Three Supermen at the Olympic Games (1984)

Film review #549

Director:  Yavuz Yalinkiliç

SYNOPSIS: The Three Supermen travel back in time to ancient Greece, where they get roped into the service of the Greek Goddess Artemis, who is fighting off some Romans of some sort.

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Three Supermen at the Olympic Games is a 1984 film, and yet another film in the Three Supermen series of films. This time, The Three Supermen are sent back in time to ancient Greece, where they meet the Greek goddess Artemis, and are dragged into her service in her conflict with what I think are supposed to be ancient Romans. The story in this film is even less coherent than the others: while time travel is not an unfamiliar concept in this film series, Greek gods is certainly a new one, and I’m not really sure what the purpose of the time travel was, or the source of the conflict between the Greeks and probable-Romans. I was only able to watch the film with partial English subtitles, but I doubt a full translation would have helped: the film is a mish-mash of scenes and flaky ideas that feels like a bunch of unrelated footage stitched together. Also, the film also shoves in parts of the Three Supermen and Mad Girl film at two points; as in it just cuts in parts of that film without warning or reason. On the positive side, at least we get to see one of the worst robot designs ever on screen once again. I think the film was made to coincide with the 1984 Olympics and the hype that surrounded it, but there’s no real relation to the Olympics despite the travelling to ancient Greece. I think the Supermen throw a javelin and a shot-putt once, and there’s stock footage of horse racing at the beginning and end of the film: is that supposed to be the Olympics? I’m not sure horse racing has ever been a part it.

This film is not actually a part of the Three Supermen “canon,” with none of the usual cast or production staff returning: it’s a Turkish knock-off film, but given that the film series moved to Turkey in the previous film to appeal to a different audience, it is a bit confusing. The Supermen consist of one of them being mute, so I guess that is one bit of consistency. The supermen are not the usual international thieves his time though, and seem to be actual supermen, as at least one of them is seen flying through the air like the real superman. They also (in the Three Supermen and Mad Girl footage) have the superman logo emblazoned on their uniform. Oh, and if that isn’t enough copyright infringement, the fighting scenes are constantly accompanied by the John Williams Superman theme, which makes the fights more interesting only because that theme can make anything more interesting. A lot of the disjointed scenes are stitched together by close ups of the characters standing in front of a white background, which are clearly filmed after the other scenes, and are meant to stitch this mess together, but it is so clear what the purpose of these scenes are that they only serve to further highlight the ad-hoc constitution of this film.

Three Supermen at the Olympic Games is even more of a mess than the usual Three Superman films: the very thin main plot is surrounded by a bunch of unrelated scenes and nonsense which don’t add anything, and only serve to extend the runtime. The characters are almost completely different, and the whole thing is just a general mess without direction or ideas.