Superman III
Dir: Richard Lester
1983
*****
No, it's not a mistake, I have indeed given Superman III a five star rating and have declared it one of my favorite films of all time. I agree that Superman III was somewhat of a departure from what made the first and second film great and it wasn't necessarily the best direction for the franchise but I love it anyway. Christopher Reeve's arm was twisted somewhat to return as the caped crusader, no one else did in protest to the way Richard Donner was treated and those that were vocal about it (Margot Kidder) had very little screen time as punishment. The producers had lost their way and wouldn't admit that the real success of the franchise wasn't all down to them. The public wasn't aware that most of Superman II was filmed by Richard Donner rather than credited Richard Lester, so the change in tone came as a bit of a surprise, an unwelcome at that. The producers and Lester lost sight of what they had and looked at what was popular at the time. It's true that the first film probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the fact they bagged Marlon Brando but by this point Reeves was all the star power they needed. That and an exciting bad guy. Given that Gene Hackman had sided with Donner and walked, they needed a new foe for the Man of Steel to wrestle. Superman's enemies aren't as exciting as Batman's but there are a few decent villains to choose from and fan favorites such as Bizarro, Brainiac, Jax-Ur and Mister Mxyzptlk were considered as was a villain who was in fact 2 of the existing villains combined (Mister Mxyzptlk & Brainiac), indeed this idea has been mooted ever since in all of the failed adaptations, of which there are many. Before Richard Pryor was cast, there was an idea floating around that Dudley Moore should play Brainiac, something I would have loved to have seen, although probably for all the wrong reasons. Richard Pryor was cast because he was box office gold at the time and it was a pointless decision that I'm eternally grateful for. Sure, everything he did was either silly, stupid or made no logical sense what so ever but then no one does silly quite like Pryor. The slap-stick opening sequence, the bizarre misunderstanding of what computers can actually do and the overall comedy overkill, I really don't mind any of it. It's a ridiculous 80's film, no more ridiculous than any other 80's film I can think of. Camp comedy was something the original films avoided but Donner was gone, it really could have been a lot worse (that was yet to come). I've heard people say that Robert Vaughn played a poor man's Lex Luther but I would argue that Robert Vaughn is a poor man's nothing, the man is just as credible as Hackman and is just as much a film legend. Pryor, Computers, Robots, they were all fashionable at the time, nothing at all to do with Superman but nostalgia has won me over on this one. It's Superman in the 80's. So the scene whereby Pryor falls from the top of a skyscraper and survives is a bit stupid but the scenes whereby Evil Superman runs riot and fights Clark Kent is awesome (Superman goes bad due to Tar being added as an ingredient to some home-made Kryptonite, Superman III is essentially an anti-smoking film for kids). The scene where Annie Ross turns into a cyborg is awesome too and was the thing of nightmares for every kid who saw it. It could be said that Superman III isn't as equal as the sum of its parts, and that might be true, and you could argue that the film is terrible until the cows come home and I will always repeat the words "Reeve, Pryor, Cyborg" and I will look at you like Evil Superman looked at Clark Kent and I will put you in a Car compactor, figuratively of course although I will actually win like Clark Kent did. So hopefully that has straightened everyone's Pisa tower and we can all agree, Superman III is actually a brilliant film. Like Pryor himself said; "For a piece of Sh*t, it smells great!".