Review of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) by Barry N — 31 Jan 2011

I knew that this film was going to be bad. Why did I watch it? Because I bought a collection of all 4 Superman films at Target and I wasn't going to let it go unwatched.

One of the film's many problems lies with the plot itself. A kid is worried about the Nuclear Arms fiasco, so he asks Superman to destroy them. In comes a not so subtle preachy moment that is simply saying the world is in peril and we need to stop making nuclear bombs.

The action is dull, extremely boring and is filled with some of the worst special effects ever acheived in cinema. There were a lot of battle scenes that went on way to long. Most of the time, the action sequences are the only good parts of a film. But here, nearly everything about the action is bad. Unoriginal, unexciting and the action kept me uninterested.

The actors also seem so uninterested by what's going on that their acting is terrible. Gene Hackman gives us no real sense of threat as Lex Luthor, which is really surprising considering how good he was in the first 2 films. Even Christopher Reeve who did good in the first 3 films, acts so lazily, almost as if he was there just to pick up a paycheck and then go home.

There is also a bunch of ridiculous scenes that show just how much in quality the films have slipped. There's the silly scene where Clark tries be two places at once. That reminded me of scenes from really bad sitcoms.

Then you have the supervillain who is so dull and so listless that you don't care in the slightest what happens. So you're basically trapped watching dull action scenes that go nowhere. The movie fails to capture attention.

One of the very few positive things I can say about this film is that it was an incredibly short 86 minutes.

There were a few subplots that were actually kind of interesting, but the film goes nowhere with them, and they are over so quick, that you feel cheated.

In short, I wouldn't bother wasting time with it. This was just a quickly released propaganda about nuke missiles that feels like it was rushed out into theaters to meet its agenda and to make a little extra cash on the Man of Steel.