Deep dive: Superman III

In this post I am going to discuss Superman III (1983). For a good chunk of this post I will be talking about the film as I sit and watch it in real-time.

If you have never watched Superman III before, you may want to skip this post as it will make little sense to you and will be filled with spoilers. Of course, if you are more than familiar with Superman III then please stick with me.

Now before I begin, let me say that I am not a huge fan of Superman III. I think the film contains some truly strong moments, but it is largely a flawed piece as a whole – and I will talk about why I believe this in greater detail below.

I do want to note that I don’t hate this film (don’t y’all come for me in the comments section), I just feel that it has the potential to be much better. Superman III should be as strong as Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1980), but it isn’t.

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Superman III

*Clicks play*

25secs – Superman III opens with August ‘Gus’ Gorman, as played by Richard Pryor. This first scene is establishing his character and attempting to introduce comedy into the film. For me, this here is one of the biggest problems of Superman III, as the film places too much focus on this particular character. So, yep, the problems start early – sorry.

2mins 30secs – And now the film moves into the opening credits and there is a significant change from the credit scenes of the first two movies. The rather dramatic openings of the previous films which really set the more serious tone of the pictures has been replaced by a slapstick sequence. 

3mins – You know, despite the obvious change in tone from the previous entries, I don’t have a huge problem with the opening credit sequence, which sees various incidents happen in Metropolis in quick succession (a robbery, someone trapped in a car, etc). The credits play out, there are some mild chuckles and Superman gets to perform a rescue. It works fine for what it is.

6mins – During this credit sequence, there is a scene involving a child and a photo booth. This is an in-joke. The child that appears in this scene is Aaron Smolinski – the actor who played toddler Clark Kent in Superman: The Movie.

11mins 30secs – And now for what I consider to be another misstep in Superman III – the lack of screen time given to Lois Lane. After only a few minutes on screen Lois has just announced she is going on holiday, therefore she won’t be in the remainder of the movie. Madness! After being a huge and significant focus in the two previous films, Lois is now side-lined. And the reason for this? Well, it is due to the backstage problems surrounding Superman II. 

When Superman: The Movie director, Richard Donner was fired from Superman II, and replaced with director Richard Lester, a number of the cast members voiced their disapproval over the situation. One of the cast members was Margot Kidder, who was very vocal over the decision to drop Donner.

Shortly after Kidder spoke publicly about the situation, her role in Superman III was reduced. As a result, Lois pops up to essentially tell the audience she’s not sticking around for this instalment. And with Lois out of the picture, Clark is off to Smallville!

15mins – Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen are on assignment in Smallville and while on route they stumble come across a huge fire at a chemical plant. Within moments, Superman is on the scene to help the firefighters put out the blaze.

This whole sequence is great – I absolutely love it! Superman comes to the rescue to save the plant workers and the whole sequence is heroic and inspirational.

18mins – As well as being a good action sequence, the fire at the chemical plant also sets up a seemingly unimportant scene involving unstable acid. But of course, this seemingly unimportant scene is nothing of the kind. This acid will become significant during the finale.

20mins – Another great moment now as Superman freezes a lake, turning it into a huge block of ice. He then drops the ice over the chemical plant, causing it to melt and fall like rain over the fire. Brilliant stuff!

23mins – Back in Smallville, Clark attends his high school reunion. Here the movie reintroduces the characters Brad and Lana, who were last seen in Superman: The Movie. Annette O’Toole is now playing the role of Lana Lang. The actress would return to the Superman mythology between 2001 and 2011 to play the role of Clark’s mother, Martha Kent, on the popular show.

23mins 55secs – And speaking of Martha Kent, Lana has just mentioned that the Kent matriarch has passed away. This is a plot point that will be picked up in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).

30mins – The villains of Superman III are introduced. The main villain being Ross Webster, as played by Robert Vaughn. Vaughn is fine here, but the part feels like a watered-down Lex Luthor, so I’m not sure what anyone was trying to achieve with this character? If Gene Hackman wasn’t available, or if the series was to move in a new direction, why bother including a paper-thin version of Lex?

40mins – Forty minutes into Superman III and Richard Pryor has already received a considerable amount of screen time – way more than any other character. The reason he is so prominent in this film is because a.) Pryor was a popular comedian and actor at the time, and b.) he publicly stated how much he liked Superman II, so the film’s producers cast him for Superman III and gave him a big role.

I do wonder what the film could have been like if he had never passed comment on Superman II. Would Christopher Reeve had got more screen time?

49mins – Gus sets in motion a plan to control a satellite and as a result, a series of tech ‘mishaps’ follow… *sigh*…including some malfunctioning traffic light signals, which cause the red and green men to fight each other.

These scenes are supposed to be hilarious, but they are actually tedious. Scenes like this are reducing the quality of this film.

55mins – This movie continues to make mistakes. Now it is abbreviating rescue scenes with Superman. Instead of showing the scenes in full, Richard Pryor provides narration over a quick montage of Superman performing super-feats. All of this means more screen time for Pryor, less for Superman, and a clear demonstration of budget cuts.

1hr 2mins – An hour into the movie and an actual threat to Superman has been introduced (hurrah), in the form of synthetic Kryptonite. This synthetic variety looks similar to the regular kind of Kryptonite, but it is not as deadly.

1hr 5mins 30secs – Gus hands Superman the synthetic Kryptonite, and the Man of Steel shows no visible signs of weakness or discomfort. 

Erm… So, I don’t mind the idea of the synthetic Kryptonite – I think it works well enough for establishing the scenes that follow – but it is a shame that the decision was made to colour this Kryptonite, green. This could have been a great opportunity to introduce different coloured Kryptonite into the Superman movie series. Perhaps red Kryptonite?

There are many, many varieties of Kryptonite available, including blue, white, gold, silver, and black (amongst others), so why not just pick a different colour? Surely Superman would instantly balk at the idea of someone handing him a rock that looks like Kryptonite?!

1hr 8mins 30secs – The synthetic Kryptonite is starting to take effect on an emotional level. Superman has become apathetic.

1hr 9mins 30secs – Due to the effects of the Kryptonite, Superman is late to a rescue. From here on out, the movie gets much better as Superman stops caring about rescuing people or doing good deeds.

1hr 10mins 30secs – It is now becoming clear that Superman is becoming gravely effected by the Kryptonite. It is making him evil. This plot development is where this movie truly excels, as it gives actor Christopher Reeve the opportunity to play a different side to Superman. THIS is where Superman III really hits its stride!

1hr 19mins – To reflect his change in personality, Superman’s costume is now darker in colour. He also has some stubble. While this evil version of Superman is NOT supposed to be the Superman villain, Bizarro, it could easily become him with a few tweaks to the script.

1hr 21mins – With Superman embracing his dark side, Superman III starts to really crank up a gear. It’s a shame this material wasn’t introduced earlier in the film, but hey ho, it’s good to see it now.

1hr 22mins 30secs – With Superman preoccupied, Ross, Gus and Co. start to build a super computer. This part of the story seems to come out of absolutely nowhere, but I’m fine to let it slide as it sets up the finale.

1hr 24mins – While Ross is busy with the super computer, Superman is sat in a bar. He is clearly very depressed and/or drunk and is genuinely quite scary. Reeve’s performance here is excellent. He’s showing a side to Superman that we didn’t get in Superman: The Movie or Superman II.

1hr 26mins – Psychologically disturbed, Superman heads to a nearby junkyard to left off some steam. This is where Superman III hits its peak with easily the best sequence in the movie as Superman splits into two people…

1hr 26mins 45secs – …Evil Superman and good Clark Kent.

1hr 28mins – The junkyard battle is the one scene from Superman III that everyone remembers and it is with good reason – it is so damn good! Having Evil Superman fight Clark Kent allows for Christopher Reeve to really go to town on these roles, demonstrating a clear distinction between the characters he is playing. This is gold standard stuff.

1hr 31mins – The junkyard scene was shot in the UK. In fact, a great deal of the four Christopher Reeve Superman movies were shot in the UK.

1hr 33mins – It would appear as if the evil Superman has defeated Clark Kent, but…

1hr 33mins 25secs – …Superman triumphs! Having defeated his inner demons, the Man of Steel is back to being a hero again and this means he needs to clean up some of the mess he caused.

1hr 39mins – Into the big finale now – Superman vs. a super computer. As mentioned above, this part of the plot seems to come out of nowhere, but it is still pretty entertaining stuff. Personally, I would have preferred the whole film to have focused on the evil Superman, but hey, this movie was made during the 1980s, when computers were distrusted.

As a side note: There were some discussions about including Brainiac in Superman III. That didn’t happen, and I guess this super computer is the (cheaper) consolation.

1hr 47mins – The super computer has become sentient. Once again, this is a story beat that seems to happen ‘just because it says so in the script’.

1hr 49mins – Scary robot alert! Webster’s sister has just been transformed into a creepy robot. Has the sentient computer initiated the first steps in a grand scheme to turn humanity into cyber warriors?! Or are the writers simply throwing anything at the screen, in the hope that something sticks? You decide!

1hr 51mins – The volatile acid from earlier in the film is reintroduced as a way to destroy the computer. It is a little bit convenient, but I don’t mind this plot device as it was set up near the beginning. Anyway, the computer has been destroyed.

1hr 55mins – Despite his involvement in turning Superman evil, as well as all the other bad things that have happened in the movie, Gus Gorman is let off the hook for his crimes… because he tried to save Superman.

1hr 59mins – Lois reappears during the final minutes of the movie. She is here to cap off her story and to throw metaphorical daggers at Lana Lang, who has become the default love interest in this film. This rivalry could have been developed for the fourth Superman movie, but sadly Lana does not return to this particular series, so it’s a case of ‘one and done’.

2hr 1mins – And as Superman III draws to a close, Superman takes to the skies. Some of the last two hours has been great, while some has been a little disappointing.

*Presses stop*

Let’s deal with the good stuff first: The chemical plant, every single moment with evil Superman, the entire junkyard scene, and the battle with the super computer is all good stuff and some of it is cinematic gold. OK, so I did have a few issues with some of the ideas during the final battle with the computer, but on the whole the finale works.

But here’s my take on what I have seen with the greatness of these sequences. This could AND should be a better movie.

For me, this film would have benefited greatly from a rewrite, whereby all of the great scenes were kept and extended, and everything else was removed or reworked.

Had the evil Superman storyline been introduced from the start, and maybe as a response to the events of Superman II (where Superman de-powered himself) then it could have made for a much stronger film. Hmm… maybe the film could have gone down the route of having Clark, Superman and evil Superman in a few scenes too? After all, the film is called Superman III. Either way, this is where the film should have placed its focus.

But, as mentioned earlier, the biggest problem with this film really is the constant inclusion of Richard Pryor. I made this clear when I pressed play, but it needs to be reiterated: Richard Pryor swamps this movie and he is in it far too much. It’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the writers, the director, the producers, and anyone who felt he should have more screen time than the hero of the picture.

Superman III should be about Superman. The first two films were about the title character and this movie should have followed suit; but instead, Superman comes across as a glorified guest star in his own movie and it is a huge shame. To me, the decision to side-line Superman is a very odd creative choice and one I simply don’t understand. 

Superman III has its moments and the junkyard scene remains one of the best sequences in a Superman movie, but director Richard Lester, along with the producers, made some bizarre choices and it stops this film from reaching the heights of its predecessors.

Now, from this point on (i.e. the release of Superman III), Christopher Reeve was getting fatigued with playing Superman. As an actor he felt he had done about as much as he probably could with the character, and was looking to move on.

He did come back for 1987’s Superman IV, but that was only after much discussion and many negotiations. In the meantime, there was talk of including him in 1984’s Supergirl, but he ultimately declined.

And I really can’t blame him for being hesitant and/or reluctant to continue with the series. Once Superman II made it clear Superman couldn’t settle down with Lois, it became fairly obvious there wasn’t going to be a great deal of evolution for the character. He was mostly just going to save people and that’s it. So from a creative standpoint, it didn’t give Reeve many opportunities to play with anything other than basic heroics.

The evil version of Superman in Superman III is really the last great moment. Reeve got to lean into this and go to town on the role, but he could clearly see the writing on the wall.

That said, there was certainly a desire to continue in some shape or form. Despite Superman III being less successful than its predecessors, it still made $80,200,000 from a budget of $39 million, so there was still money to be made, which is why more ‘Super’ films followed.

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Now, before I sign off, earlier I mentioned the different types of Kryptonite. Let me just take a moment to expand upon this.

In fact, kryptonite comes in many different shades and colours, and creates different effects depending on where it is used and who it is used on. Kryptonite made its debut on The Adventures of Superman – a popular, and long-running Superman radio show – via the episode, The Meteor from Krypton, which was broadcast in June 1943.

So, if you thought the radioactive rock came from the comics you’d be incorrect. It was essentially introduced to weaken Superman, and give the radio show an excuse to write actor Bud Collyer out of the show for a few episodes, so he could take a break from recording.

Despite making its debut on radio in 1943, Kryptonite didn’t appear in comic books until 1949. The rock made its first appearance in Superman issue #61, where it started off red, before becoming green in later stories.

Rather interestingly, a form of Kryptonite was almost included in a comic much earlier than 1949, in a story from Superman co-creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. According to the book, DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favourite Comic Book Heroes, Kryptonite would have been called K-Metal, but the story was never published.

Anyway, back to the many different shades of Kryptonite and the rock basically varies depending on the needs and whims of the story. Some of the kryptonite highlighted below has also been revised over time, meaning its effects change from one story to the next.

• Green – Weakens Kryptonians, and can kill with long-term exposure. Green Kryptonite has been known to cause cancer in humans or grant super powers.
• Red – The effects of red Kryptonite can vary. Effects can include weakness, physical transformations, and psychological changes including apathy.
• Red-green – Red-green Kryptonite can cause mutations.
• Blue – Blue kryptonite produces the same sort of negative effects that green Kryptonite produces, but only to the character known as Bizarro – Superman’s imperfect duplicate.
• Gold – Gold Kryptonite has the ability to strip Kryptonians of their abilities.
• Red-green-blue-gold – Has the ability to separate Kryptonians into two people.
• Red-gold – Temporarily strips Kryptonians of their memories.
• White – Kills plant life.
• Silver – Silver Kryptonite effects Kryptonians mentally, playing on fears and altering perceptions.
• Pink – Pink Kryptonite can switch gender and sexuality.
• Black – Similar to red-green-blue-gold Kryptonite, black Kryptonite can split Kryptonians into two people.
• Orange – Orange Kryptonite can grant super powers.
• Jewel – Jewel Kryptonite enhances psychic powers.
• Periwinkle – This form of Kryptonite creates a loss of inhibitions.
• Platinum – Platinum Kryptonite can give humans super powers.  
• Bizarro-red – Bizarro-red Kryptonite produces similar effects as red Kryptonite, but only in humans.
• Red-green-gold – Removes Kryptonian powers and memories.
• Magno – Magno-Kryptonite is magnetically attracted to anything from the planet Krypton.
• Slow – Effects humans in the way green Kryptonite effects Kryptonians.
• Kryptonite-X – Used to restore a Kryptonian’s ability to process solar radiation.
• Anti-Kryptonite/Fool’s Kryptonite – Not harmful to Kryptonians, but is harmful to humans.
• X-Kryptonite – Known to give humans or animals super powers and to cause harm in the same way green Kryptonite does.
• Synthetic Kryptonite – A faux version of Kryptonite with the ability to alter a Kryptonian’s mood and split them into two separate personalities.

As stories and storytelling has evolved, so too has Kryptonite. Some writers will use Kryptonite as a plot device, and if an existing form of the rock doesn’t do the trick, they can simply invent a new one which does.

With its ability to weaken and potentially kill a Kryptonian, green Kryptonite is the most common version. Green Kryptonite appears with regularity in comics, movies, and television shows, and is the rock which is recognised by both fans and non-fans alike.

It should also be noted that while Kryptonite is usually depicted as a rock, it can change (again, at the whims of the story). In the 1950s Superman television series, Adventures of Superman, it appeared as a metal, and it also been fashioned into objects such as a bullet or a ring, and even a virus.

Kryptonite has appeared in multiple films and TV shows (Superman Returns, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC League of Super-Pets, etc) but one of the best ways to see Kryptonite in action is via the television show, Smallville (2001 – 2011). Kryptonite featured heavily in Smallville, with multiple varieties of the rock appearing throughout the show’s ten season run.

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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this deep dive about Superman III. For more posts be sure to check out the recommended reads below.