davy@pur-ee.UUCP (06/19/83)
#N:ecn-ec:7000044:000:966 ecn-ec!davy Jun 18 15:51:00 1983 I went to see "Superman III" last night with a couple of friends, and we all left feeling ripped off. The first half hour or so of the movie, along with about 15 minutes in the middle, are the only parts which hold up to Superman I & II. The rest of the movie is mindless garbage, something you'd expect to see on the late, late, late show. It looks like the producers have decided that since Superman I & II were so good, we'd all come see Superman III. So, they decided to get cheap and put out a real "B" movie. The special effects are really rotten, and the plot is even worse (a computer which turns a human being into a robot, controls the robot, and then turns it back into a human being? Yeesh! And that's just one scene!). They even used some footage from Superman II! My recommendation for this movie is wait until it comes on HBO, or, at the very least, don't pay more than $2.00 for admission. You'll regret it. --Dave Curry pur-ee!davy
jose@orion.UUCP (06/20/83)
This movie is not really worth seeing. I recommend it if you absolutely, positively do not have anything to do on a rainy Monday afternoon, and you planned to see it in a dollar movie. The best part of the movie is the first few minutes of it and the Richard Pryor scenes, which makes it a half decent Richard Pryor movie, but a rotten Superman movie. Jose Saavedra orion!jose
grw@fortune.UUCP (06/23/83)
Superman III is an awful movie. It tries to parody itself
and fails, and it totally ignores its roots, i.e. COMICS! Also,
the stuff about computers is so bad, even for this sort of movie,
that it makes you want to cry. The only thing resonably decent were
the characters, and then only the ones that were invented long ago
(Superman, Lois, Lana, Mr. White, et. al.). In other words, nothing
that the Salkinds came up with was any good. Superman is, by the
way, my least favorite comic book character, but even he deserved
better than this.
Also, language in comics is strictly G rated. Even the most
barbaric comic characters emit no worse language than "flamin'" or
"Christmas". There are no "damn", "J*sus Chr*st", or "Son of a Bitch"s
in comics, so how come they're in the movie? They certainly don't
add anything to it.
-Glennzzz@mit-eddi.UUCP (Mike Konopik) (06/25/83)
As erewhon seems to agree, this movie sucked. But still, I'd like to put in a couple of comments of my own: 1) Had I known the movie was sooo bad, I *might* have paid the bucks just to see the opening sequence (esp. that amazing blonde). 2) One thing made me wince with disgust: when Richard plummeted off the roof on those skis and landed on the atrium's slanted roof -- even if it was made of this incredibly moby glass and he didn't break through, the force on his legs woulda turned 'em to jelly! And landing on the pavement like that would have turned his shins into literal splinters! 3) Suppose for a moment that the computer could have been real (okay?). Now how on earth was that thing supposed to be generated from a couple of pencil sketches (no schematics, either) in less than 3 days? And where did the stupid thing get the power to turn itself back on? 4) Bad taste in mouth #2: The special effects folks really goofed, not to mention insulting even nominal intelligence, when they had the dude turn a tornado "inside out" or "upside down"... And that was about the most bogus-looking tornado I ever saw... 5) BTiM #3: How the heck did Vulcan know when it found the remains of Krypton when it didn't know what it was looking for? 6) Oh yeah, and where'd Pryor's character come up with the bucks for this computer course when his unemployment got cut off? It just cuts to him in this school writing (gak) BASIC that does stuff that "can't be done", and he "doesn't know" how he did it -- uh huh, right... W'all damn. Y'all could keep cutting this movie for hours (maybe you should see it to generate lots of party conversation on how bogus it is?), since just about every scene has something in it that is just plain stupid... I did get a real kick out of the Olympics scene, and also from the way he kept hacking those poor Italian dudes. And again, that cause-and-effect beginning stuff was pretty hilarious. Retrospective Flaming, -Mike PS: Who WAS that gorgeous blonde, anyhow?
john@hp-pcd.UUCP (06/28/83)
#R:mit-eddi:-31100:hp-pcd:6500007:000:388 hp-pcd!john Jun 27 18:14:00 1983 I thought that the most bogus part of the whole movie was that guy in the funny blue suit and red cape who kept leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Everthing else that you complained about was minor compared to that. The whole idea of comics is to create an unreal world where anything can happen. Lighten up a little and suspend your disbeliefs. John Eaton -----------------
tim@unc.UUCP (06/29/83)
This a response to both the article quoted below and the one that
said, basically, "War Games is science fiction, so that means it
doesn't have to make sense."
I thought that the most bogus part of the whole
movie was that guy in the funny blue suit and red cape
who kept leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
Everthing else that you complained about was minor
compared to that. The whole idea of comics is to
create an unreal world where anything can happen.
Lighten up a little and suspend your disbeliefs.
I am a devoted science fiction and fantasy reader, and there is
very little that people can say about those fields that irks me more
than the sentiments above. If there is no internal consistency, there
is no tension, and therefore no plot. If problems are solved by
changing the rules as you go along, how can you get involved with the
story? Fantasy and science fiction require the creation of new sets
of rules, not a freedom from any set of rules whatsoever. In the
recent Superman movies, they ignore this and keep adding new powers to
Superman as needed, utterly destroying any possibility of involvement
with his problems.
The principle of "suspension of disbelief" applies to accepting
the news set of rules, not turning your whole mind off for the
duration.
======================================
The overworked keyboard of Tim Maroney
duke!unc!tim (USENET)
tim.unc@udel-relay (ARPA)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillzzz@mit-eddi.UUCP (Mike Konopik) (07/02/83)
Sorry, but since the odd dude in the funny leotard isn't from earth, I didn't make any assumptions that he was supposed to obey our laws of physics and human limitations. Whatever. Let's just forget about this movie and hope that maybe those that had the misfortune of seeing it have survived to see better ones... -Mike