Ranking Every DC Comic Book Movie From Worst To Best
24. Superman III
![DC Movies](https://d2thvodm3xyo6j.cloudfront.net/media/2016/08/9332c2c27ec918fe-600x338.jpg)
There's nothing wrong with having comic relief characters in comic book movies: they do serve a purpose, but they're generally supposed to be the side show (unless it's fundamentally a comedy vehicle like Deadpool). When they are just about the only interesting part of a film with a ludicrous villain plot that feels like it has missed its calling as a Direct-To-DVD sequel, there's a problem.
Superman III actually did manage to return its budget (plus the marketing overheads, apparently), but it suffered a devastating drop in quality after the flawed Superman II. Probably because Richard Lester - the man who stole the credit for Superman II from Richard Donner - was handed complete control.
Without Lex Luthor, Lester went with an inferior trio of villains and inadvertently created one of the finest moments of comic book movie action ever, when Superman goes emo, splits in two and fights himself. It's a genius idea, but the rest of the execution is utterly fudged, and there's no hope for redemption even in that brilliance.