style92 (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} style92) wrote,@ 2008-02-29 00:54:00 |
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Superman: Doomsday review (Heavy Spoilers)
(This review will strictly involve the movie. I don't actually own the DVD. Believe it or not, this sucker was on Pay per view for a while, and I bought it that way. But, waste not want not, I recorded on my Set top DVD recorder to DVD+R, So, all in all, my DVD copy of Doomsday cost me about $5. Cleverly thrifty, just ghetto? You decide.)
Jesus, am I really five months late reviewing this one? Where does the time go? But anyway, confluence of events have dictated I give this film a second look. There exists now a series DC Universe Direct to Video animated films. Doomsday was the "pilot" of this series, you could say. This week, the second Installment was released, the very anticipated "New Frontier" film. And a couple of weeks ago, a 10 minute preview was released for the third entry, "Batman, Gotham Knight" which is actually a compilation of Batman short films produced by celebrated Anime directors and studios. All this coming together, it made sense to check back in with "Doomsday" and render a verdict.
Doomsday is a loosey-Goosey Adaptation of the early 90's "Death of Superman" comic book Saga. It's loose because many of the fine details are different but in broad outlines they sound almost like the same thing. Speaking of Broad outlines: Our story starts with everything being pretty hunky-dory in Supermanland, with the unusual wrinkle that Lois is dating (and mating) Superman in a secret relationship kept mostly at the Fortress of Solitude. Flash cut to Luthor employees drilling deep into the earth, (and making a quip about Lex's plan to tap a new energy source that involves a journey to Hell and catheter,)when, whoopsie-doodles! They unleash the fearsome monster dude named Doomsday. One rampage through the city and Superpowered brawl later, and the whole world is morning over the Death of Superman. For about the next 10 minutes, the film is at it's quietest, and most emotionally provocative, As the world of Superman adjusts to life without it's titular Hero. Then, all of the sudden, geuss what! He's Back! Or is he? No, no he's not. It's a Superman imposter trying to fill the big guys shoes. Except he starts screwing up because He doesn't see why killing is such a big deal And thinks being a tyrant is a good idea. Luckily, real Superman is recovering up at the fortress of solitude, and while he was content to take some time off and let the new guy cover for him, imposter Superman goes on a rampage and forces Superman's hand to come in and fight him at only 2/3 strength. Yadda yadda yadda, one more Super powered brawl later, imposter Superman gets crushed under a giant allegory. Metropolis forgives and forgets much faster than it's DCAU counter parts did, (though, to be fair, the DCAU seemingly got burned by Superman like, 3 or 4 times when you think about it.) Superman and Lois have Sex one more time to celebrate, Superman reveals he's really Clark Kent to Lois, (even though they both knew she knew all along,) and The End. And stuff.
So, we'll take this one by the numbers. But, I'll go ahead and tell you my opinion up front. I felt it was overall pretty good, and enjoyed it, and have watched it, like, 3 times now. But I'm not exactly peeing my pants over it.
Visually, I appreciate the new looks of the characters. Obviously, the thing is all still adhering to the Bruce Timm style, even as the characters are redesigned. So, it still mostly looks like a later permutation of STAS. Speaking of later permutations I also liked that the look of this movie suggests that this is a story far down the line in Superman's career. Basically, everyone looks about 10 years older than we're used to seeing them. Jimmy looks to be pushing 30, Lois and Clark/Superman each look to be pushing 40. Only Lex Luthor seems unaffected by the trend, who comes off younger than we're used to. (Actually, he looks/sounds more than a little like the Smallville Lex Luthor, if THAT character were aged 10 years. So, maybe my premise holds. But probably not.) For Superman, this produced an unusual association. Now, let me say, that the "Cheek Lines" of the Justice League Season 1 Superman never bothered me, and were a non-issue, and I was surprised so many people got so freaked out about it on Toonzone. So, in theory I wasn't too perturbed that they made a comeback for the Doomsday Superman character model. It helps make him look older. Except that, those age lines were now combined with very prominent cheek bones such that, the end result made Superman look... a hell of a lot like Ronald Reagan, in my opinion. And for the life of me, I don't know if that was intentional or not, and what the consequences are if it was. Now, I know Frank Miller was the first one on record for making the comparison. So, based all on this look, I kept thinking if this was meant to be some allegory between the good aspects of Reagan (or Reaganism) and the bad aspects of the same? Is this all political Satire? Or am I just reading too much into it.
And you know, the writing, the characters... sigh, the writing and characters. I mean, it's all fine, it's alright, but, ya know... It's nothing fans of the DCAU haven't seen already, several times. I mean, the themes explored are old hat to anyone who's seen Stas episodes Blasts from the past, Identity Crisis, Brave new Metropolis, Prototype, Absolute Power, and Legacy, or to Justice League viewers with episodes like Tabula Rasa, A Better World, Hereafter, Starcrossed, Fearful Symmetry, Ultimateum, Doomsday Sanction, and Clash. And honestly, part of me suspects that this was a major motivation to do this story first. I can imagine certain fans and powers that be at DC saw Bruce Timm steer STAS and Justice League in the general direction of the "Death of Superman" story line only to watch as he yanked back and took familiar elements of the story and used them in much different ways. Rather than be part of the Superman death Saga, Doomsday was wrapped into the Cadmus arc and had his origins explicitly tied there-to. This gave Doomsday's battles with Superman(men) a radically different context. As for Justice League's actual Death of Superman story, well, it's been noted before just how odd an episode it really is: examining it's story sequence, it's plotted like a farce on the whole Death of Superman as a story concept, but plays it with grim-jawed sincerity. SUCCESSFULLY, I might add. So, and I have no basis for this besides suspicions gathered from certain quotes, but it seems like DC wanted to finally hog tie Bruce Timm into animating THIS story as a somewhat direct adaptation. The result is that "Doomsday" is blazing it's trail through what is already very familiar territory.
In this piece, Superman is Superman and that's about it. But given the plot structure, that could hardly be otherwise. After all, he's killed at the end of the first act, sidelined for all of act 2, and makes his grand return only in time to battle his nefarious twin. Therefore, it's Lois Lane who truly takes on the protagonist duties in this piece, and I find her to be truly satisfactory in that role. She's played the way she ought to be: a tough take-no-shit reporter. Her Take-no-shitty-ness also extends favorably into her personal life, showing that she's a capable and intelligent woman who knows what she wants. Yeah, she long ago figured out Superman's secret. But she's not going to let him just not tell her anymore, NOR is she going to let him off the hook by explicitly saying "I know you're Clark." No, she's going to make him tell her and explain WHY it's important he tell her. I think too many people interpreted this scene as showing her being either obstinate or a nag. No, she's making a very intelligent and adult point. After all, if he had, it would have made Lois's scene with Ma Kent go a little more smoothly. While I'm on the topic of that scene, let me say that it's the most well made and emblematic scene of the entire piece, the one where the film delivers on it's promise: Showing us how the people in Superman's life would really deal with him being gone. And how Lois almost resents that the whole world is putting on a show of sympathy and mourning, but what do they know? They're merely crying over a Superhero who they saw on TV, and who a handful of where directly saved by. How can there pain even begin to touch Lois and Mother Kent's pain, who are mourning the loss of a person they loved. Very smart little scene that makes the picture for me. Ofcourse, after that the whole thing starts to go off the rails. No, scratch that. What it does from there is resume being a Superhero movie, which is deflating, considering that, just for a moment, it was something just a little bit more.
So, Superclone shows up and Gotham is all happy, thinking it's Superman. And the movie decides not to keep us in the dark for too long. It only plays a little coy, making us wonder during the toyman scene, then rushes to tell us that this guy is in fact Superclone, another fine abomination from the good folks at Lexcorp. Superclone is just a prototype, it seems, as Lex is testing the waters to see if people actually buy him as Superman. If they do, well, it turns out there's more where he came from. We know all this because Lex Monologues it at the body of the real Superman. (Lex apparently doesn't mind talking to a corpse. Since he's dead, Superman doesn't talk back anymore, so Lex's monologuing just becomes that much more efficient I suppose.) While gloating to Dead Superman about how good Superclone is, Lex laments that Superclone does not have Superman's mind, Superman having taken his secrets to the grave and all. Aye, and there's the rub, which we will soon learn. (and I note that the film points out exactly where it's rub is, in case someone in the back row didn't catch it.) You see, not knowing a thing about Superman's secret childhood or the principles Superman lives by, it becomes clear that Lex's programming of the clone probably goes something like this: "Protect and serve the people of Metropolis, Do Superman stuff, and whenever I call for you, drop all that and bow before me." See, Lex doesn't really understand why Superman is the way Superman is. He admits as much in his opening statements, where he's baffled that Superman hasn't explicitly tried to take over yet. If Lex can't understand that, how can Superclone? See, Superclone tries to do the Superman thing, catch Toy man and hand him over to the cops. And the cops fumble the ball and a child dies because of that. So, Superclone doesn't make the same mistake twice and decides it's just better to off toy man once and for all. Sure, I bet only Toyman's mama really mourned his loss, but seeing Superman off toyman still made everyone really uneasy about this guy. Was it a gratuitous scene? Yes, Yes it was. I don't think we really had to see Toyman slam into the car like that, it did smack of being tasteless. Still though, I think it did effectively make the point it was trying to make. I compare it to the next scene, the perverse version of Superman saving a cat from a tree. I understand what they were going for there too, but I'm not sure the scene, you know, makes any real sense. Though I think the escalating menace got back on track with the revelation of the counter measure Lex implanted in Superclone incase Superclone ran amuck, and how Superclone defeated the counter measure. That scene at least made the point it was trying to make and didn't have to be graphic about it. So, okay, it's all coming together. Superclone is no Superman because Superclone is no Clark Kent and had no Ma kent to raise him. Not a bad theme, overall. Helps to emphasize why Superman is so special and unique,(you know, special and unique besides his super powers.) And it's letting us at least kind of form this conclusion on our own. So don't you just love it that Superman and Superclone have a conversation where they just outright say all this? "I'm a reflection of you, Superman! As you might have been!" "What, if I was raised by Luthor?" "If you were STRONG!" "No, you're my reflection in a cracked mirror!" I mean, this exchange just made me wince. This point had already been made, and the dialog was just obvious and cloying. I mean, jeez, maybe they should have given Superclone a goatee while they were at it.
But, all in all, Superman: Doomsday is a competent and enjoyable work that was worth MY purchase price at least, ($5, remember?) But people who have been following DC animation before this high-minded DTV campaign will find the film a retread and a heavy handed one at that, and the film is a little too in love with it's PG-13 rating. (Whatever you do, DC, don't let them do an R rated DTV! Their heads would explode!) Still though, Members of the mainstream audience who still don't think that Superheroes can handle material anywhere in the vicinity of heavy, (such as themes of death and loss) may be impressed. My father was. He was an avid Superman reader right in the heart of the Silver Age, but he tuned out when he grew up and stuff. He checked the film out and found it very impressive. So, you never know, this film DTV experiment may work the way DC wants it to after all.
And finally: a note about continuity. When I first conceived this review, I thought this would be a major subsection, but perhaps it need not be. Doomsday takes place in what is known as a "micro-continuity." Meaning, it takes place in a continuity of Superman where the film "Doomsday" is the only published story to represent it. In that sense, it stands alone. Still, to look at it, the film longs for history and continuity, and some very provocative easter eggs are hidden at the fortress of Solitude. Look closely, and you can spot things like the robots from Superman vs. The Mechanical Monsters, the Bottle city of Candor, a set of the imprisoning rings that held Zod and co at bay on Krypton, the STAS anti-Kryptonite suit, and a Brainiac skull evocative of his pre-crisis look but also featuring the STAS Brainiac emblem. Take all this literally, and Superman Doomsday takes place in a timeline where the Fleischer shorts, the Chris reeve movies, the Silver age, and STAS have all happened in the past. But, I believe it's more symbolic than that. They may be acknowledging that it's a little off to feel for the death of a Superman we've only just now met, (though, maybe only geeks worry about that issue) and all those easter eggs are just ammunition to interpret Doomsday as the sequel to which ever Superman best floats your boat. So, if I wanted to, say, interpret Doomsday as an alternate future scenario to STAS where in JL/U didn't happen, and by so doing give Doomsday additional meaning by being specifically about the Superman I knew and loved, I could point out that Anti-Kryptonite suit in the background and call it a day. And I think there are people who have done exactly this. So, I dunno, but I think it's nice that some effort was given to let this Stand alone movie at least of the semblance of history and continuity.
(This review will strictly involve the movie. I don't actually own the DVD. Believe it or not, this sucker was on Pay per view for a while, and I bought it that way. But, waste not want not, I recorded on my Set top DVD recorder to DVD+R, So, all in all, my DVD copy of Doomsday cost me about $5. Cleverly thrifty, just ghetto? You decide.)
Jesus, am I really five months late reviewing this one? Where does the time go? But anyway, confluence of events have dictated I give this film a second look. There exists now a series DC Universe Direct to Video animated films. Doomsday was the "pilot" of this series, you could say. This week, the second Installment was released, the very anticipated "New Frontier" film. And a couple of weeks ago, a 10 minute preview was released for the third entry, "Batman, Gotham Knight" which is actually a compilation of Batman short films produced by celebrated Anime directors and studios. All this coming together, it made sense to check back in with "Doomsday" and render a verdict.
Doomsday is a loosey-Goosey Adaptation of the early 90's "Death of Superman" comic book Saga. It's loose because many of the fine details are different but in broad outlines they sound almost like the same thing. Speaking of Broad outlines: Our story starts with everything being pretty hunky-dory in Supermanland, with the unusual wrinkle that Lois is dating (and mating) Superman in a secret relationship kept mostly at the Fortress of Solitude. Flash cut to Luthor employees drilling deep into the earth, (and making a quip about Lex's plan to tap a new energy source that involves a journey to Hell and catheter,)when, whoopsie-doodles! They unleash the fearsome monster dude named Doomsday. One rampage through the city and Superpowered brawl later, and the whole world is morning over the Death of Superman. For about the next 10 minutes, the film is at it's quietest, and most emotionally provocative, As the world of Superman adjusts to life without it's titular Hero. Then, all of the sudden, geuss what! He's Back! Or is he? No, no he's not. It's a Superman imposter trying to fill the big guys shoes. Except he starts screwing up because He doesn't see why killing is such a big deal And thinks being a tyrant is a good idea. Luckily, real Superman is recovering up at the fortress of solitude, and while he was content to take some time off and let the new guy cover for him, imposter Superman goes on a rampage and forces Superman's hand to come in and fight him at only 2/3 strength. Yadda yadda yadda, one more Super powered brawl later, imposter Superman gets crushed under a giant allegory. Metropolis forgives and forgets much faster than it's DCAU counter parts did, (though, to be fair, the DCAU seemingly got burned by Superman like, 3 or 4 times when you think about it.) Superman and Lois have Sex one more time to celebrate, Superman reveals he's really Clark Kent to Lois, (even though they both knew she knew all along,) and The End. And stuff.
So, we'll take this one by the numbers. But, I'll go ahead and tell you my opinion up front. I felt it was overall pretty good, and enjoyed it, and have watched it, like, 3 times now. But I'm not exactly peeing my pants over it.
Visually, I appreciate the new looks of the characters. Obviously, the thing is all still adhering to the Bruce Timm style, even as the characters are redesigned. So, it still mostly looks like a later permutation of STAS. Speaking of later permutations I also liked that the look of this movie suggests that this is a story far down the line in Superman's career. Basically, everyone looks about 10 years older than we're used to seeing them. Jimmy looks to be pushing 30, Lois and Clark/Superman each look to be pushing 40. Only Lex Luthor seems unaffected by the trend, who comes off younger than we're used to. (Actually, he looks/sounds more than a little like the Smallville Lex Luthor, if THAT character were aged 10 years. So, maybe my premise holds. But probably not.) For Superman, this produced an unusual association. Now, let me say, that the "Cheek Lines" of the Justice League Season 1 Superman never bothered me, and were a non-issue, and I was surprised so many people got so freaked out about it on Toonzone. So, in theory I wasn't too perturbed that they made a comeback for the Doomsday Superman character model. It helps make him look older. Except that, those age lines were now combined with very prominent cheek bones such that, the end result made Superman look... a hell of a lot like Ronald Reagan, in my opinion. And for the life of me, I don't know if that was intentional or not, and what the consequences are if it was. Now, I know Frank Miller was the first one on record for making the comparison. So, based all on this look, I kept thinking if this was meant to be some allegory between the good aspects of Reagan (or Reaganism) and the bad aspects of the same? Is this all political Satire? Or am I just reading too much into it.
And you know, the writing, the characters... sigh, the writing and characters. I mean, it's all fine, it's alright, but, ya know... It's nothing fans of the DCAU haven't seen already, several times. I mean, the themes explored are old hat to anyone who's seen Stas episodes Blasts from the past, Identity Crisis, Brave new Metropolis, Prototype, Absolute Power, and Legacy, or to Justice League viewers with episodes like Tabula Rasa, A Better World, Hereafter, Starcrossed, Fearful Symmetry, Ultimateum, Doomsday Sanction, and Clash. And honestly, part of me suspects that this was a major motivation to do this story first. I can imagine certain fans and powers that be at DC saw Bruce Timm steer STAS and Justice League in the general direction of the "Death of Superman" story line only to watch as he yanked back and took familiar elements of the story and used them in much different ways. Rather than be part of the Superman death Saga, Doomsday was wrapped into the Cadmus arc and had his origins explicitly tied there-to. This gave Doomsday's battles with Superman(men) a radically different context. As for Justice League's actual Death of Superman story, well, it's been noted before just how odd an episode it really is: examining it's story sequence, it's plotted like a farce on the whole Death of Superman as a story concept, but plays it with grim-jawed sincerity. SUCCESSFULLY, I might add. So, and I have no basis for this besides suspicions gathered from certain quotes, but it seems like DC wanted to finally hog tie Bruce Timm into animating THIS story as a somewhat direct adaptation. The result is that "Doomsday" is blazing it's trail through what is already very familiar territory.
In this piece, Superman is Superman and that's about it. But given the plot structure, that could hardly be otherwise. After all, he's killed at the end of the first act, sidelined for all of act 2, and makes his grand return only in time to battle his nefarious twin. Therefore, it's Lois Lane who truly takes on the protagonist duties in this piece, and I find her to be truly satisfactory in that role. She's played the way she ought to be: a tough take-no-shit reporter. Her Take-no-shitty-ness also extends favorably into her personal life, showing that she's a capable and intelligent woman who knows what she wants. Yeah, she long ago figured out Superman's secret. But she's not going to let him just not tell her anymore, NOR is she going to let him off the hook by explicitly saying "I know you're Clark." No, she's going to make him tell her and explain WHY it's important he tell her. I think too many people interpreted this scene as showing her being either obstinate or a nag. No, she's making a very intelligent and adult point. After all, if he had, it would have made Lois's scene with Ma Kent go a little more smoothly. While I'm on the topic of that scene, let me say that it's the most well made and emblematic scene of the entire piece, the one where the film delivers on it's promise: Showing us how the people in Superman's life would really deal with him being gone. And how Lois almost resents that the whole world is putting on a show of sympathy and mourning, but what do they know? They're merely crying over a Superhero who they saw on TV, and who a handful of where directly saved by. How can there pain even begin to touch Lois and Mother Kent's pain, who are mourning the loss of a person they loved. Very smart little scene that makes the picture for me. Ofcourse, after that the whole thing starts to go off the rails. No, scratch that. What it does from there is resume being a Superhero movie, which is deflating, considering that, just for a moment, it was something just a little bit more.
So, Superclone shows up and Gotham is all happy, thinking it's Superman. And the movie decides not to keep us in the dark for too long. It only plays a little coy, making us wonder during the toyman scene, then rushes to tell us that this guy is in fact Superclone, another fine abomination from the good folks at Lexcorp. Superclone is just a prototype, it seems, as Lex is testing the waters to see if people actually buy him as Superman. If they do, well, it turns out there's more where he came from. We know all this because Lex Monologues it at the body of the real Superman. (Lex apparently doesn't mind talking to a corpse. Since he's dead, Superman doesn't talk back anymore, so Lex's monologuing just becomes that much more efficient I suppose.) While gloating to Dead Superman about how good Superclone is, Lex laments that Superclone does not have Superman's mind, Superman having taken his secrets to the grave and all. Aye, and there's the rub, which we will soon learn. (and I note that the film points out exactly where it's rub is, in case someone in the back row didn't catch it.) You see, not knowing a thing about Superman's secret childhood or the principles Superman lives by, it becomes clear that Lex's programming of the clone probably goes something like this: "Protect and serve the people of Metropolis, Do Superman stuff, and whenever I call for you, drop all that and bow before me." See, Lex doesn't really understand why Superman is the way Superman is. He admits as much in his opening statements, where he's baffled that Superman hasn't explicitly tried to take over yet. If Lex can't understand that, how can Superclone? See, Superclone tries to do the Superman thing, catch Toy man and hand him over to the cops. And the cops fumble the ball and a child dies because of that. So, Superclone doesn't make the same mistake twice and decides it's just better to off toy man once and for all. Sure, I bet only Toyman's mama really mourned his loss, but seeing Superman off toyman still made everyone really uneasy about this guy. Was it a gratuitous scene? Yes, Yes it was. I don't think we really had to see Toyman slam into the car like that, it did smack of being tasteless. Still though, I think it did effectively make the point it was trying to make. I compare it to the next scene, the perverse version of Superman saving a cat from a tree. I understand what they were going for there too, but I'm not sure the scene, you know, makes any real sense. Though I think the escalating menace got back on track with the revelation of the counter measure Lex implanted in Superclone incase Superclone ran amuck, and how Superclone defeated the counter measure. That scene at least made the point it was trying to make and didn't have to be graphic about it. So, okay, it's all coming together. Superclone is no Superman because Superclone is no Clark Kent and had no Ma kent to raise him. Not a bad theme, overall. Helps to emphasize why Superman is so special and unique,(you know, special and unique besides his super powers.) And it's letting us at least kind of form this conclusion on our own. So don't you just love it that Superman and Superclone have a conversation where they just outright say all this? "I'm a reflection of you, Superman! As you might have been!" "What, if I was raised by Luthor?" "If you were STRONG!" "No, you're my reflection in a cracked mirror!" I mean, this exchange just made me wince. This point had already been made, and the dialog was just obvious and cloying. I mean, jeez, maybe they should have given Superclone a goatee while they were at it.
But, all in all, Superman: Doomsday is a competent and enjoyable work that was worth MY purchase price at least, ($5, remember?) But people who have been following DC animation before this high-minded DTV campaign will find the film a retread and a heavy handed one at that, and the film is a little too in love with it's PG-13 rating. (Whatever you do, DC, don't let them do an R rated DTV! Their heads would explode!) Still though, Members of the mainstream audience who still don't think that Superheroes can handle material anywhere in the vicinity of heavy, (such as themes of death and loss) may be impressed. My father was. He was an avid Superman reader right in the heart of the Silver Age, but he tuned out when he grew up and stuff. He checked the film out and found it very impressive. So, you never know, this film DTV experiment may work the way DC wants it to after all.
And finally: a note about continuity. When I first conceived this review, I thought this would be a major subsection, but perhaps it need not be. Doomsday takes place in what is known as a "micro-continuity." Meaning, it takes place in a continuity of Superman where the film "Doomsday" is the only published story to represent it. In that sense, it stands alone. Still, to look at it, the film longs for history and continuity, and some very provocative easter eggs are hidden at the fortress of Solitude. Look closely, and you can spot things like the robots from Superman vs. The Mechanical Monsters, the Bottle city of Candor, a set of the imprisoning rings that held Zod and co at bay on Krypton, the STAS anti-Kryptonite suit, and a Brainiac skull evocative of his pre-crisis look but also featuring the STAS Brainiac emblem. Take all this literally, and Superman Doomsday takes place in a timeline where the Fleischer shorts, the Chris reeve movies, the Silver age, and STAS have all happened in the past. But, I believe it's more symbolic than that. They may be acknowledging that it's a little off to feel for the death of a Superman we've only just now met, (though, maybe only geeks worry about that issue) and all those easter eggs are just ammunition to interpret Doomsday as the sequel to which ever Superman best floats your boat. So, if I wanted to, say, interpret Doomsday as an alternate future scenario to STAS where in JL/U didn't happen, and by so doing give Doomsday additional meaning by being specifically about the Superman I knew and loved, I could point out that Anti-Kryptonite suit in the background and call it a day. And I think there are people who have done exactly this. So, I dunno, but I think it's nice that some effort was given to let this Stand alone movie at least of the semblance of history and continuity.
