Post by Jack Napier on Aug 2, 2007 1:11:28 GMT -5
One of my friends on the BOF Forum was at Comic Con and wrote up a review:
www.on-film.net/moviereviews/superman-doomsday_gregg-bray_2007.html
This is a tough one to review. My immediate reaction is that it was a fairly solid vehicle, with great action, excellent vocal work (save one notable miscasting), and a mature take on the material. No, this one ain’t for the kids. But as I digested the video, some problems just get popping up.
The screening took place in Ballroom 20, the largest ballroom in the convention center. It took a while to get off the ground, as there was a push to get as many people into the room as possible. Happily, I arrived well over an hour before the event, and made myself comfortable toward the front of the room.
After a brief introduction, the lights dimmed, the audience cheered, and it was time for the show.
Superman/Doomsday is based on “The Death of Superman,” “Reign of The Supermen,” and “The Return of Superman” storylines from the early and mid 1990s. These comics have spawned a video game adaptation, a novel, and finally this animated “feature.”
Bruce Timm produced the film, and it has a strong resemblance to his animated style for Superman: The Animated Series. There were some character redesigns, but most of the changes were minor. Lex is a bit “thinned down,” possibly to match the somewhat higher voice James Marsters provides, as opposed to Clancy Brown.
Lois and Jimmy are both a bit different as well, but still have a basic resemblance to their television counter-parts. The main aesthetic difference for Superman is the exaggeration of his cheekbones. I wasn’t entirely wild about this aesthetic, but Adam Baldwin delivers such a capable vocal performance that it’s easy to overlook.
The film runs at just over 70 minutes, so there is a great deal cut out of the book. If you’re looking for fidelity from the source material, I’m afraid you’ll have to find it in the SNES video game. Gone is the “Reign of the Supermen.” No Connor, Steel, or Eradicator. While I can understand the filmmakers cutting these elements for a more fluid storytelling, I still missed them.
The movie begins with Lois and Superman taking a trip up to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and hanging with his robot. Lois more or less tells Superman that she knows who he is, and wants him to come out and say it. It’s an awkward moment for big blue, but it’s also one of best-handled moments in the feature.
In the meantime, Lex has a team drilling deep underground, where his team unearths a crashed space ship. Doomsday breaks out of it, and then the body count begins. This is possibly the most violent cartoon Timm has produced so far, as dozens of soldiers and innocent bystanders are absolutely pulverized.
Superman returns to Metropolis, and the battle between Superman and Doomsday is epic. This is the highlight of the picture. Their fight is in the neighborhood of ten minutes in length. The audience gave visceral and audible reactions to every bone crunching moment. The iconic broken flagpole, holding a tattered cape, is still in the feature.
Doomsday’s exit from the story felt a bit…abrupt, but it was still an excellent fight sequence.
After Superman’s “death,” we’re told that the crime rate has sky rocketed in the Blue Boy Scout’s absence. Shortly thereafter, Superman returns…we think. He does all that crime fighting stuff, but he seems a bit off. He barely recognizes Lois, he takes the law into his own hands (in one of the more memorable scenes, with VIOLENT consequences to a canon character), and just seems less…well, Super.
Could this be the real Superman?
I’m not going to go into the story too much, as at this point we’re already more than halfway through the film, and what’s the sense in providing too many spoilers? I will add the following:
Lex Luthor, voiced brilliantly by James Marsters (Buffy, Smallville), is nothing short of the evil maniac we know him to be. There’s a scene where he invites “Superman” into a red lamp room, puts on kryptonite gloves, and has his way with him. Having said that, there’s a moment in the film that showcases Lex shooting a character to death. To best avoid a direct spoiler, I’ll add that I could not imagine Lex, even for a moment, entertaining this character’s death to protect himself. It felt nearly arbitrary.
Adam Baldwin: As much as I love Superman from the animated series, and the JLU, I didn’t find myself wishing for either vocal artists to return as I viewed the movie. Baldwin found the character, and really gave a nuanced vocal performance.
I did have a few problems. First off, how many people have to die before Superman shows up? While I have no issue with violence in an animated medium, some of the body count seems a bit gratuitous as Superman was on the way. Superman is “faster than a speeding bullet,” after all, and could have arrived on the scene much earlier in other incarnations.
Also, I wasn’t a fan of Anne Heche’s Lois Lane. She is a capable actress to be sure, but I found myself missing Dana Delany, Erica Durance, Margot Kidder, and others who could play Lois’ harder side with better success. Not necessarily a bad performance, but I couldn’t imagine this Lois quipping “Smallville,” and having much behind it.
Her best moment is at the end of the film, which is a quieter moment between her and Clark.
I suppose another issue is something that bothered me about SUPERMAN RETURNS. SUPERMAN/DOOMSDAY does not fit into the animated series and JLU, but its style is so similar it could possibly fit into the series if we are to ignore the Doomsday story line presented in the series. Maybe a bit more visual deviation would have worked a bit better.
Over all, I prefer the animated series canon, followed by the JLU. I still would have loved to see a more faithful translation from the comics, as it’s one of the stories that really put Superman back on the map for the younger generation in the 1990s, much like John Byrne’s “The Man of Steel” did in the 1980s.
Still, it’s a worthy entry, and I’m very much looking forward to additional adaptations from the comics to screen (next up is THE NEW FRONTIER).
As for my quibbles with the vocal work from Heche. In another panel, Andrea Romano (vocal director) mentioned that many fans approached her, disappointed that Kevin Conroy wasn’t voicing Batman in FRONTIER. How could anyone else play the character?
Perhaps that partially accounts for missing Delany. After all, she’s voicing Lois in THE BATMAN season premiere this fall. Perhaps I just grew accustomed to one particular take on the character.
FINAL VERDICT: B
Sounds cool. And it looks like they may have brought in the Eradicator/Last Son of Krypton after all, though I could be misinterpreting his hints.
www.on-film.net/moviereviews/superman-doomsday_gregg-bray_2007.html
This is a tough one to review. My immediate reaction is that it was a fairly solid vehicle, with great action, excellent vocal work (save one notable miscasting), and a mature take on the material. No, this one ain’t for the kids. But as I digested the video, some problems just get popping up.
The screening took place in Ballroom 20, the largest ballroom in the convention center. It took a while to get off the ground, as there was a push to get as many people into the room as possible. Happily, I arrived well over an hour before the event, and made myself comfortable toward the front of the room.
After a brief introduction, the lights dimmed, the audience cheered, and it was time for the show.
Superman/Doomsday is based on “The Death of Superman,” “Reign of The Supermen,” and “The Return of Superman” storylines from the early and mid 1990s. These comics have spawned a video game adaptation, a novel, and finally this animated “feature.”
Bruce Timm produced the film, and it has a strong resemblance to his animated style for Superman: The Animated Series. There were some character redesigns, but most of the changes were minor. Lex is a bit “thinned down,” possibly to match the somewhat higher voice James Marsters provides, as opposed to Clancy Brown.
Lois and Jimmy are both a bit different as well, but still have a basic resemblance to their television counter-parts. The main aesthetic difference for Superman is the exaggeration of his cheekbones. I wasn’t entirely wild about this aesthetic, but Adam Baldwin delivers such a capable vocal performance that it’s easy to overlook.
The film runs at just over 70 minutes, so there is a great deal cut out of the book. If you’re looking for fidelity from the source material, I’m afraid you’ll have to find it in the SNES video game. Gone is the “Reign of the Supermen.” No Connor, Steel, or Eradicator. While I can understand the filmmakers cutting these elements for a more fluid storytelling, I still missed them.
The movie begins with Lois and Superman taking a trip up to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and hanging with his robot. Lois more or less tells Superman that she knows who he is, and wants him to come out and say it. It’s an awkward moment for big blue, but it’s also one of best-handled moments in the feature.
In the meantime, Lex has a team drilling deep underground, where his team unearths a crashed space ship. Doomsday breaks out of it, and then the body count begins. This is possibly the most violent cartoon Timm has produced so far, as dozens of soldiers and innocent bystanders are absolutely pulverized.
Superman returns to Metropolis, and the battle between Superman and Doomsday is epic. This is the highlight of the picture. Their fight is in the neighborhood of ten minutes in length. The audience gave visceral and audible reactions to every bone crunching moment. The iconic broken flagpole, holding a tattered cape, is still in the feature.
Doomsday’s exit from the story felt a bit…abrupt, but it was still an excellent fight sequence.
After Superman’s “death,” we’re told that the crime rate has sky rocketed in the Blue Boy Scout’s absence. Shortly thereafter, Superman returns…we think. He does all that crime fighting stuff, but he seems a bit off. He barely recognizes Lois, he takes the law into his own hands (in one of the more memorable scenes, with VIOLENT consequences to a canon character), and just seems less…well, Super.
Could this be the real Superman?
I’m not going to go into the story too much, as at this point we’re already more than halfway through the film, and what’s the sense in providing too many spoilers? I will add the following:
Lex Luthor, voiced brilliantly by James Marsters (Buffy, Smallville), is nothing short of the evil maniac we know him to be. There’s a scene where he invites “Superman” into a red lamp room, puts on kryptonite gloves, and has his way with him. Having said that, there’s a moment in the film that showcases Lex shooting a character to death. To best avoid a direct spoiler, I’ll add that I could not imagine Lex, even for a moment, entertaining this character’s death to protect himself. It felt nearly arbitrary.
Adam Baldwin: As much as I love Superman from the animated series, and the JLU, I didn’t find myself wishing for either vocal artists to return as I viewed the movie. Baldwin found the character, and really gave a nuanced vocal performance.
I did have a few problems. First off, how many people have to die before Superman shows up? While I have no issue with violence in an animated medium, some of the body count seems a bit gratuitous as Superman was on the way. Superman is “faster than a speeding bullet,” after all, and could have arrived on the scene much earlier in other incarnations.
Also, I wasn’t a fan of Anne Heche’s Lois Lane. She is a capable actress to be sure, but I found myself missing Dana Delany, Erica Durance, Margot Kidder, and others who could play Lois’ harder side with better success. Not necessarily a bad performance, but I couldn’t imagine this Lois quipping “Smallville,” and having much behind it.
Her best moment is at the end of the film, which is a quieter moment between her and Clark.
I suppose another issue is something that bothered me about SUPERMAN RETURNS. SUPERMAN/DOOMSDAY does not fit into the animated series and JLU, but its style is so similar it could possibly fit into the series if we are to ignore the Doomsday story line presented in the series. Maybe a bit more visual deviation would have worked a bit better.
Over all, I prefer the animated series canon, followed by the JLU. I still would have loved to see a more faithful translation from the comics, as it’s one of the stories that really put Superman back on the map for the younger generation in the 1990s, much like John Byrne’s “The Man of Steel” did in the 1980s.
Still, it’s a worthy entry, and I’m very much looking forward to additional adaptations from the comics to screen (next up is THE NEW FRONTIER).
As for my quibbles with the vocal work from Heche. In another panel, Andrea Romano (vocal director) mentioned that many fans approached her, disappointed that Kevin Conroy wasn’t voicing Batman in FRONTIER. How could anyone else play the character?
Perhaps that partially accounts for missing Delany. After all, she’s voicing Lois in THE BATMAN season premiere this fall. Perhaps I just grew accustomed to one particular take on the character.
FINAL VERDICT: B
Sounds cool. And it looks like they may have brought in the Eradicator/Last Son of Krypton after all, though I could be misinterpreting his hints.
