|
Superman IIIRating:
Release Date: 01 May, 2001 Retail Price: $19.96 OUR Price: $17.96 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Superman III Reviews
Disapointing, but still has it's moments overall.
Well the credits at the end of Superman II warned us, Coming Soon Superman III. Well here it is, Superman III and would it be a worthy addition to the Superman saga? Well.. not exactly. But that doesn't mean it's a total loss.
There were a lot of problems with this film. Everything that was great about the first two just wasn't anywhere to be found in this edition of the movie. Richard Lester now had full control of the directors seat and the movie was turned into a total humor and childish story that just didn't seem to fit right in the Superman universe. Margot Kidder's role as Lois Lane was reduced to a few minutes at the begining and end due to her still being steamed about the original Superman: The Movie's director Richard Donner's being replaced. The bad guy this time around wasn't Luthor but a billionare who even though he had no reason to be a bad guy, thought it was good to just be bad with the help of computers. And the story at points was pretty ho-hum, with Clark's old flame from Smallville, Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) along with her son take the place of Lois Lane this time around. The biggest addition to this film is comedian/actor Richard Prior who played, Gus Gorman, being the main focal point that this movie would be devoted to, that could be good or bad considering if you liked the path this movie took.
Gus is an out of work bum who takes a few classes in data processing only to discover that he is a natural wiz at computer hacking. He uses this skill to steal thousands of dollars, by making the computer give his check all the half of cents that are disregarded in paychecks by the payroll computer. When the head of the company Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn) finds out about this, instead of firing him or calling the police, he decides to use this ability Gus has to tamper with computers to his advantage. Gus is sent to Smallville to gain access to Vulcan, the weather satelite and has to reprogram it to cause bad weather, rather then just report it. After ruining the coffee crops in Columbia, Superman flies in to save the day and restores all the crops and fixes the weather there, much to the disgust of Ross.
A lab made batch of Kryptonite is created and handed to Superman at a festival in his honor. Instead of killing Superman, the home made Kryptonite turns Superman twisted and selfish and evil. He is no longer the superhero the world remembers but goes around causing trouble like blowing out the Olympic Torch and pushing the leaning tower of Pisa straight again. With Superman out of the way Ross and Gus go to work by having the oil tankers aimlessly wander the Atlantic Ocean to cause oil shortages and eventualy they build a master computer of Gus' design that will be able to do anything they want. Including..the ability to kill Superman.
The movie has a lot of fun moments but also leaves a lot to be desired at many other points. A lot of situations were meant to be funny or humorous but come off as silly and lame. A good example of this is when Gus is trying to get into the Vulcan satelite via a computer uplink he is busy tampering with other things in the process. So we have the Don't Walk icon getting into a fist fight with the Walk icon in the traffic cross walk light. Then we have someone's Bloomingdale's bill become hundreds of thousands of dollars and the husband pushes a grapefruit into his wife's face when he sees this. The whole opening sequence as well was pretty awful. A chain event of situations is caused as the main squeeze of Ross, Lorilei (Pamela Stephenson) walks through Metropolis and catches the attention of a few onlookers and hijinx ensue. In a scene that even Reeve's groaned on in real life, Gus in a pair of skies, losses control on top of the roof of a building and skies off the side of a building casualy landing on the street and skies away. And on and on and on.. this movie was full of many things like this that just weren't that amusing even though they so wanted to be. A definite change of pace over what the first two films were.
But there were some pretty good moments as well. The moment that most people love of this movie is when, Superman after affected by the bad Kryptonite turns into a bad version of himself until he finaly screams out in terror only for Clark Kent to show up before him as he splits into two versions of himself. The two now battle it out in a junk yard where it's Evil Superman vs Clark Kent destroying everything in their path as they try and out do the other. Christopher Reeve truly shines here as Superman playing both roles at the same time and playing both characters as if it were second nature. It's classic when Evil Superman is swinging Clark Kent around and says "You always wanted to fly Kent, well now's your chance!" only to send him flying into the air. Also a moment that may have actualy scared a lot of people as kids was when Ross' sister Vera (Annie Ross) gets sucked into the Supercomputer at the end and becomes a robotic version of herself with all the abilities of the computer and the look to match. Superman against the computer itself wasn't as good as it could have been but still is suspensful enough to lead to a good climax.
A lot of people say this movie killed the Superman Movies franchise but I think that while it wasn't as good as previously it isn't horrible either. It definitely lacked big time when compared to the first two, as it relied more on slapstick and uncreative moments then thrilling battles and a fun love story. I can easily see it from both perspectives. That while on one side we have Richard Prior in a ridiculous role and very unfunny moments, we also have some good Superman type elements like the man of steel flying off and freezing a lake to lift up and cause rain to fall over a chemical plant that is under fire. And some cool graphics where they have a computer like game that is being played as real rockets are being fired at Superman from the supercomputer. If you look past the bad jokes and sight gags and see what it does have , you will find a not to bad edition of Superman here.
Overall I say why not add this? Ok maybe it's not the best movie to ever have the Superman name on it, but you can do a lot worse and it is funny to at least relive the past and the early 80's through this film. It has the token annoying little kid, and the rich guy wanting to get richer at any costs and the bully from High School too. But it also has a certain charm and fun factor that I can't quite put my finger on. For some reason it's just fun to watch this movie. It's not often you will see a pretty girl sitting atop the Statue of Liberty and have Superman come in saying he won't save her "Cause he doesn't do that anymore" only for her to make seductive passes at him.
Check it out, it's good for a laugh, and not only due to the jokes that fill this film. Trust me, it's really not as horrible as it could have been. The italian guy in Pisa who breaks the Tower of Pisa figurines due to Superman making the Tower straight thus making his leaning figurines worthless, is just classic Superman humor. You can't make this stuff up.
I like it!
I know that many people dislike Superman III. I've heard all of the complaints about this movie, but IMHO it's a GOOD TIME. Superman III and Supergirl (the Director's or International Cut ONLY) have both highly entertained me. SUPE III IS FUN!
More Customer Reviews (33 total)
You like Superman III?
|
© 2004 DVD Booty | Don't Plunder Our Cache of Booty, Matey!
Hosting Provided by Debt Consolidation Programs Info
