Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Superman 4

[MAN O STEEL]

DISCUSS!!!

 

[BH/HHH]

Personally I have a soft spot for it, when I was a little kid it was actually my favourite of the series, of course it's at the bottom now.

I really do feel if you fixed the FX it would just from that be considered a better film than it is. Even parts of the story like Superman fixing the Great Wall of China (one of the most hated scenes) was only done as such because the budget wasn't there for them to do something else.

Of course there are other issues with the film which came down to many things like cut scenes which meant certain story aspects didn't make sense.

Still though I find some aspects of it really enjoyable i.e. Reeve's performance, Superman throwing shiz into the Sun, even parts of Superman versus Nuclear Man.

The nuclear subplot wasn't an issue for me either, I think it would have worked just fine in a better script.

I still say give this film a bigger budget and it would have been a better entry and who knows maybe a return to form.

 

[MAN O STEEL]

I agree completely. I could never understand why they didn't do with superman 4 what they did with the star trek original series blurays. I understand the lack of popularity is a big factor but if you look at the movie it needs it a bad place of a lot more than star trek did. Star trek holds up superman doesn't. Maybe do a kickstarter campaign to get it complete

 

[BH/HHH]

I agree completely. I could never understand why they didn't do with superman 4 what they did with the star trek original series blurays. I understand the lack of popularity is a big factor but if you look at the movie it needs it a bad place of a lot more than star trek did. Star trek holds up superman doesn't. Maybe do a kickstarter campaign to get it complete

Well we saw how long it took WBs to give us the Donner Cut of Superman 2 and that was something a lot of people wanted to see. I think a kickstarter would be the only way really. I think cleaning up some of the FX (which someone may need to use footage from the three previous films to correct the flying scenes) and adding back in a few cut scenes (not Nuclear Man #1 though) then just from that I think we'd see a better product.

 

[titansupes]

I haven't seen it, but I remember a few clips from the "Selutron Cut" of SII. Something like that could work. There was a lot more potential in the movie, but there were also many more problems with it than just the FX.

When I was a kid, it was my favourite (and first) Superman movie. Followed by SII, STM and then SIII. From my teen years on it's become STM, followed by SII, SIV then SIII. I still have a bit of a soft spot for it.

 

[BH/HHH]

I haven't seen it, but I remember a few clips from the "Selutron Cut" of SII. Something like that could work. There was a lot more potential in the movie, but there were also many more problems with it than just the FX.

When I was a kid, it was my favourite (and first) Superman movie. Followed by SII, STM and then SIII. From my teen years on it's become STM, followed by SII, SIV then SIII. I still have a bit of a soft spot for it.

You really shoud watch the Donner Cut its better than the Lestr version in my opinion. Although I always watch the Frank Reynolds cut which is a fan cut that combines the best of both version (it can download it if searched for on google). Highly recommend watching that.

 

[titansupes]

^ I've got and seen the Donner Cut, I haven't seen the Selutron Cut. I'll look into the Frank Reynolds one, never heard of that.

 

[BH/HHH]

^ I've got and seen the Donner Cut, I haven't seen the Selutron Cut. I'll look into the Frank Reynolds one, never heard of that.

I would love to see the Selutron cut but unfirtunately we never will. Frank a Reynolds cut isn't perfect but it's the closest I've seen to a complete cut that I like.

 

[MAN O STEEL]

 

[Indy Flash]

I still watch it again and again. The phone booth scene is by far a classic superman scene.

 

[TMC1982]

Why does Sidney J. Furie get let off the hook? Most people and rightfully so, blame the problems on Superman IV squarely on the hands of the Cannon Group for mismanaging the budget (which is why the special effects look like bad) and deleting a lot of footage (which is why the plot is often incompressible). To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, go to the 52:57 mark of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90hvCv-ddrc

Mark Rosenthal on the DVD commentary also criticized Furie's direction like the double-date scene involving Clark, Lois and Lacey (Rosenthal felt that the pacing was too slow) and the scene in which Lacey (in she puts her leg up on her desk as sort of a seduction method) first meets up w/ Clark in her office (Rosenthal felt that the sexual tension wasn't right because Christopher Reeve and Mariel Hemingway were too distant from one another).

Also, does Christopher Reeve deserve some blame for the way this movie turned out? this movie seems to exist (besides wanting to make it up to the fans who didn't like the more comedic direction that the third movie took) mainly to sell an agenda. There's not only the commentary on the Cold War era nuclear arms race of the 1980s (which severely dates the movie) but David Warfield as a thinly field Rupert Murdoch expy. Regardless of whether or not you agree w/ said agenda, it's hard to deny that it's pretty heavy handed and not exactly subtle.

Reeve was told several times before that it isn't exactly a good idea to have Superman engage in real-world politics. I think why something like this is a big no-no is because of course most of us would immediately ask ourselves why Superman couldn't just go around solving our real-life problems. It just causes too much of a slippery-slope.

Plus, if you're going to make a powerful demi-god like Superman be the world authority on nuclear arms, then he might as well be the moral authority on everything (it isn't like anybody is really going to simply stop him).

 

[BH/HHH]

I honestly don't believe the Cold War thing was a part of the problem at all. It's like when people blame Superman Returns for not been good on the fact it's an extension of the Donnerverse, that wasn't the issue. Superman IV actually has the ingredients to be a good film but Cannon's budget cuts, a script that needed a bit of a rewrite and I will agree the director clearly wasn't right for it were the films real problems. Infact I think by simply fixing the FX you automatically make it into a better film.

 

[Captain Tired]

I was recently rewatching Quest for Peace, and no matter how bad the rest of the film is (though like BH/HHH, I have a soft spot for it), I always remember that last exchange between Reeves and Hackman.

Lex: Is the world gonna be vaporised?
Superman: No Luthor, it's as it always was: on the brink, with good fighting evil. See you in 20.

For some reason, I really love that moment.

 

[C. Lee]

Although there are things very wrong with the movie, it is still fairly fun to watch now and again.

I did a personal fanedit of Superman III & IV years back. It's not perfect or great (but neither are (III & IV)....I deleted a lot of stuff and combined the two. One of the things I did was...make the scratch from Nuclear Man turn him into the evil Superman from III.

 

[ThePhantasm]

What software do you use to edit films?

 

[C. Lee]

What software do you use to edit films?

None....my stuff is nowhere near the quality of others I have seen....I just input to a DVD recorder from another DVD or VHS player and pause to cut out things. Tech wise....I am caveman, hear me roar.

 

[STARMAN]

Story wise, at least Superman IV aspired to be something. I think the nuclear arms race plot was the best part of this film along with fighting Nuclear Man on the moon and the advice given to Superman in the Fortress of Solitude. I even like what Superman had to say to Lois at the end of their very cheap looking flying sequence.

I didn't like any of the Warfield stuff, the Lex stuff, most of the Nuclear Man stuff, and the juggling two dates at the same type goofiness.