Publication Date: 07-08-2025

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) review

Dir. Sidney J. Furie

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★

Shall I recap Christopher Reeve’s Superman franchise and the roller-coaster ride it was? It began with Superman in 1978, a strong, faithful adaptation of the comic book hero, bright and colorful, fun to watch, exciting in its action, and overall, a serviceable, genuinely entertaining piece of filmmaking. Its sequel was an equally strong film and, thanks to a refreshing but controversial change in directors, welcomed in a more satirical, comedic take on the comic-book character. It was fun and enchanting, if still accentuating the plastic kind-of qualities its predecessor had. By Superman III is when the character started taking a nosedive back to earth. The film lacked the great chemistry that was erected in the first two films, and focused predominately on a lame villain and an uninteresting character ironically played by the very interesting Richard Pryor.

And now we have Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, a cinematic disgrace to the character in every regard that could’ve been prevented if something called source-material-respect was implemented. The production history of Superman IV is heavily noted, with a lot of it being revealed in Reeve’s post-paralysis autobiography Still Me. Reeve’s participation was made possible by a convincing deal, but even in his heart he knew it wasn’t right. The film was made by Canon Films who, at the time, had thirty movies in productions. Superman IV wasn’t treated any different than other winners the company had set for release at the time like American Ninja 2: The Confrontation and Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. Enormous budget slashing, extreme cutbacks in nearly every film department, and the lack of interest in making a film that would rebound the mediocre response to Superman III all lead to the dismal product that is Superman IV.

You can almost see it in the cast’s face that they have little enthusiasm for the material they’re currently acting in. Even Reeve, whose face gleamed and personality erupted when he did his first big scene in the original film, has seemingly checked out of this franchise. Gene Hackman’s return to the franchise, too, feels forced and looks as if he is totally uninteresting with what is happening, and additional talent from Margot Kidder, Jon Cryer, Sam Wanamaker, and the lovely, beautiful Mariel Hemingway is all wasted on a third-rate script.

The plot involves the “Daily Planet” newspaper being bought out by a journalist tycoon who favors sensationalistic titles over real journalism, leading to Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s (Margot Kidder) job to be more about catering to the narrow-minded and stretching the truth rather than about honest journalism. Lacy (Mariel Hemingway), the tycoon’s daughter, also takes a liking to Clark and his kind ways, as she desperately tries to throw herself onto him at every conceivable opportunity. And if that’s not enough, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) has returned, this time with his son Lenny (Jon Cryer). They are planning to create “Nuclear Man,” a man to battle Superman since they have failed numerous times on their own to destroy him.

With a larger budget and maybe a studio that took this material seriously and recognized they needed a colossal rebound after Superman III, these ideas could’ve worked just as well as in the first two films. But under the stiff, clearly rushed direction of Sidney J. Furie (who already had several films under his belt when this was released, so I’m sure circumstances and time constraints were mostly to blame) and the effortless special effects (again, likely caused by budget constraints), this is an incredibly paltry effort to revitalize a franchise.

Not to mention, a trilogy is understandable, but a fourth movie after the third film already seemed that the end was nigh? This seems like an outright joke in itself. Even the subtitle for the film, “The Quest for Peace,” leaves a person slightly confused. Wasn’t that practically the ultimate goal in the last three films, whether it be peace and silence from Lex Luthor or Ross Webster’s exhaustive computer hacking plan?

Superman IV: A Quest for Peace is a rather disingenuous ending to a franchise many loved and many adored until lackluster decisions were made in the franchise’s latter half. While the series had always maintained sort of this plastic quality I have been talking about, where characters do what is mostly expected of them and there’s little deeper, below-the-surface mystery, the first two installments of the series were fun and quite exciting. What it evolved into was something no fan asked for and no fan deserve.

I laugh at how one of the opening scenes in the offices of the “Daily Planet” show the journalistic tycoon implementing controlling policies and budget cuts to make his vision of the newspaper. Something tells me that’s how the production of the film went, with the tycoon being Canon Films and the angry staff being the cast.

My review of Superman (1978)
My review of Superman II
My review of Superman III

Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Jon Cryer, Sam Wanamaker, Margot Kidder, Mariel Hemingway, and Mark Pillow. Directed by: Sidney J. Furie.