Critics and movie fans, thinks “Superman III” is the worst film of the whole series. I just watched this movie again on Blu Ray while going through this new “Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology” Blu Ray set. Want to know what I think of this film now? I love it a lot more! This movie isn’t bad at all. In fact, it’s my favorite of the whole series.

Warner Bros. clearly wanted to make this movie a different Superman movie than the first two. The reason people are complaining about “Superman III” was that Superman wasn’t used much in this film. No Lex Luthor and not much Lois Lane. Plus, everyone hated Richard Pryor’s character, Gus Gorman. People also hated all the comedy that was thrown into the film.

I’m going to explain everything why Warner Bros. and director, Richard Lester did what they did. The reason Superman and Lois Lane wasn’t used too much because those two characters were pretty much used throughout the first two movies. Warner Bros. wanted to give other characters a chance to get more screen time. Superman was used way too much for the first two movies, in this film, they wanted to do something a little different and give Clark Kent more screen time. So in order for it to make it work, Clark went to his high school reunion back to Smallville where he reunited with Lana Lang. Superman had a love interest with Lois, but when he’s Clark Kent, Clark never had a love interest from the first two films. In “Superman III” they wanted Lana Lang to be Clark’s love interest. Clark Kent got more screen time than Superman did because I believe Warner Bros. wanted this film to be Clark’s film. This film went deep into Clark’s past in Smallville.

The reason Richard Pryor was chosen for the leading role, was that Warner Bros. wanted the film to be more comedic. So they hired an experienced comedic actor. They wanted a stand up comedian as the leading character of Gus Gorman so he is able to improvise and ad-lib funny lines. That’s why they hired Richard ’cause he was able to improvise dialogue that wasn’t in the script. They also wanted to give someone else a chance to get the spotlight and not have Superman hog it all.

Another reason for the Gus Gorman character is, since Superman was known to saving other people, Warner Bros. wanted to take this film in a different direction and they wanted someone else to save Superman from danger instead. Gus Gorman was the only one able to save Superman’s life ’cause Gus knew how to use the supercomputer he used at the end of the movie. People mistakenly looked at Gus Gorman as a villain in the film, he never was. He never wanted to kill Superman. Gus did all that work for Ross Webster because Gus was desperate for a job.

This film was a great opportunity for Richard Pryor, after this movie, he became a more mainstream of an actor. After this movie, Richard went on to even bigger films such as “Brewster’s Millions”, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil”, “Harlem Nights”, etc.

The reason “Superman III” was more of a comedy film this time is because the first two Superman films were pretty dark. Warner Bros. wanted to brighten up the mood with the Superman franchise by turning it into a more family friendly entertainment. They also wanted this movie to be a film for kids to enjoy as well.

Lex Luthor wasn’t used because Gene Hackman wasn’t available at the time. I read somewhere Gene turned it down ’cause he was committed to other film projects. So Warner Bros. wrote in an original character, Ross Webster, instead.

I think “Superman III” was a pretty special film. It was action packed, Superman saved a lot of people. Yes, the best scene of the whole movie was obviously Evil Superman vs. Clark Kent the junkyard fight scene.

I think there’s nothing wrong with the film. It’s a really good Superman movie, in my opinion. It’s also Christopher Reeve’s best acting too. Give this film a chance. Give it another viewing. You’ll understand it, the more you watch it.

Kev