Viewed in
2013
Formats
HDTV
Premise
A tycoon and computer programmer create Kryptonite that turns Superman into a bad guy.
Liked
Richard Pryor, Christoper Reeve.
Disliked
Pretty much everything else.
Thoughts
Well, I liked Reeve and Pryor, both elevating their game above the material. As the lead, Reeve continued his lovable portrayal of sometimes-bumbling Clark Kent, that made him endearing. I also dug Pryor's animated acting. He was a likable villain as he butted heads with General Hunt Stockwell- I mean Robert Vaughn. It was cool that they went against racial stereotype of having a black man portraying a computer nerd.
But aside from these two actors, there wasn't much to enjoy. The plot was nonsensical, characters acted like idiots, story-telling was meandering; the setup required to reach the actual described premise was a dizzying labyrinth of inanity. Compared to previous Reeve-era titles, each iteration felt more and more cartoony and incredulous, not just in terms of science (the outdated portrayal of hacking and satellites here was embarassing), but character behavior as well.
Lastly, while I liked Lana Lang (ironic she played Martha Kent in Smallville), I missed spastic Margot Kidder as Lois Lane to romantically foil our man Kal-El.
Superman III had three good qualities, Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, and the bank account hacking scheme made famous by Office Space. Unfortunately, the silly story and bad logic just made the movie laughably/cringe-worthy bad.
