Superman IV, the Quest for Peace

Christopher Reeve's final flight.

The final entry in the Superman franchise had a weird flavour, partly sweet, partly bitter "Superman IV, The Quest for Peace" locked all chances of continuing with the DC's finest man franchise. Hated by thousands, loved only by a few, the fourth instalment is not as bad as it seems, and it hasn't aged as bad as the previous films. Don't believe me? I'll give the reasons why this movie was a good movie and why you shouldn't give a fuck about the minor issues the film has. 

Almost 5 years have passed by since Superman III, and in a way the audiences didn't seem to be quite interested in seeing Superman fighting criminals du jour. The Supergirl spin off, didn't go as well as expected and corporate lords Alexander & Illya Salkind were through with the caped wonder, and I bet, they were rich enough to not give a damn about a new Superman/Supergilr movie. So, bringing a new Superman movie to life wasn't easy peasy. Produced by a bunch of relativelye unknown people (Graham Easton, Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan & Michael J. Kagan) and fairly directed by Sidney J. Furie, the movie does have plenty of good stuff to make you want to believe a man can fly once more.

If Superman has the kiss of forgiveness power, why doesn't he fuck Lois all the time?

Up, up and away!

Fuck politics!

The Good Stuff

Superman IV, the Quest for Peace, has several elements that make it a more serious approach when it comes to fighting as a superhero. For the first time, Superman is required to interfere with wrong global human decisions. You see, there's this nuclear dissarm summit that fails miserably, and while politicians can't do a thing (just like in real life isn't it?) they decide it is time to become "second to none" in the nuclear race, so it is up to Superman to set things straight and save humankind from our neverening ability for being stupid above all things.  Having a storyline based on putting an ultimatum to the nuclear business is serious business, and in the movie Superman has no problem stating he's going to "what politicians have been unwilling or unable to do" oh man, that line is worth the whole movie profits! Boy, I would pay all the gold in the world for having a real life Superman willing to finish the job properly.

Meet my son Superman.

All hail me!

Also, in part IV we finally get to see Superman fighting someone worth his time & money: Nuclear Man! a monster created by Lex Luthor superior science knowledge. Somehow I believe Nuclear Man was meant to be the original Bizarro character, and perhaps they just didn't have enough Benjamins to afford paying for another DC Comics character license (When Nuclear Man was being developed, Christopher Reeve was approached to play that part as Superman's polar opposite, or a darker version of Bizarro) Nuclear Man is created from a mixture of  a pack of nuclear bombs & a single Superman's hair (yeah, weird science) So once Superman rids earth of all the nuclear garbage he can, accidentaly that inspires Lex Luthor to build his ultimate weapon. The guy doesn't have many lines, he's more into "destroy Superman" as he constantly repeats through the film. He's not a bad character, he almost kills  Superman. In fact, Superman becomes ill for the very first time, due to the extremely strong radiation he's been exposed to when fighting Luthor's favorite toy.

Oh, wait! There's more! There is another story, related to good old Clark Kent who's facing the new world order at his very humble farm in Smallville. It just so happens, everyone's selling their farms 'cause there's big money in exchange and Smallville needs to have a new FuckMart shopping mall to which Clark's response is "I want to sell it to farmers only" which translates as "fuck you corporate assholes, I'm against consume campaigns" 

How big are you, I mean how tall are you Kent?

Clark Kent, the first hipster.

This is the kind of girl Clark Kent can fuck anytime.

Want more? Well, Clark Kent's pre-hipster style finally pays off! as his new boss Miss, Lacy Warfield (played by Mariel Hemingway gal) fells deeply in love with the man, and desperately wants to have his weenie in her twat.

Finally, the action sequences are very well done, despite the limitations they had with a low budget (The movie's original budget was $36 million. Just before filming was to begin, Cannon Pictures, which was experiencing financial problems, slashed the budget to $17 million. As a result, the filmmakers cut corners by doing things like reusing special effects). Superman flies, uses his X-ray vision, fights in the air with Mr. Nuclear Man, saves the chinese great wall, saves the day in Pompey, and tours the moon kicking Nuclear man's ass.

Check me out, this is the only film you'll see about me.

Men on the moon.

Gimme five.

The Bad Stuff

Weird Science has always been a relevant issue when it comes to the Superman franchise. This time, with no further explanations we come across some freaky stuff:

Lex Luthor is able to cut through the piece of Superman's hair holding the heavy weight with a regular pair of bolt cutters, even though Supes' hair should be totally indestructible (like him), and Lex' cutters have no Kryptonite blades, which would enable him to cut the normally uncutable hair.

Lex Luthor's hideout is supposed to be at the top of the "Metropolis State Building" (stated in the deleted scene of the creation of the 1st Nuclear Man, in the Special Features section of the DVD). When Nuclear Man crashes through the floor to find Lacy Warfield, not only are he and Superman supposed to be in a different building (the canopy outside says "Metropolis Tower"), but the room is clearly the set for Lex Luthor's lair.

So, have you heard about Pedobear, Jeremy?

Sniffing this stuff is great!

This girl is deep throat. She swallowed a lot of air to be flying in space.

In Superman and Superman II Lex Luthor wears a wig because he is completely bald. In this film, Lex is balding (as Gene Hackman was in real life). 

Lacey Warfield survives leaving earth's atmosphere, The depths of space, and reentry. How is that possible!!!

Overall, an entertaining act not to be taken so seriously, after all it is just a movie. I definitely recommmend you to get/rent the special edition DVD released in 2005. It comes with revealing commentaries about the issues the actors & film producers had to go through to get the go on the project. Besides, it comes with a selection of 15 deleted scenes, one of my favorites being, the original nuclear man creation and later fight with big S. You won't believe your eyes and ears, cause the original nuclear man has nothing to do with the one that finally made it in the movie.

And as a final thought, it is said that Christopher Reeve would later direct & produce a Superman V that, of course, didn't make it due to the bad results Superman IV had in theaters. Also, it was thought, that Christopher Reeve would return as Superman in a The Death of Superman film that became nothing but speculations after the sad accident that had Reeve changing his life forever.

Here's the movie trailer: