8mm Forum: Superman 3 (feature, Optical sound)

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 29, 2006, 05:46 PM:

After having seen the new "Superman Returns", I dug out this out and decided to watch this again. I always liked this movie and while it isn't the best of the Superman movies (ranked third in my opinion), it's still a fun romp.

It begins with Richard Pryor in the line at the unemployment line. He is denied once again, but finds out about a job opportunity. He is a computer tech and there's a plum job coming his way.

This leads to a very humorous title sequence in which assorted mishaps follow a woman as she walks down the street. While it is quite funny, I do miss the old floating titles in space of the first two films, but it is fun. This leads to Clark kent, recieving a mission to head back to his home town.

Pryor, (sorry, I can't remember his characters name.) is hired by the villian, (Robert Vaughn, quite smarmy!), to build him a super computer that will take over the worlds power systems, but it also has another use, (hint hint).

Our villian knows that Superman, the one person who can stop him, is weakened by Kryptonite, and he orchestrates a celebration of Superman in which Pryor honors him with, you guessed it, kryptonite, (funny, you'd think Superman would be able to see that coming, but Superman was really never a brain trust.)

Clark Kent meets up with an old flame from school, Lana, and they start to hit it off again. There is a problem, Superman's exposure to kryptonite has affected him, and he actually splits into two people, an evil Superman, (Happily causing havoc and indiscrimitely bedding women!), and the still good Clark Kent.

This is the best part of the film, in my opinion, when Clark Kent and evil Superman, (complete with beard stubble!) confront each other, Superman trying to actually kill Clark. Clark win's out in the end and goes about fixing what evil he has caused.

He then goes to confront Baddy Vaughn and his cronies, (evil and ugly smart sister and the villian's main squeeze which, by the way, evil Superman bedded!)

He is at first defeated and almost killed. Pryor, who really wasn't a bad guy at all, helps Superman destroy the super computer, (which took the villians sister and made her into a cyborg super killer for the finale.

Since Pryor helped Superman, he leaves Pryor at a job site that needs a computer tech. Clark then heads back to Metropolis and talks with Lois Lane again briefly, (Margeret Kidder basically does a cameo as Lois Lane) and the film ends with Superman doing his standard fly away from the earth towards the camera and then back. Bye bye Superman!

There are good and bad points to this optical release. While some of the plot twists concerning Pryor's character are out, (and that's good as it takes away from Superman), there is one omission that I did find irritating, and that was at the Bowling alley, where Clark Kent helps a bowling ball down the lane by a well placed "blow" and making it obliterate pins and lane entire! I thought that scene was hilarious, and while it really doesn't move the story forward, it would have been nice to see. Besides that, the rest of the film is alrgely intact.

However, one of the best sequences in this film (in it's entirety on this optical feature) is the battle between the evil Superman and Clark Kent. It's quite well done and Christopher Reeves take on being the bad Superman is actually very good. You believe that this evil Superman is truly evil and not some good guy just being a "little snot", as the battle between the two hinges on that. In fact, this battle between "good and evil" is by far, in my opinion, better than the final battle.

One wishes that Lex Luthor could have been there again, but Robert Vaughn's villain at least has more "oomph" then Lex Luthor did in Superman 2 and he does his best.

There is more humor to this film and it didn't have a lot of major set pieces to it, as the first two had, but this one explores more the "pscyche" of Superman with the good/bad side, and I thought this was the best part of the film. The humor was okay.

By the way, this print is like other super 8 optical features in that it gives you the nearly full ending. However, we have the shot of Superman flying above the earth, fade out and a generic "The End" title to end the film. However, by leaving out the original credits, it allowed the super 8 optical feature producers more time to fit into the storyline, (as they had to have less than a two hour running time ... why include credits if that would just take up extra space.

OK, this is not as good as Superman 2 or the first film, but it comes in a close second and took the characters into some uncharted areas they hadn't been before.

This fits very nicely on 4X600 ft. reels. The colors, (at least on my print) are very nice and, as with nearly all super 8 opticals the sharpness and contrast are very good, fills that screen nicely. The sound is a good mono as is with all optical prints.

It's certianly better than Superman 4, and a fun watch, if you should be able to find a print of this. Happy hunting!

[ June 14, 2013, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: Osi Osgood ]

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on January 20, 2010, 08:28 PM:

Osi...do you still have this print? I would like to track this one down someday.

Bill

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 21, 2010, 01:16 PM:

Yes, I do. The color is just fine, is slightly off, but it might have been printed that way. Except for the edit of the "bowling alley" whole scene, the other slight cuts actually help the film, (in my opinion), getting rid of some of the comedy and focusing instead on the "sides of Superman".

By the way, "Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" was also an optical super 8 release, but the film was so bad, (even having Gene Hackman back), and the special effects near atrocious, that I didn't bother with it. I just mention it for completeness.

Posted by Oscar Iniesta (Member # 1731) on January 23, 2010, 05:43 PM:

I have an english Superman III 16mm scope print with perfect color. I love this movie! All people I know think it is thrash. Nowadays, people wants all to look so real that they have forgotten what a comic book was. This film is a great production, it´s funny (I consider it is a Pryor´s comedy), and for me, it has the spirit of comic books (colors, action, fantasy). The last scene, the fight between Superman and his shadow, has a great atmosphere.

Posted by David Erskine (Member # 1244) on January 23, 2010, 06:39 PM:

Osi, m'dear. Interesting what u say about Superman IV. A while back I bught what was described as a couple of odd reels (on core, but no core) from this (about £10) - and got a package with the complete film - absolutely unprojected & with original uncut headers & tails! I gently got it onto reels and have quite enjoyed it - proof that it is good that we don't all have the same tastes!!
Cheers, David E

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 23, 2010, 08:18 PM:

Superman 4 is like Warner Brothers cartoons.

The good ones are better than anything else out there. The bad ones are still better than most.

Superman 4 is like that. It's not as good as 1,2 and 3, but it is better than a number of other films. If I remember correctly, Christpher Reeve didn't direct but was an executive producer on this one. It did have a good antiwar story, but the problem in m y opinion was that mullet wearing villian. he just didn't impress me and they did cut the budget on the special effects a lot, which isn't too surprising, as Golan Globus funded this film, who were known for low budget action flicks.

Posted by Kyle Pittman (Member # 3416) on January 17, 2013, 10:44 AM:

I made a short video review for my 8mm feature print of Superman III. Includes a few short video clips of the print as well. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYIGkm1y_Gc

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 17, 2013, 01:18 PM:

Nice little video! I like this superman film, especially the battle between the good and bad Superman! Too bad your film has faded. I wonder if I got an LPP copy of it, as it still looks perfect.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on January 18, 2013, 05:20 AM:

Very nice. Although most of the natural colors are gone, its still a very good sharp print with good contrast. And your right, nothing like watching these movies on real film. I'm one of those "unique" people that would prefer to watch a slightly faded print over blue-ray any day! [Cool]

.

Thanks for posting the video.

James

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 14, 2013, 01:04 PM:

Having seen the trailers and such for this new Superman, I decided to re-edit my review of Superman 3 optical feature.

OSI

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