Review of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) by Angel G — 14 Jun 2013

Oh no, Superman, there will never be peace so long as this film is in existence, or at least that's what everyone else and their grandmother is saying. Make no mistake people, this film is a total mess of a mediocre misfire, but hey, at least it's better than "Supergirl"... I guess. Yeah, comic book folks, I hate to break it to you, seeing as how you might get a bit envious, but I, like a reportedly lucky many, didn't actually see "Supergirl". Eh, I doubt that mentioning the ratio of people who didn't see "Supergirl" over the people who did see the bomb isn't going to be enough to get me off of the hook for not doing my duties as a critic ready for any kind of cinematic torture, because not too many more people saw this film. Look, now, I'm not saying that people quickly lost interest in this film series after "Superman II", but we're seriously talking about a "Superman" film that was a box office disaster, even though it made sure to keep things cheap, as it reminds you with its effects and featuring Sidney J. Furie as the director, who they probably tricked into handling this film because he thought it was another "Iron Eagle" film when he overheard someone referencing "Superman" by saying something like, "Look in the sky, is it an eagle?" Now that is one stupid scenario that I randomly pulled out of nowhere, but hey, you never know, because as many films about black as Furie did, he must have convinced himself of being too white to keep up with "Superman", and plus, on top of that, he's clearly not the brightest of filmmakers. Yeah, this is not a good film, but it could be worse, and would be just that were it not for a few strengths that I have a hard time denying, no matter how much I would like to.

A big reason why I prefer "Superman III" over the still fairly decent "Superman II" is because, where "II" was all fluff, "III" at least tried to take on some meat, even if it was only during the later acts, but, whether it be because of the criticism toward "III" or whatever, this film goes right back into all fluff, and that gives you the opportunity to meditate upon just how messy the final product is, yet such an emphasis on incompetence would be even greater if it wasn't for this story's conceptually being kind of fun, with a liveliness that is not brought to life enough for the film to stand as generally enjoyable, but stands firm enough on paper to create a mild degree of charm, augmented by the charm within the cast. Outside of the darker moments in this film's direct predecessor, there has never been a lot of acting material within this series, and sure enough, there's nothing for are performers to work with, yet it's hard to deny some of the charisma that has always been held by the performers throughout this saga, for although there are a few weak performances, there's charm to spare within this cast, with the unevenly used Jon Cryer being superfluous, but charming as Lex Luthor's goofball sidekick of a nephew (Alan Harper as a skater dude, that's how stupid this film is), while Gene Hackman, as Luthor, makes an overdue return with as much charm as ever, matched by the charisma within leading man Christopher Reeve, whose capturing of Clark Kent's/Superman's essence brings the icon to life yet again. Even in a film this messy, Reeve does an adequate job of carrying things with a spirited presence that helps in coloring up a generally bland misfire and securing the final product from a collapse into total contempt, which is admittedly kept at bay the most by what is done reasonably well in storytelling, at least when it comes to atmosphere. I find it almost hard to hate this film, because through playful, if trite score work by Alexander Courage and an uneven, but generally brisk pacing, the film sustains a certain degree of liveliness that never abates, because as lazily done as this film in so many ways, there is enough spirit within the atmosphere for entertainment value to slip in at times. Some degree of charm helps in keeping the film alive as merely mediocre, but really, at the end of the day, I must once again revert to my typical excuse for finding films this messy and bland merely mediocre by deeming the final product simply too bland to be bad. People, make no mistake, this film is a mess, and I can't say that I liked it, but it doesn't really have the nerve to infuriate more often than not, and has enough lively and charming occasions to keep it firmly secured as weak, but not downright bad. That being said, the fact of the matter is that this film is, in fact, weak, and comes close to bad because it boasts oh so many bad moments, whose sharpness may be diluted a bit by all of this blandness and other "strengths", but still pierces as this film tries so desperately to get things right, yet doesn't, particularly when it comes to technical aspects.

No installment of the original "Superman" tetralogy delivered on visual effects that stood a chance of passing the test of time with flying colors, but they all had a certain colorful dazzle to them that is easier to respect, considering the quality of the effects for their time, but with this film, the effects, much like moments in John Shirley's editing, are just downright shoddy, even for the time, with an awe-inspiringly seam-heavy cheesiness that may be intentional, but either way does not work. The effects are distancingly bad, and that fact certainly doesn't help the effectiveness of the action sequences, which are blandly staged and repetitious to begin with, thus leaving this film to fail at delivering something that all of its predecessors, at the very least, delivered on: blockbuster entertainment, whose thinness firmly stresses the presence of other missteps within fluffiness, which would be impossible to come close to ignoring with all of the blockbuster fun in the world. By "Superman III", this series fully embraced its fluffiness by donning a prominent comedic aspect that is still present in this film, yet is just not the same, because where "III" met its fall-flat jokes with decent ones, this film is all fall-flat jokes, and more often than not, they slam right into the ground as too trite and over-the-top to be anything more than cheesy, which isn't to say that there aren't amusing moments in this film's sense of humor, as the tongue-in-cheek moments are pretty laughable, though not in the way the filmmakers want them to be. No matter how much they have or haven't tried, every installment in this series has been cheesy, with this "effort" easily being the cheesiest of them all, and not always on purpose, because as fluffy as this film is, it has a certain tonal inconsistency to it that leaves atmosphere to dance between comically tongue-in-cheek and slightly straight-faced, yet at least keep consistent in the corniness that taints the less self-aware moments with merely lame dialogue and over-the-top happenings, and takes the tongue-in-cheek moments way, way too far, with unsubtle jokes that range from embarrassing to just plain aggravating. Early in the film, Superman, under the pressured by the public to fulfill the request of an idealistic child, concludes that nuclear weaponry is a major threat to the human race, thus, he acquires [u]every advanced nuclear weapon in the world, piles them on top of each other[/u], then carries the haul into space, where he [u]defies zero gravity by [b]hurling the weapons into the sun, where they are successfully destroyed "without any kind of reaction from the sun"[/b][/u], and by that bafflingly dumb moment, - which is not the last - you lose total faith in the final product as a self-satire, as it is just too blasted tongue-in-cheek for its own good, and has plenty of other storytelling problems to give you the opportunity to meditate upon that. Lawrence Konner's and Mark Rosenthal's script is essentially a disaster, and it's near-impossible to obscure all of its problems through directorial strength, but that's not to say that Sidney J. Furie shouldn't have at least tried, rather than makes things all the worse with an atmosphere that meets every well-realized lively spell with an overbearing color that shamelessly plays up the cheesiness, while driving an unevenness into pacing that may not make this hour-and-a-half-long fluff piece as overlong as its two-hour-to-two-and-a-half-hour-long predecessors, but still blands storytelling up into a meandering aimlessness that reflects this film's being lazy even in plotting. Like I said, the film is saved from being bad by its merely being bland, but the point is that this film is just so lazy, with a lack of care that isn't as grating as they say, but nonetheless annoys time and again, and reduces a film that stood a chance of being yet another entertaining installment in its saga to a fall-flat misfire that is almost saved as decent by its lively spots, but not quite.

When the uneventful quest is done, this film's charming and entertaining-sounding story concept, often charismatic acting - particularly by Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve - and consistent fair degree of atmospheric liveliness all but bring the final product to decency, while blandness' simply being too immense to summon all that much disdain secure the film from a collapse into contempt, but cannot fight back mediocrity, as there are too many technical mishaps, fall-flat jokes, overwhelmingly cheesy moments and meandering spells in storytelling to obscure the laziness that makes "Superman IV: The Quest for a Peace" a mediocre misfire of a lame blockbuster whose decent occasions go outweighed by glaring mistakes.

2.25/5 - Mediocre.