Word: supermans
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...comic books, on TV in the '50s and in two hugely successful movies (1978 and 1981), Superman has triumphed over nearly every species of injustice. The villains of Metropolis bang their clenched fists against his chest and go away whimpering. Preternatural varmints from the planet Krypton attempt to bend his will to theirs and end up with splitting headaches. But now, perhaps, the Man of Steel has finally met his match: his own rotten self. See Good battle Evil in a schizophrenic clash that makes for the most entertaining and affecting Superman...
...Superman's personality has been threatening to go splitsville ever since he was saddled with the alter ego of Clark Kent, ace reporter and consummate nerd of the Daily Planet. Clark is every clumsy, sweet-souled teen-age boy who ever fantasized scoring the big touchdown or scoring with the prom queen; Superman is the 6-ft. 4-in. embodiment of that dream. This man is both men, hulk and hunk, and no telephone booth is big enough to house the inherent contradictions...
...earlier stories, the rivalry was played mostly for romantic-comedy laughs. The first two Superman movies were at their most engaging when they updated the screwball sensibility of old Hollywood, casting Super Clark (Christopher Reeve) as a gently bumbling Fred MacMurray type and his inamorata Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) as a hip career woman in the Rosalind Russell mold. Superman III expands on the humor and enriches the pathos by phasing out Lois and introducing a new love interest: Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), the girl Clark left behind in Smallville. Lana respects Superman but carries a torch...
This is still Superman, of course, who is no more subject to mid-life crises than he is to dandruff. If he is made to turn sour, there must be a reason. Enter a triad of villains-Megamogul Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn), his ugly, scheming sister Vera (Annie Ross) and his "psychic nutritionist," the alluring Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson)-and one nebbishy computer genius gone astray. His name is Gus Gorman, and since he is played by Richard Pryor, two things are certain: Gus will be on Superman's side in time for the climax, and the film will...
...skyscraper penthouse; he has never worn the same pair of socks twice. How greedy? He almost corners the coffee-bean market by directing one of his satellites to beam down a hurricane on Colombia (where, he notes wryly, "coffee is one of the two major crops"). Then, when Superman foils his scheme, Webster uses Gus' computer skills to discover virtually all the elements of Kryptonite. It is when Gus improvises the last unknown element-cigarette tar!-that Superman turns bad and fights the still good Clark Kent to the death and beyond...