Nuclear Man arrives at Lex's suite, animation is still well executed but unconvincing visually.
and Lenny is flying in the air, upsetting NM. This, despite being a wire stunt shot by an undercranked camera, looks thrilling and daring, and is enhanced by the fact that wires have been rotoscoped.

At a penthouse Lacy wants to interview Superman and Clark, we see a boring in-camera transformation where Clark runs into a car and transforms into Supes and leaves through the other side. Neither Clark nor Supes faces are seen, as they are both clearly stunt men. [Check out the scene in Superman III to see this scene done correctly at the chemical plant explosion]. Then Lex calls Superman using that big Times Square advertising board TV. This does look like a digital monitor, due to the excessive glitching the artists have put in, but the composite is too low- res for the crispness of the plate.

Superman flies to Lex's suite and also meets Lenny, more pale compositing here. NUCLEAR MAN flys past a skyline moving at the wrong frame-rate, then we see undercranked footage of him landing on the roof. Kudos to the roto artists for removing the wires, but NM’s head fringes against the matte background, and the rotoscoping is too evident. Effects animation of lightning is still 1st class.

The fight begins with Nuclear man and Superman falling off the balcony, with hideous compositing that includes fringing, blue hair and skin tints.
NM flys off, leaving the Supes composite to fall to the bottom of the building. Because of the element control, this shot was possible, as the element of Supes is frozen, then pulled to the bottom left corner. The shot looks horrible, but at least the FX artists managed to pull it off.

NM creates a tornado, which is realised via stock model footage of a model tornado with animated wind particles composited. Long shots show a wholey efffects-animated Tornado that appals the audience with it’s blandness. Even the wind at the farmhouse is largely FX animated. Supes saves the girl with fringing composites, but the shots of him carrying the girl back are excellent- the best composites of the film (besides the scene at the end taken from Superman: The movie).

The following shot of NM in a cornfield is ugly- the background plate is static. We see more seamless puppet photography- followed by NM’s frame rate slowing down due to the limits of the element control when he glares round at Supes after being punched in the back. NM then blows part of the Great Wall of China- realised wholey by a matte painting that could possibly fool only the most ignorant of audiences who’ve never heard of the great wall. The painting is linked to live footage of a wall exploding- scaling problems here as the bricks appear to be huge. Someone falls off it [ Sarah Franzl, Kate Winslet’s stunt double in TITANIC],Supes saves her and builds the destroyed part of the wall back using his Mortar-Vision. The composites are again laughably pale, but it’s nice to see live action shots of NM flying away. The mortar-vision is a an appalling time-lapsed matte painting, that looks like bad stop-motion.

In space Superman is frozen in a perfectly shaped ice-cube, that is given life by an animated sreak of light across it. He spectacularly breaks free, the pyro of the cube has particles flying towards the screen. NM erupts the Volcano in Pompeii, that looks like stock footage- and is more pre-production model work. The long shots are dreadful matte paintings that show no detail for how Italy really looks, but only a stereotypical, almost facist view. People flee, Superman saves people by freezing the lava and plugs the Volcano with a big rock. The rock cap looks like stock footage, and is enhanced by obviously animated lava. We see Supes ice-breath that is an insult to Roy Field’s animation from the other films. Lava continues to wobble and fringe with the live-action, as only animation does. The compositing here is wonky and pale. In space, NM extends his nails, and during a cat-fight, the two are embarrasingly seen standing on matted stage-blocks. Tracking in space and animation is still first class.

Then NM messes up a parade and ignites a nuclear missile by himself and Supes stops it. The parade is another scene that is wholey a matte painting. The MARY POPPINS-esque nature of the Moscow painting as a fantasy landscape is ignorant and unconvincing- though the rendering is quite detailed. NM then whacks Supes, and Supes spins in mid-air thanks to a wobbly combination of motion-control and wire stunts. NM then flys past the Manhattan skyline that appears static, but the camera tracks past it showing Metropolis in all it’s literate comic book glory. NM then lifts the Statue of Liberty and throws into downtown Metropolis. Compositing is jerky, pale with no attention to depth of field, but the plate photography continues to shine. We see one commendable insert of the statue and a building in model form that impresses, but STILL looks like stock footage. Superman saves Liberty, but NM cuts him whilst Superman lays down the Statue. The blood here is even realised through FX animation and then he falls down to a the ground with wires obviously airbrushed out of the shot, as the area above him wobbles and jerks. He is defeated with cape separated. The compositing of the cape falling onto the torch is truely seamless.

Next morning NM wakes up, sees a picture of Lacy and decides to get her. More excellently animated lightning here. NM lands in the middle of a traffic jam, and we see a Sidney J Furie executed street fight. NM blows up cars and their windscreens with lots of rudimentary optical flames. These sometimes look threatening, but the foam fire-hydrant and butchered editing style don’t help. NM throws people into the air, wires are rotoscoped and the stunt work is very impressive. A SWAT van is seen heaved up by large, visible ropes, NM twirls a truck that isn’t seen in long shots by it’s base because of obvious rigging. NM flies into the Daily Planet building. Poor shot of a redressed set continuouslly shot with visible rope pulling NM. More stock footage of building with smashing glass. SUPERMAN returns and shoves him into the dark elevator and flies off to the moon with him, but the motion-controlled puppet looks like a puppet here- and the matting of the Space backings isn’t as wonderfully tracked as before. The moon, realised as a floor layer of granite enhanced by a giant, if somewhat simplistic matte painting is too basic, and feels like we’re simply on a soundstage.

The Sun rises convincingly. NM escapes, beating up Supes whilst he straightens up the American flag, they fight. There are some true instances here of STAR WARS influenced genius in animation. NM throws Supes in one, fluid shot, and Supes passes the camera, matting of the black background is seamless, lightning animation is consistent and flowing, and even the wires are rotoscoped. The camera pans with Supes, and he disappears into the black. Superman is dumped into the moon. Here is a most laughable prosthetic job of Chris Reeve [ although Stuart Freeborn is credited as make-up supervisor on QFP, a very reliable
source tells me this was handled by someone else-as was all of the make- up FX]. The dummy is red-faced and smooth, and their is no attention to weight. NM grabs Lacy while she is talking to Daddy and flies off.

Superman is back, puts the American flag back up, creates an eclipse, the animation of the sun excelles. NM is disabled while in space with Lacy, she falls, Supes saves her. This scene looks hideous, and is hideous, but the background tracking is again spot-on. The camera continues to move in seemingly random movements. Supes then dumps Nuclear Man into a nuclear power plant. The power increases and all of Metropolis lights up. Here we see day to night time-lapse footage by Michael Kelem and David Nowell. It looks it.

The sun appears on the Earth's horizon, Superman flies from the darkness, gives us a smile as he keeps a watchful eye over our world. Compositing, lighting, colour separation is perfect. Right as it should be. This scene makes us believe a man can fly. This scene belongs in another film series- it belongs in the Superman film series...!

Cue the Peter Govey credits. Great credits- believed to be the first to use a computer-controlled camera. Optical legend Ronnie Wass (BATTLE OF BRITAIN) supervised these.

Although hideous problems concerning compositing, realism, depth of field and wire removal arise, there are many instances of animation and motion control genius here. One should commend the FX team for it’s daring attitude towards QFP’s FX, and not hold their lack of realism against them.

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