SUPERMAN: DOOMSDAY
June 16th 2009 02:37
Category: Videos
“Look up in the sky, is it a bird, is it a plane…no its Superman!”
Based on the character created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Directed by: Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery & Brandon Vietti
Screenplay by: Duane Capizzi
Producer: Bruce Timm
Starring: Adam Baldwin (Superman), Anne Heche (Lois Lane), James Masters (Lex Luthor), John DiMaggio (Toyman), Swoosie Kurtz (Martha Kent), Cree Summer (Mercy Graves), Ray Wise (Percy White) & Adam Wylie (Jimmy Olsen)
Produced by: Warner Bros Animation & DC Comics
Released by: Warner Bros Entertainment
Running Time: 74 minutes Rating: M
Making an animated Superman feature sounds like a great idea, considering the kind of things that the guy gets up to as well as those he often finds himself facing off against it makes production a tad bit easier. Don’t have to worry about actors and stunt men getting injured, using half the budget on major CGI effects or getting your shoot rained off or effected by some other weather phenomena. Now having said that one would expect both Warner Bros and DC Comics to really give an animated Superman feature all the attention that their considerable resources can bear on this production. Certainly as far as animation goes the effects and production values are very slick, but in spite of all the wizardry there is a serious flaw in this feature.
Essentially the core behind this particular film is the story that was unleashed back in the nineties when DC Comics in an unprecedented step decided that they would kill off one of their most iconic characters ever – Superman. To do this a supervillain of uncharacteristic power and malevolence was created specifically with the intention of taking down the Big Blue for good. Apparently Superman was no longer relative to the audience of the hip happening nineties, changes needed to be undertaken to try and pep things up as far as I could understand DC’s decision to make this epochal move.
Now I don’t use the word epochal lightly here, this literally was a major change to the entire DC universe and it was one that was going to have major impact within a multitude of comics. Unlike other similar events that both DC and Marvel have introduced since the Death of Superman this particular show stopper really did stop things and change the very fabric of the fictional universe that DC and its staff had spent numerous years creating. Suddenly there was a humungous Superman sized gap in the weave of the consensual fiction that is the DC universe, and it was a hole not created in a single issue but in multiple issues of not only Superman specific comics but the Justice League comics as well. This was a truly epic event, one that would have made the ancient saga poets of the Norse era weep with both joy and sadness at its scope and breadth of vision.
A hardcover novel running to several hundred pages and titled the Death and Life of Superman was even produced in the aftermath of the whole affair and it received rave reviews. I myself have read this work and found that it was good, very good; the author whose name unfortunately escapes me truly crafted a masterpiece that had me gripped in the thrall of his truly excellent narrative. So it’s interesting to note that in the print medium and the medium of comics the demise of this iconic character, a character that has been around for at least seventy years was given a high degree of exposure. Now as you reach this particular line let your eyes glance back up to the stats of the movie and take a gander at the running time of this baby.
Yep you read right, seventy four minutes, fourteen minutes over an hour. When it comes to the death of Superman being done in an animated feature it seems that Warner Bros and DC both reckon that it’s only worth a little bit over an hour. And that’s the serious flaw within this film, and it’s a common move made by American movie makers, they have an epic tale and they just have to condense it down into what almost might be considered a sound bite of a story. Lets face it Doomsday, the creature who eventually kills Superman, creates a wave of carnage across the United States and takes out several major members of the Justice League before he even gets anywhere near Metropolis and Superman.
Not in this incarnation though, here he just trashes a bunch of Lexcorp workers, wrecks an oil tanker and then suddenly finds himself in Metropolis ready to wreak all manner of havoc on the unsuspecting citizens and their caped protector. I know there is a concept called poetic license and surely DC and Warner have every right to exercise this concept, if it’s done well but unfortunately in this case it isn’t. The voice acting in this feature is superlative, James Masters is superb as Lex Luthor and Adam Baldwin does a great job of Superman – it’s just a shame that the story has been so shrunk down that whatever impact it would have has been effectively diminished.
Also the mystery of Doomsday has been completely removed, if memory serves me correctly in the comics and novel the specifics of this creature’s origins were never initially revealed, he was some mysterious entity, a living force of carnage and destruction that dukes it out with the mightiest heroes and prevailed for a time. Here we discover he was a genetically engineered weapon of mass destruction that was imprisoned and abandoned by his creators as they were unable to control him. It seems that Doomsday was completely incapable of recognising concepts such as friend and foe; to him everything was a foe.
And then when the dust settles over the destruction and the good citizens are trying to get their breath back they are wondering what life is going to be like without Superman. In a seventy four minute feature they won’t have long to wait and then when the solution becomes the problem they will have even less time to wait for their original saviour to re-emerge and save the day. If you blink your eyes whilst watching this feature then it will be all over, frankly my advice to anyone interested in tracking down the story of Superman’s confrontation with Doomsday and the results of that confrontation would be best to either track down the novel I mentioned or the various comics that were involved in the saga, don’t bother with this flick, its not worth it.
Based on the character created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Directed by: Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery & Brandon Vietti
Screenplay by: Duane Capizzi
Producer: Bruce Timm
Starring: Adam Baldwin (Superman), Anne Heche (Lois Lane), James Masters (Lex Luthor), John DiMaggio (Toyman), Swoosie Kurtz (Martha Kent), Cree Summer (Mercy Graves), Ray Wise (Percy White) & Adam Wylie (Jimmy Olsen)
Produced by: Warner Bros Animation & DC Comics
Released by: Warner Bros Entertainment
Running Time: 74 minutes Rating: M
Making an animated Superman feature sounds like a great idea, considering the kind of things that the guy gets up to as well as those he often finds himself facing off against it makes production a tad bit easier. Don’t have to worry about actors and stunt men getting injured, using half the budget on major CGI effects or getting your shoot rained off or effected by some other weather phenomena. Now having said that one would expect both Warner Bros and DC Comics to really give an animated Superman feature all the attention that their considerable resources can bear on this production. Certainly as far as animation goes the effects and production values are very slick, but in spite of all the wizardry there is a serious flaw in this feature.
Essentially the core behind this particular film is the story that was unleashed back in the nineties when DC Comics in an unprecedented step decided that they would kill off one of their most iconic characters ever – Superman. To do this a supervillain of uncharacteristic power and malevolence was created specifically with the intention of taking down the Big Blue for good. Apparently Superman was no longer relative to the audience of the hip happening nineties, changes needed to be undertaken to try and pep things up as far as I could understand DC’s decision to make this epochal move.
A hardcover novel running to several hundred pages and titled the Death and Life of Superman was even produced in the aftermath of the whole affair and it received rave reviews. I myself have read this work and found that it was good, very good; the author whose name unfortunately escapes me truly crafted a masterpiece that had me gripped in the thrall of his truly excellent narrative. So it’s interesting to note that in the print medium and the medium of comics the demise of this iconic character, a character that has been around for at least seventy years was given a high degree of exposure. Now as you reach this particular line let your eyes glance back up to the stats of the movie and take a gander at the running time of this baby.
Yep you read right, seventy four minutes, fourteen minutes over an hour. When it comes to the death of Superman being done in an animated feature it seems that Warner Bros and DC both reckon that it’s only worth a little bit over an hour. And that’s the serious flaw within this film, and it’s a common move made by American movie makers, they have an epic tale and they just have to condense it down into what almost might be considered a sound bite of a story. Lets face it Doomsday, the creature who eventually kills Superman, creates a wave of carnage across the United States and takes out several major members of the Justice League before he even gets anywhere near Metropolis and Superman.
Not in this incarnation though, here he just trashes a bunch of Lexcorp workers, wrecks an oil tanker and then suddenly finds himself in Metropolis ready to wreak all manner of havoc on the unsuspecting citizens and their caped protector. I know there is a concept called poetic license and surely DC and Warner have every right to exercise this concept, if it’s done well but unfortunately in this case it isn’t. The voice acting in this feature is superlative, James Masters is superb as Lex Luthor and Adam Baldwin does a great job of Superman – it’s just a shame that the story has been so shrunk down that whatever impact it would have has been effectively diminished.
Also the mystery of Doomsday has been completely removed, if memory serves me correctly in the comics and novel the specifics of this creature’s origins were never initially revealed, he was some mysterious entity, a living force of carnage and destruction that dukes it out with the mightiest heroes and prevailed for a time. Here we discover he was a genetically engineered weapon of mass destruction that was imprisoned and abandoned by his creators as they were unable to control him. It seems that Doomsday was completely incapable of recognising concepts such as friend and foe; to him everything was a foe.
And then when the dust settles over the destruction and the good citizens are trying to get their breath back they are wondering what life is going to be like without Superman. In a seventy four minute feature they won’t have long to wait and then when the solution becomes the problem they will have even less time to wait for their original saviour to re-emerge and save the day. If you blink your eyes whilst watching this feature then it will be all over, frankly my advice to anyone interested in tracking down the story of Superman’s confrontation with Doomsday and the results of that confrontation would be best to either track down the novel I mentioned or the various comics that were involved in the saga, don’t bother with this flick, its not worth it.
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