So onto Part 3 of my critique of the Superman films, which is of
course all about Superman 3, which again was directed by Richard Lester, so
the comic tone that he added to Superman 2 is on full flight here, and
we also have the inclusion of Richard Pryor, to further the comedy
elements. But more on that soon, now onto the plot.
So
Supe 3 starts with Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) an umemployed fella who
is down on his luck when the social security cut off his money, who
finds out he has a knack for computers, as he takes a job with the firm
Webscoe and manages to embezzle $85000 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) gets
permission from Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to do a story on his
hometown school reunion in Smallville, where he returns and strikes up a
friendship with his childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole,
lovely). Lana is now single and a divorcee with one young son Ricky,
however she is still pestered by her ex-boyfriend from high school, Brad
Wilson (Gavan O'Herlihy).
Back to Gus, Webster now
manipulates Gus into doing his dirty as he makes him hack into one of
Webscoe's small computer offices (in Smallville funnily enough!) 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, who now wants to get rid of Superman. With his busty blonde
nutrionist Lorelei (Pamela Stephenson) telling Webster that kryptonite
is the only thing that can hurt Superman, Wesbter 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 his pack 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 uniform,
Gus give a speech to the audience and hands Superman as a gift, the
chunk of synthetic kryptonite, 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 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 as
Metropolis, doesn't get its oil supplies and the oil pumps dry up, which
creates riots in the city. 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. 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, who burts out of it to strangle the bad Supe,
who vanishes. At this point Clark opens his shirt, revealing his
Superman suit, as he flies off and puts the damage he did to rights and
goes off to find Webster.
By this time Gus has ideas to
build a supercomputer, which he has written out blueprints for, the
computer is essentially an invincible machine that can counter attack
and wipe out its enemies. 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,
which attacks the caped dude with missiles. Superman survives the
attacks and then goes in to confront Webster in the climactic sequence.
(Sheesh what a long plot summary!).
Despite the mixed
reviews that Superman III got at the time, I have to say I really did
enjoy it as a film, and despite the overly comic tones in certain scenes
it has alot going for it. 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, now he is more confident and sure
of himself. His scenes with Lana are also nicely played, especially
the way they keep talking at cross purposes, as an example Clark helps
Lana clean up after the school reunion party, and she talks about her
ex-husband while sorting out the potato salad, "You know what the
problem is???" and Clark says "Eehhh, too much mayonaisse??" "What?? No
my husband loved mayonaise!". And also the scene where they picnic out
in the fields, and Lana says to Clark "Clark, can I tell you
something. My oil pan is leaking!".
And another
highlight of Superman III is of course the casting of Richard Pryor, who
plays the neurotic Gus Gorman with a wonderful sense of comic neurosis,
a computer genius, who starts off being a little naughty by embezzling
Webster's company, only to find himself out of his depth with the overly
ambitious millionaire forcing to be involved in his dastardly schemes.
Gus of course at no point really comes across as the bad guy, he's just
an ordinary joe, who gets caught up in some bad events with some bad
people. And toward the end Gus realises just how maniacal Webster is,
when Superman is nearly killed by one of the supercomputer's ray beams
(harnessing kryptonite rays) he tries to turn off the computer, and
smashes up the kryptonite ray beam that is hurting Superman. Its also
in a way a neat touch, that the computer at that point becomes self
aware and turns itself back on, feeding off the powerlines of
Metropolis, but in the end Superman manages to save the day. And there
is a nice symmetrical touch to Gus's character, as Gus at the end of the
movie ends up right back where he started, having gone from rags to
riches, and back again, starting off the film as being unemployed, and
ending it as the same! There was also a bit of criticism levelled at
the film because it appeared to be more like a comedy vehicle for
Richard Pryor than an actual Superman film, and to an extent maybe you
could say that, but overall I don't think Pryor overshadows Christopher
Reeve in it too much.
There are of course quite a few
highlights in the film, and without a doubt of the film's best scene is
Superman's dual with himself in the junkyard, as the evil Superman and
good Clark Kent fight it out for survival. Christopher Reeve always
wanted to play the part of the evil Superman, and he was reported as
having really enjoyed it, and its something he does really well in the
film. And in a way the dark cape, also neatly lends to his darkening
personality in the film, its also perhaps the single best aspect of the
film in fact, as it helps lend a bit of much needed dramatic weight to
offset much of its comedic tone. Another highlight scene is of course,
when the good Superman flies off to confront Webster, who attacks him
with the supercomputer's defence system, firing missiles galore at him,
its a scene that always stuck in my mind as I remember seeing it as a
clip on TV as a kid when it first came out back in 1983 (yup I'm old!).
I also like the scene with Richard Pryor sitting getting drunk with
Brad Wilson in the Webscoe office, wearing the ridiculously big cowboy
hat!
But if there are any weaknesses in the film then
yes it is the overly comedic slapstick tone set by Richard Lester, the
opening scene with the busty Lorelei, getting the attention of an
onlooker who bumps into a mime, sets off a chain reaction of accidents.
Its well staged, but it just looks silly, and it no longer looks like
we are in Metropolis, it might as well be an village idiot's
convention. Another silly scene is where Gus goes to Smallville and
hacks into the computers and wreaks havoc with computer systems
controlling the ATM machines, the traffic, and especially with the green
and red traffic men signs fighting with one another. Its just silly
and naff. The terse relationship between Lorelei and Vera is also
enteratining but it is also a bit too farcical as well, although I do
like their exchange when they argue infront of Webster, and Lorelei
shouts about Vera "She's a big pig!".
On the music
front Ken Thorne once again provides the score, again he delivers much
of John Williams score from the first film, but he also adds some nice
passages of music himself. Lester often used Ken Thorne as his regular
composer, although if one criticism can be levelled at the score, it
still does sound like TV film music, and not something that really
belongs to a film on the big screen.
So overall for me
Superman III is an underrated sequel, and yeah ok, there a few
criticisms that can be levelled at it for its overtly comic tone, but I
feel it doesn't really deserve or deserved the stick it got from the
critics or the public. And without a doubt it stands head and shoulders
above the fairly abysmal Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
But I will give Superman IV its due and dedicate a couple of smallish paragraphs towards it although let's face that it is no more than a second rate TV movie, which is poorly made, directed and not that well acted by its cast, despite the fact that Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman came back, they are hardly well catered for here. Its also a great shame that Christopher
Reeve bowed out of the Superman films, in such a poor way with Superman
IV, as he and the character deserved so much better than that. Although in retrospect it does have a strange appeal to it, despite it being so bad its bad, and you can still see that Reeve is still strongly dedicated to the role, despite the awful dialogue he gets, especially when addresses the public on the subway "I would just like to say that our subway transportation system is still the safest in the world, thank you!". But clearly there was not enough money thrown at it as the special effects are pretty awful (particularly in Superman's flying scenes, especially in the subway scene near the start where he rescues Lois). The plot is of course also totally ludicrous, even by the series standards, with Superman ridding the planet of nuclear weapons (I'm sure the army might still have a secret stash somewhere!) and fighting Lex Luthor's new fearsome baddie, Nuclear man (played by Mark Pillow) which easily ranks as the worst villain in any of the films.
Also as a quick note, despite its many shortcomings, there are some hidden pleasures on the DVD extras for the film, where there is a hilarious deleted scene, which shows the prototype baddie Lex Luthor came up with before he created Neutron man. And the baddie was actually played by the British actor, Clive Merill (who's acting credits include Casualty and Alien3) who puts in a hilarious performance as Luthor's incompetent baddie, and Superman's fight scene with him outside the back of a nightclub is priceless! But unfortunately for the most part, yup Supeman IV is pretty much a lorra mince, but nonetheless if you are curious to see it by all means, give it a go, and whince during and afterwards.
So cue part 4 with Supe Returns.......
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