[4]

Christopher Reeve returns as the ‘man of steel,’ along with several of his supporting players. Unfortunately, the third time is not a charm. The screenplay is a fractured, incoherent mess. We get the Richard Pryor character’s rise to influence, Clark Kent’s return to Smallville, and Superman’s battle with a super-computer all in one movie. Director Richard Lester returns (after directing part of Superman II), and he brings with him even more of his bad, bad, bad humor. It begins with the opening title sequence, an embarrassing display of slap-stick most unbecoming of a Superman movie. There’s too much emphasis on Pryor’s unfunny and uninteresting character, while everyone’s favorite fearless female reporter is unceremoniously sent on vacation for most of the movie. The scenes in Smallville are okay, and I liked seeing Superman go evil under the influence of dark Kryptonite, but everything else about this sequel only shames the memory of the previous two installments. With Robert Vaughn and Annette O’Toole.