Superman III: The Definitive Smallville Cut:

[MCP]

I really like the idea behind Father Merrin's fanedit. The Smallville plotline is definitely the strongest aspect of the script for Superman III, and Annette O'Toole is just wonderful as Lana Lang. I never truly got into Margot Kidder's portrayal of Lois Lane (blasphemy, I know) so seeing a film based on Clark and Lana sounds just peachy. And FM's edits do a lot to showcase that aspect of the story, even though it's not truly developed in the script as much as you'd like. The problem is that the film is just filled with so much other goofiness. Pryor takes a lot of the blame, but it's not just him. There are so many silly moments in this film that it feels pitched squarely at children until you get to the dilemmas of a single mother and the nostalgia of going "home" and the genuinely creepy innuendo and ...Jesus, what were they thinking? Seriously, who was the audience for this film?? Anyway, you can basically remove all of one and go slapstick fun or all of the other and try for something fairly mature and interesting. FM's edit goes for the latter, but doesn't go quite far enough IMHO. There is still a bit of goofiness from Pryor that I think could be cut, some silly comedy routines about Robert Vaughn's sister and mistress, and of course the Eiffel Tower. I mean, half the "evil" Superman sequence is ridiculous, he mostly just turns kind of mischievous and douchey. Blowing out the Olympics torch? Creeping on women? I mean, compared to the villainy in Superman II, this is just peanuts (literally, in one case). In terms of the cuts, there were a few that stood out to me as being quite abrupt. A lack of black before the opening. Several elements of the Colombia sequence. A few bits of conversation with Pryor. But I'll admit that for most of the movie I was thinking this was a "light edit", so that's a testament to how much was seamlessly removed. The quality is only about as good as what you'd remember, nothing appears to have been sharpened, graded, or tightened through filters or such. There is a lifted title sequence which looks slightly pinched but is a nice alternative to the original. I should note from the Changes list attached here, the version I saw is newer and removes a few elements, most notably the Fortress of Solitude stuff. Previous reviews noted that wasn't working for them, so I suppose it was a good cut. All-in-all, this is definitely a better version than the theatrical. I'm afraid it still didn't turn this into a film I truly love as an adult, though. Hey, FM is only human (as far as I know). I hold out hope that there is still a better version to be made out there. Cutting more lines from the baddies, small cuts to tighten up the pacing and action, cut the whole coffee plotline, possibly cut down Ricky (is it just me or is he one of the most annoying '80s movie kids?) I wonder if there's some version that could be made of this incorporating parts of Superman II? Make it more of a true romantic triangle, make "bad" Superman run away with Lois and not give a shit about saving people? Make him use his powers to beat up a guy in a diner (isn't that a lot worse than almost anything "evil" Supes did??) I dunno, just spitballing but the point is I think there's still room to improve here. But until someone makes that edit, this is probably the best version of Superman III yet, for what that's worth.

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