Superman IV (1987) vs Batman & Robin (1997)

When it comes to the battle of Superman IV and Batman & Robin it's not really a question of who is best but rather who isn't worst. By this point both franchises were at their lowest. Superman was bought by Golan-Globus' infamous Cannon films. They bought the name and spent nothing on the production. They convinced Christopher Reeve to return by letting him write part of the story that included the eradication of nuclear weapons, a noble idea but a flawed one when attached to such a half-hearted production. Glamourous locations were swapped for affordable ones and England's Milton Keynes doubled as New York City. It's amazing what you can do with a couple of red fire hydrants. Gene Hackman returned but he was paired with a young and annoying Jon Cryer who played an odd Californian-dude/80's yuppie character who walked around in MC Hammer's clothes. Cryer later stated that Reeves had taken him to one side during filming to tell him to curb his enthusiasm as the film was going to be terrible. Cryer would have to be pretty stupid not to realise this but then again, he is one of the most terrible elements of the film. Superman had a few unused classic villain to fight but instead Nuclear Man was invented. The misunderstanding of how nuclear energy works is almost as hilarious as Nuclear Man's roar. Every bad guy needs a gimmick, Nuclear Man had radioactive fingernails. The acting was awful, people could breath in space, it made no sense and it was clearly unfinished. Batman & Robin on the other hand had a huge budget and some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. George Clooney was now the Caped Crusader and the mighty Arnold Schwarzenegger was the bad guy. It wasn't a new bad guy either, it was Mr. Freeze, a fairly cool villain (sorry) with an interesting origin story. If that weren't enough, it had the lovely Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, Alicia Silverstone as Bat Girl and Bane himself. All were terrible. Nothing that was wrong and had been heavily criticized about regarding Batman Forever had been addressed. It was one big neon headache with awful acting, terrible special effects and cheesy one-liners. Okay, so I liked the cheesy one liners but everything else was awful. Both feels are regarded as some of the worst of the superhero genre and indeed worst films of all time. However, I'm a Superman nut and I went to see Superman IV with my Grandmother and it is a cherished childhood memory. I'm sure many will disagree with me but the way I see it is like this - Superman IV has Christopher Reeves in it. Batman & Robin has nipples.

In this particular episode of Superman vs Batman - Superman wins!