Critics generally consider Superman III (1983) an abomination. However, I am one of those rare fans of the movie. For me, the movie is so bad that it’s actually good. I view it as a Richard Pryor comedy rather than a part of the great Superman epic.
If you haven’t seen the movie in a while, you may want to review the plot before reading my analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_III#Plot.
It’s also important to recognize how Superman III’s portrayal of computers fits into the context of other movies and people’s perception of computers at the time. The IBM PC was introduced only 2 years earlier, but the computer revolution was well underway and several movies of era would convey the notion that if you control the computers, you control the world. WarGames (1983), for instance, which was released in the same year as Superman III, introduced audiences to remote hacking and the possibility of a kid sitting in front his bedroom computer triggering Armageddon. A View to a Kill (1985) pitted 007 against a high tech industrialist with plans of destroying Silicon Valley. Looking back, the computer technology in Superman III appears extremely primitive, but I see it as nostalgic.
Click on the link below to enter part 1 of my analysis.