I mentioned I didn’t see The Quest for Peace because I didn’t want to see Superman get political, and the politics are only a small part of the film. According to the TCM intro on Max, Christopher Reeve came back to Superman one last time because he was promised a series and that he could incorporate the nuclear weapon storyline. As the film admits, you can throw all the nuclear missiles into the sun, but they’ll just get rebuilt. This is the naive part of the story.
Ultimately, the movie is about Superman and Lex, and creating reasons for Nuclear Man to enter the picture. I like my science fiction to say something about humanity; this one doesn’t. We get a comic book fight, and that’s about it. Now add Jon Cryer as Lenny to get rid of Otis and Miss Tessmacher, and we’ve completed the silly villain story. Gene Hackman again steals the movie in the end, making bad dialogue sound like Shakespeare.
Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) and his nephew Lenny (Jon Cryer) face off against Superman (Christopher Reeve) in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
“The Superman series just got goofier and goofier as it went along.”
The only interesting part of Superman IV for me was the love triangle between Lois and Lacy, but I felt the Lois angle was already explored in the first movie. I’d be lying if I didn’t say Muriel Hemingway is absolutely gorgeous as Lacy. In some way, I was rooting for her and Clark.
I should also mention that the film credits John Williams as the composer of the music. It felt like they just took the recorded soundtrack of Williams and then copy and paste. If you watch the John Williams doc, you know he hates rehashing his music, along with his resistance to doing sequels.
In the end, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace feels like a missed opportunity, albeit one with good intentions. Christopher Reeve still shines in the cape, and the themes of peace and responsibility had the potential for depth, but the execution slips into campy territory instead. What could have been a thoughtful sendoff for Reeve’s Superman instead became a lightweight adventure with goofy villains, recycled love stories, and a heavy-handed message that gets lost somewhere between Earth and the sun.
"…Christopher Reeve still shines in the cape…"
