Why so much hate for this entry? It's the best of the Reeve pictures....

I adore the 1st film. Probably a top five for me. It still stands up. I really like part II, the more Donner the better. And I enjoy part III. If I ever watch the first two, I never hesitate to pop in part III. I think a 7/10 is fair.

Listen to the podcast, "how did this get made" for Superman III and it's the funniest thing I have heard. It really goes into detail what exactly is wrong with Superman III , starting with the 15 minute introduction of a guy hitting a fire hydrant and his car filling up with water. The evil Superman parts and the Smallville bits are like from a different movie , but the rest of it seems to be from a different movie staring Richard Pryor.

you said the reeve superman films have special effects when they don't

This is not a full blown Superman movie, it's been watered down. Why is Pryor the main character?

I thought this was about Superman! There's no continuity with the first and second film and it feels completely different. The script is very poor. Even Christopher Reeve admitted it was a mess.

Problems at a glance:-

The first 7 and a half minutes are a complete and utter joke. It's so false and unfunny. The photo booth was so forced, there's no way that would ever work as a gag because it doesn't take Clark that long to change into Superman. It takes minutes for a photo to be developed and produced, there's no way it would take him that long to change. And that's the problem with this movie, none of it is any good. All those stupid bits such as the man walking into the lamppost,the roller skating girl, mime artist etc should have been cut. The armed robbery should have been expanded and Superman should have been in that scene doing what he does best, not the stupid fire hydrant/ drowning scene.

Don't get me started on the traffic light non sense!

The Gus ski scene is pathetic and another over the top slapstick piece of rubbish that has nothing to do with Superman or furthers the story in any way.

When Superman confronts Gus's super computer none of it is good. Superman not breathing in the bubble do me a favour! He can breath in space but not in a bubble! The video game screen where they are firing rockets at Superman is a complete mickey take. And why oh why does Superman need the acid? Superman could have ripped the computer to shreds after Gus stopped the Kryptonite Ray. Tell me How in the hell apart from the Kryptonite can Gus's computer hurt him at all! You can't tell me that when he was being dragged backwards into the computer he was overpowed!

They never even explained Clarks disappearance while he was evil from The Daily Planets point of view.

And that's just for starters without really going into it.

Even the best bit of the film where evil Superman fights himself has its fair share of problems. Why did Clark have to stay in character!
The script was rubbish!

It just goes to show that Lester as a Superman director didn't have a clue. Only Richard Donner did. The first Superman is a classic and was a bench mark for Super hero films. With Donner being fired it set the franchise on a downward spiral and never recovered in Reeves time.

I love Superman and there's no way it should have been given this disrespectful treatment. No wonder it's only rated 4.9 on IMDB.

After all these years I tried to watch it again with my girlfriend and she and I just couldn't take it seriously or get into it. It was laughable for all the wrong reasons so we stopped watching it.

Superman 1 and Donners cut of 2 still stand the test of time, but Lesters 2 and 3 are poor and shabby. The less said about four the better.

Christopher Reeve is the best Superman ever and that will never change even with the material of 3 and 4!

I disagree with a lot of what you had to say, especially the part about Clark in character against the tougher Superman. I have no idea what you meant to say here.

I remember watching this in the theatre when I was very little in the early 80's. The whole theatre was literally empty.

Watching the final showdown on the big screen was very awesome and was very very scary from what I remember. I don't think I recall liking it as much as part 2 at the time,but over the years it has grown on me,and I agree this is actually the best of the 4.