SUPERMAN III

Released: 1983
The superhero: Christopher Reeve as Superman aka Clark Kent.
The supervillains: Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman and Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster.
The love interest: Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang.

Punch drunk Man of Steel takes a hit

After reaching the dizzying heights of Superman II in which the Man of Steel did battle with three criminally-minded Kryptonians, led by General Zod (played by the brilliant Terrence Stamp), the big man with the big red undies took a steep nose-dive on the big screen with this tacky follow-up. Of course, it would get worse, much worse, but more on that later.

Here, Superman is forced to do battle against a scheming businessman who's not Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, but a pale imitation in Vaughn's Ross Webster who figures having enough money to own his own downhill ski run on the top of his own Metropolis skyscraper just isn't enough. He is aided in his bid for world domination by Pryor's pain-in-the-arse computer whiz Gus Gorman.

But, Superman's biggest adversary in the film is Superman himself, after a piece of Kryptonite turns the Man of Steel into a complete asshole. He blows out the Olympic torch and straightens the Leaning Tower of Pisa, before becoming depressed, turning to booze, and getting shit-faced at a downtown bar. He later beats himself up, literally, after somehow splitting into two personas - the evil Bizarro-type Superman who doesn't believe in shaving and the good-natured, mild-mannered Clark Kent.

The biggest villain of all in relation to the film though could be the director, Richard Lester - who was previously given credit for helming Superman II, even though the great Richard Donner did most of the work before he was fired by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind and Lester hired to finish the job. Lester was heavily criticised for his slapstick approach, effectively turning the Superman series into a big joke.

Apparently, Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) refused to work with him, which is why she was only in Superman III for about five minutes (though that wasn't any great loss), as did Hackman, who declined to appear in it all. He dodged one bullet, but for some reason didn't dodge another in Superman IV. Stay tuned.