Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

• Directed by Sidney J. Furie
• July 23, 1987 (Premiere) / July 24, 1987 (US / UK)
• Based on Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Superman takes it upon himself to destroy all nuclear weapons while Lex Luthor creates the being Nuclear Man who is strong enough to take on Superman.

A Superman movie needs to open strong with the credits or a great scene. It sets the tone for the movie which is one that should hint at large than life feats. The opening credits to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace are kind of kind of weak. Who am I kidding? They’re very weak. They feel cheap and just lazy. A step above what we got in Superman III though. It is saved by Supes (Christopher Reeve) coming to the rescue of some astronauts after a space accident. Very comic book.

The scene on the Kent Farm is rather strong as well. It’s very much in the feeling of Superman ‘78. There is a bit of melancholy with the farm being sold, but it doesn’t focus on that too much before giving way to a little more silliness. Selling the family farm because of the implied death of Ma Kent should have been the point. How does Clark deal with the loss of the last member of the only family he has ever known? Maybe originally it was touched on, but I have heard just before release 45 minutes or so were cut from the movie.

That would explain so much. I was continually left feeling we were dropped in the middle of a situation with information was missing. Some moments felt completely unconnected to the rest of the film. That missing footage may have smoothed out those edges.

Things get a little goofy when Sidney J. Furie gets the movie to Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) and his escape with help from his nephew Lenny played by John Cryer who would ironically go on to play Lex Luthor in Supergirl. With such overt comedy this movie swings between the feel of Richard Donner and Richard Lester.

This is a message with a movie. It should be the other way around. When it focuses on the message of total nuclear disarmament the movie slows to a crawl and/or gets clunky. Superman goes about the world tossing nuclear weapons into the sun and everybody applauds. No nation says, “You can’t do that!” Everybody’s happy he is doing it which makes you ask: Why couldn’t they do it if they were so willing to do it with him? It is brought at The Fortress of Solitude in the story that he is supposed to be a beacon but the world is not supposed to rely on him. Clearly they have come to rely on him.

Superman is not allowed to interfere yet he’s interfered multiple times by saving people or using superpowers. What exactly constitutes non-interference? And how did the Kryptonian Counsel coming to be in Jor-El’s crystals when they were distinctly against his plan?

There’s a subplot that really doesn’t amount to much. It’s more to give The Daily Planet cast something to do. A very Rupert Murdoch like character named David Warfield (Sam Wanamaker) has bought the paper and handed it to his daughter Lacy (Mariel Hemingway) to run. She has the hots for Clark, but Clark still has the hots for a much nicer Lois (Margot Kidder).

There is the implication that when he needs to talk to an understanding friend that knows his secrets Clark-as-Supes reinvigorates/returns Lois’s memories and then wipes them away just as fast. There are so many things wrong with that I do not know where to begin. Mainly it dehumanizes her.

That whole bit with reawakening Lois’s memories and taking them away just made him into a super jerk…again! It was not all that different than in the climax of the Richard Donner cut of Superman II. Maybe worse by a little bit. It’s toying with her emotions and using her for his own personal satisfaction in some weird way.

In some stupidity reminiscent of Zod and his one-off use of telekinesis, Superman sprouts new powers as needed such as repair revision when he uses it for reconstruction of The Great Wall of China during a fight with Lex’s creation Nuclear Man (Gene Hackman voice/Mark Pillow performance). I have no idea how that works. It almost makes him a magic character and not a super heroic character. Not that Nuclear Man’s powers are well defined.

The creation of Nuclear Man was a good comic book movie plot idea. It feels like something Lex Luthor might do. The effects used to denote the creation are good. His weakness is kind of silly. When Nuclear Man is standing in Lex’s high-end apartment, Lex brings him under control simply by shutting the drapes and making it kind of dark. Nuclear Man is solar powered much like Superman. The thing is dimming of the lights is a significant weakness for a character because shadows are everywhere. And it would seem to imply some problems should’ve happened when he was fighting in space but didn’t. Much like Superman having near magical powers this wasn’t thought through either.

There’s a lack of focus in the story. It feels like it’s meandering from the start to the finish. When viewing you can feel the missing 45 minutes. There’s not a sense of narrative flow but a sense that things are just dropped on the table and they move on. The most notable for me is the selling of the farm in Smallville.

Gene Hackman returning as Lex Luthor is magnificent. The performance is somehow different than in the first two Superman movies. He switches between comedy and seriousness quite well. Having watched this and watched Two and a Half Men I’m left with a feeling John Cryer has played basically the same character most if not all of his career. And worse it’s not even funny.

Reeve as always is excellent. He was Superman. He didn’t just play the character. He was the character. He handles dramatic moments in Smallville doing with the selling of the farm with some great emotion, but that moment when he swings at the ball and comedically misses is too much slapstick.

With moments that are quite good and plenty that is weak, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is quite a mixed bag. This could’ve been something quite good. Instead it’s a vision or hint at what could’ve been.