Director: Richard Lester
Cast: Christopher Reeve, Annette O’Toole, Richard Pryor, Robert Vaughn
Have I Seen it Before: Yes.
Did I Like It: Along with Supergirl (1984), this film is a cheap, sort of depressing affair. It constantly reminds one that the high highs of Superman (1978) are far in the past. And yet, both films have aged better than their initial reputations, thanks in no small part to the absolutely stunning disaster of a film that is Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).
Unfortunately, this film has a little bit more going against it. As much as it benefits from how terrible its successor it is, it is made worse by the over-validation of the theatrical cut of Superman II (1980). There is much in that film to love, but re-hiring Lester to direct this film implied that all of his contributions to II were the right choices, when everything about that film that works came from the work of Richard Donner before he was fired by the Salkinds. That ignominious firing and the ensuing fallout relegates Margot Kidder to nothing more than a cameo, and it very nearly feels like she’s only accidentally in the film at all.
It also forces Gene Hackman out of the film entirely, in favor of a character that I would bet a substantial amount of money had been Lex Luthor in earlier drafts, and the filmmakers couldn’t be bothered to fundamentally change the character to some other type of villain. They could have gone for something truly different, like Brainiac or even followed through on the beginnings of Bizarro that they have here, and really let Reeve play the villain and the hero.
But they didn’t
The resulting film is a wall-to-wall festival of camp. It is only fitfully funny in its larger physical comedy set pieces, and largely falls flat during any other attempts at banter or bits straight out of a sitcom. Yes, I do still believe a man can fly here; they hadn’t yet gotten the idea to slash the budget to shreds. Reeve is doing good work here, and his fights with a darker version of himself are the highlight of the film, if only they could have appeared in a different film.
This also, for reasons passing anything resembling understanding, is essentially a Richard Pryor movie. I’m going to reach for a potentially unpopular opinion and say that while Pryor is absolutely one of the great stand-up comics of all time, he was never much of a movie actor. He’s not terribly funny here, either, so despite his prominent presence in the film, he is just one more joke that doesn’t quite land.