[2]

The short review: WTF?

The longer review: From the first opening frame, you know right away this is a cheap, watered down, bargain basement Superman movie. (Thank you, Golan-Globus Productions!) But even if you can overlook the astonishingly awful visual effects, the movie will still disappoint you in other more substantial ways. For starters, the dialogue is pointed, the relationship between Clark and Lois becomes bland and stagnant, there’s a needless interference on the part of Mariel Hemingway’s character, and Mark Pillow’s Nuclear Man character is the most ridiculous adversary in the series. Somehow, the producers conned Gene Hackman into returning, but I don’t know why — his talent is wasted here. Despite some large, glamorous sets, the entire movie is unimaginatively framed and it’s lit as flat as a TV sitcom. Making matters worse is Alexander Courage’s score, a never-ending barrage of overcompensating musical bravado that, in this case, only serves to remind the audience of everything the movie is lacking.

I know this movie was a pet project of Christopher Reeve’s, and I’m all for nuclear disarmament, but the message is lost by the time we’re into act two, turning the cause into little more than a marketing gimmick. Superman IV is one of those movies where everything goes wrong. It’s a cinematic train wreck.