Before I do my usual routine of release dates, production companies, distributors, directors, writers, and what the story is I'll be using video links for this review. I'm doing this because some of these scenes need to seen to be believed because that's how awful they are.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a 1987 superhero film. It's produced Cannon Films, Golan-Globus Productions, and London-Cannon Films and distributed by Warner Bros. It's directed by Sidney J. Furie and written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal.
The story is Earth is facing a crisis and Superman decides to take action by getting rid of all nuclear warheads. While that's happening Lex Luthor plans to destroy Superman only this time he has made his own version of Superman that being Nuclear Man.
Before we continue with the review let me just say this film was doomed from the very start. First Cannon Films cut the budget. It originally had a budget of $36 million then it was cut to $17 million. They also had a brilliant idea to cut out footage. According to Mark Rosenthal's commentary for the DVD release of the film in 2006 the studio cut 45 minutes of footage and some of those scenes were actually essential to the movie! It also didn't help that Christopher Reeve himself knew this movie was going to suck. According to Jon Cryer(he plays Lex's nephew Lenny Luthor) Christopher Reeve pulled him aside just before the release and told him it was going to be terrible. Jon Cryer even claimed Cannon ran out of money and released an unfinished film & you know what he's right! So let's run this down 1) Cutting the budget to save a quick buck. 2) Cutting out scenes that would make sense to other scenes and 3) Even the stars of film knew the movie was going to a pile of crap. Yep this sounds like it was going be a great.
Before we continue with the review let me just say this film was doomed from the very start. First Cannon Films cut the budget. It originally had a budget of $36 million then it was cut to $17 million. They also had a brilliant idea to cut out footage. According to Mark Rosenthal's commentary for the DVD release of the film in 2006 the studio cut 45 minutes of footage and some of those scenes were actually essential to the movie! It also didn't help that Christopher Reeve himself knew this movie was going to suck. According to Jon Cryer(he plays Lex's nephew Lenny Luthor) Christopher Reeve pulled him aside just before the release and told him it was going to be terrible. Jon Cryer even claimed Cannon ran out of money and released an unfinished film & you know what he's right! So let's run this down 1) Cutting the budget to save a quick buck. 2) Cutting out scenes that would make sense to other scenes and 3) Even the stars of film knew the movie was going to a pile of crap. Yep this sounds like it was going be a great.
- Negatives
I already have a problem with this film's opening credits. They are hilariously bad the effects look like something you would use for either a PowerPoint or a Prezi. Not a theatrical release blockbuster. Who looked at these credits and said "Yeah this will look good in our movie. Nobody will ever make fun of them or say they look cheap".
Superman saves a Russian astronaut and despite being in the vacuum of space he's cape is flapping around. That my sound like I'm nitpicking a bit but come on somethings just need follow the rules of reality even thought this is a fictional movie. I'll let this movie get away with Superman talking to the astronauts despite him not having one those communication headsets or mics like the astronauts would wear but not that.
By the way do you like this shot of Superman flying at the camera? You know this shot.
Well get use to it because you see this shot at least six times! You know it's the same shot too because Christopher Reeve is making the same facial expression, it's the same pose and it has the same exact coloring. I wouldn't mind if they used the shot maybe two times but six! That's just lazy.
Now in the movie we have this green crystal. I bring it up because it's never talked about. I know there was a green crystal in Superman II but I don't think this is the same one. I mainly think because it has a message from his mother(which by the way when did she record her own message to her son?) and this thing healed Superman when Nuclear Man made either or he was dying from his wound. The one in Superman II just gave him his powers back. So this crystal is shown in like two scenes and neither one of them explain what powers it has or where it came from.
Now on to the next problem this movie has at least three subplots! That's right three subplots and their so pointless too. Let explain all three of them.
Subplot #1 - The Kent family farm is on sale because I guess Martha Kent is dead or moved away? I don't know they don't explain away how this subplot is only here for one scene and it's never brought back again. So what was the point of that then?
Subplot #2 - The Daily Planet has been brought by a man named David Warfield(I'll take about his character later) he buys them out because The Daily Planet hasn't made any money in three years. Which I call bullshit on because you mean to tell me The Daily Planet isn't making boatloads with all the exclusive Superman stories either Clark Kent or Lois Lane are writing about. They bring this up and through out the whole movie people just deal with it. Yeah through a large majority of the movie almost everybody seems fine with this is. It's only at the very end of the movie that it's resolved by Perry White buying his company back.
Subplot #3 - Lacy Warfield(David's daughter) falls in love with Clark very quick might I add. No seriously she stares at him and then is like he's sexy. While is brought in a couple a scenes it just felt pointless at the end and in all honesty it shouldn't have been in the movie at all.
So all of this subplots ultimately didn't add anything to the story and were just put there to pad out the running time. You know what you do with stuff like this you don't put them in your movie.
Now I want to talk about Lacy's dad David. This character is basically every stereotype of a greedy businessman. Seriously this is one piece of his dialogue. "Sweetie what did I tell you about fraternizing with the help". I didn't make that up he actually said that.
Another problem with this movie is they made Lex Luthor the main bad guy...again! My problem with this is we already had him as the villain in both Superman & Superman II. We may have gotten a break from him in Superman III but the guy that Richard Pryor's character was working for might as well have been Lex. They could have used villains like Intergang(they debuted in the 70's so they could have used them). The whole Superman vs. Lex Luthor ran it's course in this franchise so they really needed to use someone else.
Now to talk about Lex Luthor's nephew Lenny Luthor. This character is so annoying! First off what the hell is up with his hair & his style of clothes?
The way he talks is also annoying. He talks like this stoner or surfer I don't know how you want to put it. All I know is I hated hearing him. He's also a complete moron which begs the question why would Lex want him as an assistant when he's fully aware of how much of an idiot he is?
The next and last villain I'm going to talk about is Nuclear Man(ugh!). First look at his design.
Cause nothing says Superman's greatest enemy like beautiful blonde hair & sliver press-on nails. When Lex makes him he goes into the sun and then the sun gives birth to him. I don't mean that metaphorically I mean he comes out as a fetus from the sun! Also he has the dumbest weakness ever! Want's his weakness you ask? Well all you have to do is get him out of the sun. That means you can beat him by putting him in the shade and you win. WORST SUPERVILLIAN EVER! Also quick side note for some reason the filmmakers wanted Gene Hackman to voice the character as suppose to Mark Pillow using his regular voice. Another quick side note if they wanted a Superman clone why didn't they just use Bizarro? Sure if he was in this movie it wouldn't have been the best live-action debut for his character but we've been wanting for him to appear in a film for years!
Now how are his fights with Superman? Well just watch these videos and you'll have the answer.
Wow those are just awful. Let's talk about the first fight actually that wasn't even a fight besides Superman's wimpy punch to Nuclear Man's back(seriously who punches like that?) that was just a series of struggling and chasing each other. Now the moon fight why are they fighting in slow-motion? No really why?! It may be only a few minutes but that fight feels like it want on for a full hour. These are probably the worst fight scenes I've ever seen in a superhero movie. Also during the moon fight Nuclear Man kidnaps Lacy then I kid you not we cut to both them in space! Yeah apparently Lacy can breath in space without a spacesuit. Who knew.
Also during that Great Wall of China scene when did Superman ever have I guess "wall repair vision"? There's also another scene where Superman stops a runaway train. He stops by standing and electricity comes out of him? Again when did he have these powers?
Now the film's main plot is a nuclear arm race. After the President of the U.S. gave his speech we cut to a classroom of kids. The teacher ask what should they do? First off these are kids they don't know what to do also shouldn't the teacher be you know teaching them something about math or science not "hey kids what are we going to do about this arm race". Also for some reason a little girl's lines are changed(with a horrible voice-over might I add). Her line about a kid named Jeremy is "He doesn't know what's going on" and you hear the other kids laugh but her originally line is "He's so spaced out he wouldn't even noticed" then you hear the same laughter. You can tell that wasn't her real line because like I said the voice-over is horrible.
After the President announces that the summits failed and were now second in the nuclear arms race Superman decides to get advice from a group of Kryptonian elders at the Fortress of Solitude. During that scene Superman talks about how he can't interfere with the humans. Superman why is this a problem? You interfered in the previous three films so why is it now a big deal?!
Now time to watch Superman's United Nations speech.
Now I saw a couple of countries in that speech. You mean to tell me that nations like Russia, China, Indiana, Israel, North Korea, and America just agreed to let Superman take our nuclear missiles. Well I guess so because we get a montage of Superman doing just that they launch their nuclear missiles in the sky & Superman catches them, puts them in a big cartoonist net, and then throws them into the sun.
Watch this flight scene between Superman & Lois.
Do I even need to say anything? I think we all can agree that this green screen effect was awful.
- Positives
Time to move away from the negatives & talk about the only saving grace in this movie. That being Christopher Reeve's performance. Despite him knowing that this was going to be a terrible movie he still gives a great performance. So way to go Christopher to bad this was your last Superman movie.
Now I like a large majority of the Superman movies. Superman(1978) will always be a classic, Superman II is also a good movie, while Superman Returns isn't the best superhero movie of all time you can still watch it the problem was it wasn't Bryan Singer's own vision, and I will defend both Man of Steel & Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice until the day I die but Superman IV: The Quest for Peace will always have the same response that being everybody can agree that this movie is trash.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace has pointless subplots, terrible special effects, Nuclear Man sucks and will always suck, Lenny Luthor is an awful/annoying character, I hate that they used Lex as the main villain again, and the story is just garbage. The only good thing about it is Christopher Reeve's acting.
My final rating for this movie is Awful
Reviewing this film felt like a chore. So I hoped you enjoyed another Cinematic Disaster. In the next review will be talking about drugs with the 1936 film Reefer Madness.
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