15 Most Insultingly Bad Sequels To Great Movies
4. Superman III (1983) & Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987)
The original 1978 Superman is an indelible classic of superhero cinema, and the 1980 sequel is pretty damn good too (especially The Richard Donner Cut).
Things fell off a cliff with Superman III, however, which needlessly pushed Richard Pryor's comic relief sidekick to the centre while failing to compensate for Lex Luthor's (Gene Hackman) absence. The junkyard fight where Clark battles an evil version of Superman is pretty damn fun, though.
Superman III's practically an Oscar winner compared to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, however, produced for less than one-third of the original Superman's budget and released by the infamous schlock factory Cannon Films.
From the awful villain Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) to the overly campy premise, appalling effects and action, and general feeling of listlessness, this was a depressing note on which to end Christopher Reeve's tenure as the Man of Steel.