Superman III

PLOT:

Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor), an unemployed ne’er-do-well, discovers a knack for computer programming. After embezzling from his new employer’s payroll (through a technique known as salami slicing), Gorman is brought to the attention of the CEO, Ross Webster. Webster (Robert Vaughn) is obsessed with the computer’s potential to aid him in his schemes to rule the world financially. Joined by his sister Vera and his “psychic nutritionist” Lorelei Ambrosia, Webster blackmails Gorman into helping him.

Meanwhile, Clark Kent has convinced his newspaper to allow him to return to Smallville for his high school reunion. En route, he extinguishes a fire in a chemical plant containing vials of acid that can produce clouds of corrosive vapor when superheated.

In Smallville Clark is reunited with childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O’Toole). Lana is a divorcée with a young son named Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Clark and Lana begin to share affection for each other, though Lana’s former boyfriend Brad (Gavan O’Herlihy), Clark’s childhood bully and now an alcoholic security guard, is still vying for her attention.

Meanwhile, Webster schemes to monopolize the world’s coffee crop. Infuriated by Colombia’s refusal to do business with him, he orders Gorman to command an American weather satellite to create a hurricane to decimate the nation’s coffee crop. Webster’s scheme is thwarted when Superman neutralizes the hurricane and saves the harvest. Webster then orders Gorman to use his computer knowledge to create kryptonite, remembering Lois Lane’s Daily Planet interview from Superman, during which Superman identified it as his only weakness. Gus uses a computer to locate Krypton’s debris in outer space, but after the computer fails to analyze an “unknown” element in kryptonite, he improvises by replacing the unidentified element with tar, garnered from a pack of cigarettes.

Lana convinces Superman to appear at Ricky’s birthday party, but Smallville turns it into a celebration. Gus and Vera, disguised as United States Army officers, give Superman the kryptonite as a gift, and are dismayed to see that it appears to have no effect on him. However, the compound begins to produce symptoms: Superman becomes selfish, focusing on his lust for Lana, causing him to delay rescuing a truck driver from his jackknifed rig. Superman begins to question his own self-worth, and, as the Kryptonite takes effect, he becomes depressed, angry, and casually destructive, committing petty acts of vandalism such as blowing out the Olympic torch and straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Ross, seeing this, creates new plans and orders a supercomputer to be built.

Superman assuages his depression with a drinking binge, but is overcome by guilt and undergoes a nervous breakdown. After nearly crash-landing in a junkyard, he splits into two personas: the evil, selfish Superman and the moral, righteous Clark Kent. They engage in an epic battle that ends when Clark strangles his evil identity, restoring him to his former self.

After defending himself from numerous rockets and an MX missile, Superman battles Gorman’s supercomputer, which severely weakens him with a kryptonite ray. Gorman, guilt-ridden and horrified by the prospect of “going down in history as the man who killed Superman”, destroys the kryptonite ray with a firefighter’s axe, whereupon Superman flees. The computer becomes self-aware, defending itself against Gus and draining power from electrical towers, causing massive blackouts. Ross and Lorelei escape from the control room, but Vera is pulled into the computer and transformed into a cyborg. Empowered by the supercomputer, Vera attacks her brother and Lorelei with beams of energy that immobilize them.

Superman returns with acid from the chemical plant he saved earlier; the intense heat emitted by the supercomputer causes the acid to turn volatile, destroying the machine and turning Vera back to normal. Superman flies away with Gus, leaving Webster and his cronies to the authorities. After dropping Gus off at a coal mine, where he gives him a job reference, Superman returns to Metropolis and reunites with Lana Lang, who has relocated to the big city and found employment as Perry White’s new secretary.

REVIEW:

Everyone that sees Superman III is quick to criticize it for the use of comedy as well as the change in director and subpar story. Having never seen this film before, I wanted to see for myself .

Going in with an open mind, I expected a film on par with the previous two, but that was not the case. There is an obvious difference in every aspect of this film. I’m surprised they kept the same actors and music.

Christopher Reeve reprises his role as Clark Kent/Superman once again. This time he gets the chance to fight himself in a battle for his sanity after homemade kryptonite drives him off the deep end. Not really sure how it did that, though.

Granted, Superman doesn’t have the extensice rogues gallery that Batman does, but I’m sure there was someone in there that could have been chosen, rather than cretin some random character who seems to be a poor man’s Lex Luthor, which is no indictment of Robert Vaughn’s talent, but rather the writing and choice to come up with an orignal character rather than reach in and bring out Branice, Toyman, or someone other villain. They could have even made him sort of distant Luthor, but that’s just my humble opinion.

Richard Pryor plays a computer whiz who is a bit slow when it comes to real life situations. his smarts seem to go out the window. Many critics have blasted his performance and credited him with the fall of  Superman. I won’t go that far, but I will say he ws out of his element here and that it was more than obvious that he was cast to be nothing more than comic relief. There is nothing wrong with that, if you good story and script, which this film doesn’t.

The best scene of the film I alluded to earlier and that is the fight between “dark” Superman and Clark Kent. While this is the est scene of the film, it is never explained how or why it happens, let alone how things suddenly go back to normal when he wins. I did, however, like the fact that his suit got darker as Superman was doing evil things.’

 Fans of the Superman franchise will be disappointed with this, but those that like Richard Pryor will live it. Some of this bloodshed is on his hands, but thankfully this was a one time engagement and we can look  for and to better Superman films ot be reviewed.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Eagle Eye

PLOT:

The United States armed forces have a lead on a suspected terrorist in the Middle East, but as the man is a recluse, getting a positive ID proves difficult, and the DOD’s computer system recommends that the mission be aborted. The Secretary of Defense (Michael Chiklis) agrees with the abort recommendation, but the President orders the mission be carried out anyway. This turns into a political backlash when all those killed turn out to be civilians, and retaliatory bombings are carried out in response.

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) is a Stanford University dropout who lacks direction and faces financial difficulty. He finds out his twin brother Ethan, an Air Force lieutenant, is dead. Following the funeral in January 2009, he goes to withdraw some money from an ATM and is surprised to see that he has $751,000 in his account. When he returns home, he finds his apartment filled with a large amount of weapons, explosives, and forged documents. He receives a phone call from an unknown woman, who explains that the FBI is about to apprehend him in thirty seconds and that he must escape.

Not believing her, he is caught by the FBI, and is sent to an interrogation room where he meets Special Agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton). When Morgan leaves the room to meet with Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson), the unknown woman arranges Jerry’s escape over a phone and has him join up with single mother Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan). Rachel is being coerced by the unknown woman into assisting Jerry, by threatening to kill her son, Sam, a trumpet player on his way to Washington, D.C. from Chicago for a band recital.

The woman helps the pair to avoid the Chicago Police and FBI units, demonstrating the ability to remotely control virtually any networked device, such as traffic lights, cell phones, and even automated cranes. While Jerry and Rachel follow her instructions, the woman has other ‘agents’ have a crystal explosive made into a necklace and its sound-based trigger placed inside Sam’s trumpet. Jerry and Rachel are led from Chicago to Washington, D.C. via Indianapolis and Dayton through various means. They reach a Circuit City electronics store to which the woman directs them. Over several television screens she introduces herself to them: she is a top secret supercomputer called “Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst” referred to as Ariia tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world. Ariia can control virtually anything electronic and has been monitoring both their lives and brought both Jerry and Rachel to her.

In light of the mistake made by the President at the beginning of the film, Ariia has decided that the executive branch is a threat to the public good and must be eliminated. Ariia plans to destroy the President’s cabinet, and calls this Operation Guillotine. It has decided to leave the Secretary of Defense, who had agreed with its recommendation to abort the mission, as the successor to the presidency. It does not reveal this to Jerry or Rachel, merely explaining that it is trying to help the people of the United States.

At the Pentagon, where Ariia is housed, Agent Perez discovers that Ethan worked as a technician for the computer and locked it down to prevent Ariia from carrying out her plan. Perez warns the Secretary of Defense and they discuss the situation in a sealed room to prevent Ariia from hearing their conversation. Jerry and Rachel arrive at the Pentagon and are led to the supercomputer, where Ariia forces Jerry to impersonate Ethan and use an override code allowing her to go ahead with the plan.

Watching CCTV footage displaying Ethan’s fatal car crash Jerry realizes that Ariia orchestrated Ethan’s death (by sabotaging traffic lights) because Ethan could have stopped Operation Guillotine. Ariia then instructs Rachel to eliminate Jerry to prevent the lock from being reinstated, but Rachel cannot bring herself to do it. Rachel is led out of the building by Ariia while Jerry is caught by Agent Morgan. Having been warned by Agent Perez, Morgan believes Jerry’s story and takes him to the United States Capitol. Ariia sends a MQ-9 Reaper UCAV after them. Barely escaping the drone’s first pass Agent Morgan has to sacrifice himself to destroy the drone and save Jerry.

Meanwhile, Agent Perez returns to the supercomputer and attempts to help destroy it. Rachel is unknowingly given the explosive necklace by an official who is also coerced by Ariia and sent to watch the President’s speech. Sam’s class, whose recital has been moved from the Kennedy Center to the Capitol for the President’s State of the Union Address, begins to play.

The trigger that will set off the explosive necklace is set to activate when Sam plays a “high f” on his trumpet corresponding to the word “free” in the last stanza of the U.S. national anthem. Jerry successfully infiltrates the vicinity dressed as a Capitol policeman and fires his pistol into the air, stopping the performance and emptying the room just as Sam starts to play the note. Jerry is then shot several times by a Secret Service agent, who is unaware of the reason for Jerry’s actions.

In a hearing after the chaos Ariia caused, the Secretary of Defense urges that another supercomputer should not be built: “sometimes the very measures we put into place to safeguard our liberty become threats to liberty itself.” Ethan posthumously receives the Medal of Honor while Jerry, injured but alive and well, receives the Congressional Gold Medal. The film ends with Jerry attending Sam’s birthday party. Rachel thanks him for attending, which her ex-husband had never done, and kisses him on the cheek. She then tells Jerry that she’s glad he’s there. He then responds, “Me too.”

REVIEW:

It has been quite some time since I watched a good action thriller, so this was a nice film to fill my craving in that department.

As I was watching this film and looking at Aria, I was reminded of Flight of the Navigator. If you look at her, she resembles the ship’s computer (can’t think of his name right now).

Since I play trumpet (and have developed a hatred for playing the national anthem), it was cool to see that a trumpet playing the national anthem could blow up the whole Executive branch of the U.S. government.

When will the government learn that supercomputers are good at first, but eventually they all begin to take their work too seriosuly and will take over the country/world? Seems like they never will.

Shia LeBeouf has come a long way since his Disney channel days. This role shows how he has grown as an actor. No, i’m not ready to crown him the next Sir Laurence Olivier or anything, but with each film he’s in, he gets better.

Michelle Monoghan didn’t really have much to work with here. She spent most of the film freaking out about her son and bitching about her ex-husband not paying child support on time. It seemed like there might have been sparks between her and Jerry, but that’s just an assumption.

Billy Bob Thornton didn’t have his trademark southern accent here, but he was still a smart-ass. Who would have ever guessed he’d be a good action star, though?

Rosario Dawson is underused here. I’m not just saying that because she’s uber hot, but for an actress as talented as she is, they could have given her either a better role or more screentime. I wouldn’t have minded her and Michelle Monoghan switching places.

Michael Chiklis fit right in as the Secretary of Defense, though you kid of got the feeling he wanted to get out there and be part of the action, especially after he was locked in that room by Aria.

I saw the trailers for this flick last year, and it seemed to me like a rip off of The Matrix. For a good portion of the film, it does resemble the pre Matrix parts of The Matrix, but the similarities end there. I would thing, though, that Jerry would have taken a note from those films and note that when a strange person calls you on the phone and tells you to do something that will keep you out of trouble, you do it. Maybe it’s just me, though.

The fact that Aria pretty much controlled and could track any and everyone was a bit disturbing, and makes you wonder if this technology really exists and if the government would use it. Are we that paranoid these days that we need to know what each person is doing 24 hrs a days? I think not, but then again, I’m not a government official.I hope you enjoy this film as much, if not more, than I did.

4 out of 5 stars