DVD : Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Not as bad as you remember
Looking back, now that Chris Reeve is no longer with us (soon to be joined, sadly, by his lovely Dana), it was easy to be cynical. The first two Superman films were perfect. After the stunning disappointment of Superman 3, people were a bit wary about giving their trust to a new Superman film.
I'll be the first to admit that Superman 4 is nowhere near as good as the first two, but it does have a powerful message about nuclear disarmament and world peace, a cause which Chris Reeve threw himself into wholeheartedly.
So before dismissing the film completely, remember the life and dream of Chris Reeve, and continue the elusive quest for peace!

Rating:

- Superman 4 - The Quest to Redeem the Franchise...
4 years after "Superman 3" completely ruined any credibility this franchise had with audiences and comic book fans alike, Warner Brothers tried to redeem themselves with the release of "Superman 4: The Quest for Peace". Supposedly, Christopher Reeve (Superman/Clark Kent in all four films) had a large part in the writing of this film as the subject of disarming the world's political superpowers of nuclear weapons was dear to his heart. Sadly, though this film was a marked improvement over anything contained within "Superman 3", it was not nearly as good as either of the first two in the series.

"Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" appears to ignore all of the events of "Superman 3" and finds Superman at odds with arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor yet again. Superman's main goal in this film is to help rid the world of nuclear weapons by hurling them into the sun. Lex Luthor sees this and chooses to make his own anti-Superman, by taking some of Superman's DNA and some specially made clothing material, attaching it to one of the nuclear missles and have Superman unknowingly launch it into the sun, creating Nuclear Man. Now Superman is in for the fight of his life to save all of humanity from Nuclear Man and Lex Luthor's evil.

"Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" as I said before is better than "Superman 3", it still suffers from several stupid plot points. The primary stupid plot point centers on Lex's plot to create Nuclear Man, how does sending some of Superman's DNA and some clothing material into the sun where nukes are being launched cause the creation of a super-villain. Also, how the heck does Superman rebuild a rock wall with some power from his eyes. This is not a power that Superman possesses, he has never had the ability to lift objects with lasers from his eyes.

To the film's credit, it was nice to see the original film's cast back together again, and Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman seem to be enjoying themselves. A lacking story, with special effects that are worse than either of the first 2 films (supposedly the execs at Warner Bros. decided to cut the films budget during filming to shift the funds to another failed blockbuster of that year, "Masters of the Universe"), this caused many special effects shots to be reused in the film and the footage seemed out of place and washed out. Decent acting considering what the actors had to work with. Overall, an average adventure for the Man of Steel, that somewhat redeems the franchise but not enough to successfully revive it. This film coupled with "Superman 3" is the reason there hasn't been a Superman film made in almost twenty years, until Warner Bros. decided to enlist Bryan Singer to bring the hero back to life in "Superman Returns" debuting in 2006.

"Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" is rated PG for violence.

Rating:

- A Super-Turkey
Sadly, Christopher Reeve's final go-around as the Man of Steel is a disaster from start to finish. Despite a good cast, "Superman IV" (1987) takes an appalling nosedive in terms of story, direction and production values. The "special effects" are laughably bad for a film of this caliber. In response to previous reviews, the additional footage shown on television also appeared in the original European version. It didn't help.

Rating:

- Probably the best of the Superman series!
In my opinion I think it's way better than the first three. Christopher Reeve's speech at the end of the movie was good. The ending of the movie was great. I think there shouldn't be a five and they should leave four alone. If they make another Superman movie it should be a newer Superman movie not a fifth Superman movie a newer one. I think five is just way too many please give up five and leave four alone.

Rating:

- about that missing scene...
Mickey- There are plenty of missing scenes since the directors cut is appox. 40 minutes longer than the theatrical version and some of those scenes end up in the TV version but not on the DVD. There's a scene in which Superman rescues a little girl from a tornado that Nuclearman caused for instance and that scene is included in the TV version.
I believe that the scene with the furnace that you asked about comes from the George Reeves' Superman series. In that series he enters a furnace after he has had his atoms frozen. They really need to put that series on DVD too.
In Superman IV he uses the crystal to heal himself as shown in the DVD version BUT you are right in thinking that there seemed to be something missing after that. There are several scenes missing from that point on. Nuclearman kidnaps Lacey and then Superman rescuses her. That's why Nuclearman says "Where's the woman?" when he and Supes confront each other. Also there are pictures on the DVD box of Superman handling a red sports car. Those pictures come from cut scenes involving Supuerman's battle with an earlier DIFFERENT version of Nuclearman that we don't get to see on the DVD! The DVD version of Superman IV is the same as the theatrical version but they really need to put the director's cut of this one out on DVD.

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