Review of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) by Spencer H — 14 Feb 2016

2/5 stars. Somehow less entertaining than the snorefest that was Man of Steel, which is quite the achievement. It's almost bad enough to be good, but there's only a few parts where it hits that level of cheese.

Gene Hackman has never been a very good Luthor in my opinion, and it shows here; he lacks the kind of razor-sharp psychotic hatred of Superman and genius/autistic mentality that makes the comic and animated series ones so powerful.

Superman's new enemy is played by a Dolph Lundgren ripoff with a mullet who has lines that are certainly worthy of Man of Steel's script. The effects are just hideous by modern standards (and possibly even by 1987 standards), and there are plot holes and logic errors everywhere (how do these people fly or breathe in space when accompanying Superman? How does Superman stare at the Great Wall of China and rebuild it as a result? Why does the ice queen publisher lady fall for Clark Kent in about 20 seconds? The list is endless).

The only reason I could come up with for why one should watch this is either to see how far superhero movies have come since their early days, or to see Mariel Hemingway looking like every '80s boy's fantasy girl.