Superman III Reviews

PROS: The cinematography is beautiful, and the special effects are above average. The score is still rousing, and Christopher Reeve is likable enough as Superman. The film is decently paced and there are one or neat touches such as when Superman turns nasty.

CONS: The storytelling is very clunky for me, while the script is awful. Margot Kidder apparently wanted little to do with this film and if true I'm afraid it does show, while Robert Vaughan is a pretty poor replacement for Gene Hackman and the less said about Pamela Stephenson the better. Also the direction is rather heartless and using Richard Pryor as the source of the laughs just didn't work.

Overall, it is disappointing and lacklustre but it is watchable unlike the fourth. Anyway that is another story. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I liked 'Superman', I loved 'Superman II', but this? This one failed to interest me in any way!

'Superman III' does feature a darker performance from Christopher Reeve, but what a ludicrous script! The film features some nice visual effects, but the effects are used mainly in really boring scenes. The action in this film is just dull and the idea of Superman becoming an alcoholic is just wrong!

This film feels really inconsistent, and several plot points don't match up, Superman's random acts of vandalism don't seem right or his alcohol abuse, or the scene where he becomes two people - a selfish, evil version of Superman and a moral Clark Kent (Superman's secret identity).

Probably the worst thing about this film is the appearance of Richard Pryor, he tries to put comedy into his performance, but he fails miserably, and is also attempting comedy in the wrong movie. The 'Superman' films just don't seem right as comedies! Slapstick is only funny in cartoons as well!

Out of the 5 Superman movies they made so far, it is easily the worst one. Yeah, in my opinion, it is even worse than ‘Superman IV’ which is usually even more hated but this 2nd sequel was pure garbage. This time, Richard Lester was back in the director’s chair but even it did a decent job with the 1st sequel, taking over when Richard Donner was fired, he did really mess it up this time. Apparently, someone thought it was a good idea to turn the whole thing into some kind of comedy and threw in Richard Pryor into the mix. I mean, to get an idea, it is as if they would have cast Eddie Murphy in ‘The Dark Knight’ to add a few more laughs. Sounds quite dreadful, doesn’t it? Ok, I have to admit it, Superman had never been a really serious affair in the first place but with this movie, it reached some new level of silliness and boredom. I have nothing against Richard Pryor, I haven’t seen enough of his movies to judge him, but it was pretty obvious he got himself involved in this for a fat big paycheck. At least, they tried to bring another bad guy than the always dependable Lex Luthor (Luthor would be eventually the villain in all the 4 over Superman installments. Talking about a lack of inspiration…) but that’s the only positive thing I can find here. To conclude, it was pretty bad and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.