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Review of Superman III (Ken Thorne)

1990 Warner

2008 FSM

2018 La-La Land

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... only if you enjoyed Ken Thorne's original direction for this score in context, his combination of comedic prancing and dissonant electronics a stark change for this franchise.

Avoid it... if you loved the way John Williams' music for this franchise soared, very little of that initial character remaining in the childish tone of this comparatively wretched misfire.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Superman III: (Ken Thorne) Finally rid of the last influences of Richard Donner from the franchise, replacement director Richard Lester and the producers of the early Superman films saw fit to take the concept where few wanted it to go by 1983: silly comedy. After the dire subject matter of 1980's Superman II, the third film sought to explore lighter comic-inspired fare that dropped several beloved elements of the original pair of films. Largely gone are major supporting characters, Clark Kent's love interest, Lois Lane, replaced as he seeks peace with his upbringing in Smallville. Just as he courts high school flame Lana Lang (with so many potential suitors for Clark with names each four letters in length and starting with "L," an adult parody could not resist assigning him a girl named "Lick Long"), a new megalomaniac decides to take over the world's coffee and oil supplies for endless riches. Assisting him is a witless fool played by Richard Pryor, a computer hacker who, in the 1980's could apparently use the nascent internet to inadvertently cause havoc to systems across the world. On the serious side, Superman III did present an opportunity for Clark Kent to fight an evil Superman thanks to a dark Kryptonite subplot and, in a preview of the Borg from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a character is assimilated by the villain's massive computer and turned into a freaky cyborg. Still, the idiotic comedy infused by the presence of Pryor, as well as the utter ridiculousness of the plot and a sudden influx of "Superman doing evil things" turned off audiences and critics. While the film recouped its budget, it is largely considered a disaster in retrospect, surpassed in futility only by the subsequent film in the series. The change in the demeanor of the film allowed Lester and Superman II composer Ken Thorne to take the music in more preferred direction. The previous entry had been a direct continuation of the Donner and John Williams collaboration, requiring Thorne to painstakingly adapt Williams' music from the first film into the second. With Superman III no longer as strictly bound to the Williams foundation, Thorne was allowed far more liberty to write his own music to supplement surviving ideas from the first score. He also contended with a handful of pop songs written by popular Italian disco and electronic music artist Giorgio Moroder, who was a darling of the Hollywood industry at the time.

While the weak and dated Moroder songs are interpolated throughout Superman III, they don't directly impact Thorne's score outside of the new love theme that the latter composer adapted from Moroder's "Love Theme from Superman III" pop composition. The presence of the songs, which diminished the need for as much original source material from Thorne this time around, does reduce the overall quality of the soundtrack as a whole even though the songs' overall running time on screen is somewhat restrained. For Thorne, the smaller ensemble and recording studio size remained as a holdover from Superman II, though once again the sound of the mix is handled well to expand the depth as best as possible. He and Lester determined in spotting sessions which cues would retain adaptations of Williams' material, and, not unexpectedly, these passages largely consisted of the main fanfare and march in its expected placements, along with the reprise of Thorne's action adaptations from Superman II for scenes of the titular character's heroics. The biggest difference between Thorne's two scores in this franchise related to the comedic style of several major cues in the latter and, perhaps more vitally, the increased presence of synthetics in the mix. While Thorne admits to being inspired by Jerry Goldsmith's use of electronics at the time, his employment of them for the computerized element in the plot here is far inferior. His high-pitched synthetic effects and related dissonance are really awful in this score, the assimilation material in "Superman Leaves Computer Cave" downright terrible and unlistenable on album. Both "Kryptonite Sting" and "Superman Affected by Kryptonite" adapt eerie early Williams Krypton suspense into electronic groaning that is not much better. On the other end of the spectrum, the comedic elements are just as questionable. The "Main Title" sequence, both in music and as a scene overall, is controversial and annoying, with three minutes of a cartoonish comedy tone before the listener receives even a hint of Williams' themes. The silly "Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis)" is fitting for a children's cartoon and, while it's an impressive composition on its own, its jaunty motifs do little to directly connect to or introduce the rest of the score. Thematically, Thorne reprises Williams' main fanfare (and underlying rhythm), Clark's own theme, and the crystal motif that Thorne had proven himself obsessed with in the previous score. New in this work are the Moroder love theme and Thorne's motifs for Pryor's character and the villain's computers.

With Lex Luthor and Lois Lane mostly absent from Superman III, Williams' themes for those character are gone as well. The loss of the love theme has a tremendous impact on this score, stricken from the end titles march arrangement and Moroder's replacement not inserted instead. (It's nowhere near as worthy, but without any romantic interlude to the main theme, this doesn't sound like a proper score for the concept.) Also jettisoned is the muscular Krypton theme, Thorne once again latching onto Williams' minor crystal motif instead. The main fanfare does appear in the bare minimum of places, with the exception of the obnoxious opening credits format chosen by Lester. It does figure in the latter half of "Main Title" with playful, bright exuberance, but it's cartoonish and stupid in such an environment. It's used in fragments in "Saving the Factory" until the major fanfare at the end, the tone of this cue meant to closely match action from previous films. The theme's rhythm builds suspense in "Clark Rescues Ricky" before a brief fanfare burst, though it takes until the middle of "The Final Victory," as Clark defeats his evil self, for the most noble performances of the fanfare to return, in this case finally joined by the idea's secondary phrases. Brief, upbeat snippets in "Superman Coming" yield to full statements in "Rockets/Video Games/Big Missile" that define its action, though Thorne meanders off-course into his own action material, losing the Williams style along the way. Snippets of the main theme recur in "Metal Vera," but the idea exits appropriately with the hero in "Thank You Superman." The "End Credits" cue reprises the march, but losing the love theme sequence makes the march more repetitive and tiresome. Clark's own theme only makes one unexpected entrance with exuberance in "Gus Flying With Superman," where Thorne nicely adapts it to serve as the soaring replacement of the love theme for the concept of flying. It's easily the highlight of the score. Thorne's overuse of the crystal theme starts with menacing tones in lower registers in "Vulcan" and creepy renditions that punctuate the scheming in "Kryptonite" and "Searching for Kryptonite." It becomes an evil action motif by "Tower of Pisa" and continues its representation of the evil Superman in "Superman and Lorelei on Statue," a touch of the villain material in Superman II also contributing in this cue. The crystal motif punctuates the atmospheric dread of the unpleasantly electronic "Drunken Superman" and offers a major brass statement at 1:42 into "The Two Faces of Superman" amongst shrill fright; it continues to define the dissonant noise that follows, Thorne carrying over similar techniques with the motif to "The Struggle Within."

Not much else remains in Superman III from the prior score, though the percussive rhythms that accompanied the gang of General Zod strike in "The Two Faces of Superman" for the self-battle, and such rhythms extend into "The Struggle Within." It's a token acknowledgement that the son of Jor-El is now the villain. Otherwise, the new themes in this score range from uninteresting to abysmal. Thorne's adaptation of the Moroder love theme is the best of the lot, but it's barely present in the score. It's a pretty theme though a little out of place in its pop-like romanticism. The idea opens "Lana and Clark in Cornfield" on strings and low flute, with a brief reprise of the same string romance in "Lana and Clark on Telephone." The final and best rendition of the new love theme comes as the melody shifts to solo horn in "Clarks Gives Lana Diamond Ring" over charming percussion and strings. On the flip side, Thorne's original themes for the computer and Pryor's character, Gus, are wretched in their structures, instrumentation, and tone. The computer theme is a bouncing, plucked, rhythmic ditty with floundering wind lines on top, becoming more electronically threatening (and insufferable) as the score progresses. It occupies all of "Gus on Computer After the Cents," opens "Pay Day for Gus," informs the rhythm of "Gus Finds a Way," and takes on a tribal, percussive personality in "Colombian Storm," building to an annoyingly long crescendo. The computer theme becomes louder and more menacing in "What Will It Do for Me?," with an awful, slashing end, and it embraces its victorious electronic mode in "Boxes in Canyon." The idea is oddly not present in "Computer" and "Computer Takes Over" late in the story, but Thorne does return to it with force in "The Computer Comes Alive," becoming a lumbering rhythm for an assimilated character in "Metal Vera" and "Computer Blows Up." Gus' theme often intermingles with the computer theme, but Gus receives the personality of a carnival-like and quirky waltz for comedic purposes. Debuting at 0:23 into "Pay Day for Gus," this silly idea is humorously teased in fragments until an oboe rendition in "Gus Finds a Way," is nearly suspenseful but still trilling at the end of "Montage," and quietly previews the computer theme in "What Will It Do for Me?" It closes out "Gus Fights Ross" with an irritating reprise of the initial quirky performance from "Pay Day for Gus" and becomes swamped during the action of "Computer Blows Up." It's no surprise that "Pay Day for Gus" represents the score's only rejected cue, as it's a truly terrible expression of juvenility. The waltz for the "Montage" cue is based on Gus' theme and is equally atrocious and out of place with the character of surrounding material.

Not all is lost in Thorne's score for Superman III, though, for it has a few highlights outside of the surprising Clark theme development in "Gus Flying With Superman." Also worthy of attention is a lovely adaptation of the classic "Earth Angel" song in the underscore of "School Gym/Earth Angel" (licensing reasons precluded the actual song from being included on the soundtrack despite its use at a school dance); this use pre-dated its more famous adaptation in Back to the Future. A longer highlight of Thorne's work for Superman III is his distinct, soaring motif for the hot air balloons in "Preparing Balloons," developed further in "Superman Coming" and a nice addition to the score. Otherwise, this entire soundtrack is a loss, Moroder's songs badly dated and inconsequential while Thorne's score abandons much of the gleaming luster that brought so much entertainment to the first two scores in the franchise. While Lester can likely be blamed for much of this debacle because of his insistence that the movies take the comedic route, Thorne's original material in Superman III is befitting of the most childish of comedies or animated genre, his occasional interpolations of Williams material now sounding out of place and forced because of this new direction. Expect a significant portion of his music to be dissonant and unnerving, his original action material in the final sequences particularly unbearable in its atonal layers. If you subtract the periodic references to Williams' themes, you would have little indication that this music belongs to a superhero film of any stature whatsoever. The LP release of the Superman III soundtrack featured about twenty minutes from the score and the five Moroder recordings, one of which an electronic version of Williams' main title march that is best left in the dustbins of history. This material was re-issued on a Japanese Warner Brothers CD pressing in 1990. The full score was finally released in 2008, when Film Score Monthly offered the first four Superman scores in complete form on a popular, limited set that included about 64 minutes from Superman III. Featured on a separate CD in that product are the Moroder tracks and a few alternate takes, though the label was unable to license a few other source tracks placed into the film. In 2018, La-La Land Records released the same presentation from Superman II and Superman III on its own product, again with the Moroder songs included. The sound quality is the same on both of these albums. Seek these products for the first two scores of the franchise, however, because Superman III, despite continuing Williams' themes and containing a few singular highlights, is a massive and wretched misfire that ushered Thorne out of the fortress.  **

TRACK LISTINGS:

1990 Warner Brothers Album:
Total Time: 37:34

• 16. Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis) (5:27) • 17. Saving The Factory - The Acid Test (6:14) • 18. Gus Finds a Way (1:02) • 19. The Two Faces of Superman (2:54) • 20. The Struggle Within - The Final Victory (4:20) • 21. Rock On - performed by Marshall Crenshaw (3:43) • 22. No See, No Cry - performed by Chaka Khan (3:19) • 23. They Won't Get Me - performed by Roger Miller (3:22) • 24. Love Theme - performed by Helen St. John (3:15) • 25. Main Title March - performed by Giorgio Moroder (4:16)

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2008 Film Score Monthly Album:
Total Time: 90:52

CD 4: (64:07) • 1. Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis) (5:27) • 2. Gus on Computer After the Cents (1:06) • 3. Saving the Factory - The Acid Test (6:11) • 4. Pay Day for Gus/School Gym - Earth Angel/Vulcan (1:37) • 5. Lana and Clark in Cornfield/Clark Rescues Ricky (2:27) • 6. Gus Shows the Booze/Gus Finds a Way (1:20) • 7. Montage (3:10) • 8. Colombian Storm (1:30) • 9. Kryptonite/Gus Down Building/Searching for Kryptonite (2:16) • 10. Lana and Clark on Telephone/Kryptonite Sting/Superman Affected by Kryptonite/Superman Too Late (1:48) • 11. Tower of Pisa/What Will It Do for Me (1:58) • 12. Superman and Lorelei on Statue/Superman Ruins Tanker (2:19) • 13. Boxes in Canyon/Drunken Superman (3:22) • 14. The Two Faces of Superman (2:52) • 15. The Struggle Within (2:27) • 16. The Final Victory (2:15) • 17. Preparing Balloons/Superman Coming/Computer (3:02) • 18. Rockets/Video Games/Big Missile (3:11) • 19. Superman Confronts Ross/Computer Takes Over/Gus Fights Ross (2:13) • 20. The Computer Comes Alive/Superman Leaves Computer Cave (2:32) • 21. Metal Vera/Computer Blows Up (2:55) • 22. Gus Flying With Superman (1:19) • 23. Diamond Sting/Thank You Superman/Superman Gus/Clark Gives Lana Diamond Ring (1:40) • 24. End Credits (4:28) CD 8: (26:45) • 15. Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis) (Alternate) (5:26) • 16. Pay Day for Gus (Alternate) (0:40) • 17. Colombian Storm Part 1 (1:05) • 18. Olympic Parade (0:25) • 19. Apres Ski (1:04) • 20. Rock On - performed by Marshall Crenshaw (3:45) • 21. No See, No Cry - performed by Chaka Khan (3:20) • 22. They Won't Get Me - performed by Roger Miller (3:22) • 23. Love Theme - performed by Helen St. John (3:18) • 24. Main Title March - performed by Giorgio Moroder (4:17)

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2018 La-La Land Album:
Total Time: 91:27

CD 2: (20:46) Source Music (Ken Thorne): (2:44) • 23. Colombian Storm Intro (1:10) • 24. Olympic Parade (0:28) • 25. Apres Ski (1:06) Songs (Giorgio Moroder): (18:02) • 26. Rock On - performed by Marshall Crenshaw (3:45) • 27. No See, No Cry - performed by Chaka Khan (3:20) • 28. They Won't Get Me - performed by Roger Miller (3:22) • 29. Love Theme - performed by Helen St. John (3:18) • 30. Main Title March - performed by Giorgio Moroder (4:17) CD 3: (70:41) • 1. Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis) (5:31) • 2. Gus On Computer After the Cents (1:08) • 3. Saving the Factory - The Acid Test (6:15) • 4. Payday for Gus/School Gym - Earth Angel/Vulcan (1:39) • 5. Lana and Clark in Cornfield/Clark Rescues Ricky (2:29) • 6. Gus Shows the Booze/Gus Finds a Way (1:21) • 7. Montage (3:12) • 8. Colombian Storm (1:32) • 9. Kryptonite/Gus Down Building/Searching for Kryptonite (2:18) • 10. Lana and Clark on Telephone/Kryptonite Sting/Superman Affected by Kryptonite/Superman Too Late (1:50) • 11. Tower of Pisa/What Will It Do for Me (2:00) • 12. Superman and Lorelei on Statue/Superman Ruins Tanker (2:22) • 13. Boxes in Canyon/Drunken Superman (3:24) • 14. The Two Faces of Superman (2:54) • 15. The Struggle Within (2:29) • 16. The Final Victory (2:19) • 17. Preparing Balloons/Superman Coming/Computer (3:04) • 18. Rockets/Video Games/Big Missile (3:15) • 19. Superman Confronts Ross/Computer Takes Over/Gus Fights Ross (2:16) • 20. The Computer Comes Alive/Superman Leaves Computer Cave (2:35) • 21. Metal Vera/Computer Blows Up (2:57) • 22. Gus Flying With Superman (1:22) • 23. Diamond Sting/Thank You Superman/Superman Gus/Clark Gives Lana Diamond Ring (1:43) • 24. End Credits (4:29) Bonus Tracks:: (6:18) • 25. Pay Day for Gus (Alternate) (0:49) • 26. Main Title (The Streets of Metropolis) (Alternate) (5:29)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The 1990 Warner Brothers album contains no additional information about the film or score. The 2008 Film Score Monthly album contains arguably the most extensive information about the scores of a movie franchise ever to exist in an album, with a 160-page hardcover booklet that covers an extraordinary range of detail about the film, scores, and album presentation. The 2018 La-La Land album's packaging includes the label's standard level of analysis of the film and score.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Superman III are Copyright © 1990, 2008, 2018, Warner Brothers (Japan), Film Score Monthly, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/29/22 (and not updated significantly since).