This movie is terrible. But upon reflection today, the premise is actually fascinating. Superman has the best kind of Superman crisis, caused by the limits he places on himself. He has the power to remove all nuclear weapons from the world, but should he? This is the kind of thing Lex Luthor could sound very reasonable to be concerned about: what’s Superman going to do next? Throw all bombers into the sun? Ground entire airforces? Ban armies? Why is it okay that Superman is *unilaterally *making this decision?
Of course at this point the movie turns into the bad kind of Superman movie, one where his problems can be solved by sufficient punching.
And then after all the stupid we get this:
I thought I could give you all the gift of the freedom from war, but I was wrong. It’s not mine to give. And there will be peace – there will be peace when the people of this world want it so badly that their governments will have no choice but to give it to them.
I suppose Israel and Hamas made me think of this.
It’s a shame that the talent of Christopher Reeve and his costars were wasted on cheap sequels.
On the bright side, Superman III did bring us the plot for Office Space.
You know the free pennies at the convenience store? It’s like those, but smaller.
Superman works in mysterious ways
Listen to the How Did This Get Made podcast episode about this.