FYI: The kid at the photo booth is Aaron Smolinski. He was baby Kal-El in the first Superman movie and also played the soldier in Man of Steel that contacted General Swanwick and told him that they are bringing Superman with them. The one and only time the Name Superman is spoken out in the movie.
It's like Richard Lester filmed this elaborate opening scene for the credits, only to be told later that the Superman movies are known for the 3-D credits flying through space. So he just superimposed them at the bottom, because SLAPSTICK.
Maybe it plays better to European audiences.. it felt a bit like French farce to me but also had the comic-book charm of a typical day in the life of Metropolis.
I'm 38 and this movie has a huge special place in my heart. I was about 5 years old in 89 watching this on VHS round one of my mothers friend's house. We had to go and I wasn't even half way though the movie and was really disappointed. My mum's friend said I could keep the film and take it with me. Back then that was a huge deal to me. I had no idea who Richard Pryor was or anyone else, I just knew who Superman was (not even that he was played by Reeves). But I still found Richard Pryor hilarious, and LOVED the goofy intro scene. Lot's of things creeped me out like the evil supercomputer at the end, Superman battling his demons at the junk yard, it was just epic, creepy and exciting at the same time. I had seen the other Superman movies as a kid but Superman 3 stuck in my psyche out of all of them for some reason, and is still to this day my favourite Superman movie. I remember in the early 90's me and my mates cracking up at Richard Pryor making those noises as he ski's down the skyscraper with a pink table cloth on hahahahahahaha. Great times!
The guy wearing the white flat cap (and the bad toupee) who initially falls into the souvenir stand is the same guy who was fishing in Superman II who threw out his coffee after seeing Zod and his minions land and walk on water. The kid who Superman gives the photo to played the infant Superman in the first film.
There's all sorts of examples of this. John Ratzenberger is probably the most obvious one due to his fame from Cheers, he's the missile control guy in Superman and the mission control guy in Superman II. There's the other mission control guy in II who's a state trooper in III. There's also a reporter in the first movie who's a coal miner at the end of III.
Joan Moret A warning saying "We're trying a different approach with this film." Either that or a warning that people who are not Superman are basically stupid and helpless and need to be rescued by the man of steel.
I can just imagine the average moviegoer in 1983 thinking: "Oh, that's cool! They're showing a Looney Tunes cartoon before the movie!.....Oh, wait......"
@Murad Ziyadeh Otherwise it shouldn't be called Superman III at all because it's not picking up after the events of the second film (only the first and second films are connected) but, this film should be called "Superman Visits His Hometown" and Superman IV shouldn't be called that but instead something like "Superman Fights Wars" since it's called "The Quest For Peace" where the third and fourth films are two different stories. "Superman Returns" picks up after the events of "Superman II."
If Mr. Mxyzsptlk was involved in causing all of this slapstick going on like he was supposed to in the original script, this could've ended up being A LOT funnier.
@@Supersweetguy I knew that Warner and the Salkinds had trouble with the rights of Brainiac, Bizarro and Mr Myxlplyx. Those characters at the time were at the hands of Hannah Barbara studios with "The Superfriends" saturday morning cartoon. I also wonder why why why those characters didn't appear in the movie.
That part where Clark sees the burning Penguin and he picks it up and looks around before blowing the fire out and puts it back down on the street still makes me laugh to this day.
00:32, "Shit, wrong theater." 01:23, "Oh, wait, there he is." 02:00, "Nope, wrong theater." 03:03, "Wait...there he is again!" 04:06, "How are we switching theaters without moving?" 04:49, "Oh, it's all good." 04:55 +, "We're in deep shit."
I know Dick Lester directed A Hard Day's Night. And he only directed Superman II and III, not Superman the Movie. That was his other namesake. (Donner.)
A good number of people who starred in CR's Superman films have passed away now. Christopher Reeve to me will always be Superman. In the same way Errol Flynn will always be Robin Hood and Sean Connery will always be James Bond.
First film would have been done like Roger Moore Bond. They hired Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Man With the Golden Gun) originally. Lester was just too slapstick, people falling down etc. and the Salkinds didn’t have sense to tone that down.
This intro is pretty cute, especially when Clark changes into Superman in the photobooth, and gives the little Boy the last picture with him as Superman on it, Mom says "Say Thankyou" Thats a Mom doing it correctly, thats Adorbs ^__^
superman the movie's first scene: introducing kripton and zod and his gang guilty superman II's first scene: superman saving Lois lane in the eitful tower superman iv's first scene: superman saving Russian astronauts superman returns' first scene: showing where superman has been for five years superman III's first scene: ..... a street more falling apart than dominos
I could just imagine fans of the first 2 epic superman films going to the theater in the early 80s, getting their snacks, sitting down and immediately realizing just in the first couple of minutes that the superman series was as good as dead.
Not at all because in all he marketing Richard Pryor was prominent and in pre release interviews, everyone including Reeve emphasized that it would be more comedic and more like a comic book come to life than the more serious epic feel of the first two films
Where else can you find Soupy Sales and Benny Hill's Bob Todd doing cameo roles in the same slapstick opening credits? Of course, Soupy Sales got a pie in the face courtesy of Superman's left hand. Superman, meanwhile had that "I don't know my own strength " shrug after ripping that newspaper out of the paper carrier.
I'll probably catch a lot of hate for this, but... I actually liked Superman III. It wasn't the best, but it was certainly a watchable movie and Superman's scene where he stops the fire at the chemical plant was pretty bad ass.
I would've like the idea of having Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk in Superman III and be epic, but this was watchable at least since Richard Pryor is great and hilarious in his scenes that he had to deal with. Plus, awesome points for the evil Superman scenes, including the fight between evil Superman and good Clark Kent in the dumpster.
Bill Bushey Don't worry. There are a lot of people who will agree with you and probably say this is better than films like Batman Vs. Superman and even Justice League.
No hate from me. Superman III is my favorite of all the Superman movies. I love the comic tone, and I love the darker edge it takes later in the movie. It's imaginative and colorful and unpredictable. It's great.
According to the original Superman III script, it was going to have Brainiac and Mxyzptlk as the villains in this.. The script wasnt that good but rewatching this If the enemy was Mxyzptlk this opening could work.
I thought this was supposed to be a superman movie not a slapstick comedy? But i'm glad christopher reeve is still at his best playing clark and superman
@@dnasty312 Metropolis is just another name they give for New York, we all know where this is suppose to take place, I don't know why they always referred to Metropolis as the name, they never said New York in any of the movies.
Believe it or not, there actually is a logic to this scene story wise. Evil Supes is ready to damage oil tankers just to bed the lovely Pamela Stephenson. It would then make sense that she would cause a major disturbance on the streets on Metropolis simply walking among it's citizens.
This scene is absolute pure Chaos - Hail Eris! Notice how Superman completely fails to foil (or hear) the bank robbery or gunfire, or reunite The World's Stupidest Blind Man with his dog, or prevent that guy from falling down a hole, but he does manage to save a clockwork penguin from setting fire to anything, and he does save a man from drowning in his car on a crowded city street. Plus, The Pie Gag is *great* - as is the gag of him stealing the kid's mom's 75c by jumping into the Photo-Me-Booth ahead of her to change, tearing off the last photo and giving it to the kid as a souvenir.
This must have broken Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz's hearts after their Verisimilitude approach for I and partially II that they had involvement with before the Salkinds made things worse. The tone was all over the place and this intro was a very odd choice by Lester and the Newmans to start the film off with, considering the darker moments with Evil Superman played wonderfully by Reeve and especially Vera being transformed into a robot. The Salkinds certainly tried to be clever, as Pierre Spengler admitted in the 2006 documentary 'You Will Believe' on the DVD/Blu-Ray releases of the box set.
these movies had a "feel good" experience. you left the theatre refreshed and entertained. nothing like the dark and draining DC cinematic universe where everything is morbid
I would have replaced Giorgio Morodor’s credit with this one: Original Themes Composed by John Williams. I also would have tried to include this very important one in the opening instead of the end credits: Superman Created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. That’s the credit that no Superman project can be without nowadays.
No offense but I find the TV broadcast version with space credits where this comes after with some extra footage. No offense but I found this opening cheesy and a shitty opening compared to the space credits. The space credits are how it should been in the first place an this cheaply made slap stick opening credits. The could have made this a lot better.
I get why this opening sequence is often criticized, but I don't mind it. How I see it the City of Metropolis and its citizen ARE a character in these movies much like how Gotham is one in all of the Batman films. It's always been a little more lighthearted in this city until something bad happens and Superman is needed. My favorite in this sequence is Clark with the burning penguin, Superman giving the picture to the kid, and Clark unintentionally smacking the pie in the face of that poor hapless dude who was trying to help clean up the mess he accidently started throughout the whole sequence. Also, Pamela Stephenson is F'N Gorgeous in this movie.
There are a few scenes to laugh at during the opening credits. The guy getting the pie in his face, the clown dude, who keeps tripping over the marbles while trying to get up. Those are the scenes that I laughed at! 🤣🤣 I still enjoy watching the movie.
Christopher Reeve wud make even a poor superman script look fantastic which he does in this. sadly they will never cast anyone who just played for real
let's put this film's 'different' take into perspective, I was 13 when I went to see it and it was brilliant! It worked wonderfully in a depressing 80's in the height of the cold war, it was refreshing when everything was so downbeat, at least in the UK. Of course it can't be compared to the ones before, but it was worthy 'at the time' Also the robot bitch in the end was was dark, freaky and scary...for me at least.
I heard that Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder were angry with the way the Salkinds treated Richard Donner. Gene Hackman refused to reprise the role of Lex Luthor and Margot Kidder publicly criticized the Salkinds for their treatment of Richard Donner and they punished her by reducing her role to a brief appearance. Guess that explains why Lex Luthor doesn't appear in Superman III and we don't see much of Lois Lane.
I remember reading somewhere that after this movie Christopher Reeve switched to cardio workouts to lean out. Apparently in this movie he was at his physically biggest to fill out the suit.
I was watching a few different versions of this, and notice Lorelei comes in with a singed penguin quite a bit later, which means, the sequencing of events was likely tweaked from an original concept at some point. So this chain reaction of disasters was likely at some point going to be due to one of Gus's computer hacks.
At 3:51, that was where Jimmy Olsen got in trouble by his boss Perry White for not taking a picture since Perry White said to him, "Superman just saved a man from drowning and you didn't take a picture" where Jimmy said, "Chief I didn't have my camera with me" and then Perry White said to him, "a photographer eats with his camera, a photographer sleeps with his camera."
Superman (the Movie): Credits going from Earth to Krypton. (10/10) Superman II: Credits re-capping the first movie. (7/9) Superman III: A series of dominos of slapstick and chaos. (5/10) Superman IV (The Quest for Peace): A low budget Earth with titles seemed from a $1.72 computer graphics (0/0)
This sequence its almost genial, Im curious that people say this movie faill, I watched in 1983, it had positive critics and it had the 5th global box office of the year With the time people started to dislike it
