DVD : Superman - Doomsday (DC Universe Animated Original Movie)

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- ANOTHER "SUPER ATTEMPT" OFF TRACK
Boy, is this a tough one. Once again, the "powers that be" bring us an off shoot of a sure fire project with what they think it should be instead of the fans. Make no mistake about it, this is a must addition to any Superman DVD collection as it is very well produced but falls short in all the areas you can read in other reviews. The producers and directors of the Superman movies also appear to be of the notion that the public is tired of the Man of Steel on the big screen. The problem is, we're tired of the same old story being retold as was the problem with Superman Returns which is Superman, the Movie retold. A great idea would be to bring this epic battle to the big screen. I've written an outline myself which also includes Batman in the movie to give it that "World's Finest" flavor. There's no doubt in my mind that such a project would line 'em up out the theater doors like they've never seen. But, I'm just a simple fan. What in the world would I know?

Rating:

- Not bad animation, but...
Well, this movie didn't really have much in common with the Death of Superman storyline other than that Doomsday was in it and Superman died. The whole rest of the story seemed to be taken in bits and pieces from the movies (mostly Superman Returns). I found myself watching scenes and thinking "Ah, I know that scene. It's from Superman II." and so on. This movie has almost nothing in common with the comic or the book (The Death and Life of Superman) either.

It wasn't really the complete deviation from the story that bugged me. It was the little things that didn't need to be changed. See below for examples.

--Did the director or writer even read the comic? Doesn't look like it. Let's see--Lois is having an affair with Superman, but doesn't know that he's Clark Kent (she guesses, but he hasn't told her). This would be from Superman Returns. In the comic (and book version), they're already engaged and the secret has already been told to Lois.

--Only Martha Kent is shown. We are to assume that Jonathon is dead? This would be from Superman Returns again.

--Jimmy Olsen quits the Daily Planet and goes to work for a tabloid? What was the point of that, exactly?

--Lex Luthor is shown to be a super genius (ex: he comes up with a cure for MS and has other diseases being worked on). Evidently, they got him mixed up with Brainiac (hey, maybe they DID read a comic or two!) And when did he start looking like an anorexic? I won't even go into how different the comic Lex is from this version. Would take way too long. Let it suffice to say that they took the easy way out using a Lex that everyone was more or less familiar with already.

I understand the shortcuts. The whole 'real' story couldn't have been told in one DVD. However, the things that were changed for no apparent good reason (those items listed above) were EXTREMELY annoying.

If you don't know anything about the Superman universe, this is a pretty good movie.

If you don't know much about Superman, rent this and see if you like it. I don't see how any Superman fan could not walk away from this a bit irritated, though.

As for the voices and characters:

Anne Heche did a nice job as Lois. She was shown as being uber-skinny, but that's a nitpick. She seemed to be in character.

Baldwin (Adam?) was okay. Made Supes sound like he was half asleep, but it wasn't horrible. He was drawn like a blockhead, but that's the way everyone wants to draw him nowadays. Laugh if you want to, but the best cartoon version of Superman was on Superfriends. Really.

Swoosie Kurtz did an okay job with her tiny role as Martha Kent. I have a problem with her voice, though, because whenever I hear it, I picture Swoosie instead of whatever character she's voicing, but that's just me.

All in all, I'd say rent it first.

Rating:

- WOW! What A Disappointment
I have pretty much the same gripe as the countless others who didnt like this DVD. Storyline sucked, not by the comic, etc. etc. But I wanted to point out another annoying aspect of this cartoon... the voice of Lois Lane. It was horrible!! it sounded like the lady held her nose closed throughout the entire voice-over! so annoying... no connection with her characters emotions... monotoned nose-talking... completely turned me off numerous times over. The only thing keeping me going was the hope that it would get better... but unfortunately it never did.

Rating:

- IT'S NOT THE COMIC BUT DOES A FAIR JOB
The Death of Superman was perhaps the greatest publicity stunt in comic book history. We comic fans knew that Superman would never truly be dead but the event did what it set out to do...garner world-wide media attention and sell a gazillion copies. The story itself is hardly a classic. Doomsday was some character cooked up in a meeting with various DC artists and writers. He would not even get an origin until several years later. It's interesting to note that while watching the documentary on the comic event, the story might not have ever taken place if DC had not been forced to push back the wedding of Superman and Lois Lane because Warner Bros. wanted the even to first happen on the old Lois & Clark TV show. With their plots for the year having to be shelved, the Superman team hatched the ultimate plot..."let's just kill `im!"

The story of Superman's death and return was played out over dozens of comic issues in all four Superman titles. So obviously in a 75 minute movie a lot had to be condensed or lost entirely. Doomsday is accidentally released from his prison deep beneath the Earth's surface by employees of Lexcorp who are illegally mining. Doomsday immediately goes on a rampage, killing all of the Lexcorp employees (hence the PG-13 rating) and heads for Metropolis. One of the story elements from the comics that was dropped was Doomsday's battle with the Justice League. This is a solo Superman adventure which disappointed me because I was looking forward to seeing Booster Gold (the dumbest Superhero in history) get trounced on the small screen.

The climactic battle between Superman and Doomsday maintains that bigger than life feel of the comics. You may recall that the final battle was told entirely in splash pages. Here the scope is just as big as entire buildings crumble straight down in a scene eerily similar to the Twin Towers on 9/11. I won't give away the hows, the death scene was handled much more dramatically than the double-knockout of the comic. Now it's important to note that this all happens in about the first half hour so more than half the film focuses on life in metropolis after Superman's death, and his eventual return. Again, owing to limited time, we get the appearance of a man who claims to be Superman. What the writers essentially did was take the idea behind the Superboy clone, the evil Cyborg Superman, and the Eradicator Superman and meld them all together. This Superman soon appears but Lois immediately knows something isn't quite right about him.

The one aspect of the film that most disappointed me was the part Lex Luthor played in it. While Lex had little to do with the story in the comics, here's he's given a central role. We've had five big screen Superman films and now one animated film and Lex Luthor has played a main role in all but Superman III. In as much as an animated film is going to appeal much more to a core comic fan audience, I would have liked to have seen the writers be a little more creative than falling back on Lex Luthor as the main villain again.

The animation is only average, and honestly, probably not as good as the Superman animated series or the Justice League. Supes had these two lines on either side of his face to define his cheekbones but they never moved with his expressions so they ended up looking more like scars. Weird! The voice talent on the other hand was very good. Adam Baldwin did a find job as Superman as did James Marsters as Lex Luthor.

What really brings my grade of the DVD up are the special features. There is a 45 minute documentary "Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives!" which is truly outstanding. This film details the entire process of the creation of the comic story featuring comments by writers and artists: Louise Simonson, Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Jon Bogdanove, Brett Breeding, Paul Levitz, and former publisher Jeanette Kahn. While they deny doing the story as a publicity event, I can't deny the sincerity that they put into the story. It seems even they were surprised at what a media stir the event caused. The movie itself is good...not great, but the DVD package is worth it for the historical documentary.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

Rating:

- The Most Brutal Superhero Cartoon I Have Ever Seen. I Loved It!
From the first moment that Doomsday killed all the miners in such a graphic way, I was hooked. Humans were tossed around like dolls, punched through buildings and cement (yuck), necks snapped like twigs, and all this was shown and not left to our imagination.

The battle between Superman and Doomsday was action packed, brutal (can't stop using that word), bloody and ultimately very satisfying. This isn't your average kids cartoon aimed at 5-9 year olds. This is a clear mature cartoon for adults and I say it's about time.

The drawings were okay, not great. Superman was drawn to look older, more wrinkles on his face. While Lois and Luther looks like they just got out of college. Doomsday looked bad @SS.

Lois dating Superman for 6 months and still not knowing that he and Clark are one in the same was a weak story plot point, but I got past it.

I recommend this cartoon for all fans. Get ready for a fun ride with amazing fight scenes.

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