Partially master-minded by Bruce Timm, the man who brought us all things "DC Animated" since the 90's "Batman: The Animated Series", this film should have been better than it was.
The animation was not much better (if at all) than the Justice League or Superman animated tv shows, and I've enjoyed multi-episode story arcs from both shows more than I enjoyed this film. Although the aim was to re-tell the classic story of Superman's death and return, the script strayed too far from the source material to bring any of the magic of the comic book to life.
Now, I'm a reasonable comic book fan. The cast of characters in the comic book story was FAR too big to include here. And they must have felt they didn't have time to do the "Reign of the Supermen" story. In it's place, we have a pretty uncreative story of Lex Luthor creating a clone of Superman to do his bidding in the absence of the real McCoy. But even a nod to the Eradicator by using his Superman costume for the clone would have been nice.
Instead we have a ho-hum fight with Doomsday (and this is due largely to mediocre animation), an odd mix of Lois KIND OF knowing Superman is Clark and at the same time not, and an "evil Superman" plot that feels like a real disappointment compared to the original story concept. With great animation coming from the line of Marvel animated movies, this offering from DC falls incredibly short. I purchased it only because no Blockbuster in my city is carrying it. Good for them.
Despite all of these failures, I really loved this DVD. The reason? The special features! Namely the documentary about the creation of the original comic book storyline. I thought I knew the hows and whys of DC's choice to kill Superman, but I didn't know the half of it. Here's a hint. "Lois and Clark" the TV show, actually gets the credit for killing Superman, even though he was killed in the comics before the first episode aired!! Curious how it came about? I couldn't believe it myself!
The documentary runs about an hour and kept me glued to my seat as the writers and editors of DC (at the time of the "death" story arc) all returned to tell the amazing tale. Some of the writers even get choked up as they talk about the "Death Of Superman" story, and I'll admit, I wiped away a couple tears as well while I was reminded of the great drama that grabbed us from the comic pages in the fall of 1992. The documentary also does a great job of taking you back in time to when the events unfolded on the news and in mainstream newspapers and magazines. This documentary alone makes the purchase valid for me.
Also included is an exciting preview for DC's next animated feature, "Justice League: The New Frontier". This project looks MUCH more promising in terms of animation quality. This mini-documentary on the making of New Frontier may be included on that project's DVD, but it's still very enjoyable to watch.
In terms of Relevance, watching the "Death" documentary with another comic fan may allow opportunity to discuss the definition of heroism, or to draw comparisons to Christ.
The Movie-
Quality: 6.0
Relevance:5.0
Special Features-
Quality: 8.0
Relevance:7.0
I was a bit concerned with what they would do with this movie, considering how Doomsday was portrayed in the Justice League Unlmiited TV series. And it sounds justified. I'm excited to hear about the special features, though. This movie had been on my "must buy" list, but I think I'll move it to my Netflix queue. The timing here is interesting as well. I'm all for movie length animated superhero adventures, but leading with Doomsday? And with no hype or corresponding comic events? Ah . . . DC has enough going on in the comic pages right now anyway.
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