Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released in 1987 and was co-written by Reeve’s. That should have been enough of a warning to anyone. Of course, Matt warned me that it was a stinker, so I knew going in that I was in for rough weather. And indeed, this movie was bad. It was bad enough that another Superman movie wasn’t made again until 2006. Almost 20 years of stinkitude!
The basic premise is that “everyone” is concerned that Nuclear weapons are going to destroy the world but Superman won’t do anything about it because of his instructions from Krypton not to change the fate of his adopted world. Then a school boy writes to him asking him to save everyone. At the same time a greedy capitalist buys the Daily Planet and starts turning it into a tabloid while he gives it to his daughter to run. The daughter falls in love with Clark Kent while Lois is still in love with Superman. Hijinks ensue as Big Blue has to switch from one to the other on a double date.
Supes gets permission from the UN to take all the nuclear weapons from everyone and throw them into the sun. There is where Lex Luthor gets involved. He steals a hair of Superman’s and creates a genetic package that needs the sun’s power to give it life. Luthor installs it on one of the nuclear weapons and when Supes throws it into the sun Nuclear Man is born, quite literally. Luthor reveals him and he and Supes fight, in the city, on the moon and in space. Supes gets scratched by nuclear nails and gets sick and everyone thinks he’s dead. He comes back and throws Nuclear Man into a nuclear power plant and lights up a whole city while Nuclear Man is consumed.
The movie ends with Superman giving a speech about everyone getting along and realizing we all live on the same planet. Also, Perry White takes out a loan from the bank and buys back the Daily Planet.
I actually watched this 3 times to make sure it was as bad as I thought it was. There was no mistake, this was a B-A-A-A-A-D movie.
Hollywood politics dominated the storyline to the point where it wasn’t much of a storyline but a piece of propaganda. Superman taking nuclear weapons away from everyone, though glossed over, made him the worst of tyrants and excusing it by putting the responsibility on the UN’s shoulders was just as bad. That corrupt body of filth has NO power to make such decisions. (As an aside, just so you know where I stand about the UN, if UN Peacekeepers EVER set foot on American soil on a mission, it is my duty and right as a Citizen of this country to destroy them. No Blue Hats in America!!!!) Ahem….

Any American wearing one of these on U.S. soil is a TRAITOR and will be treated as such
The plot line about the capitalist’s daughter & Clark and Lois & Superman was just ridiculous in the worst way. It was stupid and silly. Those two words describe most of the movie though.

I felt bad for this woman, on so many levels
Superman and Nuclear Man, oh where do I even start? Nuclear Man goes around the world destroying things, like the Great Wall of China. Superman comes after him and makes video game bleeep noises and undoes all the damage. It was like Superman had Control Z (keyboard shortcut for undo) Vision. Then Superman figures out Nukes is powered by the sun and traps him in an elevator where Nukes immediately curls up in the fetal position. So Superman releases him on the Moon, in the sun. Come on!!!! Then the end where Nuclear Man gets all his energy sucked up by the power plant? I can’t even begin to count how many things are wrong with that, even from just the story point side of things, much less any other point of things.

Nuclear Man could have been awesome. But he wasn’t
By the end of my 3rd watch, I was simply listening to the movie and even then I was rolling my eyes. I really don’t have anything good to say about this and I don’t know whose fault that even is. Was it the directors, the story writers? I don’t know. Honestly, it was bad enough that I could see this getting the Rifftrax treatment.
Don’t waste your time, period.
Next month I’ve got a choice between Peter Jackson’s extended edition of King Kong or Alien vs Predator. Feel free to give voice to your choice in the comments or feel free to mock Superman IV. It deserves it!
Yup. That really is a toecurler
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It was bad, indeed. Makes me wonder what Hackman thought about starring in it. they must have paid him a lot of money!
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I liked the first Alien v Predator film but AVP2 was really dreadful. I don’t watch King Kong films because I hate seeing him die!
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Oh yeah, AVP2 was absolute trash. While AVP was bad fun, avp2 was just plain bad, bad, bad. I watched it when it came out on dvd but I was pretty disgusted by it 😦
Not being an animal lover, that aspect of the King Kong movies has never bothered me.
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You.. watched it… THREE times?!
Of the next two movies up for consideration, King Kong is the only story I have any familiarity with, and not much at that. I have vague memories of watching a King Kong movie as a child in the 80’s.
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In my defense, Your Honor, I just kind of played them in the background the next 2 times. Honest!
I had never watched a King Kong film before this one directed by Jackson. It hooked me.
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It has been a while since I last watched Peter Jackson’s Kong. As I recall, it has much to recommend it but the FX don’t hold up. Why watch it when you could watch the original or the new Skull Island instead?
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I’ve watched one of the originals and while I’m glad I did, I have no desire to repeat it. As for why this one and not Skull Island? I own this and not Skull 🙂 I’m trying to watch movies I actually own to see if I made any colossal mistakes in buying them (like I did with the Elektra movie)
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ps,
If you want to buy me Skull Island I’ll watch and review it! 😉
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But you gotta love those shoulder pads and giant 80s glasses!
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Actually, this movie got some real style points from me. I love that kind of thing 😀
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Three times, even after I warned you?
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First time I watched it from head to toe. The next 2 times I just played it as background to get some specifics down in my head.
I am really glad you warned me that it was bad or I might have gotten angry 😀
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Oh my goodness, three times! It does seem like a fair indication you have a masochistic streak in you after all… 😉
Jackson’s King Kong might be only slightly better than Superman IV, though, so I vote for Alien vs. Predator! 😀 The first part wasn’t so bad 😉
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I definitely do have a masochistic streak, but it shows itself in odd ways 😀
One vote for AVP then!
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I don’t know that I even ever HEARD of this one before. Though I must say, if you watched (or even listened) to it THREE TIMES without a riff, I start to wonder if you doth protest too much…
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Well, it was so bad that I couldn’t really do a riff. It was however, a movie that I bet the Rifftrax crew would have had a field day with 🙂
But yeah, it was Superman. I like Superman. Period 😀 😀 😀
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That’s cool! It’s good to know what you like. 🙂
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It was bad and yet you watched it three times? I believe that a few hours kneeling on gravel would have been far less painful…. 😀
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With my job, kneeling on gravel is a thing. Of course, kneepads are a thing too 😀
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Hahahaha it does indeed sound bad. Seems like it was made for the wrong reasons, although I fear that a future non-Snyder Superman movie would actually try something very political à la Immigrant from another world comes saves the world from a millionnaire president villain… Sounds like something Americans know too well right now hahaha
Ahhh, the mention of AVP reminds me that I need to read the omnibus collection I got for it… I rewatched the movie a couple of months ago on my Alien and Predator movie binge… I’ll vote for King Kong just cause we’re soon getting a Godzilla vs. King Kong trailer after all. 😀
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I can totally see another Superman movie doing exactly that. If so, I think it will kill the Superman movie line for awhile (again!).
And one vote for Kong!
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Is this the AvP where a woman with no knowledge of either of the two befriends a preditor and uses the head of an alien as a shield? Count me out…
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I don’t remember those details but it sounds about along the lines of AVP 😀
so is that a vote for King Kong then?
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Kong please
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[…] Superman IV: the Quest for Peace was bad enough that it made me embarrassed for everyone involved in it. […]
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“Supes gets permission from the UN to take all the nuclear weapons from everyone and throw them into the sun”- hahahaha!!! Oh dear lord save us from Hollywood’s dumb plotlines! This certainly sounds stupid and silly.
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What makes it worse is that Reeves himself had a hand in writing the script. Actors need to learn their place, sigh…
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