1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is widely viewed as the worst Superman movie ever made, with a variety of factors contributing to its poor reputation. Christopher Reeve first brought the Man of Steel to life on the big screen in 1978’s Superman: The Movie, which stands as a timeless superhero movie landmark. Reeve returned in 1981’s Superman II, which some see as an equal if not superior film to its predecessor, but the Superman franchise began to get rockier with the release of Superman III in 1983.
The release of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987 would ultimately kill the Superman franchise on the big screen for years until Kal-El finally returned to cinema screens in 2006’s Superman Returns. In addition to being a box office disaster, the Reeve sequel has also long been regarded as Superman’s lowest point cinematically, with Christopher Reeve himself regretting making The Quest for Peace. While no single element is to blame for The Quest of Peace‘s negative reception and box office failure, several factors together were ultimately responsible for the movie’s sad state.
Superman IV’s Production Problems Doomed It
Per Superman IV‘s entry on the American Film Institute Catalog, Christopher Reeve initially had reservations about making another Superman movie after Superman III. The campy, silly tone of Superman III led to the movie having a far more mixed reception than its two predecessors, while Superman was pushed into a much more secondary role with Richard Pryor’s Gus Gorman dominating the story. Reeve ultimately agreed to come back with the Canon Film Group funding his passion project Street Smart and Reeve receiving a story credit on Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, with Reeve deciding the nuclear arms race would be the perfect topic for a Superman movie to explore his place in the world.
Unfortunately, the Canon Film Group, to whom Warner Bros. had optioned the Superman film rights at the time, was in dire financial straits. This led to the budget for The Quest for Peace being slashed from an intended $32 million to just $17 million against the wishes of Reeve and the production team. Sadly, this was just the first of the many problems that killed The Quest for Peace.
45 Minutes Was Cut Out (Which Hamstrung Superman IV)
Upon completing principal photography, the first cut of The Quest for Peace ran 134 minutes. However, Canon subsequently decided to remove 45 minutes of footage from the movie, reducing its runtime down to 89 minutes, the shortest of any Superman movie to date. On The Quest for Peace DVD commentary, screenwriter Mark Rosenthal says this decision rendered the movie “incomprehensible,” and indeed, removing such a large amount of footage from the movie greatly impacted its narrative flow.
Particularly effected was Nuclear Man, a Kryptonian clone created by Gene Hackman’s returning Lex Luthor. In the original cut, Lex first creates a prototype Nuclear Man (Clive Mantle), who ultimately fails before the creation of the second Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow). The loss of so much footage from The Quest for Peace also removed the genesis of Nuclear Man’s romantic feelings for Lacy Warfield (Mariel Hemingway), while also removing huge chunks from the third act that left huge holes in the story (i.e. Nuclear Man demanding “Where is the woman?!” from Superman, which has no real context in the theatrical cut). More problems would also befall The Quest for Peace on a technical level.
Superman IV’s Effects We’re A Huge Letdown
Because of Canon’s financial troubles during the production of The Quest for Peace, the movie’s visual effects were perhaps the greatest casualty of all in terms of technical elements. Compared to the groundbreaking flying effects of Superman: The Movie, the effects of The Quest for Peace are a poor reflection of the Man of Steel’s powers. Blue-screen backdrops are barely concealed, and specific shots of Superman and Nuclear Man flying directly to the camera are repeated throughout the movie. One shot of the two fighting in space also can’t even hide Reeve and Pillow clearly standing on a black backdrop.
Even the opening credits pale in comparison to those of the first two Superman films, which Rosenthal describes as “more like graffiti on a black screen” on the commentary track. Some individual effects in the film are more passable, such as the crackling radioactive lighting enveloping Nuclear Man’s body, but on the whole, The Quest for Peace’s effects are a big letdown. And Nuclear Man himself would not escape that fate either.
Nuclear Man Was A Lackluster Villain (But Had Potential)
Nuclear Man is widely viewed as the worst on-screen villain the Last Son of Krypton has ever battled, and indeed, his execution in The Quest for Peace undeniably falls flat. Nuclear Man’s voice and facial expressions are a particularly distracting issue on camera. The gimmick of Nuclear Man possessing Lex Luthor’s voice is undone by the bizarre choice of having Hackman record the lines ahead of time and Pillow lipsynching them on-camera. With that said, Nuclear Man is not a bad villain idea on paper.
As a kind of riff on Bizarro, Nuclear Man had real potential to be a force to be reckoned with, possessing strength and other powers commensurate with Superman’s, along with additional, nuclear-based abilities. Sadly, the look and execution given to Nuclear Man did not set him up for success, and it would not be until 2018 that the character had another shot, being worked into Brian Michael Bendis’s Superman comic book run in 2018. Nuclear Man appearing on Superman & Lois could even hopefully give him a shot at redemption
As with many ill-received superhero movies, The Quest for Peace was made with very earnest ambitions, only to be undone by a perfect storm of bad circumstances and behind-the-scenes issues snowballing into an unfortunate disaster, and canceling prospective plans for Superman V. While Christopher Reeve’s tenure as Superman did conclude in a less than ideal way with The Quest for Peace, his performance as the Last Son of Krypton will forever stand the test of time. Still, it remains an unfortunate reality that Superman IV: The Quest for Peace‘s genuinely great ideas of Superman trying to guide humanity to a better future will always be overshadowed by its unrealized potential and reception as the nadir of Superman movies.
Source: American Film Institute Catalog
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