I can best describe this movie as Superman directed by David Zucker. That doesn’t mean anything bad immediately because I quite liked Zucker’s From the Files from the Police Squad! and Airplane! but this more reminiscent of the The Naked Gun 2&3 in the disappointing ways. Like sure the first two Supermans had a good few jokes but this is like gag-a-minute stuff and considering the actual writing and physical comedy can’t hold a candle to any of those movies (or even the first two Supermans) the result is something pretty lackluster. And considering I’m a fan of Joel Schumacher’s Batmans you’d think I’d be able to find the joy in this camp but I just can’t, I still get a serious tone in the storytelling which blends poorly with the constant campy jokes style. I also don’t like the way these gags and jokes prevent the progression of story, when I’ve seen this style work the comedy has been incorporated into the story without stalling it or fully progressing the story itself where all the comedy here feels like entirely separate to the core blockbuster action/thriller/drama. Another thing I’m not really understanding is the use of Richard Pryor’s character, I know he’s a piece of the villain’s master plan and he’s quite the talented actor but the amount of screen-time he got especially in the first half didn’t make sense when we could’ve been getting more familiar with Robert Vaughn’s central villain. It being devoid of Lois and Clark’s relationship is another big negative, I didn’t mind the stuff with his high school crush as I think bringing Clark back to his roots through the high school reunion is a cool way to introduce what could’ve been an interesting character study but sadly that was blundered too, I was just wanting more of the chemistry between Reeve and Kidder, and as I said in my review for Superman II the Superman and Lois storylines are my favorite part of these stories. For a positive Ken Thorne came back for this one and I liked his score once again, also the visual experience is once again entertaining enough through some choppy but enjoyable CGI and especially nice production design. And with the runtime once again being way too long and that having a harmful effect on the story’s impact I’m sad to say Superman III wasn’t the underrated gem I had (admittedly tiny) hopes it’d be, I’ll still be watching Superman IV today and though I now don’t expect to get much out of that (that sub-90 minute runtime is very enticing though) I know this Christopher Reeve dual performance will always give me a floor of enjoyment.
I can best describe this movie as Superman directed by David Zucker. That doesn’t mean anything bad immediately because I quite liked Zucker’s From the Files from the Police Squad! and Airplane! but this more reminiscent of the The Naked Gun 2&3 in the disappointing ways. Like sure the first two Supermans had a good few jokes but this is like gag-a-minute stuff and considering the actual writing and physical comedy can’t hold a candle to any of those movies (or even the first two Supermans) the result is something pretty lackluster. And considering I’m a fan of Joel Schumacher’s Batmans you’d think I’d be able to find the joy in this camp but I just can’t, I still get a serious tone in the storytelling which blends poorly with the constant campy jokes style. I also don’t like the way these gags and jokes prevent the progression of story, when I’ve seen this style work the comedy has been incorporated into the story without stalling it or fully progressing the story itself where all the comedy here feels like entirely separate to the core blockbuster action/thriller/drama. Another thing I’m not really understanding is the use of Richard Pryor’s character, I know he’s a piece of the villain’s master plan and he’s quite the talented actor but the amount of screen-time he got especially in the first half didn’t make sense when we could’ve been getting more familiar with Robert Vaughn’s central villain. It being devoid of Lois and Clark’s relationship is another big negative, I didn’t mind the stuff with his high school crush as I think bringing Clark back to his roots through the high school reunion is a cool way to introduce what could’ve been an interesting character study but sadly that was blundered too, I was just wanting more of the chemistry between Reeve and Kidder, and as I said in my review for Superman II the Superman and Lois storylines are my favorite part of these stories. For a positive Ken Thorne came back for this one and I liked his score once again, also the visual experience is once again entertaining enough through some choppy but enjoyable CGI and especially nice production design. And with the runtime once again being way too long and that having a harmful effect on the story’s impact I’m sad to say Superman III wasn’t the underrated gem I had (admittedly tiny) hopes it’d be, I’ll still be watching Superman IV today and though I now don’t expect to get much out of that (that sub-90 minute runtime is very enticing though) I know this Christopher Reeve dual performance will always give me a floor of enjoyment.
