People are voting emotionally.

Dreadfully Boring

Awesome Movie

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Superman IV isn't exactly the finest moment in the Superman franchise. The effects are poor, the sets are cheap, the editing is choppy and the script doesn't make much sense. There is, however, some good stuff within this 1987 sequel that makes it better than other bad sequels. The Alexander Courage score is wonderful, dramatic and sweeping and really lifts the movie during the action sequences. Mariel Hemingway's character, the lovely Lacy Warfield is a fresh character that adds much to the production. She's very pretty too. Gene Hackman makes a welcome return as the camp Lex Luthor and he has some funny moments with his nephew, Lenny Luthor. The story has some good themes and messages but they seem to get lost within the incoherent nature of the structure. It's nowhere near as entertaining as the first, second or even third Superman flicks but it's still a charming little flick that could have been so much more. 6/10 from me.

My film knowledge is clearly wanting, because I found out only yesterday that Milton Keynes doubled Metropolis during the making of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - a fact which alone sums up the scope, ambition and grandeur of Sidney J Furies's nail in the Man of Steel's cinematic coffin for almost twenty years. Looking back, it's so apparent what different an age these Superman movies lived in, a 1980's where comic-book movies were seen as disposable fluff, certainly not keeping up with the tide of seminal graphic novels that only now is cinema truly catching up with. The Quest for Peace is very close to being an outright abomination, saved primarily by the goodwill radiating from the whole thing... saved not enough, mind you, to prevent rendering it as possibly the worst comic-book movie ever made, or certainly close to its pure nadir.You could cite a million problems. Story. Script. Production. Casting. It's pretty much got the lot, which in itself is an achievement. The low budget means Furie has to shoot in wholly unrepresentative locations that are so far away from the classy glamour of the first movie it's unreal, while ironically given Hollywood was on the verge of CGI breakthroughs around this time, the effects are the shoddiest of all four movies; the story starts in earnest fashion, with the interesting notion of Superman being called upon to interject in a nuclear arms race (though given, at this point, America & Russia were practically bowling buddies, it's not exactly razor sharp political commentary) utterly shattered when it descends (after a bizarre sequence where Supes throws ALL the nukes INTO THE SUN - surely that's a terrible idea, scientists?) into yet another dumb Lex Luthor farce of a plan and introduces the most laughable antagonist in comic-book history... NUCLEAR MAN! Oooooh! Run from his poodle perm! Hide from the daft lycra suit somehow created by the mad Frankenstein physics that creates him! Duck when he swipes you with his long, trimmed nails! I genuinely am not exaggerating about this guy... seriously, if he'd been accompanied throughout by Pepsi & Shirley, they would not have seemed out of place. In a way, he's brilliant for comedy - you try and fathom WHY he picks up the Statue of Liberty and decides to lob it down on a New York street. Good luck with that. He's just... amazingly awful, and once he turns up it just descends into the worst battle for supremacy you're ever likely to see on film. Poor Gene Hackman - he should have carved a comic-book legacy as Luthor, sadly he may just be remembered for all the wrong reasons when it comes to these films... I just hope he got paid well, frankly.Is it all bad? Well... yes. Almost. I feel most sorry for Christopher Reeve - what a way to exit his most iconic role, though admittedly he didn't necessarily know it'd be his last, but he must have known this was garbage. He does gamely well, in fairness, as charming and effortless as ever, and way above the material. Ditto Margot Kidder, reinstated properly here as Lois Lane, who gives possibly her sleekest & most assured performance in the role, again despite working with detritus (and having to share too much screen time with Mariel Hemingway's wet lettuce love rival). Those two just--just--make watching this worthwhile but only, truly, if you are a Superman completest. No, really.Superman IV has a lot to answer for, really. It--and the preceeding movie--meant very few movie makers in Hollywood took the superhero genre seriously for a long, long time and though Tim Burton's Batman would level the playing field a little more soon after, The Quest for Peace truly showed how not to treat Superman or his genre.

Although he is imprisoned, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) further demonstrates that there is no correction facility that can hold him as he breaks out once again and plots revenge on the man that put him there. To that end, he fiendishly combines Superman's DNA and nuclear fusion to create a superhuman being he calls "Nuclear Man" (Mark Pillow). Meanwhile, the newspaper known as the Daily Planet has been bought by a wealthy tabloid publisher named "David Warfield" (Sam Wanamaker) who promptly changes the journalistic format of the newspaper to one that specializes in cheap sensationalism. He also replaces the editor "Perry White" (Jackie Cooper) with his daughter "Lacy Warfield" (Mariel Hemingway) to solidify the new format. Interestingly enough, while "Lois Lane" (Margot Kidder) continues to harbor a deep infatuation for "Superman" (Christopher Reeve) Lacy develops a romantic interest in "Clark Kent" (also played by Christopher Reeve) instead. And this creates a unique problem in itself when Lois and Lacy agree have a double-date with both Superman and Clark Kent. Now, rather than reveal any more let me just state that I am perfectly aware that this particular film has been roundly condemned by a vast majority of critics and even had the dubious distinction of garnering two Golden Raspberry nominations: "Worst Supporting Actress" (Mariel Hemingway) and "Worst Visual Effects". Additionally, Esquire magazine ranked it at #40 of the worst 50 movies ever made. That's pretty bad. Even so, while I agree that the special effects could have used significant improvement, I disagree with the assessment concerning Mariel Hemingway's performance. For starters, I didn't think her performance was that bad and I certainly don't think it merited a Raspberry Award nomination. If anything, I thought her presence actually helped liven up the picture to a certain degree. Likewise, I also disagree with the overall evaluation of the film by Esquire magazine. Case in point, it was nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award in the category for "Best Film" and ranked #4 at the box office upon its release. So there you have it. In any case--and not that it means anything--I personally thought this movie was better than its predecessor. So, for all of the reasons just mentioned, I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly above average.

This film is a contender with Batman & Robin, claiming the title for the worst comic book movie of all time. Batman & Robin arguably did significantly more damage to the source material, ruining the legacy of Batman for 8 years. However Batman was gradually redeemed with The Dark Knight trilogy, the Superman franchise has been unable to recover from all previous bad instalments. Superman Returns was abysmal, Man of Steel was incoherent and unstructured and from a recent viewing of Batman v Superman, I can honestly say it wasn't a particularly good film, inheriting the same problems that made Man of Steel dull.The elaborate production phase and budget constraints are what made this movie to the gradual process of a colossal failure. The first 3 films, with the third instalment being the film that took the franchise downhill, featured revolutionary visual effects that were outstanding for its time period. This film however, the reduced budget is so evident with a notable deterioration in quality with the effects, as they look absolutely appalling. The same archive footage of Superman flying is recycled with every shot and flying sequences are in a straight line as opposed to the cinematography they were able to achieve in the first 3 films. Christopher Reeve continues to give a good performance as Superman, arguably being the only positive aspect of the film. With 40 minutes deleted from the theatrical version, the movie feels choppy, poorly edited and nonsensical. There were attempts to make a good film, but the premise did not pay off, and the film is devoid of any redeeming qualities. Final verdict, even rating it based on its genre, in general it is one of the worst movies ever made.