Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Everytime someone says they’ve seen DC at their worst with Justice League, they definitely didn’t see Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.


PLOT


The 1987 film roughly three years after the events of the third film. With Kal El recently saving a Russian space crew, he uncovers a capsule that brought him to Earth and retrieves a module from it. At the Fortress of Solitude, a hologram of his birth mother Lara explains its power can only be used once. Things on Earth get worse instead of better when not only does tabloid typhoon David Warfield take over the Daily Planet from Perry White, with his daughter Lacy who quickly crushes on Clark Kent, Superman also vows to rid the world of nuclear arms. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor has broken out of prison, this time with the assist of his nephew Lenny. When they travel to Metropolis, they’re able to steal a strand of Superman’s hair to create a genetic matrix and alter attach it to his own nuclear missile. Superman does intercept it, but its discharge towards the sun creates a whole new being dubbed Nuclear Man. He quickly comes to Earth and aligns with Lex, but discovers he is inactive without sunlight. Superman does confront Lex of his creation, but it only leads to his first fight of Nuclear Man that gets too severe to him that he gets overwhelmed of radiation sickness that he has to use the module to recover from the poison. He does fight Nuclear Man again where this time, they take the action to the moon and defeats him by creating a solar eclipse that takes the moon out of orbit. This would deprive his enemy of sunlight temporarily, but once revived, he kidnapped Lacy and takes her to outer space with him. Superman stops this from happening by trapping him into a power plant core that converts him into the power grid’s electrical energy. As Perry secures a loan to regain controlling interest of the Daily Planet, he reduces Warfield into a minority shareholder and ensure the paper’s independence. After Superman apprehends the Luthors by sending Lex back to prison and taking Lenny to Boys Town, the film ends with him having a speech where he remains committed to guide humanity to world peace despite now aware it cannot be done overnight.


THOUGHTS


I always give movies benefit of the doubt when I’m told from others they’re bad, but boy do I hate walking into what feels like trouble. The first red flag has to be having Sidney J Furie in the director’s chair instead of anyone who had familiarity to the source material like Richard Lester or Donner. It’s one thing to make original stuff to make a refreshing atmosphere, but nothing works at all the way it’s supposed to. Christopher Reeve still makes the titular hero compelling for his untouchable optimism and Gene Hackman chews it up making Lex a snake of a villain willing to do anything for whatever kind of glory he could grasp. I got nothing against Jon Cryer since it is ironic he would play Lex in CW’s Supergirl, but playing Lenny here doesn’t fit him due to being far too clownish compared to Duckie from Pretty in Pink. It would’ve been creative if he was more diabolical like Amanda Waller, but we’d wait a little longer for such an upgrade. I even thought it was dumb for this entry to force us to care for Perry when we hardly spend time with him throughout this franchsie. Because of this, we just knew the Warfields were gonna lose by the end of it; On the other hand, Sam Wanamaker & Mariel Hemingway portray David & Lacy as clones of the Websters because they’re just plain greedy and nothing more, which makes me care less. The real kick in the nuts isn’t the shelving done to Margot Kidder as Lois Lane who has to relearn Clark’s secret, because that has to go to the presence of Nuclear Man. Mark Pillow is supposed to depict him as a being with constant ruthlessness in resemblance to Zod, but he overdoes it being a misplaced entity. It’s like this was their solution to be epic and save their budget since Brainiac would’ve been to complex to pull off and they didn’t want to be too childish if they had Toyman or Mr. Mxyzptlk as an antagonist. Sadly, this is where it all went downhill. Limiting his power feels dumb because it feels like the Luthors should’ve made some sort of switch to level him up as they please. Even if he was meant to be that kind of solution, nothing about him works the way Lex & Zod did separately. Most of these characters become cringe to follow because so many questionable moments happen it just pissed me off each time. Like if Kal should’ve gotten the module message way before the second movie, I’m surprised he doesn’t freak out seeing it green since it’s the same color as Kryptonite. And Lex shouldn’t even have any kind of outside work since he escaped before and it’s only an excuse for him to do it again & introduce Lenny. Superman also could’ve taken the conductor to a helicopter personally rather than rely on firefighters to do it after the opening crash he stops. And trust me when I tell you no middle school-aged kid would ever give a shit about nuclear war in the 80s because I know I didn’t in my generation. It even feels dumber that not only did Superman a strain of hair on display for a museum, but it’s way too easy for the Luthors to steal it since there were no security the day their heist happens. The same can be said with nobody recognizing them as they steal the nuke. I can’t even buy into the fact the whole world respects Superman getting rid of all nuclear weapons because there has to be at least one greedy country willing to keep such weapons. Also, of all times for him to be caught changing in public has to go to when he’s outside the hotel because at the very least, a doorman watched him go outside. Hell, it gets dumber we don’t get an explanation on how Lex hijacked the tv to get Superman’s attention. The only time I can about bullshit, it’s gonna be Superman using blue vision to reverse the damage of the wall Nuclear Man destroys. It’s not in the comics and the visual effects done for it looks real damn stupid. Superman is even way too lucky to put back Lady Liberty because it would’ve been a clever gag if he put next to the original stand. The same can be said he was sure Nuclear Man wanted Lacy when the latter didn’t even say her name at all during their conflict. Lastly, reality is broke as fuck with the fact Nuclear Man takes Lacy to space. The fact there is no explanation why she survives that is top tier bullshit and you can’t tell me otherwise. Ignoring them all would be impossible because they’re that hard of a head scratcher. To get this over with, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is DC at its worst for failing with all the creativity it was going for. If you’re a true fan of this character, avoid this and go straight to Superman Returns which is a big improvement.