SUPERMAN III

* ½

STARRING: Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Annette O'Toole, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, Margot Kidder

1983, 123 Minutes, Directed by Richard Lester

There're actually many similarities between this third instalment in the Superman movie series and the third instalment of that other DC Comics' screen hero, Batman.  For starters, both are among the worst in the series.

Like in Batman Forever ten years later, Superman III has things messed up by another comedian (probably also hired in a desperate attempt to make big bucks and inject life into what was fast becoming a tired franchise). In Batman Forever they had Jim Carrey. Superman III has Richard Pryor. They are very much similar: both are seriously out of place in movies like this, both are loud and both are unfunny. Together they made a mess of both movies. Only difference is that Batman Forever made a much bigger killing at the box office.

(The similarities doesn't end there: whereas the previous two Superman movies took the story seriously, this one doesn't and plays the thing for laughs. Take the opening slapstick sequence from this movie. In any other film it would have worked. In this one, it seems seriously out of place. Same happened with Batman Forever. So there: history does repeat itself!)
 

• Read the script.