My rating - 3/5 stars CONTAINS SPOILERS Released in 1987, Superman did very poorly in the box office, because of bad reviews and because of some people's experiences with Superman III. John Williams replaced Ken Thorne - He and Alexander Courage made terrific music, possibly the greatest in the entire series, but unfortunately not on CD. Superman IV, a Cannon Group Inc./Golan-Globus Production, directed by Sidney J. Furie, and featuring the return of Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Jackie Cooper, and Marc McClure, a story by Christopher Reeve, Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal -
Christopher Reeve returned as the Man of Steel, on the condition that he could help write the story. He came up with a very sensitive theme - nuclear disarmament.
After receiving a letter from a boy wishing that Superman would rid the world of nuclear weapons, Superman decides to put the plan into action, and with the approval of the world leaders, he hurles the missiles into space. Unknown to him is the fact that Lex Luthor planted a device on one of the missiles, with DNA from a strand of Superman's hair. A nuclear creation emerges from the sun, and makes his way to Earth. "Nuclear Man" proves to be Superman's biggest challenge yet. He destroys everything in reach to "have fun," and gives Superman a nuclear beating. Although Superman proves to be a better fighter, Superman is scratched on the back of his neck by Nuclearman's "nuclear nails." Bleeding for the first time in his life (with his powers) Superman becomes "sick" and disappears. He uses the green crystal for the second time (not too original) which returns his powers to him. Suddenly, we see a scene with Nuclearman destroying everything in sight, until Superman will tell him where Lacy Warfield (new publisher of the Daily Planet) is hidden. The scene basically pops out of nowhere, and leaves you staring at the screen with a blank look on your face. Superman pretends that Lacy is in an elevator, shuts the lights off, and hurls it into the moon. Superman forgets to do a double check to see if any cracks are in the elevator, and is attacked by a regenerated Nuclearman. Superman is pummeled into the ground (literally), while Nuclearman flies back to Earth. Nuclearman grabs Lacy, and flies up to space, his reasons unknown. He's a blond, buff, moron - What did you expect? Superman moves the moon (possibly causing tidal waves in the process) to cover up the sun. Nuclearman "shuts down," and Lacy is left struggling to hang on to him, so she doesn't "fall," then Superman comes out of nowhere and brings her back. He takes Nuclearman, and throws him into a nuclear reactor. One would think that this would cause a power surge, but every light in the city turns on, blinding everyone in sight, even though I'm sure many of the buildings didn't have their light switches on.
The budget was cut in half, leaving the special effects group helplessly reusing effects. One of these reused effects seems like a cutout of Superman being pushed towards the camera on a stick (great way of describing it, DVDfile).
The only thing that saves this film is a great story (the nuclear disarmament idea, DEFINITELY not Nuclearman) and some great performances, as usual, by Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. Margot Kidder appears as well, but doesn't get a whole lot of screen time.
The old wise tale is that there was a screening of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in Orange County, CA. The viewers didn't like it, so they cut the supposedly 134 minute movie down to a measly 90 minutes. The TV version has 2 extra minutes of footage. It's possible that the extended cut is still out there - many fans have a theory that it was thrown in the fire. I think it may be out there - you never know if that one pimple faced college student had his mini camera handy when he attended the Orange County screening...
Christopher Reeve returned as the Man of Steel, on the condition that he could help write the story. He came up with a very sensitive theme - nuclear disarmament.
After receiving a letter from a boy wishing that Superman would rid the world of nuclear weapons, Superman decides to put the plan into action, and with the approval of the world leaders, he hurles the missiles into space. Unknown to him is the fact that Lex Luthor planted a device on one of the missiles, with DNA from a strand of Superman's hair. A nuclear creation emerges from the sun, and makes his way to Earth. "Nuclear Man" proves to be Superman's biggest challenge yet. He destroys everything in reach to "have fun," and gives Superman a nuclear beating. Although Superman proves to be a better fighter, Superman is scratched on the back of his neck by Nuclearman's "nuclear nails." Bleeding for the first time in his life (with his powers) Superman becomes "sick" and disappears. He uses the green crystal for the second time (not too original) which returns his powers to him. Suddenly, we see a scene with Nuclearman destroying everything in sight, until Superman will tell him where Lacy Warfield (new publisher of the Daily Planet) is hidden. The scene basically pops out of nowhere, and leaves you staring at the screen with a blank look on your face. Superman pretends that Lacy is in an elevator, shuts the lights off, and hurls it into the moon. Superman forgets to do a double check to see if any cracks are in the elevator, and is attacked by a regenerated Nuclearman. Superman is pummeled into the ground (literally), while Nuclearman flies back to Earth. Nuclearman grabs Lacy, and flies up to space, his reasons unknown. He's a blond, buff, moron - What did you expect? Superman moves the moon (possibly causing tidal waves in the process) to cover up the sun. Nuclearman "shuts down," and Lacy is left struggling to hang on to him, so she doesn't "fall," then Superman comes out of nowhere and brings her back. He takes Nuclearman, and throws him into a nuclear reactor. One would think that this would cause a power surge, but every light in the city turns on, blinding everyone in sight, even though I'm sure many of the buildings didn't have their light switches on.
The budget was cut in half, leaving the special effects group helplessly reusing effects. One of these reused effects seems like a cutout of Superman being pushed towards the camera on a stick (great way of describing it, DVDfile).
The only thing that saves this film is a great story (the nuclear disarmament idea, DEFINITELY not Nuclearman) and some great performances, as usual, by Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. Margot Kidder appears as well, but doesn't get a whole lot of screen time.
The old wise tale is that there was a screening of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in Orange County, CA. The viewers didn't like it, so they cut the supposedly 134 minute movie down to a measly 90 minutes. The TV version has 2 extra minutes of footage. It's possible that the extended cut is still out there - many fans have a theory that it was thrown in the fire. I think it may be out there - you never know if that one pimple faced college student had his mini camera handy when he attended the Orange County screening...