OK this is something of a departue from reviewing films of good quality as with this one I'm dropping several leagues down to a pretty low level with a film that is often regarded as one of the worst of all time. And the film in question is Superman IV: The quest for peace. Is it as bad as they say it is???? Well let's dawn the red cape and find out...
And yep for what its worth there will be as usual some SPOILERS AHEAD!!
STORY
Right OK so a bit about the plot which begins with Superman (Christopher Reeve in his last appearance in the role) saving a Russian astronaut (or cosmonaut if you like) who falls deep into space as well as the cosmonauts ship which was drifting off course. Superman then returns to Smallville and as Clerk Kent visits his adopted parents farm, who have now both passed away. Clark while in the farm's barn finds his green Kryptonite crystal which he hid in the capsule that brought him to Earth. Clark is then visited by a mall developer who wants to buy out the farm but he refuses to sell and he makes his way back to Metropolis. On returning to the Daily planet newspaper offices, Clark learns that the paper has gone bankrupt and has now been taken over by a tabloid tycoon, David Warfield (Sam Wanamaker) who fires the current editor, Perry White (Jackie Cooper) and replaces him with his daughter Lacy (Mariel Hemingway).
Not long after there is news that the United States and the Soviet Union may engage in nuclear war leaving Clark in turmoil over how much Superman should intervene and he receives a letter from a concerned schoolboy, which prompts Superman to travel to the fortress of solitude to discuss it with the spirit of his Kryptonian elders. However they suggest Superman leave the people of Earth to resolve the situation themselves or travel that he travel to and settle on another world where war is not an issue. Clark then invites his fellow reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) around to his apartment where he takes her outside and walks off the roof with her, changing into Superman he takes her for a flight and afterward asks what he should do and Lois says he should do what feels right. Then in order to maintain his secret identity from Lois, Superman kisses her to erase her memory of their meeting. Afterward Superman then attends the United Nations and gives a speech where he announces he will rid the world of all nuclear weapons. This leads to various nations firing their nuclear weapons into space where Superman grabs them and places them in a giant net and then hurls them into the sun.
In the meantime, criminal mastermind, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) breaks out of prison with the help of his nephew Lenny (John Cryer) and he returns to Metropolis where Luthor breaks into a museum exhibit containing a strand of Superman's hair, which he steals. Luthor then uses the hair to create a genetic matrix which he discreetly attaches to a test nuclear missile which is launched into space and is intercepted by Superman who throws it into the sun. However the result of the explosion causes the birth of nuclear man (Mark Pillow) a superhuman who flies back to Earth under the control of Luthor, he arrives at Luthor's hideout. Luthor however also reveals that Nuclear man is powered by solar polar and when he is in the shade he will be disabled. Luthor then lures Superman into meeting his creation where Superman engages in a fierce fight with the supervillain which includes them fighting at the great wall of China and later in New York where Nuclear man throws the Statue of Liberty toward the ground, which is saved by Superman. However Nuclear man then scratches Superman with his radioactive claws which weakens him and falls ill with radiation sickness as Nuclear man kicks Superman away, the superhero loses his cape.
Lois later turns up at Clark's apartment where she finds him not well from the effects of the radiation and having salvaged Superman's cape, she gives it to Clark. Clark then manages to use the kyrptonite crystal to revive himself and he soon returns as Superman where he confronts Nuclear man, who has a crush on Lacy and threatens mayhem if he is not introduced to her and this leads into their final confrontation.....
THOUGHTS
There is not any doubt that Superman IV: The quest for peace is easily the worst of all the Superman films as it is poorly put together and it clearly lacks the budget the previous films had it as its special effects look very cheap and its story is mediocre at best. The film also doesn't feel in anyway natural either as the performances are all pretty forced and hammy but I will say a bit more about them in a bit. The film also suffered from the fact that the producers from the first three films, Alexander and Ilya Salkind felt the series had ran its course, which left the rights being sold to Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of the company, Cannon films and apparently during shooting they had run out of money with the film itself having a meagre budget of $17 million. Regardless of that though despite its faults the film itself is still strangely enjoyable even if it is pretty dire it still has some entertaining moments (such as Superman fight scenes with Nuclear man and Clark's ducking and diving between being Superman and being interviewed as Supe for Lois and being on a date with Lacy as Clark).
PERFORMANCES
Which brings me onto the performances which are a mixed bag let's face it, starting with Christopher Reeve who does very well again in his role as Superman/Clark Kent but because the material he has been given is so poor it hampers his performance rather than help it. Still there are some good moments in Reeve's performance such as the scene where Lois shows Clark at the Daily planet, the paper headline of Superman allegedly saying to the concerned school boy, Jeremy, "Superman says drop dead kid!". And in the scene it leaves Clark in a worried state as he walks off over to the windows to contemplate his next move. Then there are some laughable but enjoyable moments all the same such as the one where Superman saves a Metropolis subway train from being derailed after the driver takes ill. And afterward Superman says to the subway crowds "I would like our civilians to know that our subway system is still the most safe and reliable form of transportation".
Then there is the scene where Superman addresses the United nations and he says to the audience "So I have decided, effective immediately, that I am going to rid the world of all nuclear weapons" leaving the audience cheering. Reeve also occassionally has the odd fun moment as Clark as well such as the scene at the gym where Clark does a workout with Lacy who fancies Clark. And in the scene Clark meets an annoying gym worker who teases him and at the end of the scene Clark easily lifts and accidentally throws some heavy weights at the worker and Clark says "Ummm, no pain no gain???". Another amusing but silly scene comes when Superman takes a flight with Lois after revealing his identity to her and he says to her "Sometimes I don't know what I'm supposed to do" and Lois tells him "You'll do the right thing, you always have" and they kiss afterward which erases Lois's memory of their meeting.
Then there are the laughable scenes where Superman fights with Nuclear man and the funniest moment comes (SPOILER FOR WHAT ITS WORTH!!) when Superman moves the moon over the sun to neutralise Nuclear man's powers and he rescues Lacy and takes her back to Earth and later takes Nuclear man and deposists him in an nuclear power plant. And last of all there is Superman's last scene where (SPOILER AGAIN!!!) he addresses the people of Earth and says " And there will be peace. There will be peace when the people of the world, want it so badly, that their governments will have no choice but to give it to them". Great speech, Supe!!
Gene Hackman next gives a rather mediocre performance by his high standards but again it boils down to his character of Lex Luthor being given virtually nothing to work with and he doesn't even have much in the way of memorable dialogue either. Hackman however still has some amusing moments such as the scene Luthor breaks into the museum exhibit of Supeman's hair holding a 1000lb weight and he does with great ease and just uses a hedge clipper to cut it! Then there is the scene where Luthor insults his nephew by speaking of Nuclear man's weakness of relying on solar energy to function "He gets his energy from the sun. Without it, he's like you at night - useless!". And lastly there is the scene where Luthor introduces Superman to Nuclear man and he drinks a toast to him "To a nice a guy, who is about to finish last!".
Margot Kidder also is given a pretty rough deal here in terms of role as she (like everyone else really!) isn't given much to work with here and as such she delivers a pretty unnatural feeling performance as Lois Lane. However Margot still has the odd nice moment such as the scene where Lois takes a flight with Superman and afterward Superman says to her how sometimes he doesn't know what to do and Lois reassures "You'll figure it out, you always do". And then there is the scene where Superman addresses the United nations and Lacy who is with her says "I wonder what he'll say" and Lois says (rather cheesily!) "Something wonderful!".
Jon Cryer however is a weak leak in the cast as he is for the most part quite annoying in his role as Lenny Luthor, Lex's nephew who breaks Lex out of jail. Cryer doesn't really have any good scenes as such although he does get the odd cheesily amusing line such as the scene where Lex having stolen Superman's hair "You know what I can do with a single strand of Superman's hair?" and Lenny replies "You can make a toupee that flies!". Yeah pretty crappy but still vaguely amusing. Mariel Hemingway actually on the other hand does do fairly well in her role as Lacy, who fancies Clark Kent and later is very briefly taken hostage by Nuclear man who takes a fancy to her but she also doesn't have much in the way of salvagable dialogue.
As for the Superman regulars, Mark McClure is largely sidelined as Jimmy Olsen, the Daily planet photographer and given nothing to work with here at all which is a shame given that McClure has always been a solid performer in the series. The same also goes for Jackie Cooper who is for the most part replaced in the film by Sam Wanamaker who himself fails to make any kind of decent impression here in the film. And its a pity in a way that they bothered to include the character of David Warfield and not just keep Perry White as the editor of the DP.
Its also kind of worth noting that the film actually even features an early performance from Jim Broadbent as a goon who briefly works for Luthor and there is also even a performance William Hootkins (who was also in Star Wars and Batman, bit of a comedown then here!). However neither as these performances makes much of an impression and ultimately the film is a waste of both actors' time.
And last of all there is Mark Pillow as Nuclear man and well... what can you say about him???? It has to be said that Pillow is easily the weakest actor in the film and his villain is entirely forgettable and somewhat useless (but more on that soon!). And Pillow's actual voice (as far as I know) isn't even used as Gene Hackman does the voice for Pillow so that makes you wonder was Pillow such as naff actor he needed a great one to voice him??? Whatever the case might have been it doesn't change that Pillow fails to make any kind of impact with his performance (such as it is).
And what is actually quite ironic is that the deleted scenes from the film actually include an alternate version of Nuclear man (played pricelessly by Clive Mantle) in which N-man is just a basic imbecile who is grown at Luthor's place and is created with a pot pan over his genitals! And later we see Nuclear man go to a nightclub and afterward confront Superman in a back alley. And these scenes themselves are nothing short of hilarious and they may even have been an improvement on Pillow's nuclear man for all we know! It might have made the film even less serious to take than it already wasn't but it would have made for a good laugh!
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the film's director, Sidney J. Furie.... well, well, well poor guy, that is all I can say! Furie, who actually once directed solid, credible films such as The Ipcress File has been reduced here to this as he has morely mis-directed the film than directed it! Furie however might not be entirely at fault as he had to deal with such obstacles as budget restrictions and also the film's producers, Golan and Golbus who actually had even refused to let Furie shoot the United Nations scene in New York and instead he had to film it in a car park in Milton Keynes! So Furie's efforts most likely were nullified by his producers and ultimaltey and rather unfortunately he was forced to direct the film with one hand tied behind his back, which is a pity because with a bigger budget and better producers who knows???
As for the music well the score was written by Alexander Courage, who of course still utilised John William's themes which remain one of the better things about the film although Courage's own contributions are nothing special however they aren't horribly offensive either to the film. So for the most part Courage doesn't do any big disservice to the franchise and his score remains one of the film's more modestly respectable aspects.
FLAWS
As for flaws.....can Superman IV possibly have any???? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Yep! Yes it can. So this might be quite a big section.
OK well yep it has its flaws and for starters one of the main flaws of the film comes down to the fact that it simply does not have a good story and the story itself is not cohesive and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense either! The film also as I previously said has an unnatural and unrealistic feeling to it that even the previous Superman films sort of had (well the first one did anyway!) but here the series has become an awful parody of itself and you can no longer really take it or any the characters seriously. The film is also riddled with plot holes but I will get to some of them in a bit.
Another big problem with the film also comes from its fairly modest budget and the film's less than convincing special effects as they keep using some obvious and awful looking green screen for Superman's flying scenes (and even Nuclear man's for that matter). And in the first three films you really could believe a man could fly but here you just can't as the effects are so cheap looking and obvious! And another perfect example of the naffness of the effects comes in the scene where Superman rebuilds the great wall of China with his X-ray vision after Nuclear destroys part of it but from the comic books Superman had no such power at all!
Then there is Nuclear himself who remains one of the dumbest and most boring of supervillains who makes no impression whatsoever on the film or on the franchise. And as a villain he doesn't make much sense either because as soon as he is born he is ready to disobey his creator in Lex Luthor and later on he develops a crush on Lacy but its not even remotely obvious that is at first the case as he just appears to look at her picture in the paper and that's it! And before we know it Nuclear man is intent on creating mass destruction if he doesn't get introduced to Lacy by Superman! So at the end of it all Nuclear man isn't after world domination, nope instead he is after a date! Although it has to be said that Lacy might not survive Nuclear man if he goes (ahem!) nuclear (sorry!).
And another gaping plot hole comes from Superman's decision to rid the planet of all nuclear weapons. Yeah OK great plan and a great gesture to humankind.....but are we supposed to believe that while the superpowers (no pun intended!) of the USA and the Soviet Union are supposed to be on the brink of nuclear war against each other, are they suddenly and willingly going to give up their nuclear weapons without a hint of protest??!! It just seems a tad stupid to think that these governments will instantly give up their nuclear deterrents just because Superman says so! But in the film they do just that and before we know we see Superman hurl all the nuclear weapons of the world into the sun!
And despite Superman's best efforts even he at the end of the film decides that he was only partly successful in banishing the nuclear weapons but again this is never really clearly explained as to why he wasn't fully successful he just announces in his speech the people of the world will have peace when they wanted bad enough! So in effect his campaign to rid the planet of all nuclear weapons ultimately fails and its a pretty half-assed subplot anyway since after the two scenes of Superman throwing nuclear weapons into the sun that's the last we hear of it!
It also has to be said that the characters of David Warfield and Lucy Warfield are for the most part are pointless as well to the film as all they do (or David does) is try and bring down the Daily planet by printing any old rubbish thinking that this will increase the paper's circulation when it probably will have the opposite effect! Lucy perhaps isn't quite as pointless however as she does at least serve as a romantic subplot for Clark and then she quickly becomes the object of Nuclear man's affections (well for about five minutes anyway!) but you get the feeling the film certainly didn't need these characters. The same also goes for Lenny Luthor, Lex's nephew who breaks him out of jail but his character is just an annoying knob and offers nothing interesting to the film.
Then we get to yet another ridiculous flaw in the film which is the scene where Nuclear man kidnaps Lacy and flies her to the moon to finish off his battle with Superman, yet somehow Lacy IS ABLE TO BREATH IN OUTER SPACE!!! Yep that's right, the director and writers of this film decided to defy any kind of logic and any common sense regarding basic scientific principles and have this woman be able to breath freely without a spacesuit or any other apparutus that could aid this! Well it does again show just how well put together and thought out the story is! Ahem!! However to be fair to the movie in actuality it is possible for a human being to breathe in the hard vaccum of space unprotected but albeit only for a very short amount of time.
And last of all it has to be said that on more than one occassion that Clark Kent is spotted without his glasses on in the film, which basically means his identity will be blown to anyone who eyeballs him! This is especially noticeable in the scene where Lacy at the gym takes off Clark's glasses briefly and he quickly insists he put them back on but at that moment its a bit surprising that Lacy suddenly doesn't say "Wow you look alot like Superman!".
And lastly of all further to this point then there is of course the daft scene where Clark takes a walk off his apartment building roof along with Lois and he changes into Superman and catches her and he is still wearing his glasses and Lois quickly takes them and sticks them over the built-in belt on her dress! And given all the flying they do its amazing that these glasses never fall off Lois's dress into the nether leaving Clark boned without his glasses! But nope she manages to hold onto them and gives them back to Superman safe and sound (or he takes them after he uses his convenient memory erasing kiss on her!).
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up Superman IV: The quest for peace is a pretty bad film overall, its poorly written and directed, the acting is pretty mediocre and the special effects are simply crap and the film is devoid of any interesting supporting characters or anything resembling a proper plot. Yet miraculously somehow it manages to be oddly enjoyable and Reeve just about does what he can to make his performance likeable enough and at least he does provide the film with its a very few weighty and dramatic moments.
And just maybe the film could have been something better if it had a bigger budget and better backing from its producers (or indeed better producers!) not to mention a better script and story. And if you are in the right mood Superman IV is even possibly a film you might enjoy and could file under the "its so bad its good" category. But ultimately it is considered the worst film of the franchise with good reason as it is a pretty naff movie overall.
So that's it for my look at Superman IV and I will be back again soon with another review of something that is hopefully not as bad as this un!
Till then bye for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment