastly there is the scene where Superman shows up to stop Webster using the supercomputer and Vera switches on a ray that emits a beam of kryptonite, which devastates Superman, weakning him. And Gus looks on in horror saying "That's Kryptonite!" and Webster says to him "You're a genius! You've invented a machine that can find anybody's weak spot! Congratulations, old buddy. You'll go down in history as the man who killed Superman!".
Annette O'Tool also does very well in her role as Lana Lang, Clark's love interest in the film but she also has her ex-boyfriend, Brad as a rival for her affections too.
Annette too has some good moments that include the scene where Lana cleans up the leftovers at the school reunion party and Clark helps her out. And Lana says to Clark "Thanks for helping me out. You'd be surprised how many offers I didn't get!" and she continues saying "Its just I feel like I can talk to you". And Clark who is far away from her says "What?" and Lana yells out louder "I feel like I can talk to you!". And at the end of the scene Lana looks at an old high school photo of Clark on the wall and she says to herself "You know years later you can look at someone and say "well that's the one that got away".
Then there is the scene where Lana and Clark go out for a picnic in a field with her son, Ricky, and Clark starts taking tubs of food out for the picnic and Clark opens one of them thinking it is pate but Lana then says "Oh no, Clark, that's Buster's dog food!" and Clark takes a beat but continues to eat it saying "That's good! When does the dog eat?!". And as the scene continues the two of the comfortably talk with one another and as Lana appears to move closer to Clark she says "Clark, may I tell you something..." and Clark nods but then Lana looks over his shoulder and notices something and she says "My oil pain is leaking!".
And lastly there is the scene when Brad keeps pestering Lana and he calls her up looking to rekindle their former relationship but she is not interested. And Lana says wearily on the phone to Brad "Brad, please stop calling me!" and Brad says "You better start appreciating old Brad! What else have you got in Smallville!" and Lana then hangs up angrily and says to herself "What else have I got in Smallville?!". And as Ricky is trying to do his homework and he shows to Lana, who is pre-occupied with her thoughts and Ricky says "Mum, I think I've got the answer" and Lana resolutely says to herself "So have I" and she calls to book a flight to Metropolis.
Annie Ross also does well her in role as Vera, Webster's obnoxious and bossy sister and she has some good comical moments in her performance of which I'll only mention a few.
And to start off there is Ross's first scene when Vera walks angrily into the room when Webster meets with Simpson over the embezzlement of Webscoe's money. And Vera walks in demanding who embezzled the money "By WHOM?! That's what I want to know! WHOM??!!". And Webster then says "Vera, get ahold of yourself!" and to himself he says "Nobody else ever will". And then during the scene Lorelei, Webster's nutrionist turns up for an appointment with Webster and she argues with Vera who says "Pay attention people, I'm about to take a human life!" as she lunges at Loerlei.
Another good one is when Webster unveils his plan to control the oil to Gus and Vera readies herself to give a presentation of the plan to Gus. And Vera starts by saying "Every pump in America is run by....." and Gus interrupts excitedly "Computers I know!" prompting Vera to explode "WILL YOU STOP INTERRUPTING?!!!" and she then calmly continues "you will order the pumps to stop pumping".
And lastly there is the scene when Webster, Vera and Lorelei arrive at the cave where the supercomputer is and they go inside it and climb the stairs to the computer control console. And Vera starts to take control and arrogantly says "I know enough about computer to put a PHD to shame! Come now, dear brother, you didn't think I was going to let that little man run the show now, did you?!". Vera then says to Webster "Bubba, engage those levers on your right to activate the alpha circuits and lock the modular grid" and she turn to Lorelei "YOU! Activate circuits 29 through W7 and start full-power coordinates on exterior defensive systems!". And Lorelei then bursts Vera's bubble and says to Webster "In otherwords push this red button" and she winks at Webster leaving Vera amazed "How did you know that?".
Pamela Stevenson even though her character is a bit annoying also does well with her role as the sexy and busty blonde bombshell, Lorelei who is part of Webster's dastardly schemes. Lorelei pretends to be just a ditsy blonde however she really is quite intellectual and she likes to just conceal it from the others, which is also a source of some amusment in the film.
Stevenson has some good moments that include her first scene where Lorelei enters Webster's office to give him a massage but she ends up arguing with Vera. And Lorelei says to Vera "Why don't you try holding your breath and maybe you'll turn blue! Improvement!". And as they continue to squabble at each other, Webster says "Mouths closed...eyes open!" and Lorelei says "She's a big pig!".
Then there is the scene where Superman has just foiled Webster's scheme with the crops in Colombia and Lorelei tells him Kryptonite is what can kill Superman. And Lorelei says "Kryptonite!" and Webster, Vera and Gus all look at her and Lorelei then feigns her ditziness again and says "Kryptonham....or Kryptonheimer....I forget what its called but its the stuff that can hurt Superman". And Vera cynically says "How would you?" and Lorelei says "Oh, I know a few things!" and Vera says "So I understand from the graffiti I've seen!".
And later on there is the scene where Webster launches his missiles at Superman when he is behind the control console of the supercomputer. And as Webster grabs the controls for the missiles, Lorelei says "Don't tense up now, honey!" but as Superman tries to evade the missiles, Lorelei looks on concerned at the video screen and says "Come on, Superman!" and Webster glares at her and she then nervously says "Emm, let him have it, Ross!".
And last of all is the scene where the supercomputer becomes self aware and Lorelei finally drops her ditzy act to Vera and shows her intelligence by looking up at the computer saying "Oh I get it, the coaxial energy shaft is engaging the source grid factor! We're through, frogface! I'm splitting!".
And last few I will mention are Gavin O'Heilhry who fairs pretty well as Brad Wilson once a former high school jock and sports star but now a drunk who stalks Lana to try and get back into her life.
Gav has some good scene aswell but I won't mention too many of them as this post is already long enough as it is! But instead I will mention his last scene which is fun when Brad tracks Lana down to Metropolis and he walks into her hotel room to find Clark on his knee having just given Lana a new diamond ring and Brad reads into the scene, furious. And he says angrily "Son of a bitch! Kent, I hate you! I've always hated you! You know why? Because your nice! And nice guys finish last!" and he aims to hit Clark but misses and he then lunges at him but Clark ducks and as Brad runs at him he jumps onto foldable bed, which Clark lifts up, sending Brad flying onto a trolley cart, which rolls into a lift.
Marc McClure is also good again as he reprises his role as Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet photographer and he has a slightly bigger part than usual as Jimmy travels to Smallville with Clark but they stop off at a chemical plant where several fires have broken out.
And in that scene Jimmy sneaks off the bus taking them to Smallville, which is stopped by the police and Clark goes along with him. And Jimmy says to Clark "You know what the chief says, a photographer always goes after a good story" but Clark warns him "that could be dangerous, Jimmy" and Jimmy smiles saying "Goes with the territory, Mr Kent!" and he gives him the thumbs up and he runs off to get some pics.
And second to last is Jackie Cooper also reprises his role very well as the editor of the Daily Planet, Perry White and he has an amusing scene where a woman, Miss Henderson walks with a tumble drum to do a bingo raffle. And White looks annoyingly over at Miss Henderson as he tries to turn the drum's handle and he says to her "Couldn't we get a computer to do this?!".
And last of all is Margot Kidder who only appears briefly in the film as Lois Lane as she goes off on holiday at the start. And as Clark asks Lois if she is going away, Lois says to him "Oh well, Clark, some of us get to go all the way to Smallville. And some of us just have to settle for...." and she holds up a tiny bikini and she says "Bermuda!".
And later on at the end of the film, Lois comes back with a hefty tan and also with a top story from her antics there. And White says to her "Lois, I've got to hand it to you, you're amazing! I mean you turn a three week tropical vacation into a front page story that's going to blow the lid off the corruption in the Carribean!". And Lois says to White "You know, I just knew I was onto something when that taxi driver kidnapped me!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
So FINALLY moving onto the director and music paragraphs (yes I really need to cut these reviews down in size!) I'll start with Richard Lester, who had already previously directed Superman II (well partly anyway) and here he does a pretty good job although he is guilty adding a liberal dose of slapstick to the film. And in this respect it does kind of harm the film's credibility at times given that there are some truly stupid moments in the film but I will get to them more in the flaws section of the review. But for the most part Lester does well with the film and he keeps the pacing pretty tight and it rarely lags and the film itself rarely boring thanks to him keeping the tone light. And Lester does add some pretty good action scenes aswell particularly Webster's missile attack on Superman and the evil Supe's confrontation in the junkyard with Clark Kent.
As for the music, Ken Thorne once again provides the score, and he again incorporates some of John Williams original themes but this time around the score features more original work of his own. And the score itself is actually quite good and it has some good tracks in it especially the music used in the scene where Superman is attacked by the supercomputer's missiles aswell as the music during the evil Supeman and Clark Kent's junkyard confrontation. It does however lack the quality and calibre of John Williams music to the original film and there are times where the score does feel like it belongs more to a TV film than a cinematic one but overall its a good effort from Thorne.
The film also features additional tracks by Italian composer and songwriter Giorgio Moroder however they are sparsley used in the film but one of them features in the scene where Gus get's drunk with Brad at the Webscoe office in Smallville. Moroder's music is nothing special but it doesn't really detract from the film either and it is so rarely used its almost pointless that it was included but it still has its own charm even if it sounds very dated as it is mainly just 80s synth stuff.
FLAWS
As for Superman III's flaws.....yes there are some to be found.
And to kick off I think as I said earlier in the review that part of the film's problem is the fact that the tone of it is overly comedic at times and is a bit too heavy handed when it comes to the slapstick. This is especially notable in the film's opening scene where Lorelei's attractiveness sparks off a series of accidents that has one onlooker crash into another creating a domino type series of calamities. Its a really daft opening to the film and it really doesn't belong to the Superman universe and would be more suited to a Carry on film!
And this brings me onto another stupid scene where Gus hacks into various computers systems causing chaos everywhere such as people crossing the street only to have the green and red traffic light men symbols fighting each other. It is about as stupid and as silly as the Superman series got up until that point (well until Superman IV came along that is, which took stupid to a whole new level!).
Then there are some plot holes of course and the first one that comes to mind is why didn't Webster put two and two together sooner regarding Gus embezzling Webscoe's money??? And he could have figured this out easy because Gus was given an expenses pay cheque with his name on it, which has the figure of 85,000 dollars also written on it! So all Webster needed to do is have his staff check the accounts of their employees and they could have found Gus out easy without him unintentionally giving himself away in the first place!
Another daft one is how would Webster and Vera know that Superman would eventually be able to snap out his evil personae as after he defeats the evil Supe, he flies off to find the video message of Vera saying "So you finally have shown your true colours". And this makes you wonder, do they know he turned back to being a good guy at this point or not??? It doesn't make much sense as you can know for sure they didn't have any info on just how long the affects of the synthetic kryptonite would last on Superman! Its not like in that episode of Family Guy where Peter takes a drug that turns him gay, which is revealed by a doctor to have a time limit, so the same can't be said with the effects of the synthetic kryptonite with Superman (well it didn't turn Superman gay for starters!).
The film also due to some of its deleted scenes being omitted from the theatrical cut also contributes to one or two moments in the film not making sense. And as a couple of examples there is the scene when Gus get's Brad drunk and Brad says to Gus that his nickname in high school was "the Smallville flash". And in the next scene after Brad passes out and Gus tries to use the computer but requires another person to insert the key card to do so, he says to the machine "The Philly flash!" which doesn't make sense without having seen the deleted scene itself.
And another example is during the fight between the evil Superman and Clark Kent when the bad Superman goads Clark and Clark says "I can give as good as I get" but prior to that Superman says something to him to provoke that response and again it was omitted from the theatrical release. And I actually remember seeing the version with these scenes left in years ago on TV and with that they made alot more sense than without. So for me that highlights a problem with the theatrical cut itself.
And lastly I thought it was a bit stupid as to how the supercomputer did NOT know that the container of acid Superman brought back from the plant would be dangerous?! It is a supercomputer after all with I'd imagine a genius computerised intellect and you even see it analyse the contents of the container but its analysis reads "Danger level: ZERO" but surely it must know that acid IS dangerous! Also I find it silly that even a small container of acid could cause such a massive amount of damage to a giant supercomputer, which is the size of a very big house! But hey it is just a plot device used to kill off the machine after all.
Anyways that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up Superman III for me is an underrated sequel, which got alot of unfair negative criticism aswell as for the casting of Richard Pryor but I think the film is alot better than its given credit for. And by no means do I think the casting of Pryor hurts the film in anyway and his comedic skills are used well in the film. The rest of the cast also perform very well particularly Reeve, Vaughan and O'Toole.
It also nicely develops Clark's character and shows him to be more assertive and confident than before and Reeve and O'Toole both share a nice chemistry together onscreen. In fact the American film critic, Roger Ebert in his review at the time said the film was missing a big love story like Superman's romance with Lois. But for me I think Clark's romance with Lana is a subtler one which doesn't feature stupid moments like that crap "Can you read my mind?" song in the original film when Superman flies Lois over Metropolis.
The film also features some excellent optical effects even if some of them look better than others but I for one still enjoy watching the missile attack scene on Superman, which is one of the film's highlights. Also the effect of Superman lifting the frozen lake up and flying it over the chemical plant is another impressive special effect worth mentioning aswell.
And yeah OK it does have some flaws as I mentioned above and it has its fair share of comedic slapstick, which is a bit out of place for a Superman film and it does harm the film's credibility. However if you are willing to forgive all that then there is still alot to enjoy in Superman III and I personally think its a film that deserves a second look and I still think its way better than Man of Steel which if anything sucked out all the fun of the franchise (yep there, said it!).
Anyway so I will be back again sometime soon with yet another post and next time it will not be a revisitation of a previous post (promise!).
Till the next one bye for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment