Superman 4 - The Quest for Peace (1987)

Not As Bad As It's Rap...But Not Too Great, Either

After the abysmal effort from Richard Lester that was Superman III, the fourth film in the franchise rebounded a bit, but still dragged in a few crucial categories.

The Good:

-The acting is back to the quality of the first two films. Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor is back to his nefariously hilarious ways, Christopher Reeve (Clark/Superman) is again the stoic, righteous hero he is meant to be, and Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) is back in her enthusiastic mode.
-Also, the storyline is, in all actuality, probably the closest in form to the old Superman comics than any of the other films. In trying to rid the world of nuclear warfare, Superman takes the type of moral and ethical stand he is known for in his legacy. A very moving politically-charged plot along the lines of Rocky IV and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

The Bad:

-The special effects in this film were terrible. The flights, although I didn't notice any stray wires, were not as majestic as the first two films, while it was often much too easy to distinguish the matte background (like in space with no stars!). Plus, instead of really cool effects, the FX crew instead goes hokey, epitomized by Superman's "visual rebuilding" of the Great Wall of China that is just plain stupid.
-However, the pacing of the film is really what bogs the movie down. Many scenes were cut from the film in post-production, making the plot a bit herky-jerky and confusing. Halfway through the film, the plot is steadily progressing. Then, suddenly, Superman begins his fight with Nuclear Man, which essentially lasts the entire second half of the movie.

So, despite a more inspiring plot and much better acting, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace is dragged down by cop-out special effects and directorial issues that never really allowed the film to inspire awe or hold the viewers' interest. Thus, this second straight sub-par Superman film effectively killed the Superman franchise for nearly two decades. December 29, 2008

Horrible Film. The Villain is a SISSY

HORRIBLE.The villain's evil powers come from his long girly fingernails that emit lightning!!lots of car crashes and pileups don't make a good movie. Muriel Hemingway is useless here, why have both her AND Louis Lane?? Viewers are left wondering if Superman still likes louis lane or is he gonna hook up with Muriel?? Superman I and II were good, this is bad. December 21, 2008

superman 4

i've enjoyed it very much; it was better than III. a lot of crucial scenes were cut out in 4. i hope they'll release a special edition in the future. i still want to see those scenes placed into the movie. there were a lot of flying sequences that were nice. Superman the movie 1978 will be 30 years old. enjoy. i still miss c. reeve. November 5, 2008

The Quest for Peace

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a decent film that has good morals to its story. Unfortunately, the Golan-Globus decided to cut back on just about every thing and doomed Superman IV to a bad box office take making it the lowest grossing Superman film in the Christopher Reeve franchise.

Gene Hackman returns with his newest creation Nuclear Man. Personally I thought the character of Nuclear Man was good. Had more money been available they would have been able to do more with the character.

Christopher Reeve co-writes this film and in my opinion does a decent job on where he wanted this film to go. But you can't get past the fact that the original cut of the film was 138-Min and was edited down to a theatrical/home video/dvd release of 89-Min.

This DVD edition offers some great extras, the best being the deleted scenes which are 30-Mins!!!!! in length. This will give you a better idea as to what the original version of the film would have looked like. But there are still about 15-20-Mins of deleted scenes out there. Hopefully one day some one will do with Superman IV what was done with Superman II and we will get a Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - Extended Edition.

Christopher Reeve gives a great performance and makes Superman IV a good addition to your Superman library. August 21, 2008

Great but Missing Something

I found Superman IV an improvement over Superman III. In 3, it's pretty much about Pryor's character than Reeve (don't get me wrong though, he did a great job). But the character just punches a few buttons when he's training and voila! He finds a hidden talent. That's not normal, you either know you have it or you don't. I found Superman's Great Wall of China Vision more believable. The one thing that should've been apart of the story is the paranoia of a god-like character being pretty much in control of the world. A being takes and destroys all of our nuclear weapons and nobody questions his authority? I don't think so. If they had went in that direction, along with Luthor introducing Nuclear Man, I think it would've made a better story. This way, Superman would have to regain the public's opinion of him, sort of like the series finale of the 90s animated series. August 20, 2008

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