Superman IV: The Quest For Peace [PG]

With the nuclear arms race declared and the threat of nuclear war very real, one little boy writes a letter to Superman asking him to rid the world of all nuclear weapons. After an inner battle, Superman declares his intention to follow the boy’s wishes and bring about world peace. But his plans face a challenge when criminal genius Lex Luthor escapes from prison and, to save face and profits of the arms race, he creates a super villain with enough power to get rid of Superman for good. 

Ok this was still pretty lame, but the good news is that it was nowhere near as awful as its predecessor. Quest For Peace deals with modern threats (at least they were back in the 80s) and there was better action, some of our favourite characters are back as well as few new ones, and the relationship between Clark, Superman, and Lois became more tangible, still complicated, but tangible and we could see where everyone stood in the triangle. 

With the nuclear arms race declared and the threat of nuclear war very real, one little boy writes a letter to Superman asking him to rid the world of all nuclear weapons. After an inner battle, Superman declares his intention to follow the boy’s wishes and bring about world peace. But his plans face a challenge when criminal genius Lex Luthor escapes from prison and, to save face and profits of the arms race, he creates a super villain with enough power to get rid of Superman for good. 

Christopher Reeve is credited as having a hand in the story and he proves to be better than whoever was responsible for the third one. The back cover quotes Reeve as saying “for me, it’s the most personal of the entire series… It directly reflects what Superman should be and should be doing.” So there you go. 

The action and the feats that Superman performs in this movie are just that little bit more impressive as they include saving the Statue of Liberty, rebuilding the Great Wall of China, and stopping an eruptive volcano, as well as a pretty cool outer space battle with Luthor’s Nuclear Man. 

Starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Jackie Cooper, Mark Pillow, Marc McClure, Sam Wanamaker, Mariel Hemingway, Jon Cryer, and Gene Hackman, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace is a fairly all right movie filled with action, romance, a super battle, and comedy. It’s nowhere near as good as the first two, but it’s a definite improvement from the third.