Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Stars	User	Rating
4	BeeDub	62 _5th
Embarassingly awful. Makes Part 3 look like Part 2.
2	CinematicESP	36 _1st
Despite the decrease in quality of the Superman films, Christopher Reeves' performance remained consistently great. His portrayal of Clark Kent is especially spot on. But like the last film, the filmmakers just didn't know what to do with the Superman character. Apparently he now has telekinesis. And Lex Luthor's 80s punk nephew is laughable.
2	caocao	26 _4th
Why are countries firing nuclear missiles into space on a regular basis? Nuclear Man? Superman doesn't understand that you can't move the moon for fun? Also, he moved the moon? Mariel Hemingway apparently has super powers because she doesn't seem to mind breathing in space or being flown at super speeds back to earth. My goodness, what a mess.
2	INDYATMN	10 _0th
Absolutely awful. The only good thing about it other than some performances is that it could serve as an example of the importance of pacing & letting scenes breathe a little. To be fair, leaving scenes this inane, comedy this groan-worthy & efx this cheesy on the screen for any longer than it takes to convey the necessary info would also be a crime, but neither does it allow the viewer to ever FEEL anything other than rushed. By the end a new plot turn is missing every scene that develops it!
2	Hailey	20 _6th
It's "Batman and Robin" a decade before "Batman and Robin"
2	aaaaaaarrggg	57 _46th
It took a while, but this fourth installment finally came out to poor reviews and indifferent box office. Yet, it's better than III and is actually improved by its padded TV version, where some vital footage is restored. The FX aren't especially good (lots of bleeding matte lines) but the actors carry the ball in high style -- especially Kidder in the heartbreaking scene where she tells Clark Kent how much Superman means to her.
2	Evan Waters	50 _1st
A truly pathetic con of a movie, shoddy and half-done.
2	DavidBlast	15 _5th
I'm fairly impressed by this movie: Even after the "straight from video hell" titles, it still manages to be all downhill from there, including, but not limited to the fact that Hackman has a double act as Luther and the voice of Nuclear Man.
1	Actionberg	20 _2nd
Dear lord, what a thoroughly stupid and insultingly incomplete film. Nothing is even amusingly campy. All you see on screen for 90 minutes is a dead horse being flogged by a crowd of disinterested investors. Even Gene Hackman mails in the cheap dialogue, clearly fed up with this franchise a long time ago like the rest of the world. That anyone had to pay full price in a theater to see this is a travesty.
1	cagedwisdom	25 _17th
I actually liked this much more than Superman III.. It's bad, sure, but it doesnt come near the awfulness of Superman III. At least this is short, and actually pretty good up to.. well.. Nuclear Man. Nuclear Man? Gotta wonder what the hell they were thinking.
1	roigroigroig	30 _14th
probably a lot higher with a case of beer.
1	Derekstar	30 _12th
This is controversial. At least it was better than Superman III. At least it was about SOMETHING.
1	nilkynarfy	1 _1st
If anybody had seen it, it would have ruined the careers of all involved.
1	juice	50 _36th
Why god why?
1	Freder	30 _24th
Not nearly as bad as you'd expect; in fact it's nominally better than III -- but this is a Cannon film from the Golan/Globus group, and so considerably downmarket from the earlier entries in the series. Given Reeve's real-life fate, the things that happen to Clark in this movie are hard to watch. But for me this was a chance to see a "new" Reeve turn as Superman, and he remains totally committed to the character, giving it his all -- reason enough to watch this at least once.
1	st_fly	3 _10th
crap
1	joshk84	19 _7th
I really thought they should never have made three, but four was even worse. I will never understand why I agreed to go watch this junk.
1	Shephard	12 _1st
Awful.
1	reagu	5 _2nd
Don't even think about it.
1	miss jesus	18 _3rd
Amazingly dumb. The beginning is nothing but grandstanding on the subject of nuclear disarmament and whether Superman should do something about it. Then everyone forgets all about the failed nuclear summit and Superman instead fights a dumb villain who gets his strength from the sun for the rest of the film. Breaks rules from previous films and many laws of physics. Superman misses many opportunities to avoid disaster by turning back time or dropping off the bad guy on the dark side of the moon.
1	ubermensch	40 _2nd
sucks very badly.
1	PhantomZone	10 _2nd
Sigh. I love Superman: The Movie. After Superman III was made by Richard Lester with his 'Lester-Vision', ie shitty slapstick humor that showed no respect for the character, Superman was shelved until Christopher Reeve was lured back by his own story idea. Sadly, from there on, the film wasn't well written, had its budget cut from $35,000,000 to $17,000,000 and then got hacked to death by the editors (40 minutes cut, leaving giant plot holes). The end result is so bad its a crime and a shame.
1	Mechatigger	14 _2nd
Easily the worst of the series; whole chunks of the plot seem to have been cut prior to release, and the special effects are cheap-looking.
1	spleen	23 _10th
I'm confused; was this a stupid kid's movie or a moronic adult's movie?
1	Okkervil	5 _4th
A masterclass in bad film making.
1	BionicNinjas	10 _4th
So bad it's terrible.
1	PetrosTser	20 _2nd
The Superman films were never going for subtlety and yet they still more or less hold up even today, their kitsch 80s aesthetics making them a fun blast from the past. This is definitely not the case here. The effects are awful, the action totally underwhelming and half-arsed and the script uninteresting and often full-on idiotic (the hair triggering the plot, Superman moving the moon, Lacy breathing in space etc.). The only positive thing I can think of is Jon Cryer's performance and that's it.
1	Matthew Parkinson (CineMarter)	20 _7th
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is an awful film. You are better off re-watching any of the previous Superman installments. Even the third one is significantly better than this chapter in the Man of Steel's film franchise. Nothing about this movie works. The script is awful, the acting is poor, the special effects are worse than they've been in any of the previous episode, and the whole thing is just so boring and uninteresting.
1	hellboy76	6 _1st
Should have quested for a better script. This franchise should have ended after the second film.
1	glumpy_99	65 _26th
A great shame that budgetary issues and hacksaw editing and continuity destroy what could have been an interesting and humanist take on the Superman character (though perhaps any film promoting world peace in the wake of ROCKY IV would have looked goofy). Still worthy of some merit for having its heart in the right place; Reeve's performance is typically fine, and Hackman has as much fun as possible as Luthor, even if the film does its level best to rob the character of any credibility.
1	Demorest	1 _6th
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" -William Butler Yeats
1	xacviant	6 _1st
I'd heard this sucked, but...Jesus. One of the laziest, most inept entries in a major franchise I've ever seen. The special effects are pitifully bad, not helped by severe budgetary cutbacks. The writing is offensively indifferent, slapping an anti-nuke message on a throwaway story that disregards basic physics and invents a new villain--Nuclear Man--who couldn't be less menacing. (Heavy last minute recutting only makes it worse.) The cast '(and crew) seem to have wasted little energy on it.
1	SpikyCactus	40 _2nd
Top badass moment? The London Underground masquerading as the Metropolis subway; frighteningly the most convincing thing in the whole film. There’s stretching logic and having a poetic licence... and then there’s Superman IV. By this point CR basically WAS The Man of Steel and I felt the latter had finally earned some respect from me. Sadly, even he can’t hold back a tsunami of septic tank plot, script and production shit that engulfs everything in its path. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.
1	antidood1	40 _8th
First off, it's a boring Superman movie. That's a crime in and of itself. Apart from that, the story is silly, the dialogue is stupid, the script is afwul, and the editing made my eyes bleed. Would be a solid 2 if it came out today, but it's still the 80's and that makes it kinda cute. Kinda. It still sucks though.
1	brandons	19 _2nd
The Superman series bottoms out here: the action is boring, the special effects look cheaper, and none of the actors appear interested in where the plot's going.
1	htiman	49 _10th
Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman put in good performances, but that's really the only good thing the movie has going for it.
1	LookJabba...	2 _7th
Superman IV is the franchise hitting absolute rock bottom. It's an insult to the franchise that Cannon acquired the rights and made this sequel on a slashed budget. Bringing back Gene Hackman was a desperate move. The only saving grace is the sentiment that it was the last performance from the great Christopher Reeve as Superman. The franchise has sadly spiralled out of control and has no resemblance of the original Richard Donner films. But we will never forget the brilliant Christopher Reeve.
1	pyrosexual	69 _23rd
Still better than modern superhero movies
1	Zipster	75 _30th
If this were the only Superman movie, and Jaws: The Revenge were the only Jaws film, you'd despise Jaws, but would still like Superman. Our hero is represented as the progressive antithesis of the fogyish Rambos and Norrises of the era, not to mention Clark's previously very marginalized journalist peers, who fight the corporate takeover of news that few to no journalists have the accountability or even hope of battling today. Think of it as the live-action Captain Planet.
1	DudeAbides	15 _1st
Few, if any redeeming factors. A movie that should never have been made with a tiny, ugly budget producing a tiny, ugly, incomprehensible film.
1	mwestcott	10 _1st
Quest for Peace is an insult to a great icon. The film is cheap, boring, pointless, cheesy and Even manages to downplay another possible terrific Christopher Reeve performance.

Average Percentile 14.8% from 1389 Ratings