Superman (Christopher Reeve) decides that he will free the world of nuclear weapons. Lex Luther (Gene Hackman) escapes from prison with a new plan: he will use Superman’s DNA to create an evil superman to stop Superman so that he can make money from weapons sales. Meanwhile, the Daily Planet has been bought, and the daughter of the new owner has a thing for Clark.
With Superman III a disaster in every way, the Salkinds decided to sell off the rights to the title character to the Canon group, makers of B-movies. This meant past feuds could be ignored: Margot Kidder could get some decent screen time and Gene Hackman could return. It also meant that Superman was no longer an A property. But a successful B-movie is better than a failed A flick.
Is The Quest for Peace a successful B-movie? Well, maybe semi-successful. It is certainly an improvement over Superman III. Christopher Reeve once again has a handle on the character. Lois is passable. Hackman’s Lex is fun, if dippy. And while Nuclear Man is far from a great villain, he’s a big step up from the AI monster in III. The film is still campy, but considerably less silly then its predecessor. We also get theme again, more so in any Superman film: not only the anti-nuclear message that Christopher Reeve wanted in the film, but also the problem with any single individual, no matter how good, making decisions, no matter how wise, for everyone.
Not that it’s all good, or even all an improvement. Money is an issue, as was planning. The budget was cut after the film was in production, so post production suffered. Things look cheap. The FX are not what they should have been, or had been. In parts of the film they get by, but at other moments the shoddy work overshadows everything.
Likewise editing was given short shrift. Enough material was shot for a three hour movie but much of it was left unfinished. Some of the material was horrible—the first Nuclear Man is a joke character that acts like a toddler—but there was also some character bits for Lacy (Mariel Hemingway) that would have made the film smoother. Over 30 minuntes of unused footage has been released but there was much more that we don’t know about. It’s impossible to say how much of that would have helped the final product. What is clear is that the film is choppy, with set ups for major events missing. But even if they’d had the cash, this was never going to be a great film. It is too simple, too childish. Lex’s nephew is a good example; he carries the candle for unfunny comic relief characters. He doesn’t cause too much havoc as his part of small, but any of him is too much.
Superman IV has to be evaluated using a different standard than the other Superman films. This isn’t for that big night out. This is part of a double feature on a Saturday afternoon screened at home. On those lesser terms, it is more or less, a success, or at least a huge failure.
It followed Superman, Superman II, and Superman III, and was followed by the semi-sequel Superman Returns. The character was rebooted by Zack Snyder for Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.