10 Genius Moments In Otherwise Irredeemable Films

Some of you would undoubtedly like to see the airliner scene from Superman Returns mentioned on this list, but Bryan Singer's attempt at streamlining The Man of Steel was a mostly-solid film. Not spectacular, mind you, but certainly not irredeemable. The same can't be said for Superman III.

Director Richard Lester's overall reliance on slapstick and the complete devaluation of Richard Pryor's talents shipwrecked the movie. All the wonder of the first two films was unceremoniously sucked out, leaving a weirdly cynical and unfunny sketch comedy in its place.

And although Lester also dropped the ball in the overarching Evil Superman vs. Clark Kent storyline, he did give us an actual, physical battle between the two, which almost makes up for the barrage of bad comedy around it.

Christopher Reeve's performance as the depressed and angry version of our beloved superhero might be his finest bit of acting in the entire series, and watching him completely lose it (with a Brooklyn accent, no less) delivered on an important concept first brought up in the comics.

This split-personality battle in the junkyard was an incredibly tense and weighty moment in an otherwise inexcusably cheap and mean-spirited production.