Post by Heineken Skywalker on Oct 19, 2007 10:36:42 GMT -5
The movie Bryan Singer should've made!
This made for dvd animated feature is a loose adaptation of "The Death of Superman", which is still the best selling graphic novel of all time.
In this version, Lex Luthor's company, Lexcorp accidentally unearths the creature, Doomsday, an unstoppable, rampaging, killing machine. Doomsday makes his way to Metropolis, all the while destroying property and killing everything in his path, including forest animals. Meanwhile, in a moment slightly reminicent of SUPERMAN II, unbeknownst to them, Superman and Lois Lane have been enjoying a romantic interlude at the Fortress of Solitude, while all of this is going on in the "real world". Turns out that General Zod and his cohorts in that film were nothing compared to the brute force that is Doomsday.
Superman and Doomsday face-off and one of the best fight scenes to ever appear in any adaptation of Superman follows. I should mention here that even though it's animated, this dvd is rated PG-13, therefore, the fight is as extreme (and bloody!) as that rating will allow. Not to mention some of the language peppered throughout this movie is a little spicier than what you'll normally catch being spouted by cartoon characters on Saturday morning. This is not for very small children!
I don't think it's spoiling anything for anyone to say that Superman doesn't survive the fight. (If this revelation surprises you, look again at the title of the graphic novel it's based on. That was not false advertising.) There is a huge funeral and the world mourns the loss of its greatest hero. Even Lex Luthor gets depressed, but of course with Luthor, it's always with a twist. He mourns the fact that he was robbed of disposing of Supes himself.
Here's where the movie starts to wildly deviate from the original comic books it's based on, but I have to say that I think the writers of this version have done a good job of coming up with a way of telling and tieing up this story. I won't bore you with the details of the differences as they're two completely different mediums. Plus, if you've read the book, I don't want to spoil the movie since it's so different. Suffice it to say, the comic books were able to tell a much more epic storyline with lots of twists and turns, while the movie has to wrap everything up in 75 minutes. There is no way they could have told the same story in animation in that amount of time. But I'm pleased with the resolution in this version. You don't have to know tons of Superman backstory in order to jump right into this movie and ultimately the end result is pretty much the same as the comic.
I stand by my opinion that the 90's animated version of Superman, alongside the first two Christopher Reeve movies, and the current live-action series "SMALLVILLE", are still the best versions of the character ever put on screen. And this movie is a great addition to that line-up. Why Bryan Singer didn't adapt "Death of Superman", as Kevin Smith pretty much wanted to, and instead gave us his angst-filled, soap opera take on the mythos is beyond me. "DOOMSDAY" has everything I want to see in a stand-alone Superman adventure. Great characters, an epic landscape, a fast paced tight story with zero "fat" and tons of great action. Not to mention, it also has great drama and heart. Bonus: the plot has nothing to do with real estate, except for Doomsday destroying it. With some tweaking in the dialogue, and a bit more character and plot development to fill out the running time, I would love to see this as an epic, big budget, live-action movie. Hopefully Singer has learned from his mistakes and SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL, will be closer to what Superman fans really want to see in a film.
On the production or behind the scenes front, if you're familiar with the animated Superman series of the 90's, or the more recent Justice League of America series, this movie has a very similar visual style to those. Artist/producer/writer/director Bruce Timm's fingerprints are all over this and I mean that in a very good way. There are a couple of character design choices I wasn't crazy about, but overall, thumbs up.
Even though Tim Daly, Dana Delaney and Clancy Brown were not brought back to reprise the voices they did on the animated series, Superman, Lois Lane & Lex Luthor, respectively, the new voice actors do a good job and I quickly forgot that they sounded slightly different. In fact, the producers have put together a really good voice cast. This time around, Superman/Clark Kent is voiced by Adam Baldwin (Full Metal Jacket", tv series "Firefly"), Lois Lane by Anne Heche ("Donnie Brasco", tv series "Men in Trees") and James Marsters (Best known for playing Spike on the series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). All three do a very good job in their respective roles. Rounding out the cast are Swoozie Kurtz as Martha Kent, Adam Wylie as Jimmy Olsen and Ray Wise as Perry White. Ray can currently be seen in a hilarious role as The Devil on the series "Reaper".
The cast also includes a couple of big name voice actors: John Di Maggio, best known for the voices of Bender in "Futurama" and Dr. Drakken in "Kim Possible", and Townsend Coleman, best known for voicing "The Tick" and Michelangelo in the classic version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" have small roles.
Overall, like pretty much every adaptation, whether it's a classic novel, comic book or graphic novel, it's not exactly like its source material. If you're expecting this to be the comics, only animated, you'll be disappointed. But if you're in the mood for a well told Superman story and aren't biased against animation, give this one a look. I think it's well worth your time.
8/10
This made for dvd animated feature is a loose adaptation of "The Death of Superman", which is still the best selling graphic novel of all time.
In this version, Lex Luthor's company, Lexcorp accidentally unearths the creature, Doomsday, an unstoppable, rampaging, killing machine. Doomsday makes his way to Metropolis, all the while destroying property and killing everything in his path, including forest animals. Meanwhile, in a moment slightly reminicent of SUPERMAN II, unbeknownst to them, Superman and Lois Lane have been enjoying a romantic interlude at the Fortress of Solitude, while all of this is going on in the "real world". Turns out that General Zod and his cohorts in that film were nothing compared to the brute force that is Doomsday.
Superman and Doomsday face-off and one of the best fight scenes to ever appear in any adaptation of Superman follows. I should mention here that even though it's animated, this dvd is rated PG-13, therefore, the fight is as extreme (and bloody!) as that rating will allow. Not to mention some of the language peppered throughout this movie is a little spicier than what you'll normally catch being spouted by cartoon characters on Saturday morning. This is not for very small children!
I don't think it's spoiling anything for anyone to say that Superman doesn't survive the fight. (If this revelation surprises you, look again at the title of the graphic novel it's based on. That was not false advertising.) There is a huge funeral and the world mourns the loss of its greatest hero. Even Lex Luthor gets depressed, but of course with Luthor, it's always with a twist. He mourns the fact that he was robbed of disposing of Supes himself.
Here's where the movie starts to wildly deviate from the original comic books it's based on, but I have to say that I think the writers of this version have done a good job of coming up with a way of telling and tieing up this story. I won't bore you with the details of the differences as they're two completely different mediums. Plus, if you've read the book, I don't want to spoil the movie since it's so different. Suffice it to say, the comic books were able to tell a much more epic storyline with lots of twists and turns, while the movie has to wrap everything up in 75 minutes. There is no way they could have told the same story in animation in that amount of time. But I'm pleased with the resolution in this version. You don't have to know tons of Superman backstory in order to jump right into this movie and ultimately the end result is pretty much the same as the comic.
I stand by my opinion that the 90's animated version of Superman, alongside the first two Christopher Reeve movies, and the current live-action series "SMALLVILLE", are still the best versions of the character ever put on screen. And this movie is a great addition to that line-up. Why Bryan Singer didn't adapt "Death of Superman", as Kevin Smith pretty much wanted to, and instead gave us his angst-filled, soap opera take on the mythos is beyond me. "DOOMSDAY" has everything I want to see in a stand-alone Superman adventure. Great characters, an epic landscape, a fast paced tight story with zero "fat" and tons of great action. Not to mention, it also has great drama and heart. Bonus: the plot has nothing to do with real estate, except for Doomsday destroying it. With some tweaking in the dialogue, and a bit more character and plot development to fill out the running time, I would love to see this as an epic, big budget, live-action movie. Hopefully Singer has learned from his mistakes and SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL, will be closer to what Superman fans really want to see in a film.
On the production or behind the scenes front, if you're familiar with the animated Superman series of the 90's, or the more recent Justice League of America series, this movie has a very similar visual style to those. Artist/producer/writer/director Bruce Timm's fingerprints are all over this and I mean that in a very good way. There are a couple of character design choices I wasn't crazy about, but overall, thumbs up.
Even though Tim Daly, Dana Delaney and Clancy Brown were not brought back to reprise the voices they did on the animated series, Superman, Lois Lane & Lex Luthor, respectively, the new voice actors do a good job and I quickly forgot that they sounded slightly different. In fact, the producers have put together a really good voice cast. This time around, Superman/Clark Kent is voiced by Adam Baldwin (Full Metal Jacket", tv series "Firefly"), Lois Lane by Anne Heche ("Donnie Brasco", tv series "Men in Trees") and James Marsters (Best known for playing Spike on the series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). All three do a very good job in their respective roles. Rounding out the cast are Swoozie Kurtz as Martha Kent, Adam Wylie as Jimmy Olsen and Ray Wise as Perry White. Ray can currently be seen in a hilarious role as The Devil on the series "Reaper".
The cast also includes a couple of big name voice actors: John Di Maggio, best known for the voices of Bender in "Futurama" and Dr. Drakken in "Kim Possible", and Townsend Coleman, best known for voicing "The Tick" and Michelangelo in the classic version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" have small roles.
Overall, like pretty much every adaptation, whether it's a classic novel, comic book or graphic novel, it's not exactly like its source material. If you're expecting this to be the comics, only animated, you'll be disappointed. But if you're in the mood for a well told Superman story and aren't biased against animation, give this one a look. I think it's well worth your time.
8/10
