This a clip from our FULL breakdown of SUPERMAN III: ruclips.net/video/EBP1jZH08Qg/видео.html Also check out our other SUPERMAN breakdowns: * SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE: ruclips.net/video/BPJqJpDwyGk/видео.html * SUPERMAN II and the Donner Cut: ruclips.net/video/kpf3hCUpZKc/видео.html * SUPERMAN IV: ruclips.net/video/To1R2QiIXaY/видео.html
I saw Superman III at the theater. As a kid, I pretended to like it, even though I knew it was bad. Still, it has iconic moments like the junkyard fight, the woman being turned into a robot, and all the Evil Superman stuff.
The junkyard fight is the saving grace of Superman III, and a testament to Christopher Reeve's acting abilities. Annette O'Toole was sweet & likeable as Lana Lang, but Clark Kent's romantic pursuit of her undermined his relationship with Lois Lane established in the previous films, he literally broke-up with her & erased her memory at the end of 'Superman II' to fulfil his duty as Earth's protector, so to see him off chasing attraction from a married woman as his love interest in the very next movie was jarring to say the least! As a whole, the movie doesn't really satisfy fans of Superman, or Richard Pryor comedy films for that matter (Pryor was paid a staggering $5 million for his performance, quite appalling when considering Reeve himself only made a total of $8 million for all 4 films as the main star in the title role). It was too obvious that Robert Vaughn's hammy villain antagonist Ross Webster was a sub-par stand-in for Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor (who wouldn't return while it was being produced by the Salkinds & Pierre Spengler). Perhaps a more interesting idea would have been to have the main-antagonist as the super-computer being a variant of Brainiac, who was featured in the early script draft. The climactic battle-scene (& in particular Vera Ross' horrific transformation into a cyborg) was the only time in the entire film that there felt like there was a genuine threat. I never understood why the Salkinds payed to licence the majority of Superman & even Supergirl characters including the rogue's gallery of villains but apart from Lex Luthor & the Kryptonian trio (Zod, Ursa & Non) failed to utilise any of them. The generic villain was the biggest problem of the Supergirl movie that followed this as well, the low-stakes & ill-fitted casting of Faye Dunaway was too ridiculous to take seriously. The same issue could be levelled at Nuclear Man in 'Superman IV : The Quest For Peace'. The prototype first version of that character that was ultimately cut from the film, though poorly executed, was far more interesting because he bore a slight resemblance to Bizarro. Maybe if they leaned into the comics lore instead perhaps the films would have fared slightly better?
Oh yeah there's some fantastic wire work in this movie, largely thanks to Christopher Reeve himself who acted as director for those shots. There's a couple of take-off shots during that chemical plant fire sequence that are really remarkable, including that one you mention.
@@reggiemoore2261 It probably should have been red since there was at least a couple of stories where red kryptonite splits Clark and Superman into separate people and made Superman evil. And it would have also explained why Superman didn't immediately recognize the rock as kryptonite.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about how the movie had a bunch of elements that could have made for a compelling story, but they never gave us a payoff on any one of them.
One just might go crazy thinking about the questions 1:24 raises. Is this is a visual representation of internal conflict? If it's like Tyler Durden versus the unnamed narrator, are we witnessing Clark's self-flagellation or is he just imagining that metal scrap? 😂 If we're witnessing a fictionally physical reality, you'd expect both copies of Kal-El to reckon with the pointlessness of crude mêlée attacks on indestructible bodies. Conceivable explanation, though, now that I think of it: I recall a George Reeves ep in which his Superman self-duplicates so as to be in and out of prison simultaneously. Each copy is at half-power, so bullets sting. Perhaps this is a multi-versal principle when Supermen discover their power to do the splits. Perhaps both Kals we see here really are getting hurt throughout the garbage fight. But next; shouldn't the impact from the metal get CK's shirt dirty? Now we're on the BTS question of just how they got that shot.
Superman fighting himself is a good way to solidify Clark's alibi in the two of them being two different people, had there been a few witnesses around.
And have we achieved irony at 0:23 since (correct me if my understanding is wrong, here) Webster, Evil Supes, and the cyborg sister were meant to be Luthor, Bizarro, and Brainiac? Makes Superman III less comics-inspired than it was intended! 😂
For what this movie is I would edit stuff out to make it better. But what I wished was instead of Clark choking out evil Superman, Clark would reveal his Superman attire, and the fight between good and evil Superman was extended into the center of town of Smallville.
Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman is the very first actor to play a Cyber-criminal. Think about that sh*t for a second. Long before movies like, Hackers, Sneakers, The Net and other movies with Cyber-crime as their plot. Richard Pryor as Gus Freakin Gorman in Superman III was the First! 🤯😂
@@axebomber2108 I knew someone was going to mention War Games. It is a fair debate. Broadrick's character wasn't intentionally doing anything criminal. He thought he was just playing a video game. "Want to play a Game?" Pryor's character was doing it intentionally. "I know I'm worth more to you, out here than sitting in jail, doing nothing for nobody." But War Games and Superman III was released in theaters on the same month in 1983. So it is a fair debate
I always felt Superman 3 was a pretty similar to Superman 1 but without the heart of that movie. And Superman 3 has some pretty goofy moments, not that I don’t like goofy moments, it just felt a little off. Superman is great though, so I like watching all of them
Nothing terrible in 1) showing results of Superman affecting the world by showing how callous people of Metropolis (probably) became 2) showing Superman getting tired of being Superman. It wasn't done straight up, but still.
Nothing had saddened a little me more then when Richard Pryor went public with his M.S. diagnosis. I saw him on Oprah talking about it, on the poor guy started ashing his Cigarette cause of shakes, I cried.
I prefer 3 to 4. The fourth movie was so bad that not even the original actors' combined effort couldn't save it. The acting of the atom man, breathing in space, superman's wall-repairing vision...
Superman 3 should have introduced Bizarro and the Parasite .These were two of the best characters in the comic and they existed in the early 1980s .The problem with the Superman films is they were the first attempt to produce big budget serious movies based on a comic book so of course it was understandable that some of the writers would have no respect or knowledge of the source material . It's a near miracle that the first Superman was such an outstanding movie and in my opinion still the best superhero film ever made
In their defense, Zod was a pretty deep dive as he was far from a well-known character when they used him. And the plan was to use Brainiac in Superman III until the producers saw Richard Pryor doing a Superman bit on the Tonight Show.
Yes ,General Zod is quite an obscure character but the first two Superman films were written together.I think the idea was to have Superman fight several Kryptonian villains in the sequel.Only one of those villains uses an actual comic book name and that's General Zod. Though there's similar characters to Non and Ursa in the comic.I think Richard Donner actually had a knowledge of the comic and a love for Superman that Richard Lester never had .
I think with Batman the villains are much more iconic than Superman so it would be unthinkable to make a Batman movie minus a comic book atangonist.That's why Batman even in 1966 on TV included many of the comic book villains.When the Spiderman TV series was produced for example all the comic books villains were absent as again his villains hadn't achieved public recognition status
Golden opportunity, there, @@prodigioussaps: get reaction videos to the deleted scenes on IV. You'll know the one I'm thinking of when you get to it. (Hint: Nuclear Man wasn't Lex's first try.)
They don't delve into (fighting his bad self) it I presume because he's an alien Faced with a splash of toxic waste from his own planet and this is how is dealing with it mentally I don't know why people hate this film I loved it as a kid The chemical plant Pryor was funny that scene with the booze wearing that suit The dance is silly but you can take how ever The field scene was good Him going bad I thought was fantastic Specially the blowing out the olympic flame 😂 I loved that The problem with the tanker His fight scene with himself and his redemption going after the bad guys It's a silly film But it's cinema gold That's what I want from some movies from time to time I don't have to think I think some people are over complicating this movie trying to want it to be the film it wasn't If you don't like it that's fine But there are people like me who enjoy it and watch it often
That’s cool, dude - but considering this was a sequel to two of the best superhero movies ever made, I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to expect better from this one. They could have and should have done so much better.
@prodigioussaps yeah I understand that Even cr said it's more comic book Agreed it should have been better Like the intro 😂 😂 Jimmy falling The reunion The whether system What's his name from willow chasing larna Clarks dancing Pryor buying the Ferrari 308 But I can accept that for a silly movie Even though like you said the first films are cinematic masterpieces
She's given a shade more than nothing besides 7:58 seeing as the character is secretly brainy. She hides a philosophy textbook and fronts for her man with a fashion magazine. Later she's so tech-savvy that she's the first one to call for evac when the supercomputer goes critical. Interesting commentary on women feelin' the pressure to hide cerebralism, tho it goes nowhere.
Exactly! Another potentially interesting plot device that accomplished literally nothing. It’s such weird writing. More like a rough draft of ideas than an actual story.
Such wasted potential. I guess we just have to be happy with some of the great sequences we got in this mess. The Chemical Fire, Junkyard Fight, and Cyborg Nightmare. "Hey look Superman's drunk!" - probably not, but I'm sure the producer's of this film were.
The problem is the original idea for the movie where brainiac finds supergirl raises her like a daughter then falls in love with her and she manages to get away from him and she makes her way to earth and finds her biological cousin kal-el known on earth as Superman and brainiac comes looking for her while Superman is supposed to fall in love with her also cause the movie was supposed to be the introduction to supergirl and would lead into the failed supergirl movie and they are basically supposed to fight over her in a bizarre love triangle but reeve objected to this knowing Superman and supergirl are biological cousins and didn’t want to have the love triangle and pulled him part in supergirl over it and Margo had a reduced role in the movie cause it’s rumored she asked for a reduced role in the movie due to not being happy with how the Donner situation played out cause she was on donner’s side in that situation
Yeah Ilya Salkind's original treatment for Superman III sounds crazy-go-nuts (Mister Mxyzptlk was in there as well), but kind of like with Tim Burton's Superman Lives, I kinda wish they had made it anyway even though I probably would have hated it.
Watching documentaries it seems to me the Salkinds didn't really surround themselves with talented writers. Maybe because the Salkinds were so difficult to work with and tons of writers wouldn't work with them..
@@prodigioussapsthere is also a Kevin smith version of Superman lives cause according to the documentary the death of Superman lives they tapped both Kevin smith and Tim Burton to write a first draft script for the movie but it ultimately came down to no being able to come up with a usable script
Dick Lester and the Salkinds really justified that they didn't really know what they were doing when they put out this mess. I agree Lester did a nice job piecing together his version of Superman 2 mixing it with Donner. But this was Lester and the Salkinds take on a Superman movie from start to finish.. I don't know what Donner and Manc would have done but no way it would have been this awful.. Bringing Pryor in was just a massive mistake and one Lester obviously wanted because he was a comedic director.. But he looked like a fish out of water the whole movie. They should have taken the evil Superman angle even farther in terms of the battle Superman had from within and also explored more with Lana and his time in Smallville.. Ironically Spiderman 3 I always felt kind of copied aspects of Superman 3 and didn't do any better LOL.. BTW Pierre Spengler just recently was asked about the Tony Danza rumor and denied it.. Said they just had to re-work Chris Reeve's deal..
Thanks for that news about the Danza debunking... I hadn't seen that. I think I first read about the Tony Danza thing at CBR.com, but apparently that rumor had been around for awhile. I wonder who started it?
I mentioned this in a Superman 4 video. 3 had decent moments, and some good ideas. But this was clearly a Richard Pryor movie with a Superman cameo. So it starts with Warner Bro. Spengler, and the Salkinds were always their own worst enemy. Richard Lester may be a good director. But has no clue about Superman. As far as the Newmans , they are hacks. Donner and Mankiewicz are responsible for 1 and 2 period. After Donner the series was dead. Reeve was his usual self but I don't think he really cared for this movie.
I thought Ilya Salkind's first pitch story outline was actually pretty cool, Clark Kent reading Lois Lane's Dear John Letter, only to brighten up learning Lana Lang was taking her place, Brainiac raising Supergirl only for him to shed his Surrogate Father nature and become a lustful monster by the time she grew up, I can over look her and Superman not being cousins to have a romance, maybe on Krypton instead of Kara Zor-El her name was Kara Zar-Yl, and Myxy that Imp, taking them to the midevil times in an alternate reality to settle things in a Joust!
That would have been BONKERS but I kinda would like to see it anyway. Obviously I'd have preferred Donner and Mankiewicz continue their take on the character, but in this case it's like... well, we're here... screw it, let's see how crazy it can get.
As lesser a movie Superman 3 is than 1 and 2, I actually have a soft spot for Superman 3. It's way better than 4 and is not as bad as the butchering you're giving it. Yes it's far from a perfect movie but growing up as a kid I was still in awe of so many scenes. And he was still the hero I saw in 1 and 2 (albeit in a different style, with more comedy) - but as a kid you're not aware of this. You just cheer for everything good he does.
The Smallville story is definitely interesting, but it doesn't fit in the narrative that Donner and Mankiewicz had about Clark having a personal relationship and how it interferes with his being Superman. So Clark and Lana being close wouldn't have a payoff that would make sense according to the narrative. Gus's computer going rogue works if it was Brainiac the whole time, because otherwise it makes no sense. A good first act would have been to have Brainiac arrive and during a battle with Superman, he transfers his consciousness into the Websco computer network, which would explain Gus being a computer expert, since it's Brainiac. He manipulates Gus into designing the computer that Ross Webster builds in acts two and three. The synthetic Kryptonite was purposefully used to get Clark out of the way. That would have worked. The problem in the end was the Salkinds wanting to have the focus on Richard Pryor, at the expense of Superman. When the Superboy series came around, the show had the benefit of the comic writers and editors working on it, and thus crafting more complete plots. Even having Gilbert Gottfried as Knick Knack wasn't as distracting.
I think it helps that it's Clark who is wooing Lana and not Superman. Most of the problems in Superman II were caused by Lois primarly being in love with Superman, including being taken hostage because she's his "favorite".
Mario didn't really write Superman The Movie.. Mario handed off his ideas and then it went through tons of re-writes.. The movie was written by Tom Mankiewicz. Along with huge parts of 2..
Mario completed at least two full drafts. You can find at least one of them online. It's a fascinating read. A lot of his ideas actually made it to the finished movie. But yeah, Mankiewicz is the guy who wrote the shooting scripts for I and II, and he's the guy they should have brought back for III. I think they did try, but Mank refused to come back out of loyalty to Donner.
I agree with those elements in Superman 3 that could have been fine plot points because if you had gone with the end of the Richard Donner cut of Superman 2 the three supervillains are out there floating in space there was potential for them to come back in three that would have been something awesome to see I do agree my favorite is the junkyard sequence and once again all those elements thrown in could have been very good plot points if they had taken Superman 3 a little more seriously rather than throwing that goofy comedy that does not work in a Superman movie you can have those little moments that are funny don't get me wrong but trying to make it more of a comedy then I then a semi-serious I think that's where they went wrong I think one of you have commented also on the opening title sequence yeah the phone booth just happened to be getting knocked down buy a hot dog cart but Superman 3 is in my collection and every once in a while I will pull out and watch it keep up the good work guys love watching your podcast
Tony Danza as Superman?! He’s 5’9”, compared to Christopher Reeve who was 6’4”. How was Tony Danza from Who’s The Boss? even considered for that role? 🤪
I'm really curious to know how that rumor started. It was reported on CBR and Screenrant a few years ago, but I recently learned that Pierre Spengler and Ilya Salkind have debunked it. However sometimes those guys can be unreliable narrators so I'm not sure who to believe.
Glad to see Brendon is over his trauma after talking about the walk/don't walk signs scene in Superman III. 😂 What's Wrong with Superman III? is too long of a list to cover in less than 10 minutes. 🤣 Superman III definitely had potential to be really good, even with Richard Pryor, if they wrote it a little more serious and let Pryor bring his humor. . Gus Gorman is a down and out failure at every job, But he has a gift for computers and hacking. Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman is the very first actor to play a Cyber criminal. Really good cast, (for the most part) Really good cinemaphotography and special effects, (for the most part). Even really good directing...Visually by Lester. But Lester was still the wrong director for the Superman movies It's the Newman's story, plot and writing that fails. The Newman's were hired by the Sulkins for the first Superman movie, because they were the writers on a horrible musical play, "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman" when Donner was hired to direct, he brough on Tom Mankowitz to do re-writes and take out all the corny, campy, slapstick crap. Lester agreed to direct Superman III, he brough back the Newmans. And that's why we get the two walk signs fighting ...and a lot of other corny campy slapstick crap in Superman III!
The second movie was disappointing to me compared to the first, but the third was terrible. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn't interested in seeing it in the theater whereas I saw the other three in the theater. Then I heard it was so bad that I never rented it or anything just to see it. We had HBO, so when it came on there, I watched it just that one time. I think Reeve was disenchanted with the movies without Donner, too. It sure looks like he was so bored he didn't even bother to bulk up his muscles for the last two. Why didn't they let Donner alone to do his magic. He was really gung ho for the movies, and he was interested in doing more. I had heard at the time that Reeve signed on to do nine Superman movies. Can you imagine nine Reeve/Donner masterpieces?
I wouldn't say he didn't bulk up. He was at his largest in Superman III. He was thinner in Superman IV because he hadn't played Superman in years and was having back problems by that point.
You two are so much fun. It was an awful script, I've said it before., some chances come only once, and they wasted theirs..I can't watch the evil Superman episode. Tried. Failed. I liked Pryor in it, playing the computer master, they could have done a lot more with a sentient computer plot. There was always something with computer enthusiasts that amazed me. I could sit down at a computer keyboard, study the manual and try to learn a language and, finally, look at my yarn collection with longing. My husband sat down at computer keyboard and the computer would bow and greet him like a great king. Some people are born to be computer programmers.
@@prodigioussaps Star trek had already discussed sentient Computers - what we now called AI, several times. there was the movie and book 'Colossus" .The computers in Ray Bradbury's stories . His Father's Avatar at the fortress was an AI ' ghost'. If the writers couldn't come up with their own ideas, borrow and put it through the superman filter. You're welcome!
Larry Lamb as the oilman at 5:33. Appears as a Daily Planet staffer in the first two movies. You can still see him on British TV, notably Gavin and Stacey.
@alexojideagu I remember him from Triangle, the BBC soap opera set on a North Sea ferry! Anyway, my mistake, he's actually a coal miner isn't he? The scene where Superman crushes a lump of coal into a diamond?
@@robertsrobots6531 I've got a vague memory of hearing that name Triangle. Yes! You really flew with him? So about that Job.....9 or 10 miles?.....Nah I'll walk lol Almost the whole movie was filmed in Pinewood, including the Junkyard bit lol
And though Jimmy wanted to please Mr White with pics of the Chemical factory fire, he ends up breaking and badly burning his leg and all the film in the camera melting as a result! You can tell Clark is angry of this, I mean no pics of reunion, Superman had clearly been repressing a lot of anger since 2, and when he gets Jimmy out of danger and Jimmy goes, Ouch! Superman clearly like poked him a bit on purpose cause he's mad at Jimmy for not being able now to take reunion pics, it's clear cause just the way Superman says Ok, IM SORRY! sarcastically like hes about to lose his temper!
That's funny -- I can't say I see it that way. I just can't see Reeve's Superman ever behaving in a petty, vindictive manner... okay there is the truck driver thing at the end of Superman iI, but not towards a friend, anyway. Certainly he does things like that *after* getting exposed to the synthetic kryptonite, but this is long before that happens.
Such as waste of Christopher Reeve... really dont know why they had go down that whacky comedy route... the junkyard scene was by far the best part.. they really could have made something of evil superman.
TBH if they just expanded on the time Clark spent in Smallville and went all in on the romance with Lana the movie would have been 50% better IMO right off the bat.. Because Lana, unlike Lois, was very interested in Clark. They had that connection from when they were kids, and she was the girl he had a big crush on in HS.. They didn't need another Supervillain, they just should NOT have had Webster playing the poor man's Lex Luthor.. Pryor super funny and talented actor, but I don't cast him in Superman 3 unless he's playing a nasty villain..
🎥Richard Pryor had an affair with Lois Lane I mean Margot Kidder during the production of Superman III and the two had previously worked together in the 1982 film Some Kind Of Hero. Pryor was offered the role in Superman III after he was spotted by producers on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Richard admitted he was a huge fan of the first two Superman movies. 🦸♀🦹♂🦸♀🦹♀
Yeah I love that Tonight Show interview. It's a shame they couldn't write a better part for Pryor because he was a great actor and I think it could have been fantastic if they had actually written a solid character for him to play instead just a string of pointless comedy bits. When Gus is just being Gus, it's great, especially in those early establishing scenes.
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This a clip from our FULL breakdown of SUPERMAN III:
ruclips.net/video/EBP1jZH08Qg/видео.html
Also check out our other SUPERMAN breakdowns:
* SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE:
ruclips.net/video/BPJqJpDwyGk/видео.html
* SUPERMAN II and the Donner Cut:
ruclips.net/video/kpf3hCUpZKc/видео.html
* SUPERMAN IV:
ruclips.net/video/To1R2QiIXaY/видео.html
@prodigioussaps Great video!🦸🦹🦸♀🦹♀
@@SuperMarioBrosIII Thanks!
I'm good. 👍
Drunk Superman stumbling out of a bar in the middle of the day, is worth watching!
The woman being made into a cyborg haunts me to this day.
I saw Superman III at the theater. As a kid, I pretended to like it, even though I knew it was bad.
Still, it has iconic moments like the junkyard fight, the woman being turned into a robot, and all the Evil Superman stuff.
The junkyard fight is the saving grace of Superman III, and a testament to Christopher Reeve's acting abilities. Annette O'Toole was sweet & likeable as Lana Lang, but Clark Kent's romantic pursuit of her undermined his relationship with Lois Lane established in the previous films, he literally broke-up with her & erased her memory at the end of 'Superman II' to fulfil his duty as Earth's protector, so to see him off chasing attraction from a married woman as his love interest in the very next movie was jarring to say the least! As a whole, the movie doesn't really satisfy fans of Superman, or Richard Pryor comedy films for that matter (Pryor was paid a staggering $5 million for his performance, quite appalling when considering Reeve himself only made a total of $8 million for all 4 films as the main star in the title role). It was too obvious that Robert Vaughn's hammy villain antagonist Ross Webster was a sub-par stand-in for Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor (who wouldn't return while it was being produced by the Salkinds & Pierre Spengler). Perhaps a more interesting idea would have been to have the main-antagonist as the super-computer being a variant of Brainiac, who was featured in the early script draft. The climactic battle-scene (& in particular Vera Ross' horrific transformation into a cyborg) was the only time in the entire film that there felt like there was a genuine threat. I never understood why the Salkinds payed to licence the majority of Superman & even Supergirl characters including the rogue's gallery of villains but apart from Lex Luthor & the Kryptonian trio (Zod, Ursa & Non) failed to utilise any of them. The generic villain was the biggest problem of the Supergirl movie that followed this as well, the low-stakes & ill-fitted casting of Faye Dunaway was too ridiculous to take seriously. The same issue could be levelled at Nuclear Man in 'Superman IV : The Quest For Peace'. The prototype first version of that character that was ultimately cut from the film, though poorly executed, was far more interesting because he bore a slight resemblance to Bizarro. Maybe if they leaned into the comics lore instead perhaps the films would have fared slightly better?
One excellent part is Superman's flying leap take off after the fire chief tells him about the lake. That looks real because it's done with wires.
Oh yeah there's some fantastic wire work in this movie, largely thanks to Christopher Reeve himself who acted as director for those shots. There's a couple of take-off shots during that chemical plant fire sequence that are really remarkable, including that one you mention.
Superman III wasn't that terrible. It had Richard Pryor, Superman losing it and the iconic junkyard fight scene.
That piece of kryptonite should have been red. In the series Smallville, red kryptonite changed Clarks behavior in that way.
@@reggiemoore2261 It probably should have been red since there was at least a couple of stories where red kryptonite splits Clark and Superman into separate people and made Superman evil. And it would have also explained why Superman didn't immediately recognize the rock as kryptonite.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about how the movie had a bunch of elements that could have made for a compelling story, but they never gave us a payoff on any one of them.
Yeah, it's frustrating. Cheers 👊
One just might go crazy thinking about the questions 1:24 raises. Is this is a visual representation of internal conflict? If it's like Tyler Durden versus the unnamed narrator, are we witnessing Clark's self-flagellation or is he just imagining that metal scrap? 😂
If we're witnessing a fictionally physical reality, you'd expect both copies of Kal-El to reckon with the pointlessness of crude mêlée attacks on indestructible bodies.
Conceivable explanation, though, now that I think of it: I recall a George Reeves ep in which his Superman self-duplicates so as to be in and out of prison simultaneously. Each copy is at half-power, so bullets sting. Perhaps this is a multi-versal principle when Supermen discover their power to do the splits. Perhaps both Kals we see here really are getting hurt throughout the garbage fight.
But next; shouldn't the impact from the metal get CK's shirt dirty? Now we're on the BTS question of just how they got that shot.
Superman fighting himself is a good way to solidify Clark's alibi in the two of them being two different people, had there been a few witnesses around.
I love your focus on Superman movies. I dont understand how any other superhero even comes close!
And have we achieved irony at 0:23 since (correct me if my understanding is wrong, here) Webster, Evil Supes, and the cyborg sister were meant to be Luthor, Bizarro, and Brainiac? Makes Superman III less comics-inspired than it was intended! 😂
For what this movie is I would edit stuff out to make it better. But what I wished was instead of Clark choking out evil Superman, Clark would reveal his Superman attire, and the fight between good and evil Superman was extended into the center of town of Smallville.
I remember watching this in the theaters as a kid. I thought it was good for it's time. I liked it.
Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman is the very first actor to play a Cyber-criminal. Think about that sh*t for a second.
Long before movies like, Hackers, Sneakers, The Net and other movies with Cyber-crime as their plot.
Richard Pryor as Gus Freakin Gorman in Superman III was the First! 🤯😂
It's debatable, as Superman III came out around the same time as WarGames.
@@axebomber2108 I knew someone was going to mention War Games.
It is a fair debate. Broadrick's character wasn't intentionally doing anything criminal. He thought he was just playing a video game. "Want to play a Game?"
Pryor's character was doing it intentionally.
"I know I'm worth more to you, out here than sitting in jail, doing nothing for nobody."
But War Games and Superman III was released in theaters on the same month in 1983. So it is a fair debate
I always felt Superman 3 was a pretty similar to Superman 1 but without the heart of that movie. And Superman 3 has some pretty goofy moments, not that I don’t like goofy moments, it just felt a little off. Superman is great though, so I like watching all of them
Superman III is a terrible idea with a big budget, executed well. Superman IV is a great idea, with no budget, executed poorly.
Nothing terrible in
1) showing results of Superman affecting the world by showing how callous people of Metropolis (probably) became
2) showing Superman getting tired of being Superman. It wasn't done straight up, but still.
superman III sucked compared to II
Nothing had saddened a little me more then when Richard Pryor went public with his M.S. diagnosis. I saw him on Oprah talking about it, on the poor guy started ashing his Cigarette cause of shakes, I cried.
Is that what happened to him? I never heard.
Ironically, I was 7 years old when I saw this in the theater. So, not yet 8. I suppose I was the target audience.
On the plus side, Chris looked his strongest in this one. 💪
Just watched Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. It was moving.
Wonderful documentary, they did a great job.
I prefer 3 to 4. The fourth movie was so bad that not even the original actors' combined effort couldn't save it. The acting of the atom man, breathing in space, superman's wall-repairing vision...
Superman 3 should have introduced Bizarro and the Parasite .These were two of the best characters in the comic and they existed in the early 1980s .The problem with the Superman films is they were the first attempt to produce big budget serious movies based on a comic book so of course it was understandable that some of the writers would have no respect or knowledge of the source material . It's a near miracle that the first Superman was such an outstanding movie and in my opinion still the best superhero film ever made
Agreed. It took a lonnnng time for Hollywood to catch up with Donner's vision.
In their defense, Zod was a pretty deep dive as he was far from a well-known character when they used him. And the plan was to use Brainiac in Superman III until the producers saw Richard Pryor doing a Superman bit on the Tonight Show.
Yes ,General Zod is quite an obscure character but the first two Superman films were written together.I think the idea was to have Superman fight several Kryptonian villains in the sequel.Only one of those villains uses an actual comic book name and that's General Zod. Though there's similar characters to Non and Ursa in the comic.I think Richard Donner actually had a knowledge of the comic and a love for Superman that Richard Lester never had .
I think with Batman the villains are much more iconic than Superman so it would be unthinkable to make a Batman movie minus a comic book atangonist.That's why Batman even in 1966 on TV included many of the comic book villains.When the Spiderman TV series was produced for example all the comic books villains were absent as again his villains hadn't achieved public recognition status
What's this at 7:03 about not having seen these? As in you never bothered with III and IV until now, or you just hadn't watched them lately?
Brendan deliberately avoided watching III and IV until we did these breakdowns.
Golden opportunity, there, @@prodigioussaps: get reaction videos to the deleted scenes on IV. You'll know the one I'm thinking of when you get to it. (Hint: Nuclear Man wasn't Lex's first try.)
They don't delve into (fighting his bad self) it I presume because he's an alien
Faced with a splash of toxic waste from his own planet and this is how is dealing with it mentally
I don't know why people hate this film
I loved it as a kid
The chemical plant
Pryor was funny that scene with the booze wearing that suit
The dance is silly but you can take how ever
The field scene was good
Him going bad I thought was fantastic
Specially the blowing out the olympic flame
😂
I loved that
The problem with the tanker
His fight scene with himself and his redemption going after the bad guys
It's a silly film
But it's cinema gold
That's what I want from some movies from time to time
I don't have to think
I think some people are over complicating this movie trying to want it to be the film it wasn't
If you don't like it that's fine
But there are people like me who enjoy it and watch it often
That’s cool, dude - but considering this was a sequel to two of the best superhero movies ever made, I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to expect better from this one. They could have and should have done so much better.
@prodigioussaps yeah I understand that
Even cr said it's more comic book
Agreed it should have been better
Like the intro 😂 😂
Jimmy falling
The reunion
The whether system
What's his name from willow chasing larna
Clarks dancing
Pryor buying the Ferrari 308
But I can accept that for a silly movie
Even though like you said the first films are cinematic masterpieces
It was terrible. Some one heard comic book and thought comedy. I felt betrayed.
She's given a shade more than nothing besides 7:58 seeing as the character is secretly brainy. She hides a philosophy textbook and fronts for her man with a fashion magazine. Later she's so tech-savvy that she's the first one to call for evac when the supercomputer goes critical. Interesting commentary on women feelin' the pressure to hide cerebralism, tho it goes nowhere.
Exactly! Another potentially interesting plot device that accomplished literally nothing. It’s such weird writing. More like a rough draft of ideas than an actual story.
@@prodigioussaps Some people should never write more than a grocery list.
Such wasted potential. I guess we just have to be happy with some of the great sequences we got in this mess. The Chemical Fire, Junkyard Fight, and Cyborg Nightmare. "Hey look Superman's drunk!" - probably not, but I'm sure the producer's of this film were.
Superman wasn't meant to be comic relief. If you removed the comedy out of superman 3 it would be a better film
It doesn't have to be outright removed, but it is overemphasized by the producers, writing team and Richard Lester.
The problem is the original idea for the movie where brainiac finds supergirl raises her like a daughter then falls in love with her and she manages to get away from him and she makes her way to earth and finds her biological cousin kal-el known on earth as Superman and brainiac comes looking for her while Superman is supposed to fall in love with her also cause the movie was supposed to be the introduction to supergirl and would lead into the failed supergirl movie and they are basically supposed to fight over her in a bizarre love triangle but reeve objected to this knowing Superman and supergirl are biological cousins and didn’t want to have the love triangle and pulled him part in supergirl over it and Margo had a reduced role in the movie cause it’s rumored she asked for a reduced role in the movie due to not being happy with how the Donner situation played out cause she was on donner’s side in that situation
Yeah Ilya Salkind's original treatment for Superman III sounds crazy-go-nuts (Mister Mxyzptlk was in there as well), but kind of like with Tim Burton's Superman Lives, I kinda wish they had made it anyway even though I probably would have hated it.
Watching documentaries it seems to me the Salkinds didn't really surround themselves with talented writers. Maybe because the Salkinds were so difficult to work with and tons of writers wouldn't work with them..
@@prodigioussapsthere is also a Kevin smith version of Superman lives cause according to the documentary the death of Superman lives they tapped both Kevin smith and Tim Burton to write a first draft script for the movie but it ultimately came down to no being able to come up with a usable script
Nothing wrong with Superman III. It's a fun movie with some awesome bits. That's not a hot take either. 😉
Dick Lester and the Salkinds really justified that they didn't really know what they were doing when they put out this mess. I agree Lester did a nice job piecing together his version of Superman 2 mixing it with Donner. But this was Lester and the Salkinds take on a Superman movie from start to finish.. I don't know what Donner and Manc would have done but no way it would have been this awful.. Bringing Pryor in was just a massive mistake and one Lester obviously wanted because he was a comedic director.. But he looked like a fish out of water the whole movie. They should have taken the evil Superman angle even farther in terms of the battle Superman had from within and also explored more with Lana and his time in Smallville.. Ironically Spiderman 3 I always felt kind of copied aspects of Superman 3 and didn't do any better LOL.. BTW Pierre Spengler just recently was asked about the Tony Danza rumor and denied it.. Said they just had to re-work Chris Reeve's deal..
Thanks for that news about the Danza debunking... I hadn't seen that. I think I first read about the Tony Danza thing at CBR.com, but apparently that rumor had been around for awhile. I wonder who started it?
I don’t remember this movie much. But now I wanna see it. I’ll turn my Brain off and just pretend it’s bizzaro and brainiac as the villains. 🤷🏻♂️
She blond girl, Pamela Stevenson, went on to become a psychiatrist and marry Billy Connolly.
I mentioned this in a Superman 4 video. 3 had decent moments, and some good ideas. But this was clearly a Richard Pryor movie with a Superman cameo. So it starts with Warner Bro. Spengler, and the Salkinds were always their own worst enemy. Richard Lester may be a good director. But has no clue about Superman. As far as the Newmans , they are hacks. Donner and Mankiewicz are responsible for 1 and 2 period. After Donner the series was dead. Reeve was his usual self but I don't think he really cared for this movie.
Like I said in the first episode, I like Danza, but Thank Goodness Who's The Boss pretty much also kind of got him out of this!
I thought Ilya Salkind's first pitch story outline was actually pretty cool, Clark Kent reading Lois Lane's Dear John Letter, only to brighten up learning Lana Lang was taking her place, Brainiac raising Supergirl only for him to shed his Surrogate Father nature and become a lustful monster by the time she grew up, I can over look her and Superman not being cousins to have a romance, maybe on Krypton instead of Kara Zor-El her name was Kara Zar-Yl, and Myxy that Imp, taking them to the midevil times in an alternate reality to settle things in a Joust!
That would have been BONKERS but I kinda would like to see it anyway. Obviously I'd have preferred Donner and Mankiewicz continue their take on the character, but in this case it's like... well, we're here... screw it, let's see how crazy it can get.
As lesser a movie Superman 3 is than 1 and 2, I actually have a soft spot for Superman 3. It's way better than 4 and is not as bad as the butchering you're giving it. Yes it's far from a perfect movie but growing up as a kid I was still in awe of so many scenes. And he was still the hero I saw in 1 and 2 (albeit in a different style, with more comedy) - but as a kid you're not aware of this. You just cheer for everything good he does.
The Smallville story is definitely interesting, but it doesn't fit in the narrative that Donner and Mankiewicz had about Clark having a personal relationship and how it interferes with his being Superman. So Clark and Lana being close wouldn't have a payoff that would make sense according to the narrative.
Gus's computer going rogue works if it was Brainiac the whole time, because otherwise it makes no sense. A good first act would have been to have Brainiac arrive and during a battle with Superman, he transfers his consciousness into the Websco computer network, which would explain Gus being a computer expert, since it's Brainiac. He manipulates Gus into designing the computer that Ross Webster builds in acts two and three. The synthetic Kryptonite was purposefully used to get Clark out of the way. That would have worked.
The problem in the end was the Salkinds wanting to have the focus on Richard Pryor, at the expense of Superman. When the Superboy series came around, the show had the benefit of the comic writers and editors working on it, and thus crafting more complete plots. Even having Gilbert Gottfried as Knick Knack wasn't as distracting.
I think it helps that it's Clark who is wooing Lana and not Superman. Most of the problems in Superman II were caused by Lois primarly being in love with Superman, including being taken hostage because she's his "favorite".
Mario Puzo should have been brought back to write Superman III. The script by the Newmans was terrible.
Mario didn't really write Superman The Movie.. Mario handed off his ideas and then it went through tons of re-writes.. The movie was written by Tom Mankiewicz. Along with huge parts of 2..
Mario completed at least two full drafts. You can find at least one of them online. It's a fascinating read. A lot of his ideas actually made it to the finished movie.
But yeah, Mankiewicz is the guy who wrote the shooting scripts for I and II, and he's the guy they should have brought back for III. I think they did try, but Mank refused to come back out of loyalty to Donner.
I agree with those elements in Superman 3 that could have been fine plot points because if you had gone with the end of the Richard Donner cut of Superman 2 the three supervillains are out there floating in space there was potential for them to come back in three that would have been something awesome to see I do agree my favorite is the junkyard sequence and once again all those elements thrown in could have been very good plot points if they had taken Superman 3 a little more seriously rather than throwing that goofy comedy that does not work in a Superman movie you can have those little moments that are funny don't get me wrong but trying to make it more of a comedy then I then a semi-serious I think that's where they went wrong I think one of you have commented also on the opening title sequence yeah the phone booth just happened to be getting knocked down buy a hot dog cart but Superman 3 is in my collection and every once in a while I will pull out and watch it keep up the good work guys love watching your podcast
Thanks James!
Tony Danza as Superman?! He’s 5’9”, compared to Christopher Reeve who was 6’4”. How was Tony Danza from Who’s The Boss? even considered for that role? 🤪
I'm really curious to know how that rumor started. It was reported on CBR and Screenrant a few years ago, but I recently learned that Pierre Spengler and Ilya Salkind have debunked it. However sometimes those guys can be unreliable narrators so I'm not sure who to believe.
What's wrong with Superman III?
1. Terrible script
2. Richard Pryor
3. Richard Lester
Glad to see Brendon is over his trauma after talking about the walk/don't walk signs scene in Superman III. 😂
What's Wrong with Superman III? is too long of a list to cover in less than 10 minutes. 🤣
Superman III definitely had potential to be really good, even with Richard Pryor, if they wrote it a little more serious and let Pryor bring his humor. . Gus Gorman is a down and out failure at every job, But he has a gift for computers and hacking.
Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman is the very first actor to play a Cyber criminal.
Really good cast, (for the most part)
Really good cinemaphotography and special effects, (for the most part). Even really good directing...Visually by Lester.
But Lester was still the wrong director for the Superman movies
It's the Newman's story, plot and writing that fails. The Newman's were hired by the Sulkins for the first Superman movie, because they were the writers on a horrible musical play, "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman"
when Donner was hired to direct, he brough on Tom Mankowitz to do re-writes and take out all the corny, campy, slapstick crap. Lester agreed to direct Superman III, he brough back the Newmans. And that's why we get the two walk signs fighting ...and a lot of other corny campy slapstick crap in Superman III!
The second movie was disappointing to me compared to the first, but the third was terrible. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn't interested in seeing it in the theater whereas I saw the other three in the theater. Then I heard it was so bad that I never rented it or anything just to see it. We had HBO, so when it came on there, I watched it just that one time.
I think Reeve was disenchanted with the movies without Donner, too. It sure looks like he was so bored he didn't even bother to bulk up his muscles for the last two.
Why didn't they let Donner alone to do his magic. He was really gung ho for the movies, and he was interested in doing more. I had heard at the time that Reeve signed on to do nine Superman movies. Can you imagine nine Reeve/Donner masterpieces?
I wouldn't say he didn't bulk up. He was at his largest in Superman III. He was thinner in Superman IV because he hadn't played Superman in years and was having back problems by that point.
@axebomber2108 I believe I heard back then that he didn't bother. It looks it.
wasn't that green kyrptonite supposed to be red?
That was how I remembered it for many years too, I guess because the effect it has on him is essentially like red kryptonite.
@prodigioussaps it would be an easy one to fix in a fanmade edit .. to make it red i guess
You two are so much fun. It was an awful script, I've said it before., some chances come only once, and they wasted theirs..I can't watch the evil Superman episode. Tried. Failed. I liked Pryor in it, playing the computer master, they could have done a lot more with a sentient computer plot. There was always something with computer enthusiasts that amazed me. I could sit down at a computer keyboard, study the manual and try to learn a language and, finally, look at my yarn collection with longing. My husband sat down at computer keyboard and the computer would bow and greet him like a great king. Some people are born to be computer programmers.
Agreed, they could have done SO much more with the sentient computer thing. Damn shame. Thanks Kathleen! 🙏
@@prodigioussaps Star trek had already discussed sentient Computers - what we now called AI, several times. there was the movie and book 'Colossus" .The computers in Ray Bradbury's stories . His Father's Avatar at the fortress was an AI ' ghost'. If the writers couldn't come up with their own ideas, borrow and put it through the superman filter. You're welcome!
There are parts of Superman 3 I like
But I just like Superman 4 little better 😅
As bad as IV is, it is at least entertaining. III is just awful.
Larry Lamb as the oilman at 5:33. Appears as a Daily Planet staffer in the first two movies. You can still see him on British TV, notably Gavin and Stacey.
That's so strange, would never have noticed. He was also killed in Eastenders
@alexojideagu I remember him from Triangle, the BBC soap opera set on a North Sea ferry! Anyway, my mistake, he's actually a coal miner isn't he? The scene where Superman crushes a lump of coal into a diamond?
@@robertsrobots6531 I've got a vague memory of hearing that name Triangle. Yes! You really flew with him? So about that Job.....9 or 10 miles?.....Nah I'll walk lol Almost the whole movie was filmed in Pinewood, including the Junkyard bit lol
There's like half a dozen actors that pop up in bit parts throughout the first three movies.
I almost liked Superman 4 better then 3 and 4 was awful
And though Jimmy wanted to please Mr White with pics of the Chemical factory fire, he ends up breaking and badly burning his leg and all the film in the camera melting as a result! You can tell Clark is angry of this, I mean no pics of reunion, Superman had clearly been repressing a lot of anger since 2, and when he gets Jimmy out of danger and Jimmy goes, Ouch! Superman clearly like poked him a bit on purpose cause he's mad at Jimmy for not being able now to take reunion pics, it's clear cause just the way Superman says Ok, IM SORRY! sarcastically like hes about to lose his temper!
That's funny -- I can't say I see it that way. I just can't see Reeve's Superman ever behaving in a petty, vindictive manner... okay there is the truck driver thing at the end of Superman iI, but not towards a friend, anyway. Certainly he does things like that *after* getting exposed to the synthetic kryptonite, but this is long before that happens.
Such as waste of Christopher Reeve... really dont know why they had go down that whacky comedy route... the junkyard scene was by far the best part.. they really could have made something of evil superman.
TBH if they just expanded on the time Clark spent in Smallville and went all in on the romance with Lana the movie would have been 50% better IMO right off the bat.. Because Lana, unlike Lois, was very interested in Clark. They had that connection from when they were kids, and she was the girl he had a big crush on in HS.. They didn't need another Supervillain, they just should NOT have had Webster playing the poor man's Lex Luthor.. Pryor super funny and talented actor, but I don't cast him in Superman 3 unless he's playing a nasty villain..
🎥Richard Pryor had an affair with Lois Lane I mean Margot Kidder during the production of Superman III and the two had previously worked together in the 1982 film Some Kind Of Hero. Pryor was offered the role in Superman III after he was spotted by producers on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Richard admitted he was a huge fan of the first two Superman movies. 🦸♀🦹♂🦸♀🦹♀
Yeah I love that Tonight Show interview. It's a shame they couldn't write a better part for Pryor because he was a great actor and I think it could have been fantastic if they had actually written a solid character for him to play instead just a string of pointless comedy bits. When Gus is just being Gus, it's great, especially in those early establishing scenes.
It's still light years better than 4
Love 3