MovieChat Forums > Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) Discussion > I personally felt Superman III was more ...

I personally felt Superman III was more disappointing than this.

posted 8 years ago by agentdc7
12 replies | jump to latest

I can understand why nearly everyone hates this movie. I'm not saying Superman IV is good. Yes, the giant plot holes and cheaper budget makes it nearly unwatchable, but I personally thought Superman III was much more disappointing IMO.

Superman IV at least has the tone of the movie right and the soundtrack is quite decent. I really liked Nuclear man's theme. The key characters from I and II are here again (Lois, Perry, Lex) and also the Fortress of Solitude and green crystal (which was completely forgotten of in III). Superman IV at least tried to be a comic book movie.

Personally, I really hated Superman III because it had an overbearing generic 80s comedy movie tone. I felt the real disappointment was all the wasted opportunity for part 3. We just got a Richard Pryor meets Superman movie. When I watched it on VHS, I had to remind myself I was watching a Superman movie half the time. When I first watched it, I thought we rented the wrong movie until I saw the Superman III title over a random slapstick opening. Superman III also had a much larger budget and the success of Superman II to springboard off of. And even as a kid, I didn't find Richard Pryor funny at all in this movie. Superman 3 has nearly no relationship to the comics. It almost reminds me of the Star Wars Holiday special where we take a franchise and combine it into whatever is "in" today.

[–] ck100 8 years ago

A lot of people say Superman IV is the worst one, but I agree in that III is actually the worst one. III has contempt for the Superman character and has the bad campy tone and comedy.

[–] bozo_500 8 years ago

bad superman/junkyard fight saves III though

[–] agentdc7 8 years ago

bad superman/junkyard fight saves III though

Yeah, that's about the only decent scene. Too bad it doesn't fit into the rest of the movie.

[–] ck100 8 years ago

One good scene alone can't save a bad film.

[–] tlm557 8 years ago

This discussion is insane.... III wasn't that good... but at least you can't CLEARLY SEE the wires like you can when Superman and Nuclear Man are flying & fighting... IV is really pathetic because of that and because of it's very, very stupid story.

[–] Tiberius27-1 8 years ago

The bad Superman part was practically the only good thing about Superman 3.
If the junkyard fight saves 3 then the epic Superman/Nuclear Man fight DEFINITELY saves Superman 4.

To me I correlate the badness of Superman 3 & 4 with the consecutive failures of 2 other entries from a favorite film franchise from my childhood, JAWS 3 & 4. With both franchises I think that you can practically flip a coin to decide which bad sequel was worst. All 4 (JAWS 3 & 4, Superman 3 & 4) were bad so it really comes down to picking which was the least bad or the best of the worst. In both cases it was proven that while a franchise can bounce back from the occasional stinker, you give the public 2 in a row and you're done for. We still haven't seen another JAWS film after all these years and they've rebooted Superman twice.

"Be nice until it's time to NOT be nice."

[–] wallacesawyer 8 years ago

I can't really decide which I prefer. I like both, but 3 is probably the one I was most indifferent to until recent years. I have been watching it more often, and have actually grown to like it. I prefer Clark's romantic relationship with Lana than with Lois to be honest. A shame Lana wasn't in 4.

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[–] Cortese01 8 years ago

I agree, and the intro on Superman III is the worst crap I've ever seen.

I first saw Superman IV as a kid and I still put it on now and then. Even though the movie is really silly, I enjoy it.

[–] danmankp37 8 years ago

It is. Superman 3 was riding high on the success of the first 2, and had a proper budget to accompany the script. The script for 3 however was a pitiful mess. Superman 4 had a promising script that got drug down by the major cuts in the budget made by Cannon. Poor Chris Reeve had signed the deal, so there was no way out of it for him. Superman 4 still has it's charms. I saw it in theatres when I was 7 and loved as a kid. It was not until I was around 17, I saw it again that I realized, how cheap it was. However as I said, it still has it's charms..

[–] freezedawg98 8 years ago

Both Superman III and Superman IV are bad films, but they each had separate problems for the most part. Looking back, the only redeemable qualities for the two films is Christopher Reeve.

Superman III was way too comical. Richard Pryor was a talented comedian and a good actor in his own right, but he had no business being in a Superman film. The villains were horrible and the ultimate villain (a super computer) was very lame. The other problem this film seemed to have to me is that Christopher Reeve's/Superman's part in the story seemed to take a backseat to Gus Gorman and the villains way too often for my tastes. In fact, the only real part of the Superman/Clark Kent story that sticks with me in this film is the junkyard scene (which was great).

Superman IV had substandard special effects. The effects look worse in this film that the previous three films, which were filmed 5 to 10 years before Superman IV. The editing was horrible, and that is an understatement. The villains were better than in Superman III (at least from a threat standpoint), but they should have gone the Bizarro route instead of using Nuclear Man. However, Nuclear Man's motives after mortally wounding Superman were no where to be found in the finished film. The whole Nuclear Man taking Lacey into outer space thing made no sense at all. Think about it, Nuclear Man could have decided to try and take over the world and instead he was planning on taking a woman into outer space. Was he leaving earth for good?

[–] vengeance20 8 years ago

I strongly disagree. Superman III was epic & really good. It's the other films which don't do it for me especially Superman IV which might I add sucks.

[–] donnymckinnon-98722 8 years ago

Yeah I didn't like this movie at all, it just had such a different feel to it, than 1, 2 and 3, 3 was way better, especially the evil superman vs the good Clark Kent scene, also I agree with the other person on here that said, Clark and Lana was a nice change, compared to Lois, I thought it was refreshing seeing someone from when he was in high school, Annette O'toole was really beautiful, a lot better looking than Margo Kidder, I thought she did a very nice job in Superman 3