Movie #40- "Superman III" (1983)

There is a good movie trapped within "Superman III", frantically trying to claw it's way out.  Clark Kent returning for a high school reunion.  Good Superman vs. Evil Superman.  Superman battles a giant computer (very forward thinking for 1983).  All good ideas, yet it appears that the filmmakers are just throwing plot points at a wall in hopes something will stick.
"Superman" was a good piece of work, and "Superman II" was better.  For some reason, they decide the push the comic tone even stronger, and overall, it's an epic fail.  The early slapstick sequence gives you an idea of what to expect without advancing the plot.  You wait for a payoff that never happens.  And so goes the rest of the film.
The villains are weak.  Lois Lane is around long enough to basically say, "I don't want to be involved with this mess."  But the most embarrassing part is Richard Pryor.  The man was a comic genius, who never really found his footing in movies.  In "Superman III", he's a screw-up and a computer whiz.  He's the comic relief, yet also a perpetrator of the evil deeds.  He also appears to be a screen writer's idea of how Richard Pryor should be funny.  And (Spoiler Alert) after he designs a super computer that has the ability to kill Superman, the Man of Steel just lets him go.
Almost everything wrong that can be done with a superhero movie happens here.  No villain could do as much harm to Superman as "Superman III".  Yet "Superman IV" lurks in the shadows.

Rating: 4/10
Movies I've previously seen: 4
First time viewings: 36