As history has ably demonstrated, movie sequels are just as susceptible to the laws of entropy as anything else in the universe. And just as Jaws: The Revenge and The Next Karate Kid represented the nadir of their particular franchises, so Superman IV: The Quest For Peace marked the end of Christopher Reeve’s tenure as the Man of Steel.

After the huge success of Superman and Superman II in 1978 and 1980, the series’ descent into self-parody began in earnest in 1983’s second sequel, which saw Richard Pryor skiing around for comic effect and Superman fighting a cyborg named Vera. But while the reviews and box office receipts for Superman III were tepid at best, they were as nothing compared to the outright scorn poured on 1987’s The Quest For Peace; The Washington Post stingingly described it as “More sluggish than a funeral barge, cheaper than a sale at K mart”.

Now commonly described as one of the worst sequels ever made, Superman IV marked the ignominious end to a once great series. But, as ever, this doesn’t mean to say there aren’t plenty of noteworthy things to find within its muddled 88 minutes…

It’s quite low-budget

Where the first three Superman movies were lavish productions, Superman IV ended up with around a quarter of the budget of its predecessors. By the mid-80s, original series producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind had sold the Superman rights to Cannon Films, a production company more used to making cheap action movies such as The Delta Force and Missing In Action. Cannon were also famous for producing Tobe Hooper’s weird space nude female vampire movie Lifeforce, and dance craze sequel Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo.