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SUPERMAN IV MEDIA REVIEWS OF SUPERMAN IV
"Superman IV"
Proves It's Time to Hang Up the Cape Up, up, and away? In "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace," the direction is more like down, down, and doomed. The film doesn't fly, much less soar. It just sort of flops around. The third sequel featuring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel is a patchwork mess of celluloid that lacks much of the wit and comic-book charm of the original film in this series. But that's not all. The prime ingredient missing in action here isn't cuteness - it's coherence. "Superman IV" has more loose threads than Manhattan's garment district. Once again, things aren't looking so hot for Superman. Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) is prematurely sprung from prison by his nephew, Lenny (should be "Looney") Luthor. And, first on the Luthor's list of Bad Things to Do is to Superman out of the way - once and for all. As Lenny (Jon Cryer) is fond of saying, "Oh, neo." As if that weren't enough, Superman also has a public relations nightmare on his shoulders. Summits for nuclear disarmament have failed, and the arms race is back. One little boy in mid-America has what he thinks is the answer: Ask Superman to rid the world of nuclear weapons - once and for all. The Man of Steel, according to some old advice from his home planet Krypton (yep, that spaceship's still in the Kent barn), is forbidden to interfere. But who's going to know, right? Krypton was blown to bits years ago. Superman's new mission, apparently, is to fight for truth, justice and international peace. He becomes a one-man disarmament plan, collecting missiles and hurling them to the sun to destroy them. Too bad he's playing right into evil Lex Luthor's hands. The Luthor team, using a hair from Superman's head, cook up a genetic plasma stew, stash it on a nuclear missile and await the birth of - get this - Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow). Nuclear Man is a hot-tempered blond hulk in gold Spandex and black cape. He doesn't leap tall buildings, he torches them. He's got a heck of a manicure, too - gold, growing nails that he's just dying to sink into Superman's steely flesh. He's the ultimate sun worshipper - put him in the shade, and it's like someone pulled his plug. Sadly enough, the battle between supermen is old hat. So what if they're flying around Metropolis with the Statue of Liberty or turning the Great Wall of China into a pile of bricks? Pretty soon, "Superman" movie-makers are going to run out of national treasures for villains to trash. The fun part of Superman stories has always involved that bespectacled alter ego - Clark Kent. Clark's on a rocky road in this picture, too. The Daily Planet is going tabloid, and the new publisher wants to chuck responsible journalism out the window. Lacy Warfield (Mariel Hemingway), the paper's new editor, develops a crush on Clark and her efforts at romance with the world's oldest living Boy Scout are the film's most amusing. "Superman IV" has a fair share of good elements, haphazardly slammed together and cut to fit. There are so many holes and dangling story threads, it's no real surprise the movie unravels. The final product is awkward, disappointing nonsense. Reeve, Hackman, and Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) know their parts by heart, and don't reach too far to stretch the characters here. Hemingway and Cryer inject some much-needed freshness into the movie, but not enough to transcend languid direction (Sidney J. Furie) and atroctious editing. Nuclear Man would be a neat invention, if he only had a brain. But the golden brute can't radiate enough energy to give this tired horse a new glow. It may be time for Superman to hang up his cape.
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