In the latest Superman Homepage Member Poll we asked you the following question:
What is the worst Superman movie of all time?
For all the debate on social media about “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and the bad-CGI in “Justice League”, fans still think the worst Superman film is “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”. A clear winner with over half the votes. “Superman III” is still considered a poorer film than “Batman v Superman”… Just.
Here’s the complete voting breakdown:
What is the worst Superman movie of all time?
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace 54%, 247 votes247 votes 54%247 votes - 54% of all votes
- Superman III 13%, 59 votes59 votes 13%59 votes - 13% of all votes
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 12%, 56 votes56 votes 12%56 votes - 12% of all votes
- Man of Steel 7%, 32 votes32 votes 7%32 votes - 7% of all votes
- Superman Returns 7%, 32 votes32 votes 7%32 votes - 7% of all votes
- Justice League 5%, 24 votes24 votes 5%24 votes - 5% of all votes
- Superman: The Movie 2%, 7 votes7 votes 2%7 votes - 2% of all votes
- Superman II 0%, 2 votes2 votes2 votes - 0% of all votes
Total Votes: 459
November 6, 2019
- November 13, 2019
Voting is closed
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With all the problems Superman 4 the quest for peace had, Christopher Reeve definitely wasn’t one of them.
I am surprised that Justice League didn’t get higher in the votes since Superman was barely in the movie plus his cgi lip problem.
Chris brought in every single movie. 3 gets a bad rap as well but that scene where he fights himself? Incredible acting. He played three different characters in that scene and it’s amazing. I still watch that scene every once in a while on YouTube and if you ask me… it’s the only version of ‘evil’ Superman we’ll ever need
Well said sundevil82
Superman IV is a bad movie no doubt. But then again Superman IV never had Superman saying “No one stays good in this world” or Martha Kent saying “You don’t owe this world a thing.”
It irritates me that out of the 10 lines he got in the movie, that was one of them.
Superman remained good in BvS overcoming challenges and circumstances and he gave this world his life, despite not owing it a thing. It’s almost like they set those up for a reason.
In Superman IV, Superman drops the autistic villain in a power plant and turns him to energy for the whole city. But hey, he at least looked very righteous doing it and that Chris had a hell of a smile, no doubt. Plus, Superman is green. That’s always good.
I’m not sure if the description of “worst” is proper. S4 get most votes but if they proved one thing it’s that you can’t make a movie of this caliber on a shoe string budget. I think it’s a fair statement to say that there’s going to be different points of view pertaining to people’s definition of “worst” as well.
I have a soft spot in my heart for part 4 as it was the first Superman film I saw in theaters. Chris is the bright spot in the film.
Not many people have seen the 1987 Indian Superman movie, I take it? I have a bootleg and I’m not sure if it has commercials recorded from a TV broadcast, or if it is really bad product placement. All I know is the Lex Luthor analog really wants you to buy a stereo.
Also the 1975 tv movie musical is pretty bad.
I haven’t seen it, but I hear pretty bad things about the Turkish ripoff.
And on a more serious note; I’ll take Superman IV over both Returns and Mano of Steel; they have no excuses for their problems.
On a MORE serious note, that may be one of the most ridiculous opinions I’ve ever read.
You wanna fight about it?!
Is that the one where he dances with spider-girl? I’ve seen clips of that dance and it’s hilarious.
😀
The Indian film? It’s been years since I’ve watched it, so I don’t specifically recall a Spider Girl, but there’s no shortage of dancing…
I’ve actually watched the 75 musical relatively recently (because I hate myself), and with better casting it could have been at least watchable.
I recently bought a copy of the Kingdom come graphic novel. I looked at the first page and I discovered that this book was dedicated to Christopher Reeve. Now seeing that Routh had played a version of Christopher Reeve’s Superman in Superman Returns and is now playing the Kingdom Come Superman, I just find that to be amazing.
4 and 3 get a lot of hate, but Chris reeve was incredible in those films. Especially 3 where he plays evil Superman. Man of Steel does not deserve the hate it gets, but it was definitely not as good as it could have and should have been. To me it’s a couple of rewrites away from being a masterpiece. Too bad goyer was the solo writer. Could have really benefited having another set of eyes on it. You throw in a few more Superman-ish scenes in there, beef up Henry’s dialogue and iron out some editing issues and we… Read more »
I agree with you about Christopher Reeve. Even when the movies were a D or an F he always brought his A game to the character which is something I respect and am forever grateful to him for.
It’s hard to say anything on the negative side about CR playing Superman without some thinking all your trying to do is tarnish his efforts. But facts are facts. CR really didn’t want to do 3. He felt that Superman had done all he could. But something changed his mind. Perhaps a big payday. But the fact is,.. is that 3 was a camp buffoon fest from the very beginning to the end. And 4 was an eye opening nail in the franchise coffin. No matter how good the acting is you can’t make a movie of this caliber without… Read more »
I believe he was under contract for Superman III, it was a fourth film he was ambivalent about… And the way he told it over the years, while Cannon did make the “how much do you want?” offer, he wasn’t interested, and it came down to a creative deal; first they had to finance and distribute another project of his called Street Smart, and he got creative input on Superman IV. From what’s come out over the years, the studio over promised and under delivered on both films. There’s a video floating around of Menahem Golan bad-mouthing Reeve for questioning… Read more »
Can’t argue with you regarding CR’s effort(s). But when it came to 4 he had said he never even bothered to work out for it. He did it solely because Cannon figured it would be a money maker and convinced him if he did it they would have other movie projects waiting for him. It wasn’t until they got actively into the movie that it became apparent Cannon had little money to do it correctly. CR was not happy about it but there was nothing he could do at that point. 4 suffered greatly from the lack of funding. The… Read more »
No, he said he chose not to bulk up; believing on the whole the “lean and fit” look was a better way to go. I disagree, but I was two that summer and wasn’t consulted. Here’s a short article from the time about his training.
http://supermaniv.com/Superman_IV_Articles/Superman_IV_Clippings/Superman_IV_US_Clipping_2.html
Superman IV’s objective problems are enough to write a book about. There’s just a not too fine line, though, between “tarnishing” Reeve’s legacy and acknowledging the problems of the film.
The ‘I was two and was not consulted’ line made me chuckle
It was supposed to. The only person I make fun of on the internet is me.
afriend: I’m sure he gave several interviews. Some at at later time after 4. Never the less, he did indeed say at one time during an interview that he didn’t even bother to work out for it.
I heard that Donner had plans for a Superman 3 movie and it would have had Supergirl in it. But she wouldn’t be related to Superman and she and Superman would have had a romantic relationship. Brainiac was also rumored to have been the main villain. I can’t help but wonder what that movie would have been like. I would have liked to have seen that version if it had been made. It’s to bad that it wasn’t made.
Actually that was the producer Ilya Salkind’s bright idea. There was even some kind of time travelling element in that story. Donner was long long gone by then.
Personally i am beyond glad this was never made.
I see. I do think it would have been interesting to have seen the Reeve Superman go up against Brainiac though. It’s a shame that never happened.
Yes, agreed. Because what we got in 3 was absolute buffoon nonsense through out the entire movie. And it started that way. The movie looked way better on paper than on screen. And Lester was more into the light version of story line(s) and he was the one who directed 3 into a mess with that approach. It was so ridiculous it was like it was made for 10 year olds. And you can (unfortunately) pick out one stupid scene after another through out the entire movie.
I was about 10 when Superman III came out and I think that might have been the first time I had seen a movie that I was really disappointed by. I was honestly confused by that because it was a Superman thing, why was I feeling like this? It’s Superman! How could it be bad? But I think the moment we didn’t get the full Williams score in the opening I knew something was terribly wrong. ..why is this starting like it’s an Airplane movie? Why aren’t we in space hearing his awesome theme? I also remember that the stuff… Read more »
Started like an Airplane movie!!! Good chuckle with that one. While most of the scenes with Superman were well done it was the entire story that stunk. I remember sitting there thinking how could they have gone this route after STM 1 and 2? I was in absolute disbelief most of the movie but I almost fell out of my chair when Pryor pulls out his plans to build the super computer drawn on the back of candy bar wrappers. And it never stopped!!