"Enjoy your reign while you may, Superman. For as surely as night follows day... there comes a time when even gods must die." - Lex Luthor
Those ominous words, voiced by none other than James Marsters, in the opening of this feature really set the tone for the entire movie. Superman: Doomsday is the first of, hopefully, many direct-to-DVD movies from DC featuring some of the greatest moments in it's illustrious history. Planned, so far, are adaptations of Marv Wolfman's Teen Titans: Judas Contract, a Wonder Woman feature and January 2008's JLA: New Frontier. DC has stated that they have plans for several other 'major events' to be adapted to movies after these initial releases. I will be doing several features on these direct-to-DVD movies over the next week or so, so make sure to check back for those. For the rest of the Superman: Doomsday review, hit the jump.
In Brief
Superman: Doomsday, the animated, direct-to-DVD movie from DC Comics which retells the Death and Return of Superman. Released September 18, 2007, it is the first of many planned movies featuring the biggest events in DC's history.
Cast
Produced by:
Bruce Timm
Written by:
Duane Capizzi
Starring:
Adam Baldwin - Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Anne Heche - Lois Lane (voice)
James Marsters - Lex Luthor (voice)
Also featuring:
John Di Maggio - Toyman (voice)
Tom Kenny - Superman's Robot (voice)
Swoosie Kurtz - Martha Kent (voice)
Cree Summer - Mercy Graves (voice)
Ray Wise - Perry White (voice)
Adam Wylie - Jimmy Olsen (voice)
Synopsis
The movie kicks off with a brief interlude of Superman doing some heroic deeds while Lex Luthor waxes philosophical with the quote from the beginning of this article. After some brief moments showing Lois and Clark's interactions and basically writing Clark out of the movie by sending him to Afghanistan as correspondence, the movie quickly shifts to a Lex Corp dig site. Lex Corp is digging an unauthorized tunnel deep into the Earth in hopes of harvesting thermal energy from the core. The dig team, already quite deep down, unearths what appears to be an alien space craft. After consulting with Lex, the team begins excavating the ship only to rupture the hatch, unleashing Doomsday upon the world. Doomsday quickly makes short work of the Lex Corp employees and begins destroying everything in his path on a collision course with Metropolis.
Meanwhile, Superman and Lois are having a weekend getaway at the Fortress of Solitude where it is revealed they have been dating for the past 6 months. Lois appears to know he is really Clark Kent, or at least has suspicions, and tries to coax him into telling her his secret identity, which he refuses to do. After a corny 'soldiers are the real heroes' speech in relation to the Iraq War, Lois and Superman are interrupted by Superman's Super Robot, which informs Superman that an incredibly powerful entity from the Kryptonian database is on its way to Metropolis, causing massive amounts of damage along the way. Superman calls the weekend retreat short and brings Lois with him back to Metropolis.This leads to the high point of the movie, the roughly 20 minute long battle with Doomsday. It is a beautifully animated fight that highlights the incredible power of each of the combatants. What starts off looking like a typical "Superman saves the day" fight quickly shows that Superman is really in trouble with this fight. Superman doubled over, coughing up blood, is an excellent sequence in this fight, and does exactly what it set out to show, that this villain will be the death of him. The fight culminates with a battered and beaten Superman whisking Doomsday into the upper atmosphere before bringing him crashing back to the Earth below, cratering in downtown Metropolis, apparently killing both combatants. From the crater, Superman stumbles forward before collapsing at Lois' feet, asking if everyone is safe, before dying in her crying arms.
Days later, a massive funeral is held in downtown Metropolis at a memorial resting place with people all over the world mourning the death of Superman. Lois notices Martha Kent, Clark's mother, at the funeral and, if she only suspected before, confirms Clark was Superman. What follows is a series of newscasts detailing the fallout of the death, people's reactions and the drastic increase in crime associated with his death. Lois, an emotional wreck, journeys to Smallville to meet with Martha, the only person in the world that loved and was loved by Superman, to help her through the grieving process. At this point, Jimmy Olsen is offered a job with a sleazy tabloid paper, which he accepts, in a pointless subplot that seems to have no reason for being in the movie.After Lois returns from Smallville, she begins reporting again. While covering the Toyman, who has kidnapped a bus full of children, she immediately falls into old habits, jumping in and helping the kids escape, even though she no longer has Superman watching her back. Toyman notices her once the children have escaped and, after a few attempts to kill her, knocks the bus over the edge of the building, sending her to her supposed doom. At the same time, the ground at the Superman memorial erupts and, at the last second, Lois is saved by none other than Superman! After taking care of Toyman and turning him over to the shell shocked authorities, he flies the equally shocked Lois home. He mistakenly flies past her home, and seems shocked when she kisses him, before revealing that he seems to have forgotten many key details in his life.
With Superman's return, Metropolis is overcome with joy and Superman is making his presence felt all over town before ending up at Lex Luthor's home, where he seeks his sworn enemy out. He apparently stumbles into a red solar light room where a kryptonite gauntlet-wearing Lex Luthor beats him half to death before thanking him for doing a good job impersonating Superman. It is here that it is revealed Lex stole the body of Superman from his grave and created a clone from his blood, which was swabbed at the scene of his death. The clone has all of Superman's powers, morals and most of his memories, with the exception of non-public things like his relationship with Lois or his true identity, but is under the control of Lex.Meanwhile, Lois and Martha begin questioning the authenticity of the 'new' Superman, wondering why he does not remember either of them and how he came back and so on. As if to affirm their suspicions, the current Superman sees a news report on the Toyman escaping, and how he had murdered a 4 year old girl, and quickly intercept the police taking him back into custody. Seizing the Toyman, he flies him high into the air and drops him, letting him fall to his death, slamming into a police car roof. At the same time, Lex is horrified to find that the real Superman's body has been stolen, which later was revealed to have been done by the Superman Robot, who detected Kal-El's heartbeat. At the Fortress of Solitude, the robot tells us that Superman entered a state of hibernation, his heart beating every couple weeks. After noticing the first one, he arrived too late to find the body stolen and had to wait for a second beat to relocate it at Lex's tower. With Superman's body recovered, the robot begins reviving him with Kryptonian technology and yellow sun light generators.
Meanwhile, Lex begins questioning the cloned Superman's actions of late, with his sudden dark streak and murder on his hands, and orders him to find the real Superman's body or be destroyed. The Superman clone takes the orders and leaves begrudgingly. Later, he disobeys orders and removes the lead encased kryptonite capsule Lex implanted in his brain. Around the same time, Lois recruits Jimmy back from the tabloid he was working for and begin investigating Lex's tower. After incapacitating Lex, they begin digging for clues until they find all the clone research and, eventually, the labs, where dozens of Superman clones, in various stages of development, are found, confirming the truth of a fake Superman.During their search, Lex awakens and quickly pulls a gun on the duo of Jimmy and Lois. Before he can kill them, the Superman clone shows up, destroying Lex's gun before he can kill them. Lex, questioning his creation, threatens to kill him if he does not obey and it is here where it is revealed to Lex that the clone has removed the fail safe already. The clone destroys the lab and all the remaining clones before pursuing Lex. Lex, believing he will be safe from the clone, or at least on equal footing, in his red light strobe room with his kryptonite gauntlets finds out that the clone is far from stupid. The clone rips the entire lead shielded room out of Lex Corp Tower and throws it through several buildings, where it eventually falls to the ground and we are left to believe Lex is dead.
With the clone out of control, the army is brought in in a useless attempt to force him to surrender. After destroying most of the army, the now revived, but still weakened, Superman decides he must take action to stop this monster. Utilizing a yellow light-collecting black with silver S-emblem suit, the one true Superman arrives in Metropolis to stop the impostor and reclaim the mantle of Superman. As he is weakened from his hibernation, he tries to utilize Lex's old kryptonite gun to even the odds against the clone, but it is quickly dodged and the gun sent flying across the city, leaving the weaker Superman to face his full powered clone.
Lois and Jimmy, along with the rest of the city, see two Superman fighting and wonder which, if either, is the real one. Lois, making her decision after being completely shocked, decides to retrieve the kryptonite gun and help stop this clone menace herself. Meanwhile, the two Superman engage in an epic battle, resulting in nearly as much damage as the Doomsday fight. The clone quickly gains the upper hand with his superior strength. Our Superman is winded, and it is obvious he is struggling to keep up, while the clone barely looks phased after the titanic clashes.
The fight leads to the Superman memorial, where the two battle it out before Lois, carrying the kryptonite gun, evens the odds, blasting the clone with a direct hit from the gun. The clone quickly disposes of the gun, destroying it, but the damage is done and it is now an even fight. However, while the gun was destroyed, the kryptonite that powered it is still in its lead cartridge casing rolling in the rubble. After putting our Superman to the ground after a brief struggle, the clone raises the giant S-emblem memorial and prepares to crush Superman with it, finishing him for good. Before he can do so, Superman points out to the clone that he attached the kryptonite casing to him and promptly shoots it with his heat vision, causing it to explode in a large cloud of kryptonite gas. The clone falls, the memorial crumbling on top of him. Mirroring the death of our Superman, the clone rises from the cloud, stumbles out and asks Superman to look after Metropolis and the people before he, himself, dies in Superman's arms.In the aftermath of the battle, the city re-embraces its fallen son. The scene shifts to a later time with Lois and Superman in her apartment. He points out she misspelled 'resurrection' and reveals he won the Smallville spelling bee competition when he was younger, in turn, revealing to her, finally, that he is actually Clark Kent, putting a cap on their relationship. The final scene of the movie reveals Lex Luthor is still alive, living on life support from machines, with Lex narrating, similar to how the movie began, with another ominous quote.
"If history has determined that gods can die, it has also proven they can return from the dead. It would seem you can't be destroyed after all, Superman. It would seem…"
Review
Let me start by saying that this movie is great. It is a movie any comic fan would want to see and does an excellent job of telling the death of Superman. Superman's battle with Doomsday is easily worth the price of the DVD or rental. In fact, I would go so far as to say the movie is worth buying for any comic fan based on the Superman / Doomsday fight alone. The battle truly feels epic and the futility of Superman's actions are emphasized with each attack and the monster shrugging them off to dish out more punishment on our hero. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't feel something when Superman slams Doomsday into the Earth and stumbles out of the rubble before dying in Lois' arms.
The movie's retelling of the Return of Superman, however, was not so great. The biggest mistake the movie makes is trying to fit all of the Death and Return of Superman into one movie. This forced them to cheapen the entire death of the character. In the comics, we had months before we ever saw Superman again with Funeral For A Friend and the build up leading to the Reign of Supermen. Here, Superman is dead for all of five minutes before the clone shows up. We find out Superman didn't die shortly after that and the entire first 30 minute epic battle with Doomsday is washed away and forgotten in less time than it took to take place or setup. It didn't hurt that everything after the supposed death was almost trivial. You literally know he cannot lose now. He already died and there's nothing major that could happen. The movie devolved into a generic action adventure cartoon. While it was not terrible, it was not the same as the first half of the movie and the quality of the story really shows. The final complaint for the Return is with Jimmy Olsen's plotline of leaving the Daily Planet. It made no sense, offered nothing to the story and had no pay off at the end. It was a waste of screen time that served absolutely no purpose.
Another problem I had with the movie was a small gripe with the Doomsday fight scene. Superman has ample opportunities to move Doomsday away from the city and all the people, yet continues fighting with him in downtown Metropolis. In fact, at one point, he opts to save Lois and Jimmy in a helicopter and throws Doomsday down into a building, causing the entire building to collapse, probably killing dozens of bystanders or security and cleaning staff left in the building. Even the final death, he flies into the upper atmosphere before plunging back to the Earth and landing smack in the middle of Metropolis, causing a huge crater and probably killing dozens or more people. A small, infintesimal change in his trajetory would have put him into the outskirts of town, saving those people. I know they wanted to use dramatic license for the final death, but it was just something odd that stuck out to me and the only detraction I can think of for the first half of the movie. Again, this is only a minor thing I noticed and does not really affect my enjoyment of the movie in the slightest.
The final complaint I have is with the art designs. While the animation is fluid and crisp and truly brings to life the Man of Steel and gives power to his slightest motions, the actual character designs and artistic direction is quite poor in comparison to the lower budget DC cartoon television shows, like JLU or even the 90's Superman cartoon. They use an odd outline on the faces to depict jaws, which is most noticable, and distracting, on Superman himself. While James Marsters' voice for Lex was perfect, the character is quite slim and suffers from the same jaw deficiency that Superman does. Considering Bruce Timm did the art for both the TV series and this movie, I find it hard to understand why he chose to differentiate from the superior versions he helped design already.
On the voice acting side of things, just about every character is voiced perfectly. There are some complaints for Anne Heche's Lois on the internet, but I cannot figure out why. She did an excellent job here. Adam Baldwin's Superman is servicible. It is not overly great or terrible either. It does the job and he depicts a very good Superman. James Marsters steals the show here though with his Lex Luthor and he will be the definitive Lex voice for me from now on.
Animation
As I said earlier, the animation is incredible. While I disagree with the designs, everything in motion is perfect. Every blow between Superman and Doomsday, and later his clone, are beautifully animated and the DVD transfer is nearly perfect from what I can tell. This is top notch superhero animation and you will be hard pressed to find anyone complain about the actual animation of this film.
Comic Book Comparison
There were some very odd changes from the comic book that made little sense to me. Things like the Reign of Supermen being dropped are fine by me. They are far too complicated to explain in the limited time frame or even do justice. Same goes for the whole Lex Luthor garbage that was going on in the comics at the time with Lex II really being the original Lex's clone after he died of kryptonite poisoning. Ya, it was actually much more convolted than that and I'm surprised I managed to condense it to one sentence.What I'm complaining about though is stuff like the Jimmy Olsen plotline, where he leaves the Daily Planet and joins a trashy tabloid, or things like Clark's father never being seen or mentioned and assumed dead by the viewer, which never happened in the comics. Little things like that are very odd and I honestly can't think of a reason for the changes.
Another oddity is the timeframe. The fight takes place at night in the movie, yet in the day during the comics. Is this some animation related change? Is night time easier to animate or colour? I have no idea why such a small thing was changed, but it was instantly noticable for me.
The last major difference I can think of is the death of Superman and Doomsday. I assume dramatically, flying into the atmosphere and having a giant craterring explosion, is a much more fulfilling and believable death than the two just randomly connecting on each other and killing one another, as seen in the comics.
From a comic standpoint though, the movie does an excellent job staying faithful. Some creative liberties are taken, but even the clone of Superman seems to be modelled off of Superboy, who was a clone, with Cyborg Superman's appearance and sinister motives and finally with the Eradicator's killing and ruthless methods. So while it does not accurately depict the Reign, I think it does an excellent job condensing it for movie consumption.
DVD Extras
Many reviews of this movie ignore the plethora of extras that came with the DVD. Some of these are almost worth the price of the DVD alone and are definitely worth renting to see.
The first extra is a commentary, featuring Timm, Capizzi, Romano, and several others. Timm, Romana and Capizzi dominate most of the commentary, but the other members are never left out and everyone gets a chance to have their say. The dynamic between Timm and Capizzi shines through and it's great hearing them discuss the various things they did not see eye-to-eye on.
Next up is easily the best extra, the hour-long documentary Requiem & Rebirth: Superman Lives!. It is a thorough and complete documentary, detailing the entire process, from conception to completion, of the death of Superman in comics back in the 90's. Many great creators that were involved in the event, including Jurgens, Stern and more, are featured here and it's great to see them weigh in on the events leading up to, and including, the death. It even goes into the reasons for the death and how they post-poned the in-comic wedding due to the live version TV show, Lois & Clark. It's a great documentary and, as far as extras go, it doesn't get any better than this. The only complaint is the lack of Superboy due to the ridiculous lawsuit currently going on over the rights to the character. Everyone else is featured, and while they talk about him in general, they never once show him.
Finally, you get an amazing Justice League: The New Frontier 10 minute teaser. It is a great sneak peak at the upcoming film with never before seen artwork and finished animation and much better than the ones currently floating around YouTube. Another incredible extra that makes owning this disc a must.
The remainder of the extras are standard fair and barely worth mentioning. Stuff like vignettes on the voice actors and random trailers from other Warner films. Decent, but nothing major worth discussing. Someone should like it though, so I thought I'd mention them to be thorough.
Conclusion
Despite my complaints, this movie is a must see for any comic fan. The fight with Doomsday is more than enough to make this movie worth it. Add in the incredible extras, especially the hour long documentary, and this is a no brainer purchase for most comic fans. Great job all around. Takes the best of the comic, and with some minor qualms on my part, combines it with new material to make an incredible movie experience. Do yourself a favour and rent this the next time you're at Blockbuster or even buy it if you have the extra cash. I'm not much of a Superman fan, but this is definitely a must own film for me and even with the changes from the actual comic, the movie is still a great experience that can't be missed.
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