dragonfire88's Full Review: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Superman has been one of the most popular superheroes since his first appearance. He has been featured in several television shows, cartoons, and movies, some better than others. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was the worst of the movies.
Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Perry White had to deal with The Daily Planet being bought by David Warfield, the owner of several tabloid papers. He and his daughter Lacy set out to change things around the paper to turn it into a more sensational type of paper in the hopes of making more money. Perry was disgusted and quit, which opened the way for Lacy to be named the new publisher. She was also chasing after Clark every chance she got. Around the same time, Superman was getting more concerned about nuclear weapons and the safety of the planet, so he decided to get rid of all nuclear weapons.
Around the same time, Lex Luthor was able to escape prison with the help of his idiot nephew Lenny. Once he was out, Lex started plotting a new way to kill Superman and also make himself buckets of money. He came up with a plan to steal a strand of Superman’s hair from a museum and use that along with nuclear energy to create a powerful, evil version of Superman, Nuclear Man.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace featured characters original created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel for DC Comics. I believe that Nuclear Man was created specifically for this movie and I don’t think there has ever been a plot in the comics that had Superman trying to destroy all nuclear weapons. Other than Lex being in prison, there wasn’t anything that connected back to the previous movies. There was no sense of continuity to anything that was going on.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was a more serious movie than Superman III, but it was still a horrible movie and just stupid in general. Having Superman be concerned about nuclear weapons didn’t bother me, but that aspect of the plot was just handled badly and wasn’t strong enough to be the main focus of the movie. Lex’s plot wasn’t handled right either and the addition of Lennie did nothing for the movie. Nuclear Man was strong, but I didn’t like him as a villain. He just looked stupid with all the crackling energy bolts around him and the black fingernails that got longer and shot energy bolts was really stupid. All he really did was stand around and snarl or have a really grumpy look on his face like he was constipated or something. The subplot with The Daily Planet being taken over and turned into more of a tabloid newspaper really didn’t go anywhere and was a waste of time.
There were some action scenes in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace that just weren’t that interesting. Most of the action involved Superman and Nuclear Man fighting. Both men had powers that they used. For some reason, Superman developed new abilities, like making things and people levitate with his vision. He also apparently could create bricks, or at least somehow repair the bricks that Nuclear Man had smashed, with his vision as well. That was just ridiculous and flat out stupid and makes me wonder what the writers were smoking. The fights themselves weren’t any better. Nuclear Man looked stupid most of the time in my opinion, so as far as I was concerned, he added nothing. There was nothing exciting about the action scenes and did nothing to improve this mess of a movie.
Once again special effects were used throughout Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The effects in the first two movies were done well for the time and still hold up pretty well. The same can not be said for what was done for this movie. I have read that the budget for the movie got slashed, so I think that is a big reason why the effects look so bad. It was very obvious when blue screen were used and several things just looked fake. Even for when this movie was made, the effects aren’t good. They were so bad, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a Superman action figure dangling from some dental floss used for Superman flying.
The complicated relationship that Clark/Superman has with Lois has been important to the comic books since they started and also played a huge part in the first two movies. It was completely ignored in the third movie and only barely touched on in this movie. Nothing was settled or figured out. At one point, it seemed like Clark/Superman had decided something and he and Lois had like two minutes of being happy and then he went and erased her memory with a kiss again. I thought that was stupid when Richard Lester did it in Superman II, and it was still stupid in this movie. In fact, it annoyed me even more this time. It was sort of interesting that Lacy was interested in Clark and didn’t care about Superman, but I didn’t care for that aspect of the movie. It really didn’t work that well. At one point, Clark/Superman was rushing around to be Clark for Lacy and Superman for Lois on what was sort of a double date in Lacy’s apartment. That was just dumb and wasted time.
The one thing that was done right for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was the music. John Williams, the man who wrote the score for the original movie returned to do the music for this movie. The original theme turned up several times, which did help to tie things back in to the previous movies.
Clark/Superman, Lois, Jimmy, Perry, and Lex all returned for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. There wasn’t any new developments for any of them. I did like that Lois was around more even though she still didn’t have enough to do. Perry and Jimmy got pushed to the background once again. It was nice to see Lex again after the disaster of Ross Webster in the third movie. Gene Hackman did the best he could with the material he had to work with. Hackman had been cut out of the third movie because he was not happy with how the producers - the Salkinds - had treated Richard Donner. The Salkinds started selling off their rights to the characters when Superman III failed to be the huge hit they wanted. The new producers were able to get the original cast to return.
Lenny was Lex’s nephew who served as his new idiot sidekick. Lenny talked like a valley girl which was really weird and made the character even more annoying. There was no point to his character. He may have been added for comic relief, but it didn’t work. Nuclear Man was a mindless brute, whose voice sounded like Lex’s. At times he was acting like a child having a temper tantrum. Lacy was around more than the other new characters, but she still wasn’t developed. She was acting like a spoiled brat with a huge attitude at first, so I didn’t like her. All she did was make some changes at The Daily Planet and chase after Clark before suddenly deciding that her father was wrong about certain things. She changed so fast that it wasn’t believable. None of the cast had much of anything to work with and I think they did the best they could.
Main Cast
Jackie Cooper - Perry White Jon Cryer - Lenny Gene Hackman - Lex Luthor Mariel Hemingway - Lacy Warfield Margot Kidder - Lois Lane Marc McClure - Jimmy Olsen Mark Pillow - Nuclear Man Christopher Reeve - Clark Kent/Superman Sam Wanamaker - David Warfield
Sidney J. Furie - Director
DVD Information
I believe that Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was first released on DVD several years ago. It was released again with the other Superman movies, including Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, on the fourteen disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition DVD Set. Since I have that DVD set, the extras I mention may not be included with the older DVD release.
There were actually very few extras for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. I usually enjoy seeing featurettes on how the movies were made, but I’m kind of glad there wasn’t one for this movie because it was so bad. There was a commentary that I didn’t listen to, the theatrical trailer, and fifteen deleted scenes. It was obvious why most of them were deleted. I did think the ones involving Lex’s first attempt at creating his evil version of Superman were a bit interesting. That first attempt resulted in a man that was strong but not the brightest crayon in the box. That version really seemed to be like Bizarro.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a giant mess that never should have been made. After putting the franchise in the ground with the horrible Superman III, the Salkinds were quick to get rid of their rights to the material, like rats jumping off a sinking ship. There was an attempt to return to a more serious plot, but it just didn’t work and this movie put the nails in the coffin. Even though they weren’t involved in this disaster, I still blame the Salkinds and, to a lesser degree, Richard Lester. They abandoned the wonderful work Richard Donner did and started down the path that led to this. This is truly one of the worst superhero movies ever made, which is so sad since the franchise started off so well. I do think Batman & Robin ended up being worse. After all that movie had the horrible spectacles of nipples on the batsuit and Chris O’Donnell prancing around in a rubber suit while having temper tantrums.
This review is part of elvisdo’s 2008 Funny Pages Write-Off. It is also part of his 2008 Canadiania Write-off. Joe Shuster, one of the creators of the character, and director Sidney J. Furie are originally from Toronto. Margot Kidder is from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.
Product DetailsOriginal Title:Superman 4 - The Quest for PeaceActors: Christopher Reeve - Gene Hackman - Jackie Cooper - Jon Cryer - Marc McClureCond...More at iNetVideo.com
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