VHS : Superman 4 - The Quest for Peace

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Rating:

- Just when you thought they couldn't make a film worse than Superman III
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace is directed by Sidney J. Furie. The film stars Christopher Reeve and co-stars Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Margot Kidder, Marc McClure, Mariel Hemingway, and Jon Cryer. The musical score is composed by Alexander Courage, and uses themes composed by John Williams.

With the help of his nephew, Lex Luthor has once again escaped prison. This time around, he has stolen a strand of Superman's hair from a museum, and conceived a scheme to use it with a nuclear reaction in order to create a clone of sorts, that can do battle with the Man of Steel. Meanwhile, Superman has embarked on a quest for peace - ridding the world of its nuclear arms. It isn't long before he comes face to face with Luthor's new monstrosity. The twosome engage in a duel covering the four corners of the Earth - and beyond.

After Superman III, I was telling myself things could only get better for this franchise. Nothing else could be as bad as that horrid installment in the series.

Well, believe it. Superman IV is even worse!

The plot is cheesy. The villain over-the-top and stereotypical. The production terrible. The pacing no better. The progression and conclusion predictable. Even plot holes get thrown into the mix. Do I really even have to say anything more? With the end result here being so horrid, it's no surprise that another live-action theatrical Superman movie wasn't released for nearly two decades after.

As far as the cast and characters go, it's the same old story. Christopher Reeve makes a terrific Superman.... But even he can't save this heap. I was glad to see Lois Lane get some more screen time after being cast aside in the previous film.... But she can't save it either. Lex Luthor didn't need to be brought back, and his nephew is an over-the-top eighties stereotype who is one of several things that has prevented this film from aging well. Same old story here.

First, let's look at the plot. Superman tries to make peace on Earth by disposing of all of its nuclear weapons. Lex Luthor makes a nuclear-powered clone of Superman. And the twosome engage in a predictable duel. The whole "evil twin" thing had been done to death - even Superman III had a variant on this! Predictability of the plot doesn't help things, either. Lex Luthor mentions Nuclear Man's weakness to his nephew.... So we inevitably know that Superman is going to incorporate this into his victory strategy. Could this movie BE any more by-the-book and cliched!?

Even though this was the fourth and final film in the Christopher Reeve Superman quadrilogy, the production here was actually INFERIOR to the original 1978 Superman! This is most evident in the battle between Superman and his newfound nemesis. Wires can be seen suspending the characters in numerous scenes, and the black background on the moon is an obvious curtain you can even see the wrinkles in! You'd think with time the production would improve.

Plot holes don't hesitate to rear their ugly head here, either. Where's Clark's girlfriend from the previous movie? Why is the Fortress of Solitude in this movie if it's been destroyed? How can How can Superman talk in space, and helmeted, pressurized astronauts can hear him? I'm gonna stop now, but I could go on for hours with these plot holes.

Pacing is horrid the for Superman's fourth outing. The previous films all had plenty of action scenes along their two-hour-plus run times. This time around, the movie just drags on and on for its first hour. There is only one major action scene (an extended one, no less,) and it doesn't even begin until over an hour of the movie is over. That first hour is pretty much pointless, and we have to spend it with characters we don't even care about or bond with - apart from Lois Lane, and even the usefulness of her role has diminished from the first two movies. The filmmakers must have learned something from the overlong nature of Superman III and made the fourth installment only ninety minutes. And yet, I STILL felt like this film was too long!

In the end Superman IV is a truly terrible film. It's a shame that the Christopher Reeve Superman series, which started off with such promise and two great films, became a parody of itself practically overnight. There are no redeeming qualities here. Just a ninety-minute joke of a movie that will have you laughing for all the wrong reasons. Thumbs WAY down on this one.

Thumbs down

Rating:

- The end of an era
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was the end of an era this was the last time Christopher Reeve would play the title role and after this Superman would be long gone movie wise until Superman Returns. I know a lot of people were disappointed by Superman III and I totally understand why, but even with the flaws I have to say I really enjoyed the movie. The Quest for Peace was the movie to get the series back on track.

But instead of fixing the series it just further buried it and was the end of an era. The idea behind Superman IV was very political, which might turn some people off. I don't mind a political message in film, but when it's too much agree or not it can be annoying. I personally didn't mind the highly driven political story and the plot to Superman IV, while not the greatest plot it was good enough, but everything was poorly done. I'm a fan of Cannon Pictures, but here they just went over their heads.

The F/X was quite weak, which were in thanks to the budget cuts. Superman & Superman II (both Donner & Lester) had great F/X for their time and while of course they are now dated a lot of the F/X still looks fairly decent today. Superman III was mixed on that but in the end the F/X were pretty good, but Superman IV by far had the weakest F/X. Superman IV had mostly poor F/X while there are some decent ones as a whole it cannot compare to the first 2 and even the 3rd. But the budget for Superman IV was cut in half, so due to that is the reason why the F/X came out the way they did.

The screenplay by Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal, which was based off a story by both of them as well as Christopher Reeve, was very flawed. The concept was pretty good, but the execution of the screenplay just didn't seem to work. Konner & Rosenthal do a good job at keeping the characters true to the previous 3, but many of their scenes just don't seem to work quite well and their script while not the worst just falls a bit flat.

Sidney J. Furie steps into the director's chair for Superman IV and as a director he left a lot to be desired. Originally the producers tried to get back Richard Donner or Richard Lester but both ended up passing. Despite some flaws in the screenplay, Sidney J. Furie could have saved Superman IV, but instead he just helps make a little more of a mess. The comedy aspect is very much toned down. Richard Lester went for comedy in his version of Superman II and went for it even more in Superman III.

Furie goes back and does it more Richard Donner style, with some comedy, but not to where it goes from an action flick to a comedy. As much as I enjoyed both of the Lester Superman movies I am glad Furie toned down the comedy. But besides that his vision of Superman just doesn't seem to work. His scenes just pretty much fall flat. The one thing I can say is despite the flaws of Superman IV there is enough action to keep the movie from being boring. Sidney J. Furie doesn't totally fail as a director he does have his moments, but when all is said and done his scenes just don't work for the most part.

The double date scene could have been a classic, but was poorly handled. The scene had Mariel Hemingway as Lacy Warfield on a date with Clark Kent, while Lois Lane had a date with Superman. All 4 were to be at Lacy's house for dinner. While the scene does provide a few laughs it really isn't played out to its full potential, which actually is the problem for the whole movie.

What saves this movie and keeps it some what interesting is the cast. Christopher Reeve is still giving it his all as Clark Kent/Superman. He gives yet another brilliant performance. No matter who played the role before and no matter who plays it after Christopher Reeve will always be Superman to me. Margot Kidder makes her return to the series after only appearing in about 5-min of Superman III. Kidder again gives a solid performance and while her scenes work quite well with Reeve the idea is starting to get old. But both actors make it work for the most part even if the Clark/Lois plot is growing quite stale.

It was fun seeing Gene Hackman back as Lex Luthor, the previous movie he wasn't in, but the villain in Superman III was a Luthor clone. Hackman again in a blast to watch; despite not having the most solid of material he plays it off well.

Mariel Hemingway was a solid addition to the cast, but what I hated is there is some focus on Lacy and Clark and the possible relationship goes nowhere. Superman III suffered from the same problem with Lana & Clark. It was built up in the first half just for it to go nowhere and Lana to be pretty much MIA in the 2nd half. Lacy doesn't totally disappear, but the possible romance between Lacy & Clark goes nowhere. In fairness Clark didn't seem all that interested, but everything just ends with no closure, there was a deleted scene, which wraps the plot up. Though I don't understand why it wasn't used?

Jon Cryer was just annoying in Superman IV, while I'm not the biggest fan of his he has done some solid work and can be quite funny, but here I just wanted to strangle him. Mark Pillow as Nuclear Man made for a fairly decent villain, but the character never seems to totally work and is quite forgettable.

I personally don't think Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is as bad as some of the reviews are making it out to be. It is indeed a big drop off from the previous 3, the first 2 in particular. Superman IV does sort of walk the line of so bad its good. With all that said while Superman IV is a very flawed film with some decent ideas that just don't seem to work, but I kind of enjoyed it for what it was worth.

Superman IV is by far the weakest of the Superman series with Christopher Reeve, but I still enjoyed it more than Superman Returns. Again it is a big drop off from the previous movies in the series, but when all is said and done Superman IV does make for an entertaining watch. I guess it can be put in the guilty pleasure category.

Rating:

- The Worst Sequel But Still Enjoyable
With cheesy dialogue, illogical scenes, annoying characters, and story plot holes-it is easy to see why this movie is considered to be the worst of all the movies. With that said; I still liked the idea of the movie and thought that Nuclear Man was a cool character. Now, more than ever, we would like Superman to be real to end Earth's problems.

This movie is just full of flaws. Many times in the film, you can see the strings attached to Reeve making him fly. Other scenes you can tell are made on a set, such as the black curtains used to look like outer space on the moon. There are also scenes that don't make sense, Lois actually flies by herself and normal humans brought into space with no suit are able to breathe! Another thing wrong with the movie is the fact the story doesn't flow smoothly. Things happen without explanation. Lenny Luthor, Lex's nephew, is more annoying than Otis!! He is nothing more than an idiot stereotyped teen from the 80s that adds nothing to the story.

So there are a lot of reasons to not like the movie, but I can't help it, I like the movie. Like I said, Nuclear Man just made the movie for me. The entire film was very comic book like and reminded me of a story I could easily read in the comics. No, this film is no where near as good as the others, but once again- I like it.

Rating:

- SUPERMAN IV
Good Movie , But Not As Good As 1 And 2 , Still Christopher Reeve Became Superman To A Whole New Generation Of Kids , And The Man Was A Fine And Very Talented Actor , God Rest His Soul , He Made A Whole New Generation , " LOOK!, UP THERE IN THE SKY !! IT's SUPERMAN!!!.....

Rating:

- Poor film, Lots of deleted scenes!
Even though this is the silliest superman sequel, for a true and loyal superman fan this dvd is a must-have. Of all the recently released superman deluxe editions this one has the most deleted scenes of all. You get to see half an hour of scenes never seen before, some of which are pretty good. I like the extended flying scene and a typical Clark Kent's morning. The alternate version of Nuclear Guy looks very ugly and dumb. Thank God Mark Pillow ended playing it in the final cut. There are more fight scenes that were deleted and overall the studios really packed a good deluxe edition.

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