What went wrong here?


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someone green lit it.

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Well, plenty.

Taking a broad view, it was budgetary constraints.

The studio that put it together was having serious problems.

They ended up going cheap, cheap, cheap with Superman 4.

It's why the special effects looks so amateurish. Plus the story itself doesn't make much sense.

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Yes, you did a good summary.

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The Cannon Group, who obtained the Superman film rights from the Salkinds in 1985, essentially released an unfinished movie. Say what you will about the quality of the Superman films after Richard Donner was unceremoniously removed from the director's chair, but at least, they (in this case, the theatrical cut of Superman II from Richard Lester, Superman III, and Supergirl) still for the most part, look polished and professionally put together.

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The reason the story doesn't make much sense is that The Cannon Group cut out approximately 45 minutes of footage. It was allegedly due to poor test screenings. Or, it could've been because Cannon figured that they could fit in more screen times (and thus, recoup their losses faster) with a shorter length movie.

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Didn't a big chunk of the budget suddenly get diverted to some other project(s)? I seem to remember that.

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A big part of the budget were the travel expenses regarding the fight scenes on the moon

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The Masters of the Universe movie with Dolph Lundgren was supposedly, one of those projects.

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👍

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Controversial opinion, it was the most entertaining superman film. The third was boring.

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