Quartile rating: 4/10 · 1 rating
With global superpowers engaged in an increasingly hostile arms race, Superman leads a crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But Lex Luthor, recently sprung from jail, is declaring war on the Man of Steel and his quest to save the planet. Using a strand of Superman's hair, Luthor synthesizes a powerful ally known as Nuclear Man and ignites an epic battle spanning Earth and space.
Superman IV is widely regarded as one of the worst superhero films ever made. The plot is painfully simplistic and riddled with continuity errors and logical absurdities — Superman collecting nuclear missiles in a net and throwing them into the sun is emblematic of the lazy writing throughout. The acting is hampered by a clearly disengaged cast, with even Gene Hackman coasting through his Luthor performance, though the cast retains some baseline competence. Cinematography and special effects are genuinely atrocious even by 1987 standards — the low budget (cut from $36M to ~$17M) produced laughably poor wire work, recycled footage, and obvious green-screen. Novelty is minimal: it retreads the Lex Luthor villain formula with a gimmicky anti-nuclear message bolted on. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, resolving the nuclear crisis with almost no dramatic weight and wrapping up subplots carelessly — a fitting conclusion to a deeply troubled production.