One of my all time favorites.

From my favorite movies..

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Again I say: a movie of superheroes does not have to be totally serious, but also does not have to be totally stupid. Christopher Reeve, who truly portrays Clark Kent/Superman and even an Evil Superman, is the only redeeming factor of this disgrace, along with Annette O'Toole who plays Lana Lang, Clark's high school crush. Richard Pryor may be a great comedian, but here he's just an idiot who somehow goes from vagabond to computer genius, and villains are nothing threatening. Only the beginning of the movie with a sequence of stupid scenes á là Mr. Magoo sets the tone for the rest of the two hours, which clearly is no good omen.

Superman III is best watched on a Saturday night, with fizzy and sweets. It's such an entertaining flick that includes action, comedy, suspense, love and excellent stunts. Richard Pryor is great as the unlucky Gus Gorman, a man that can't quite find the right job. He soon becomes involved with the villains as his computer skills become abused for the evil plans of Mr.Webster. There are many interesting plots in Superman III, such as Superman's fall from grace and the relationship between Clark Kent and Lana Lang. Ken Thorne gives the film some style and Gorgio Moroder produces some decent synth songs that feature throughout the adventure. The special effects are well realised and the best of the series by a country mile. The junkyard fight is also a memorable sequence which ranks as my favourite moment from the Superman films. Superman III shouldn't be a 4.9; it's too good for that.

I wrote an almost essay long review on Superman II gushing about how great it was and how much it (along with the first movie) helped set the benchmark for what comic book movies should be like. The following two Superman movies on the other hand helped set the benchmark for what comic book movies *shouldn't* be like, and that's really all I feel like saying about Superman III in general (I'm not sure I have the strength to re-visit Superman IV: The Quest For Peace)It takes everything that was wonderful about the first two and strips them away, creating a brainless comedy that is almost a page by page adaption of a typical Superman comic book, which, as this movie proved, is NOT how you make a good comic book movie.All the emotion of the first two films? Gone, replaced by the "comedy" of Richard Pryor, who drags the movie down with his awful character and performance, ultimately being totally worthless to the plot.The compelling antagonists? Also gone, replaced by a typical evil businessman villain that seems like a cheap replacement for Lex Luthor due to the absence of Gene Hackman because of his loyalty to Richard Donner.Margot Kidder as Lois Lane is disappointingly absent, reduced to a cameoHell, even the small sense of plausibility is gone, replaced by a plot that drowns in silliness.The one thing the movie still has going in its favour is Christopher Reeve, who continues to play his iconic portrayal of Superman to perfection, and this time gets to stretch his acting muscles by also playing a brainwashed, evil Superman, which he pulls off superbly.Roger Ebert said "Superman III is the movie I feared the original Superman would be" and with that line he nailed more than I have in this entire review why the original film worked and this didn't.

This has got to be one of the most painful, if not the most painful movie to sit through. First, you have the first one which I thought it was a classic. Second, you have the sequel where different directors have their own cut of the movie as Lester's cut did fine, but I much prefer Donner's cut. Now, we have the third movie that had just made this franchise go way overboard. I'm not happy with the direction for what this movie went, because like I said it is painful to watch. Here is my take on it: The movie centers mostly on Gus Gorman, who is nothing more but a bum as he looks for a job by working as a programmer on computers; while that is going on, CEO of the computer company, Ross Webster hires him to do on what he is being told but Superman foils his plan. So they try to make Kryptonite to kill Superman, but instead of that, his personalities has now change. On the other hand, Clark Kent returns to Smallville for a high school reunion with one of his best friends Lana Lang. So, that is what the movie is about. This plot for the third movie isn't as interesting as you thought it would. Heck, I didn't think it was that interesting either. This movie is not only having its camp factors like Lester's cut of "Superman II," but having put too much comedy in it. There is nothing wrong for putting comedy in a superhero movie, but all jokes that were putted in the movie are being forced; its just trying too hard to make something on what is suppose to be funny. None of the jokes ever worked. I hated the opening scene, where instead of the tradition opening credits like the other "Superman" movies, they just show the city of Metropolis for becoming a madhouse as well as having the credits for making it look like the opening text crawl from the "Star Wars" movies. Richard Pryor is not funny in this movie, and doesn't belong here to be in this movie. I've read the movie's trivia on IMDb, where Pryor read the script and thought it was terrible, but agreed to do it for paycheck. I'll forgive Pryor for his involvement, but if he wants to be in this movie then have him play a villain or something, instead of being a comedic sidekick. The villains in this movie are uninspiring, because they couldn't used any villains from the comics but just have to be created for the movie. I honestly don't care for Ken Thorne's music or some of Giorgio Moroder's music that he created for the movie, which I find them nothing to be appealing. The acting is so-so for the cast, except for Christopher Reeve, Annette O'Toole and a small appearance from Margot Kidder. Margot Kidder's look for Lois Lane is okay, but miss the way she look in the first one and the second one in Donner's cut. Her acting is still good, but wish that she had more screen time. As for Annette O'Toole, her performance as Lana Lang is well done, but I don't find her chemistry with Christopher Reeve well enough as much as I enjoy the chemistry between Reeve and Kidder. Now for Christopher Reeve, he is still giving a great performance for playing Clark Kent and Superman, and there is nothing to dislike about him. I love him when he becomes corrupted by a fake Kryptonite as he turns to the dark side; he seems to have a blast for this role for playing such a bad superhero. I do like where evil Superman fights his ego Clark Kent as its pretty much a fight between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As Clark Kent finishes off his evil self, I love when the Superman theme comes in as he is now fully redeem, while he opens up his shirt by revealing his costume and fixed the damage that he caused. That is where I get the feel of that I'm watching a "Superman" movie, until it goes back to being painful. The child actor who plays Lana Lang's son Ricky is really annoying aside from Pryor's character. Even his acting is very wooden. The special effects are similar to Lester's cut of "Superman II" as there are parts that are good and bad. Lester's direction is terrible, and you still wish if the Salkinds have not fired Richard Donner for making "Superman II" as if this franchise would still be strong. This is not an easy movie to sit through, because at least when you have some bad movies like either "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III," "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," or "X-Men: The Last Stand;" there are at least not as painful as "Superman III." Although, I do thought the third "X-Men" movie is okay, but still not good. I'm sure you're going to disagree with me on one of those movies, but that just me being bias about something. This movie sure does feel like Pryor's movie than Superman's, because Pryor really steals the show. This movie should have more scenes with Superman, than having more scenes with Pryor in it. I don't like "Superman III," and I strongly don't recommend it. I give it a 3 out of 10.