Brikar

"Superman: Doomsday"
Starring: Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters
Written by: Bruce Timm and Duane Capizzi
Directed by: Bruce Timm

MOVIE
Based on "The Death of Superman", "A World Without Superman" and "Return of Superman" storylines, "Superman: Doomsday" is a rather interesting animated flick.

Taking such a long and complex set of stories and boiling them down into one 75-minute film is, of course, a rather daunting task. Thankfully, Bruce Timm is something of a genius in bringing DC Comics' heroes to the screen. "Superman: Doomsday" distills the essence of the death and return stories, ditching every element that might have dragged out the film or kept the film from feeling like it truly stood on its own. As a result, gone are large elements like the four impostor Supermen of the comics, but also gone are smaller elements like... well, the rest of the DC Universe.

The designs of the characters and the locations are much more grounded in reality than previous DC animated works with the exception of the original "Batman" animated series. Here, characters drive realistic cars, fire bullets from regular guns, and don't live in sci-fi world's fair-inspired skyscrapers. Metropolis looks much more like a real city, with real people inhabiting it. In addition, there are no other superheroes. No Batman, Wonder Woman, Justice League, to help Superman out. There is no parade of heroes at Superman's funeral.

What this does is place the emphasis entirely on the core characters of the story: Superman, Lois, Jimmy, and Lex Luthor. The story has a good emotional punch to it; scenes after Superman's death have a poignancy that we rarely see in animated comic book fare.

The animation itself is quite good. Motions are fluid, shot construction is great, with bright scenes and dark scenes both filled with lots of great details and colors. Character designs differ from previous animated Superman installments, but that's again done to separate this movie from those shows. The only thing I didn't like were Superman's cheekbones, which look absolutely terrible. The battle sequences are impressive, with plenty of destruction to behold. Metropolis is practically levelled twice in this feature, and both times are pretty fun to watch. Being rated PG-13 helps, as we get to watch Superman really get the shit pounded out of him as we rarely have before - enough so that he vomits blood. More humans are killed here, often brutally, than we ever saw in the previous animated DC ventures combined.

The voice cast is impressive, though the real standout is James Marsters as Lex Luthor. He's just great, and delivers every one of his lines with just the right mix of menace and business. Adam Baldwin does a serviceable Superman, but at times sounds almost disinterested and monotone. Anne Heche's Lois Lane is the worst offender; she warbles between fantastic (witness her breaking down on Martha's porch in Smallville) to just plain lame.

"Superman: Doomsday" is an entertaining addition to the DC animated library. It's close enough to the comics to enjoy seeing certain favorite parts brought to life, but different enough that you won't feel bored watching a literal translation to the screen.

VIDEO:
Presented in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, "Superman: Doomsday" looks like one would expect. There are no video issues to be found, and as a recent animated adventure, colors are solid and vivid and black levels remain constant. There is no dirt or any scratches on the print at all.

AUDIO:
I have to say I was disappointed. Though there is a 5.1 Surround track, it's not very active, despite all the carnage on screen. Bass response isn't quite as low as I'd hoped, either. So the feature ends up front-loaded and sounding kind of weak in the punch department. The sound is crystal clear, and there's plenty of great soundwork - it just doesn't kick you in the face with awesome if you've got a great setup.

EXTRAS:
The main extra is a documentary called "Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives!" starring the editorial staff of DC Comics at the time when the Death of Superman storyline exploded into the comics world. Present day interviews are mixed with archival footage and pictures. The interviews are wonderful, and we get to see the genesis and the thought processes and the reactions to coming up with this storyline. Also explored is the media response to it, subsequent fame for the creators... and death threats. Comic book fans are so awesome...

Next up is a shorter featurette featuring footage of the voice cast at work and in interviews discussing how different it is to do animation versus live action work and so forth. It's short and fairly informative, but only if you haven't seen features like this before. But it's always interesting to see the actors actually recording lines, and showing the final shot up on screen to compare.

There's a sneak peak of the next animated DC feature "The New Frontier", which looks pretty awesome. There are brief interviews interspersed with silent clips from the movie with the creators. Looks like a lot of fun.

I haven't listened to the audio commentary with the writers, Timm and Capizzi and voice director Andrea Romano. AFter that, the only feature is a lame "Superman's Last Challenge" game. If you're into playing games with the ENTER button on your DVD player, this is for you.

SCORE:
MOVIE: B+
VIDEO: A
AUDIO: B-
EXTRAS: B
OVERALL: B+

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

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Bean

I thought this movie was truly awful. I'm glad you pointed out the cheek bones though, it drove me nuts from the get go. And if you notice, the artists were guilty of the same crime with Luthor, it didn't stand out as bad as with SM but sometimes it was almost impossible to look at.

The story... where to begin... There are precious few similarities between this movie and the source material.

Doomsday kills Superman,
Luthor is pissed that HE didn't get to beat Superman,
Superman comes back to life.

That's it! There was nothing else in the movie that corresponded with the original story in the comics. You mentioned that the lack of a legion of heroes at his funeral served to put the focus on Superman and the others, I disagree. I found that with Supermans funeral in the comics, the thing that really hammered it all home were all the other heroes there mourning him. It really emphasized the fact that despite all of their superpowers and abilities, this man was on a different level altogether, physically and character wise. Their absence from the dvd really irked me.

Since the original story hit the shelves, I've always wanted to see an animated or a feature film made from this storyline, but if this is the best they can come up with, I withdraw my request.

__________________
"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

Brikar

I don't really see that the presence of those heroes would have made much difference. Though I think the movie dropped the ball a bit on this concept, and it's even something I think "Superman Returns" could have explored a little better, the loss of Superman with no other superheroes to fill in the gap is much bigger.

The storyline in the comics had lots of emotional drama for Lois Lane and the Kents and so forth, but let's face it, the world isn't going to hell without Superman. But here, if he's the only one, what happens when he's gone? Crime skyrockets, and even a C-list villain like Toyman ends up being too much for the cops to handle.

So while having a parade of superheroes march down the street for Superman's funeral makes for a nifty image in a comic book, storywise I think it weakens the impact of Superman's death on a certain societal scale.

I'm not saying this movie is amazing by any stretch, but it's pretty decent and fun to watch - which in an animated comic feature is what I look for the most. But I think it gets much of the core points of the death and return of Superman storylines, even if the details aren't identical. If we're looking for faithful adaptations of a specific story, the upcoming "New Frontier" movie is apparently much closer to the graphic novel than this movie was to its source material.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Closet Racist

Thanks for saving me $15...I bought UPRIGHT CITIZEN'S BRIGADE V.2 and ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS instead.

__________________

Bean

Well I suppose we both watched it from a different frame of mind then. I by no means expected it to be a literal translation, but it was so disimilar from the source material that to equate the two as being the same story is just ridiculous.

As for the lack of other heroes, I see what you're saying, but I think we're both looking at this from different perspectives.

In the comics, the death of SM was protrayed as having a similar effect to what you're saying, just in a different way. It wasn't the lack of Superman that would give rise to criinal activity etc.. it was the symbolic meaning. Supermans reputation kept alot of the criminal elements in check rather than his actions. And let's face it, out of all of the heroes, he was the one seen as the "daddy of them all". So the idea that Superman could be killed, emboldened the baddies. And the impact it had on the other heroes as well was quite profound. You can almost hear them mulling it over;
"If HE could be killed... what about me...".

But again, I guess we just went looking for something different out of it.

__________________
"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

Closet Racist

I saw this on Cartoon Network tonight. Anyone catch the animatwd Kevin Smith and his "giant mechanical spider" comment?

__________________

Brikar

Yeah, I thought that was a chuckle-worthy reference. His whole riff on his attempt to make a Superman movie is an astonishing bit, and utterly fucking hilarious.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com