Review of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) by Filipeneto — 15 Nov 2021

When I decided to see this movie, I already knew what I was going to find, and I wasn't surprised by how bad and incredibly amateur it is. For me, it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen: history is a jumble of ideas with no logical connection or clear sense, predictable, boring. It begins with an escalation in the nuclear arms race, deftly and promptly resolved by the hero in an absolutely unbelievable way, and then revolves into a rivalry between him and a villain that Lex Luthor creates virtually out of nowhere, since the bombs were destroyed. There are holes almost the size of houses in this silly plot, and the movie really does look like it was made of pieces from various stories sewn together like a patchwork quilt. It's better not to mention the romantic subplot in the film….

The cast's performance doesn't help to save it. There is virtually not a single actor or actress who deserves a positive standout. It's not just their fault, but also the hideous script, the undignified material they were given and the atrocious incompetence of director Sidney Furie, who turned out to be so good that it would have been better to make the film without a director at all. Christopher Reeve also deserves a negative note, with a smug, pompous and irritating performance that is an indelible stain on his acting career.

Technically, the movie is more than just old… it's archaic, primitive and has aged terribly. The visual and special effects used are so unacceptably far-fetched that they simply shouldn't have been used. They almost turned it into a B-movie. And is it really worth talking about a cinematography without any depth, with bad light and washed-out colors? Perhaps the best thing, really, is to forget about this movie and use the VHS to patch up a limp table.