For all the problems making the Superman films, Christopher Reeve is the main reason for their success. Nearly 45 years since Superman came out there has never been a better Superman and probably never will be. 👍
@@stantheman9072 He owes Who? Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis invented a race of cyborg beings who capture people and forcibly convert them into more of their kind back before Star Trek even started airing, let alone the Superman Movies...
Saw this so many times as a kid. The junkyard fight scene stuck with me forever, and I was deeply, DEEPLY scared when the lady got turned into the zombie cyborg.
Yeah, it sounded terrible. What it was replaced with wasn't much better. This was Lester unrestrained, and why I feel he was the kiss of death for the franchise.
@@akilbryan8937 David and Leslie Newman (the screenwriters) were always the kiss of death for the films. They thought of Superman as silly kid's stuff and wrote for him accordingly. Donner knew that he needed to minimize their input, which is why he brought in Mankiewicz to rewrite almost everything they'd done, and to give Superman the respect he deserved. After Donner and Mankiewicz were fired, the Newmans went wild. Lester was just a journeyman director doing a job for a paycheck.
Annette O' Toole is drop dead gorgeous. She looks like a woman from a comic book. She acted in the 1990 It miniseries based on Stephen King's book. Not to be confused with Clara Bow's 1927 film It.
I think you're 100% correct- the reason why most of us who love this movie is down to nostalgia.... as a 10 year old I would laugh at the slapstick and revel in seeing Superman turn up.....giving no thought whatsoever to the disjointed and incoherent plot..... as a kid - it was Superman 3 ...and I loved it!
Exactly. I was 11, and I love this film. As far as I am concerned there are only 3 Superman movies Superman 1, 2, and 3. Also there is only 1 Superman and that will always be Christopher Reeves. Imo. Lol. 😊
I read the script of _Superman II._ Part of him showing he was in love was moving the Leaning Tower of PIsa with the vendor watching. Guess it didn't fit for him to go to Italy when the villains were flying around. So they saved it for III.
You probably won’t see this comment, but I just wanted to thank you for these videos. They’ve been a great treat to listen to while I recover from surgery in hospital and making the time here feel much shorter. Keep up the great work!
I agree with everything said here. However, I still love this film. The Evil Superman/Junkyard fight and the Smallville love story is well worth watching it for. The chemistry between Reeve and O'Toole is just wonderful, and it has some of the best FX in the series. It might have a messy tone, but it's still hugely watchable and entertaining. The robot eyes at the end scared the shit out of me as a kid.
I always thought this was better than people said it was, I know it’s a bit inane at points but I think it’s definitely more of a kids film than the first two pieces. Nothing wrong with that - as Rob Ager’s pointed out in Collative Learning, there’s something inherently silly about a superhero film concept anyway, so why not accept that abs embrace it? Also, the robot /computerised Robert Vaughn sideKick is frankly terrifying and scared the beJesus out of me when I was little. Not a bad effort overall and as always, a magnificent retrospective.
Never finishd the movie, because my Parents decided to turn the TV off, when the Finale got to scary for kids in their oppinion. i just realised now, that i actually never saw the complete film until this day.
@@Scripture-Man Thats funny, because it is considered to be the most childish of all the 4 movies. But seeing the footage here on this channel of the Finale, yes it is indeed scarier than the Rest of the Film. It did not traumatise me though in those days, i was mad at my Parents because in my oppinion they "spoiled the party." And they succeeded, i never saw the Rest of the movie until now.
I hope you do some retrospectives on the DC animated films and shows! To me, they are largely the pinnacle of these characters. The ones in the 2010s deserve more love as well
@@sandal_thong8631 Growing up in the 80s, I found this movie terrifying, especially the Vera cyborg. Return to Oz was indeed a very frightening movie. But the scariest thing was a British kids TV show called "Choky". Just watch the title sequence and you'll get the idea of how creepy this was!
The fight between Clark and evil Supes was the best part of Superman 3. They really should have expanded on this a bit more. Because this would have made a bit more interesting to the overall story.
As a fan of "curves", I always found the Lorelei character a bit gross, with horrible hair. (Despite Pamela Stephenson being a pretty girl.) Superman had it right, hitting on Annette O'Toole, then Mariel Hemingway in the next film. He likes pink very much.
I laughed so much in spite of myself. The idea of the engineers scratching their heads figuring out the schematics of the supercomputer (sketches on napkins and cigarette packets) by Richard Pryor's unlikely cybergenius character was gold.
I can tell you exactly why someone would dislike Superman 3. It turns the franchise into a joke, it's incredibly boring, no kid wants to see their hero be evil, and no adult would be able to take 'evil' Superman take seriously. I have never liked 3 even as a kid, and has always been my least favorite.
I wish this movie went with the "some dude gets Superman's powers in an accident" route with Pryor getting the powers and having to cover for a de-powered Superman. That way they could get the humour they wanted and more the serious scenes Pryor was likely hoping for. They could have even done the "you don't need powers to be a real hero" thing Hollywood loves.
spot on when Vera the sister got sucked in to the computer and wires and circuit boards attached to her it freaked this 10 year old out and still is creepy to this 50 year old. I need to see this again just for seeing Christopher playing his evil self. i really enjoyed him R.I.P.
Glad to see I wasn't the ONLY one scared by the "assimilation" scene! Funny how all the current Superman costumes are as dark and gloomy as the "evil Superman" costume...kinda telling of how the current filmmakers see the character. Also, I'm guessing they didn't originally know that Supergirl was *related* to Superman...? I still would have liked to have them team up against Brainiac...I wonder who they might have cast in that role?
@@edkwon i actually had nightmares about that, but before i ever saw S3! Tho in my nightmare, people were put into c3po suits and then put in a machine that made the inside robotic to match the outside. Really terrifying indeed. I was really glad superman beat the evil computer when i saw the movie as a child, haha
I am SO GLAD we didn’t get a Superman/Supergirl/Brainiac love triangle. I’m also super grateful that nowadays we cast women in superhero movies in a lot more roles than just interchangeable love interest
Another fantastic video Rowan! Your retrospectives are consistently engaging and you always manage to dig up some trivia and history that is interesting and entertaining! The last time I watched this movie was as a small child, probably 6-7 years old. The only thing I really remembered from it was how scary it was when the lady got turned into a robot! XD Really all of the final battle with the computer stuff was pretty frightening for me as a kid. But it made an impression for me that lasted 30 years!
It's not a Superman film, it's a Richard Pryor film with Superman in it, but it's a brilliant guilty pleasure movie with 13:24 being the scariest scene in film history.
I saw this in theaters when I was 12 years old…and even as a little kid I was really disappointed in the movie. It just wasn’t very good…and I LOVED Superman 1 & 2.
Noticed the clip you used with Annette O'Toole was from Michael Rosenbaum's podcast "Inside of You". Rosenbaum played Lex Luthor in "Smallville" and now hosts another podcast with Tom Welling.
This movie has a special place in my heart. I had to have watched this movie at least a hundred times when I was kid. I loved Superman, and this was the only Superman movie in the house. Great video. Thanks.
Great video as always! I'm excited to see your review of the next one. Superman III's cover art/poster totally takes me back to video stores of the late 80s and early 90s. Browsing the aisles, looking at VHS tapes.
Oh man between evil Superman (my first crush was Superman & was skeeved beyond beyond to see him being a creep) & then that lady get ate by the computer...I was traumatized! Scared the crap outta me as a kid! I really hated seeing Cristopher Reeve so convincingly turn nasty with Lana. The man will always be my Superman, & a great palette cleanser is his movie Somewhere in Time. RIP to a legend of our time❤
It's not as good as the original two films, but good enough to make me want to watch it again (unlike Superman 4 which I never want to see again.) Evil Superman vs. Clark and Superman vs. the Super Computer are what I enjoy the most. And just seeing Christoper Reeve who is so delightful as Superman. Richard Pryor is funny, but I bet he would have been amazing as a serious main villain. Have him be the computer genius in the background causing chaos as Superman tries to figure out who's behind it. Oh what could have been...
I still like this one, silly as heck, but still very entertaining. Superman vs the supercomputer was epic, trapped in a giant bogey, then fighting the robot sister, absolutely batshit but awesome!
"Despite the critical panning, negative fan reception, mediocre box-office and disappointment from cast and crew, Superman III would not be the low-point for Superman on the big screen." And neither would Superman IV.
Definitely an underrated film imo. There's actually quite a lot to like despite the sometimes cheap feel. Shame they didn't make the synthetic Kryptonite red in colour.
While admitting that this has the advantage of hindsight, I think they should have played Pryor as more like a Milton Fine type character. Have it be him that gets assimilated by the computer, but intentionally, to become the film version of Brainiac. It would have been far more interesting to have Pryor play the villain, but as the video said, Lester (and others) failed to recognize his potential as a serious actor. Or..... An alternate, but similar idea I've got if you want to keep Pryor a good guy is to reimagine the three other human villains. Another video I watched pointed out that so many villain trios go with a dynamic of Brain-Bumbler-Babe (or something to that effect). Superman The Movie had Luthor, Otis, and Miss Tessmacher in those rolls respectively. For Superman II it was Zod, Ursa, and Non. For Superman IV it was Luthor, Lenny and Nuclear Man. (Nice to see them make the "babe" a dude. Give the ladies with a penchant for the bad guys some eye candy too.) Now, with Superman III, The obvious Brain-Bumbler-Babe dynamic was Webster-Gorman-Lorelei.... No.... That doesn't work because Gorman wasn't part of the three. Additionally, Vera Webster is too "no-nonsense" to fill the roll. The dynamic is broken. The biggest thing, though, was that it didn't work from the beginning because of the big plot point they failed to actually develop, save for a couple scenes... Lorelei was a genius. She actively hides it, but she's obviously WAY smarter than she let on. Rewrite the script so that she is secretly the one who pushes Ross Webster towards his criminal activities with oil and coffee, and even to kill Superman. Additionally, she actively and secretly reprograms the supercomputer to serve herself. Finally, similar to my previous idea, she (not Vera) merges with the computer to become the film version of Brainiac. (Killing Ross and Vera and attempting to kill Gus and Superman when she "evolves". This would have been a GREAT shock to have the Bimbo turn out to be the ultimate villain.
I'm realizing now just how much these films melded together in my mind. I barely remembered the plot of 3 beyond the ending with the supercomuter, and forgot they even made a 4h, and thought Superman got rid of all the world's nukes in one of the previous movies.
Definitely loved the good Superman vs evil Superman fight. Plus, after Superman 4, this is like Citizen Kane, only better since it has good Superman vs evil Superman
Brainiac and Mister Mxyzptlk could really be great villains for future Superman films, especially since more films have been revealed to be in the works with Henry Cavill coming back.
Hi rowan, well done as usual. I've been a subscriber for a while now and always find watching your retrospectives of films that I know well to be entertaining and often educational. Keep it up.
I know it's not a masterpiece like 1 and most of 2, but I find Superman 3 to be thoroughly enjoyable. Whatever the faults with the writing and directing, Richard Pryor is still always entertaining, and Reeve as Clark and Superman it still great. An uneven B instead of a grand-slam A. And the Superman/Clark Kent fight in the junkyard is one of the all-time superhero movie scenes.
After seeing and like the first two movies, I skipped the third one because it had bad reviews. I never knew there was a fourth movie. Sadly, I think I made the right decision. They seem to squandered the talents of everyone involved, especially Pryor.
Did the Salkinds know that Supergirl was Superman's cousin? I'm not being funny, but it sounds like the third movie was always going to be a loser without Donner and Mankiewicz.
A pretty accurate analysis Rowan. I have a fondness for Superman 3 but typically fast forward / skip through Pryor’s extended comedy bits in Smallville and the bowling party sequence which is just moronic. That aside Reeve when allowed is amazing as Superman. His wire work flying and evil turn are incredible. I can only imagine what Donner could have done with this.
The opening sequence of this movie is such a head, scratcher and audiences had to know right in the first five minutes that this was pretty much going to suck.
Thanks for this. I must confess to being utterly baffled by this third entry in the franchise. From the get-go, it felt more like an inspector Clouseau comedy. I half expected the Pink Panther to appear at any moment. Blake Edwards must have been moments away from calling his lawyers before Superman appeared on screen. This was a thoroughly bizarre film. It had moments of great action interspersed with disappointing bouts of improv. Such a shame really.
If Superman and Supergirl got married, they would end up with mutant, Kryptonian babies with no teeth. Superman III is no masterpiece, but it is a fun popcorn blockbuster from the 1980's. Richard Pryor was a movie star at the time.
I would certainly love to see a retrospective of the Star Wars series. Maybe you could call upon some people on RUclips who have more knowledge on Star Wars to help you out.
I actually think the movie works fairly well... in its own way, but it's definitely a huge step down in quality from the first two movies and it's such a shame Donner didn't get to continue with his original vision as we could have had an incredible Superman trilogy. And totally agree about the great wire work. For all it's faults this movie still has some of the coolest Superman sequences in it.
The Good: Clarks Trip to Smallville, The Fire at the Plant, his Relationship with Lana, The personailty change, The Ev il Superman and eventual fight with Clark( love it), The final fight with the Computer. The bad: Lois leaving. It wouldve been interesting to see the clash of Lois and Lana. Like the silver age books. The cheesy Villians. Less Cheese, more plotting. Richard Prior. He had no business in this movie. he was the comic releif that didnt realize he was a computer genius. The slap stick opening. Its cringe. Youre right that the Salkinds or Lester didnt know or care about fans or source material. Otherwise Supergirl would never marry Superman from their early draft. Plenty of stuff to work with, just the wrong director(again). I rarely watch it, but there are parts I really enjoy. its just a shame. We get the first 2 movies, they mess things up. We Get Superman Returns. They end up messing that up and cancelling it. We get MoS, and the end up messing that up.
I enjoyed the Superman 3 even if it was some what had it’s laughs but it was a film w new characters and no Lex ,he battles a machine which was cool ,it could been more epic but it is what it is ,The man working on restoration of Superman 4 ever gets finished l want to buy a copy from what lve seen done so far looks fantastic
I liked Lana who liked Clark and the Clark she remembered from high school. She was a better match than Lois. Of course he's not so much Clark anymore after 12 years of re-education with Jor-El; he's really Kal-El playing at being Clark and Superman personas. If they understood that, then the fight would have ended with a Christopher Reeve dressed like Jor-El putting a stop to it.
This is great work. I’d be interested to hear how these films landed and are thought of outside the United States; obviously you could give us the Scotland/UK experience of this at least.
I'm enjoying this series of retrospectives. Will you be doing IV and Returns as well? I make comments as watch since I forget what I was thinking by the end of the video. I see IV is coming. Thanks.
I remember seeing this in the cinema and thinking it was ok, but not as good as the previous movies. Unfortunately Superman IV came along a few years later and killed the franchise for a long time.
That was a good retro-spec,learned a lot.Superman/Batman are my favorite super-heroes,I don't own Superman 3& 4 movies,both are HORRIBLE in my opinion.Man of Steel was GREAT !!! I loved it,an under-rated master piece and the musical score by Zimmer is AMAZING !!! I listen to it almost everyday.Annette-o-Toole was GORGEOUS back in the day.I do remember her from Smallville.
HELP THE CHANNEL GROW: www.patreon.com/rowanjcoleman
I didn't know Annette O Toole was such a hardcore Superman nerd since childhood, such a heartwarming story
There was a Smallville interview in which the creators described working with her as "trying to quote the bible to a nun."
she's married to the talented Michael McKean
@@thegreenbird795 Yep, and her husband wound up playing an early version of Perry White on Smallville.
Lets face it, evil Supes and the subsequent fight between him and Clark is just marvelous.
It's the best part of the movie
As a kid, I was legit scared of problem drinker, bully Superman. Christopher Reeve showed some seriously under appreciated range there.
@@jpthegr8860 he portrayed 4 incredibly different characters in that film, even though he was really only 1
For all the problems making the Superman films, Christopher Reeve is the main reason for their success.
Nearly 45 years since Superman came out there has never been a better Superman and probably never will be. 👍
Chris Reeve playing duo roles proves his talent as an actor.
When I was a kid, this part at the end where the computer turns the female villain into a robot scared the crap out of me.
Birth of The Borg. Rick Berman owes the Salkinds.
Me too! The silver contact lenses were a brilliant little touch. Terrifying.
@@stantheman9072 He owes Who?
Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis invented a race of cyborg beings who capture people and forcibly convert them into more of their kind back before Star Trek even started airing, let alone the Superman Movies...
Same!
I was both terrified and fascinated. I remember thinking "Maybe I could do that to my dog and I'll have the coolest dog in the neighborhood." 😄
Saw this so many times as a kid. The junkyard fight scene stuck with me forever, and I was deeply, DEEPLY scared when the lady got turned into the zombie cyborg.
Lol 😂
Also Iiya Salkin's story draft is pretty batshit insane. Did he not know that Kara and Kal El were cousins in the comic books?
Yeah, it sounded terrible. What it was replaced with wasn't much better. This was Lester unrestrained, and why I feel he was the kiss of death for the franchise.
@@akilbryan8937 David and Leslie Newman (the screenwriters) were always the kiss of death for the films. They thought of Superman as silly kid's stuff and wrote for him accordingly. Donner knew that he needed to minimize their input, which is why he brought in Mankiewicz to rewrite almost everything they'd done, and to give Superman the respect he deserved. After Donner and Mankiewicz were fired, the Newmans went wild. Lester was just a journeyman director doing a job for a paycheck.
They would probably made them to not be cousins in this continuity.
They probably didn't read the comic books
All human beings are cousins.
Annette O' Toole is drop dead gorgeous. She looks like a woman from a comic book. She acted in the 1990 It miniseries based on Stephen King's book. Not to be confused with Clara Bow's 1927 film It.
Whew. I was confused for a sec. Thanks for clearing that up. 😜
Have you ever seen the Pre-Code film 'Waterloo Bridge'? (Not the blah remakes). It is a truly Humanity revealing outing!
Part III will always be one of my favorite guilty pleasure films.
I think you're 100% correct- the reason why most of us who love this movie is down to nostalgia.... as a 10 year old I would laugh at the slapstick and revel in seeing Superman turn up.....giving no thought whatsoever to the disjointed and incoherent plot..... as a kid - it was Superman 3 ...and I loved it!
Exactly. I was 11, and I love this film.
As far as I am concerned there are only 3 Superman movies Superman 1, 2, and 3.
Also there is only 1 Superman and that will always be Christopher Reeves. Imo. Lol. 😊
Don’t forget about Superman III’s greatest contribution to movies: Inspiring Michael Bolton’s scheme to steal money from Initech in “Office Space.”
I belly laughed when you called Evil Superman a "dickhead"
I read the script of _Superman II._ Part of him showing he was in love was moving the Leaning Tower of PIsa with the vendor watching. Guess it didn't fit for him to go to Italy when the villains were flying around. So they saved it for III.
You probably won’t see this comment, but I just wanted to thank you for these videos. They’ve been a great treat to listen to while I recover from surgery in hospital and making the time here feel much shorter. Keep up the great work!
I agree with everything said here. However, I still love this film. The Evil Superman/Junkyard fight and the Smallville love story is well worth watching it for. The chemistry between Reeve and O'Toole is just wonderful, and it has some of the best FX in the series.
It might have a messy tone, but it's still hugely watchable and entertaining. The robot eyes at the end scared the shit out of me as a kid.
I always thought this was better than people said it was, I know it’s a bit inane at points but I think it’s definitely more of a kids film than the first two pieces. Nothing wrong with that - as Rob Ager’s pointed out in Collative Learning, there’s something inherently silly about a superhero film concept anyway, so why not accept that abs embrace it?
Also, the robot /computerised Robert Vaughn sideKick is frankly terrifying and scared the beJesus out of me when I was little.
Not a bad effort overall and as always, a magnificent retrospective.
Never finishd the movie, because my Parents decided to turn the TV off, when the Finale got to scary for kids in their oppinion. i just realised now, that i actually never saw the complete film until this day.
Your parents were right! The film kind of traumatised me as a kid. It was just too scary and upsetting.
@@Scripture-Man Thats funny, because it is considered to be the most childish of all the 4 movies. But seeing the footage here on this channel of the Finale, yes it is indeed scarier than the Rest of the Film. It did not traumatise me though in those days, i was mad at my Parents because in my oppinion they "spoiled the party." And they succeeded, i never saw the Rest of the movie until now.
I hope you do some retrospectives on the DC animated films and shows! To me, they are largely the pinnacle of these characters. The ones in the 2010s deserve more love as well
I'll be doing that next year :)
@@RowanJColeman Wonderful!!
@@RowanJColeman well that’s excellent news!
@@RowanJColeman Do you know why comments are disabled on "Babylon 5 on CW is good" ???
Dude, keep up the good work. All of your videos have been absolutely great
We had this taped on the VCR when I was a kid. The Vera computer takeover was my first exposure to something scary in cinema.
When the lady becomes a robot at the end, is pretty scary when you are a kid. Watch the transformation scene again, and you’ll see it still holds up.
I was surprised when kids (now adults) said how scary _Return to Oz_ was for them.
@@sandal_thong8631 Growing up in the 80s, I found this movie terrifying, especially the Vera cyborg. Return to Oz was indeed a very frightening movie. But the scariest thing was a British kids TV show called "Choky". Just watch the title sequence and you'll get the idea of how creepy this was!
@@Scripture-Man I'll raise you the "under the mountain" theme, for some Lovecraftian horror.
The fight between Clark and evil Supes was the best part of Superman 3. They really should have expanded on this a bit more. Because this would have made a bit more interesting to the overall story.
Man, I really hope you do a Smallville Retrospective. It started when I was in my early teens and it was my life.
As a kid of the 80's any negative parts of Superman 3 was superbly compensated by Lorelei's bountiful "curves". Thanks for the dreams Miss Lorelei.😜😁
As a fan of "curves", I always found the Lorelei character a bit gross, with horrible hair. (Despite Pamela Stephenson being a pretty girl.) Superman had it right, hitting on Annette O'Toole, then Mariel Hemingway in the next film. He likes pink very much.
I'm glad you mentioned how scary the computer transforming Vera was as a kid. It really freaked me out too back then.
I can't remember having seen any of the superman films, but I still enjoy watching these retrospectives.
The scrap yard fight is a personal guilty pleasure of mine. It stokes great nostalgia.
I don't know how anybody can dislike Superman III. It's funny af and Reeve as evil Superman is just so much fun.
I laughed so much in spite of myself. The idea of the engineers scratching their heads figuring out the schematics of the supercomputer (sketches on napkins and cigarette packets) by Richard Pryor's unlikely cybergenius character was gold.
It's not a good movie. But it's a fun movie!
Fun for kids; not so much for everybody else. Same for _Howard the Duck._
I can tell you exactly why someone would dislike Superman 3. It turns the franchise into a joke, it's incredibly boring, no kid wants to see their hero be evil, and no adult would be able to take 'evil' Superman take seriously. I have never liked 3 even as a kid, and has always been my least favorite.
Thank you! Something to look forward to is so rare these days...
I wish this movie went with the "some dude gets Superman's powers in an accident" route with Pryor getting the powers and having to cover for a de-powered Superman. That way they could get the humour they wanted and more the serious scenes Pryor was likely hoping for. They could have even done the "you don't need powers to be a real hero" thing Hollywood loves.
When the computer takes over that woman, that FREAKED ME OUT as a kid.
spot on when Vera the sister got sucked in to the computer and wires and circuit boards attached to her it freaked this 10 year old out and still is creepy to this 50 year old. I need to see this again just for seeing Christopher playing his evil self. i really enjoyed him R.I.P.
Glad to see I wasn't the ONLY one scared by the "assimilation" scene! Funny how all the current Superman costumes are as dark and gloomy as the "evil Superman" costume...kinda telling of how the current filmmakers see the character. Also, I'm guessing they didn't originally know that Supergirl was *related* to Superman...? I still would have liked to have them team up against Brainiac...I wonder who they might have cast in that role?
That scene was some great childhood nightmare fuel, anyone who watched the movie as a kid in the 80s agree it was terrifying at the time
@@edkwon i actually had nightmares about that, but before i ever saw S3!
Tho in my nightmare, people were put into c3po suits and then put in a machine that made the inside robotic to match the outside. Really terrifying indeed. I was really glad superman beat the evil computer when i saw the movie as a child, haha
@@Kira-zy2ro you must have loved seeing the Borg show up! LOL
I am SO GLAD we didn’t get a Superman/Supergirl/Brainiac love triangle.
I’m also super grateful that nowadays we cast women in superhero movies in a lot more roles than just interchangeable love interest
Another fantastic video Rowan! Your retrospectives are consistently engaging and you always manage to dig up some trivia and history that is interesting and entertaining!
The last time I watched this movie was as a small child, probably 6-7 years old. The only thing I really remembered from it was how scary it was when the lady got turned into a robot! XD Really all of the final battle with the computer stuff was pretty frightening for me as a kid. But it made an impression for me that lasted 30 years!
It's not a Superman film, it's a Richard Pryor film with Superman in it, but it's a brilliant guilty pleasure movie with 13:24 being the scariest scene in film history.
I saw this in theaters when I was 12 years old…and even as a little kid I was really disappointed in the movie. It just wasn’t very good…and I LOVED Superman 1 & 2.
Noticed the clip you used with Annette O'Toole was from Michael Rosenbaum's podcast "Inside of You". Rosenbaum played Lex Luthor in "Smallville" and now hosts another podcast with Tom Welling.
This movie has a special place in my heart. I had to have watched this movie at least a hundred times when I was kid. I loved Superman, and this was the only Superman movie in the house. Great video. Thanks.
"Supergirl married Superman"
Please tell me they weren't still cousins in this version
They say "all men are brothers" but really it's "all men are cousins."
Great video as always! I'm excited to see your review of the next one. Superman III's cover art/poster totally takes me back to video stores of the late 80s and early 90s. Browsing the aisles, looking at VHS tapes.
Another great video . I love these long videos you do. Keep it up. Absolutely brilliant.
The Scottish RUclips mafia is killing it at the moment.
Great stuff as ever.
Will you be covering Supergirl? It's such a weird entry in the franchise, and yet, like Superman III, it does have a few well-done sequences.
Oh man between evil Superman (my first crush was Superman & was skeeved beyond beyond to see him being a creep) & then that lady get ate by the computer...I was traumatized! Scared the crap outta me as a kid! I really hated seeing Cristopher Reeve so convincingly turn nasty with Lana. The man will always be my Superman, & a great palette cleanser is his movie Somewhere in Time.
RIP to a legend of our time❤
Superman III: The One Nobody Talks About
Nah, that would be IV.
@@CantankerousDave I hear a lot of people talking about 4 and all the insane stuff in that movie
I actually liked this as a kid because of Richard Pryor. I'm afraid to re-watch it now as it might ruin it for me :)
It's not as good as the original two films, but good enough to make me want to watch it again (unlike Superman 4 which I never want to see again.) Evil Superman vs. Clark and Superman vs. the Super Computer are what I enjoy the most. And just seeing Christoper Reeve who is so delightful as Superman. Richard Pryor is funny, but I bet he would have been amazing as a serious main villain. Have him be the computer genius in the background causing chaos as Superman tries to figure out who's behind it. Oh what could have been...
I still like this one, silly as heck, but still very entertaining. Superman vs the supercomputer was epic, trapped in a giant bogey, then fighting the robot sister, absolutely batshit but awesome!
"Despite the critical panning, negative fan reception, mediocre box-office and disappointment from cast and crew, Superman III would not be the low-point for Superman on the big screen." And neither would Superman IV.
Definitely an underrated film imo. There's actually quite a lot to like despite the sometimes cheap feel. Shame they didn't make the synthetic Kryptonite red in colour.
Maybe it would confuse people, like the green crystal confused people in Superman I-II.
While admitting that this has the advantage of hindsight, I think they should have played Pryor as more like a Milton Fine type character. Have it be him that gets assimilated by the computer, but intentionally, to become the film version of Brainiac. It would have been far more interesting to have Pryor play the villain, but as the video said, Lester (and others) failed to recognize his potential as a serious actor.
Or.....
An alternate, but similar idea I've got if you want to keep Pryor a good guy is to reimagine the three other human villains. Another video I watched pointed out that so many villain trios go with a dynamic of Brain-Bumbler-Babe (or something to that effect). Superman The Movie had Luthor, Otis, and Miss Tessmacher in those rolls respectively. For Superman II it was Zod, Ursa, and Non. For Superman IV it was Luthor, Lenny and Nuclear Man. (Nice to see them make the "babe" a dude. Give the ladies with a penchant for the bad guys some eye candy too.)
Now, with Superman III, The obvious Brain-Bumbler-Babe dynamic was Webster-Gorman-Lorelei.... No.... That doesn't work because Gorman wasn't part of the three. Additionally, Vera Webster is too "no-nonsense" to fill the roll. The dynamic is broken. The biggest thing, though, was that it didn't work from the beginning because of the big plot point they failed to actually develop, save for a couple scenes...
Lorelei was a genius.
She actively hides it, but she's obviously WAY smarter than she let on.
Rewrite the script so that she is secretly the one who pushes Ross Webster towards his criminal activities with oil and coffee, and even to kill Superman. Additionally, she actively and secretly reprograms the supercomputer to serve herself. Finally, similar to my previous idea, she (not Vera) merges with the computer to become the film version of Brainiac. (Killing Ross and Vera and attempting to kill Gus and Superman when she "evolves".
This would have been a GREAT shock to have the Bimbo turn out to be the ultimate villain.
Your videos are consistently awesome. Thank you.
I'm realizing now just how much these films melded together in my mind. I barely remembered the plot of 3 beyond the ending with the supercomuter, and forgot they even made a 4h, and thought Superman got rid of all the world's nukes in one of the previous movies.
There's only one way to get rid of all the nukes and that's one-world-government, and they didn't want to go there.
Great video as always!! Looking forward to the superman 4 one
I think _Supergirl_ is the next movie.
@@sandal_thong8631 oh I definitely look forward to that one too
Definitely loved the good Superman vs evil Superman fight. Plus, after Superman 4, this is like Citizen Kane, only better since it has good Superman vs evil Superman
Brainiac and Mister Mxyzptlk could really be great villains for future Superman films, especially since more films have been revealed to be in the works with Henry Cavill coming back.
Hi rowan, well done as usual. I've been a subscriber for a while now and always find watching your retrospectives of films that I know well to be entertaining and often educational. Keep it up.
I know it's not a masterpiece like 1 and most of 2, but I find Superman 3 to be thoroughly enjoyable. Whatever the faults with the writing and directing, Richard Pryor is still always entertaining, and Reeve as Clark and Superman it still great. An uneven B instead of a grand-slam A. And the Superman/Clark Kent fight in the junkyard is one of the all-time superhero movie scenes.
After seeing and like the first two movies, I skipped the third one because it had bad reviews. I never knew there was a fourth movie. Sadly, I think I made the right decision. They seem to squandered the talents of everyone involved, especially Pryor.
Personally, I would love to see a Donner esque version of Brainiac, Mr. Myxlplyx, Bizarro and ultimately Darkseid in the Superman 78 comic book series
Bizarro should have come before Zod and his cohorts, so it would be 1-on-1, then he'd fight 3-on-1 to 1-up it.
@@sandal_thong8631 who would you cast as Bizarro?
Podcast clip is from Inside of You BTW.
To me this movie was a Pryor/Superman crossover event. As long as you look at it like 2 movies crossing over, it's not that bad.
Did the Salkinds know that Supergirl was Superman's cousin? I'm not being funny, but it sounds like the third movie was always going to be a loser without Donner and Mankiewicz.
Apparently the stuntman who was doubling Chris when superman throughs clark Kent in the junkyard scene got hurt when he over shot the boxes and mats
A pretty accurate analysis Rowan. I have a fondness for Superman 3 but typically fast forward / skip through Pryor’s extended comedy bits in Smallville and the bowling party sequence which is just moronic. That aside Reeve when allowed is amazing as Superman. His wire work flying and evil turn are incredible. I can only imagine what Donner could have done with this.
I love Richard Pryor, I actually like some of the stuff he did in this, I just don't think it should have been part of a Superman movie.
Trivia: Richard Prior got paid more than Christopher Reeves for that film.. He was also seeing Louis Lane in real life...
The opening sequence of this movie is such a head, scratcher and audiences had to know right in the first five minutes that this was pretty much going to suck.
Thanks for this. I must confess to being utterly baffled by this third entry in the franchise. From the get-go, it felt more like an inspector Clouseau comedy. I half expected the Pink Panther to appear at any moment. Blake Edwards must have been moments away from calling his lawyers before Superman appeared on screen. This was a thoroughly bizarre film. It had moments of great action interspersed with disappointing bouts of improv. Such a shame really.
If Superman and Supergirl got married, they would end up with mutant, Kryptonian babies with no teeth. Superman III is no masterpiece, but it is a fun popcorn blockbuster from the 1980's. Richard Pryor was a movie star at the time.
it's all downhill from here! Can't wait to see YOUR next video on S4, though!
I would certainly love to see a retrospective of the Star Wars series. Maybe you could call upon some people on RUclips who have more knowledge on Star Wars to help you out.
Rao approves of this review. 🌞
I actually think the movie works fairly well... in its own way, but it's definitely a huge step down in quality from the first two movies and it's such a shame Donner didn't get to continue with his original vision as we could have had an incredible Superman trilogy.
And totally agree about the great wire work. For all it's faults this movie still has some of the coolest Superman sequences in it.
They were able to salvage _Superman II_ without him and Brando, but not so for _Superman III_
That retrospective felt a lot thinner than the last two on Superman.
To be fair this movie is a whole lot thinner as well
Fun fact: Calgary Alberta has nearly double the amount of skyscrapers now then it did in this movie.
The Good: Clarks Trip to Smallville, The Fire at the Plant, his Relationship with Lana, The personailty change, The Ev il Superman and eventual fight with Clark( love it), The final fight with the Computer.
The bad: Lois leaving. It wouldve been interesting to see the clash of Lois and Lana. Like the silver age books. The cheesy Villians. Less Cheese, more plotting. Richard Prior. He had no business in this movie. he was the comic releif that didnt realize he was a computer genius. The slap stick opening. Its cringe.
Youre right that the Salkinds or Lester didnt know or care about fans or source material. Otherwise Supergirl would never marry Superman from their early draft. Plenty of stuff to work with, just the wrong director(again). I rarely watch it, but there are parts I really enjoy. its just a shame. We get the first 2 movies, they mess things up. We Get Superman Returns. They end up messing that up and cancelling it. We get MoS, and the end up messing that up.
There is brilliance in this film, all of it being very Jungian.
Your retrospective of Superman 4 is destined to be far more entertaining than that woeful film.
Superman III is my favourite of the franchise
It's actually the only Superman movie I saw in the theater. I saw both Superman: The Movie and Superman II on TV and Superman IV on home video.
The woman being turned into a robot with all the wires and stuff.going over her face haunted my dreams as a child
I was surprised how small Pryor's character's cheque was. But $85,000 then is worth $250,000 now.
Old joke: If put Ilya Salkind on his father's shoulders they would almost be tall enough to look Christopher Reeve in the eye.
Superman III was always my favourite as a child
I enjoyed the Superman 3 even if it was some what had it’s laughs but it was a film w new characters and no Lex ,he battles a machine which was cool ,it could been more epic but it is what it is ,The man working on restoration of Superman 4 ever gets finished l want to buy a copy from what lve seen done so far looks fantastic
Please do retrospectives for the original X-Men Trilogy.
Yes! Please
Damn I didn't even remember there was even a Superman 4.
There are only 3 Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve. I refused to accept the 4th outing. 🤣🤣🤣
I liked Lana who liked Clark and the Clark she remembered from high school. She was a better match than Lois. Of course he's not so much Clark anymore after 12 years of re-education with Jor-El; he's really Kal-El playing at being Clark and Superman personas. If they understood that, then the fight would have ended with a Christopher Reeve dressed like Jor-El putting a stop to it.
This is great work. I’d be interested to hear how these films landed and are thought of outside the United States; obviously you could give us the Scotland/UK experience of this at least.
Another great retrospective. Thanks man.
Funny how “evil supes” costume has that modern muted dirty look most current super heroes sport. Including modern Superman.
Pryor, Superman's Jar Jar Binks.
As a fan of 'Not The Nine O Clock News', it is really weird seeing Pamela Stephenson in this, especially with the weird "for the dads" costumes.
This was good, but shorter than your usual retrospectives. Any chance we'll get a director's cut?
I'm enjoying this series of retrospectives. Will you be doing IV and Returns as well?
I make comments as watch since I forget what I was thinking by the end of the video. I see IV is coming. Thanks.
I'm looking forward to _Supergirl_ which came out next.
I remember seeing this in the cinema and thinking it was ok, but not as good as the previous movies. Unfortunately Superman IV came along a few years later and killed the franchise for a long time.
That was a good retro-spec,learned a lot.Superman/Batman are my favorite super-heroes,I don't own Superman 3& 4 movies,both are HORRIBLE in my opinion.Man of Steel was GREAT !!! I loved it,an under-rated master piece and the musical score by Zimmer is AMAZING !!! I listen to it almost everyday.Annette-o-Toole was GORGEOUS back in the day.I do remember her from Smallville.
An amazing idea for a romantic plot. A love triangle between Supergirl, her father figure, and her cousin....
I saw Annette O'Toole in a Cosi in Manhattan a few years ago