Supermoan: Movie Moan's Ultimate Superman Retrospective Episode 3 - 'Superman III' (1983)
Fri, May 10, 2013 You can watch this week's show on Blip:
Or on Youtube:
"Let's not have unrealistic expectations put on this character."
When you sit down to look at it, 'Superman III' may be a disaster but it also offers a glorious bounty of fascinating topics to discuss and thus, the funniest possible 90 minute video analysis we could hope to make. So join your host Phil Gee, with Jamie Williams, Justin Korthof, and Randall Maynard as we discuss:
Just exactly how many plots are contained in the film (it goes into double digits).
What is Superman's obligation to protecting us when he spends the first 30 minutes of this film having a picnic with Lana Lang?
What's with all the references to acid?
Explaining to the filmmakers how computers actually work (since they sure as hell don't know).
Life of Brad (the real heart of the piece).
The original treatment to 'Superman III' featuring Brainiac, Supergirl, and Mr Mxyzptlk brought to life by our narration and spectacularly twisted images by Phil's brother, Adam Gee.
And a drunken George Reeves sketch that Phil will be sent to hell for.
As the film's trailer puzzlingly said, "this time is going to be the best time of all".
Download the audio only MP3 version right here:
Reader Comments (6)
Earlier you mentioned film franchises in the 80s. Friday The 13th had part 3 by 1983, but that doesn't count. Anyway, Phil - I like your Brad theory! This might explain why in Superman II, once Clark gets his powers back, why he returns to the diner to give tough guy Rocky his comeuppance.. Oddly, I forgot Gavan O'Herlihy was in this film, let alone played Brad. I remember the actor more for Death Wish 3 (two years after Supey III) and his supporting role in Willow....wait a minute...
"Brad came back later and got the job done"
so Brad DID turn into Manny Fraker (Death Wish 3) !
About the Superman vs, Kent fight. When I was young, I thought it was interesting, but I would have dugit more if the "bad" Superman fell to the ground, we see his face. And it's like a diamond. How COOL would it have been if it was Bizarro?
Interestingly, also in 1983..."WarGames" - a more successful movie to say the least, had the threat of AI computers (although unkowingly) almost start WWIII and hacking.
I could not, to this day, understand what was up with the video game taking place of visual effects. But I think it had to do with the camp mentality of the producers.
Dont forget! Supergirl actually GOT her spinoff. I recall Jimmy Olsen being in it. I don't remember much else except Helen Slater was in it, and I liked her better as Billie Jean in Legend Of Billie Jean (I'm still wonderin' when THAT film will be remade haha)
If it were me doing Supey III on an 80s budget? Well, once again, I bring up Bizzarro. I would have went with a Bizarro plot. Pun-wise, the filmmakers did just that.
I actually liked the stuff regarding Smallville reunion and Lana Lang.
and enough Spider-Man 3 bashing. You will have a mild rebuttal on your hands...
When you get to Quest For Peace, I reccomend you listen to the writer's commentary on that DVD/BR. Very insightful, far more entertaining than the picture itself and how everyone got screwed over !.
Another great episode, guys!
I don't remember if I enjoyed the movie as a kid, I just remember that 3yr old me was deathly afraid of the "robot lady" at the end.
While this movie is pretty horrible, there are a few things that I like. I think one of the best scenes/series of events in the film is Gus getting into Webscoe/WheatKing and getting smashed with Brad. "There's not enough vodka in it." "There's vodka in it now..." "Both keys at the same time!?" Just great stuff there, IMO.
I think part of the reason I have trouble deciding whether III or IV is the worst comes from something that was brought up on the podcast, but I never realized before. It's that III has a horrible/non-existant story/plot but still looks like a Superman film while IV has a very noble (at least attempt at a) story but looks like garbage.
OK, my Superman III.
We ended II with Lois and Clark broken up, but Lois still knows who Clark is. The destruction of the Phantom Zone sent sub-space/temporal displacement (or something) shock waves through space that are detected by Brainiac. At this point, Brainiac is just a ship and we see the sensors on the ship pick up the signal and maybe we see the central computer react and even move/change form. We then see some kind of navigational computer set a course for Earth. (Trying to stay within the realm of what had been done by Star Trek and Star Wars around this time in terms of effects.)
We cut to Metropolis and the Daily Planet. We set up a normal day with the reporters in Perry's office or a meeting room discussing stories, etc. After the meeting, we get a scene with Lois and Clark that recaps and re-establishes where they are and how things have been going. (Let's say we're only months after SII.)
Brainiac has reached Earth and perhaps by happenstance, he reaches the west coast of the USA first. He stumbles across Alcatraz prison, which is now "reopened" to house four, very special inmates, the Phantom Zone villains and Lex Luthor. No one really understands the "science" behind how the Kryptonians lost their powers and even Superman himself isn't 100% positive that it's permanent, though he believes it is. To be safe, 3 very special cells were built to hold them, maybe with Fortres tech, which is why it attracted Brainiac. Lex is also held there because he almost blew up California and New Jersey, aided 3 supervillains in almost killing Superman and taking over the world and has already escaped from prison at least once.
Brainiac recognizes the Kryptonian life signs coming from the prison and teleports the 3 and Lex, just due to proximity maybe on to his vessel. (Now, we could use them or if the actors didn't come back, Brainiac just sticks them all in the Bottled CIty of Kandor.) Because Zod & Co don't have powers, maybe it does not yet occur to Brainiac that Earth's Sun and environment gives Kryptonians powers.
Now that he's on Earth, Brainiac recognizes a Kryptonian tech/energy signature and follows it north to the Fortress, where he hacks the computer and learns a bunch of stuff, including that there is one more surviving Kryptonian that he must add to his collection. Let's say he learns that it's Superman and starts causin' a ruckus to lure the Man of Steel out. Somewhere along the way, Brainiac decides that since he's here, he needs to add Earth to his collection and plans to bottle Metropolis and then blow up Earth and now we have a nice conflict for Superman to get into.
Stuff happens, battle, battle, explosions "Superman didn't even do nuttin', " "No stop, don't do it...the people!" etc. Perhaps Brainiac either clones a huminoid form for himself or uses his tech to implant himself into Lex or someone else or both.
In the end, Superman defeats Brainiac and places Kandor in the Fortress with Zod & Co still inside it, as he can't figure out how to get them out or enlarge the city. (Potential sequel material and/or "final fate" of PZ villains.) Lex goes back to Alcatraz either with what's left of Brainiac, or Brainiac is destroyed. Just before Superman atomizes Brainiac's ship (to help prevent his return) we see that one of the sensors has picked up another Kryptonian energy signal and it's headed for Earth. (This either takes us to Superman IV or a better Supergirl movie.)
Wow, that was longer than I expected.
Anyway, another great video and I look forward to the Supergirl discussion. (This should be interesting...)
Dear people of TMT,
I can sum the review you did in one sentence: I laughed, i cried and i got traumatized again by robot Vera. Thanks but no thanks Phil and company. :-)
Can't wait for over the top Faye Dunaway, clueless and naive Supergirl Helen Slater and future Die Hard dickhead Hart Bochner giving his all as sorta soulless Ethan.
I have to think about what my ideal Superman III movie would be. So maybe i let you know about it the next time i write....or maybe not. I'm not too sure if i will be able to match that coherent movieplot that Kal-El Fan wrote.
To be fair to the film, what it has going for it in my opinion are
-Reeve’s most seamless performance as Superman (you don't even notice how flawless his performance is, notice how you didn't even discuss it)
-Flawless wirework -- the practical effects here were top notch
-Great chemical plant set piece
It's overarching problem is that it's essentially a slapstick comedy starring a family-friendly Richard Pryor and guest starring Superman.
I like Lester's comedic sensibilities; it's in the same vain as stuff like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World or even Spielberg's 1941. It's just not right for a Superman film. But, taken on its own terms, I like the film, flaws and all. It's a product of its time and doesn't hold up to contemporary serious cinematic treatments of superheroes, but is still fun for what it is.
Thank you, Springrose.
I watched this for the first time since 1983 last night and was stunned at how bad it was. It's like a 1970's Disney live-action comedy; I kept waiting for Dean Jones to show up.
I'd love to know what the budget was on this, esp. compared to the first two, because it looks DIRT cheap.