superman4

The Superman franchise was tossed by the wayside after the lackluster performance of “Superman
III.” In doing so, the worst possible event took place. Golan-Globus, the producers of such dismal
films as “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold” and “Masters of the Universe,” picked up the
film rights and, baiting Reeve with writing credits, wooed him back into the tights for another flight.

Reeve, who wanted the next Superman to be a meaningful film devoid of the science fiction
shallowness of “Superman III,” decided that “Superman IV: The Quest For Peace” should be about
Superman’s quest to rid the world of nuclear weapons and promote global harmony. This was a
noble idea on Reeve’s part. Unfortunately, the screenwriters and the producers couldn’t live up to
Reeve’s concept. The result was unfortunate because the intentions on Reeve’s side were so well
placed.

Managing to bring Gene Hackman back for another turn as Lex Luthor, Reeve was pulling all his
strings to make a great movie. Golan-Globus failed on their end. The plot hinged on Superman,
inspired by the wishes of children, questing for the destruction of nuclear proliferation. Luthor,
taking advantage of this and a little bit of Superman’s DNA, creates Nuclear Man, a super-powered
freak to destroy the Man of Steel. At the Daily Planet, Mariel Hemingway plays Lacy Warfield, a
competitor with Lois Lane for Superman’s affections.

The rest of the film is a random assortment of terrible special effects, nonsensical subplots and
random action scenes. At one point, Superman is extremely ill and Lois comes to see Clark,
thinking he’s under the weather. Suddenly, he’s miraculously healed, reveals his identity as
Superman, and takes Lois on a whirlwind tour of the world, which basically amounts to the two
actors poorly blue-screened over stock footage of clouds and random things like herds of buffalo.
Yeah, it’s weird.

Superman chases Nuclear Man around a lot in the movie. As a kid it captured my imagination to
watch Superman fight Nuclear Man on the moon and then change the orbit of the moon soon after.
Wow! Watching it again, Good Lord. Superman leaves Lacy Warfield literally floating in space
while he deals with Nuclear Man, and trust me, she isn’t wearing a spacesuit. It makes so little
sense, I am still stymied.

Superman is also endowed with some very strange powers, but the most absurd ability he has in
this film is what is now infamously known as “mortar vision.” Superman rebuilds the Great Wall of
China WITH HIS EYES. Tell me how that is supposed to work.

The dialogue is rather weak, the sets and costumes are bad, Nuclear Man’s voice is poorly post-
dubbed, and the special effects are as previously mentioned atrocious. The best effect in the film
is the last shot, which incidentally was a reused shot from the first Superman movie. Yeah, you’d
think nine-year-old effects would be inferior to “new” stuff. Think again.

“Superman IV: The Quest For Peace” was a story close to Reeve’s heart, but a film that flew very,
very far away from that idea.