9. Superman III (1983)
Sequel To: Superman II, and to some extent
Superman: The Movie, since they were originally conceived as two parts of the same story.
Who Made It?: Richard Lester, who took over
Superman II after Richard Donner was fired by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind. Lester had previously helmed The Three and The Four Musketeers for the Salkinds, along with
Help!,
A Hard Day's Night and the cult classic
The Bed-Sitting Room.
Why Was It Made?: Superman II was a big hit in spite of its production problems. It had a record-breaking opening weekend (beating
The Empire Strikes Back), and after a delayed release in Europe it became one of the highest grossing films of 1981. Lester got on well with the Salkinds and so a third film was pretty much inevitable.
Why Is It So Bad?: It undoes all the good work of
I &
II in attempting to portray Superman in a serious light. All the good intentions and the Christian allegory present in Mario Puzo's screenplays for the first two films are replaced by camp silliness and a desire to play things more for laughs. Richard Pryor is shockingly unfunny in his supporting role, the fight scenes have no tension, the story is far more episodic and Robert Vaughn's villain is quite boring. The only good scene is the junk yard fight, in which our hero splits into Clark Kent and an evil Superman after being exposed to red kryptonite. Christopher Reeve felt this was the only scene which did Superman justice, and fought hard to keep it in the film.
What Happened Next: Following the unsuccessful spin-off
Supergirl, the series ended with
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Bryan Singer attempted a reboot in 2006 with
Superman Returns, which picks up after the ending of
Superman II and ignores the continuity of
III and
IV. The franchise was subsequently rebooted by Zack Snyder in
Man of Steel.