Superman IV: The Quest For Peace

I've been wanting to speak in defense of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace for a while now, because while it's not necessarily a great movie, it's definitely not one of the worst. People are entitled to not like this movie, but one of the worst? Before I said anything though, I wanted to rewatch it. Because before today I think the last time I watched it must have been when I was 12 years old or so, and my judgement wasn't as sound back then. So I thought, "Maybe rewatching it I'll agree that it's pretty bad." But lo and behold, I genuinely enjoyed the movie!  And in this, my first review, I'll try to paint it as being at least half-decent. 
 
I probably first saw it between the ages of 5-8 years old. When I was little, it was even my favorite Superfilm. (Nowadays it's Superman II)  Why? For some reason my childhood mind found the Nuclear Man to be a really cool Superman villain. That's one opinion that's definitely changed now, that villain was pretty cheesy. But still, it's always nice to see him against someone who can hurt him without kryptonite, even if it is an unintelligent super nuclear-powered clone created by Lex Luthor.    
Anyway, on with the review: 
 
Praises:   

This may just be personal nostalgia, but I seem to remember scenes from this movie better than the other superfilms. The scenes with the baseball bat and the one man double date in particular. The latter mentioned might even be the highlight of the movie. It's genuinely funny in an old sitcom kind of way. New publisher of Daily Planet, Lacy Warfield, sets up a double date between her, Clark, Lois, and Superman. A sort of dinner and an interview kind of thing, I guess. Supes constantly distracts one girl, runs away for a quick change, talks to the other girl, distract, quick change. The part I specifically remembered from that scene was him heating up Lois's duck dinner, causing her to panic, hoping it wasn't ruined.        

The general concept of the film is simple enough, and it makes sense. "Superman, go get rid of our nuclear bombs, you're Superman!" Seems reasonable. I guess that's not really a praise as much as it is a "Sure, I'll go with that"     
 
As mentioned earlier, it's nice to have Superman facing someone who can hurt him. There's no kryptonite in this movie; and while Nuclear Man may not be the coolest villain out there, I much prefer him to say, a kryptonite mountain. Nuclear Man with his long, Superskin piercing nails and simple get-stuff-done mind manages to get Clark hiding in his apartment, depowered from what I can only assume is some kind of radiation poisoning?      
 
The humor is pretty great throughout. First example I can think of is Lacy, in the hopes of attracting Clark who Lois insists won't notice her, spreading herself out on her desk with her leggy legs of business womanhood, trying to get all flirtatious with Clark while proposing a job/feature for him. Almost takes off his glasses, he stops her  (Because of course, his idenitity would be revealed!).  Also, a scene in a gym where after one of the regulars drops a barbell in his hands and in the douchiest way possible tells him "no pain, no gain." Then while leaving, Clark shows about the most aggression he ever does, and inconspicuously does the same back to him. Oh, and Lex is somewhat entertaining too, particularly when gettin' all talkative with those nuclear arms dealers. And the line "Everyone knows you have a hatred for small children and animals."

At best, you could call Superman IV a fun, simple family film. 
 
Criticisms:   
 
I'll start right off with the worst thing. Lenny. Lex's odd, punk-dressed, surfer lingo-ed nephew. Could he possibly be the reason this movie gets the hate it does? Could it all boil down to Lenny? He was humorous for maybe a minute, at the very most, probably not even that. That character made me cringe, aarrggghhh. 
 
Okay, this movie does have more problems than just Lenny Luthor. It feels pretty rushed, which probably has something to do with the budget being cut in half. And definitely has several, several logic-holes. When it comes to comics, I'm willing to put up with plenty of scientific ludicrousies, but Superman IV has just enough things in it for it to start to bother you. After that fun one-man double-date scene, for instance, Luthor calls superman on a frequency only Superman can hear and see, and somehow just happens to know where he is apparently. As he tells Superman to look to his left at a particular building. There's Lacy being carried into space, and not like, suffocating. (Sure you have Superman flying up there all the time, but maybe he has super-breath-holding powers?)  A strand of Superman's hair is holding up a 1,000 lbs. weight in a museum, and yet Luthor is able to easily cut the string and steal it for his sun-powered nuclear clone creating antics.  
You could point out moving the moon to create an eclipse, but seeing as most people excuse rotating the Earth backwards to reverse time in the first film, I excuse that just as quickly and just treat it with a smile.
 
While I give the getting-rid-of-nuclear-weapons premise the benefit of the doubt, it is a bit hard to believe that every government in the world would co-operate with it. But I was willing to suspend my disbelief. The politics all over the movie are pretty cheesy in general. The scene at the beginning where Clark won't sell the farm to those who'd build a shopping mall there, the Daily Planet being bought by a rich tycoon who also owns a bunch of tabloids, and such. I try to look at the cheesiness as something charming, but I couldn't help but feel that yes, it can get kind of lame.   
 
And I'll go back to, yes, Nuclear Man! Previously I mentioned how it's nice not to have kryptonite and instead have someone who can go toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel. But on the other hand, he's rather lame. I still kind of like the costume, though. He has a pretty big weakness though, the dark .  Just get him out of the sunlight, and he completely shuts down. The second showdown could have been at night, and superman could bury him deep underground, and that would be that. But it can't be that simple. He needs to be defeated with a solar eclipse and then being thrown into a nuclear power plant metal case generator thingy. Also, he falls in love with Lacy, new publisher of the  Daily Planet, after seeing her picture on the front page. This leads to the second showdown, where he arrives with the shout of "Where is the woman!?" And soon after, "If you will not tell me... I will hurt people! " Which made me really giggle.    
 
People usually make a comment about the special effects. I noticed the opening credits definitely seemed lower budget, but that didn't seem like a big deal. The effects throughout the movie didn't really bother me. But maybe I'm desensitized to it after watching enough classic Doctor Who?         

Final Thoughts:   
I've said pretty much everything I could think of saying. I'm hoping my first review doesn't just seem like a bunch of unorganized rambling. If I'm going to summarize, I'll say that Superman IV definitely has its share of flaws. But that it's certainly watchable, enjoyable, and a decent movie. It has a charm to it. And I know little single-digit-aged me loved it. I can see why people dislike it, but I definitely don't think it's one of the worst ever made. I've given it a 3/5 . Sure there's holes in logic. Sure there's cheese. Sure there's the dread Lenny Luthor. But there's also a lot of fun, charm, super-antics, and hey, I genuinely like the movie.