Superman IV The Quest for Peace
Directed by: Sidney J. Furie
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Mark Pillow, Margot Kidder
Released: 1987
Watched: October 17th, 2015
(Apologies for the delay, these posts are going up on October 21st, but are being posted under their intended date. Life got in the way.)
Thoughts Before: From what I can gather, this is the least respected most looked down upon of the Superman movies. I can understand a movie series falling apart by the fourth movie, but how does a series that was never good manage to last that long. Yeah I said it. The Superman movies are fucking terrible. Every last one of them has been a boring mess with very little going for it, other than Christopher Reeve being a pretty damn good Superman/Clark Kent. Really anyone managing to pull off that dynamic well deserves praise. I just wish he had been given better movies to work with.
Thoughts After: This might sound a lot like my Supergirl review. With that one, there were several days between viewing and writing about it, here it's only been a few hours. I think I know less about this movie than I do Supergirl. From what I can gather... Superman saves some lives, the threat of nuclear war drives Superman to seek Kryptonian advice, they tell him to not interfere, so he tells the world he's going to rid the world of nukes. Not-Lex Luthor teams up with the dorky guy from Two and Half Men (what the fuck) and manages to create an antithesis to Superman (not at all like the idea of Evil Superman from last time) called Nuclear Man who runs on solar power but was born of a nuclear explosion, so whatever. He and Superman fight, infecting Superman with some radiation poisoning, Superman gets better in time to stop Nuclear Man from wrecking house in search of love (I'm simplifying, but really this is garbage, just shut up and it'll be over soon), shoves him in an elevator and drops him off on the moon leaving him to die. Unfortunately a bit of sunlight creeps through and Nuclear Man is freed! Nuclear Man defeats Superman, but as he's taking what's his Superman pushes the fucking moon out of orbit to block out the sun, then takes Nuclear Man to the middle of a nuclear reactor where he dies. Also, Perry White buys back the Daily Planet which had been bought out. Superman gives a speech about how Earth needs to get it's shit straight and that the people need to demand peace so loudly their governments are forced to give it to them. Thus the titular, Quest for Peace.
This movie is god awful. I couldn't pay attention to any of it. Lex is still terrible, Nuclear Man is so fucking random and defeated in such silly ways and it's hard to take him serious in general. There's a kernel of a good movie here, Superman wondering how involved in human affairs he should be, the horrors of nuclear war, great power, great responsibility. But no. Just Superman beating up, what I can't help but see as, a wrestler. Loud, stupid, skin tight suit, theatrical. And he beats him by pushing the moon out of orbit? Do you understand how fucking terrible of an idea that is? Superman doesn't care what happens to us. Don't watch this, don't watch any of these honestly.
The first two Superman movies you might be able to pass on just "historical" value alone, maybe, I guess, kind of. III and IV though? Straight into the trash it goes, same with Supergirl which is more or less canon with the "main" movies I think. I wish they had done better. I wish III had had a point, I wish that this movie had either brought in a REAL villain, or at least went all out with the nuclear message. Japan managed it with Gojira, why couldn't we have some nerdy movie tackle a real issue? Can you tell I'm rambling? I feel bad. Because I don't have a thing to say about this movie.
Kryptonite, not even once. Don't be like me kids.
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