Superman - Doomsday

• Title:  Superman - Doomsday
• Director:  Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery, Brandon Vietti
• Voice Director:  Andrea Romano
• Date:  2007
• Studio:  Warner Brothers Animation
• Genre: Action, Animation, Drama, Fantasy
• Cast:  Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters, John Dimaggio, Tom Kenny, Swoosie Kurtz, Cree Summer
• Format: Widescreen, color animation
• DVD Format:  Blu-Ray 

"Just look at him, so sleek, so powerful, so beautiful, like some great golden god made flesh. Of course, any sensible god would demand absolute obidence in return for his favor. But no, our Man of Steel protects us and keeps us with no strings attached. And the people, hum, they practically worship him anyway. Enjoy your reign while you may, Superman, for as surely as night follows day, there comes a time when even gods must die." - Lex Luthor, prologue

"The subject in question was biologically engineered to be the ultimate soldier: precise, clinical, unstoppable. But its creators came to realize it could not distinguish between friend and foe, thus this Doomsday machine lives to extinguish any and all life forms. Because it must." Superman's robot in the Fortress of Solitude

Luthor has a group of scientists and miners digging to the Earth's core in search of a new energy source that Lexcorp can sell. However, they get more than they bargain for by freeing Doomsday, a biological killing machine. Luthor will later have his assistant Mercy eliminate all trace of Lexcorp's involvement in freeing Doomsday, and to cover his tracks further, Lex cold-heartedly murders Mercy.

Doomsday escapes and wrecks havoc. Lois and Superman had been having a romantic get away to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, when Superman's robot informs him of Doomsday's attacks on Metropolis. They return. Superman fights Doomsday, and they both cause havoc. Lois and Jimmy Olsen cover the story. The fight between Superman and Doomsday wrecks buildings, causes havoc, and ranges all over Metropolis - city streets, subway tunnels, city streets again. But in the end, Superman does the only thing he can - he grabs Doomsday from the back, flies straight up to the stratosphere, then crashes to Earth. He and Doomsday land in a huge impact crater. Doomsday is stopped, but Superman is also killed. Superman crawls out from beneath Doomsday's body, and dies in Lois's arms. Jimmy Olsen takes a picture of the dead Superman, and of Lois with tears streaming down her face.

Martha Kent, who had been watching the fight between Superman and Doomsday on TV, collapses off her chair, tears streaming down her cheeks. In the wake of Superman's death, Clark Kent is missing, though Perry White is convinced he's "fine" just incommunicato in Afghanistan (where Kent had gone as a war correspondent). Lois decides she has to talk to Clark's mother, and drives to Smallville to see her. At first, Martha is suspicious, but when Lois talks about being "in love with him" and "being loved by him" the two go inside to talk.

Lois returns to Metropolis and covers a story of Toyman threatening a schoolbus full of kids. She sneaks inside to rescue the kids, and all of them get out but one little girl. Lois and the girl are also threatened by a "Chuckie"-type living doll/toy with a big knife. Lois defeats the toy/doll, but Toyman pushes the bus off the building. Lois and the little girl are rescued by "Superman". At first, Lois is overjoyed to have Superman back - but then she notices things - like he doesn't know where her apartment is, and his attitude towards her is cold and clinical not romantic. Lois tries to figure out if it's a result of Superman's trauma, or if this Superman is perhaps not really Superman.

Lois becomes even more suspicious when Clark Kent still doesn't return or make contact, and Martha calls her and says that even though "Superman" has returned - Clark hasn't contacted her, he hasn't even called.

The new Superman goes to confront Luthor, but he's trapped in a room filled with red sunlight, and Luthor beats him up with Kryptonite brass knuckles. We then learn two things - this new Superman isn't Superman, he's a clone made by Luthor and under his control. And Luthor actually missed his enemy Superman so much after his death, he made the clone but a clone who would work for him. Luthor also has Superman's dead body in status.

Lois tries to get Jimmy to help her investigate, but Jimmy, feeling his mortality after the huge Superman - Doomsday fight in Metropolis, has quit the Daily Planet, and taken a well-paid job as a Paparazzi photographer for a tabloid. Jimmy refuses to help the first time Lois asks.

Meanwhile, Superman's robot steals Superman's real body from Lex Luthor. The robot takes the body to the Fortress of Solitude where it turns out Superman isn't dead - his pulse had slowed down to a rate of once every 17 days to allow him to heal. It had taken the robot 17 days to detect it, and another 17 days to pin-point the location. The robot tells the still injured Superman he retrieved him from LexCorp.

"Superman" takes on Toyman, and, after learning the villain had killed a young child at a day care center, takes him from police custody, flies up high with Toyman, then drops Toyman to his death on top of a police car. Jimmy takes a picture of the bloody and very dead Toyman. It becomes very apparent this this is not the Superman we know - he's cold, threatening, and scary. Plus he's still very, very powerful. When the police commissioner asks Superman to come in for questioning - Superman simply refuses because he has "better things to do", and there's nothing anyone can do to stop him.

At the Fortress of Solitude, the robot continues to treat Kal-El, the real Superman.

Back in Metropolis, "Superman" goes into a beauty shop and looks into a mirror. With his X-ray vision he finds a lead ball in his head containing Kryptonite. He uses his laser heat vision to remove it.

Lex Luthor hits on Lois when she confronts him. Lois lets Lex kiss her - and knocks him out with a hypo. She, and Jimmy search Lex's office.  Lois and Jimmy use Lex's unconscious body on a retinal scanner. They find Lex's bank of cloned Supermen.  Lex arrives to kill Lois and Jimmy, then Superman arrives. Superman destroys the clone bank. Superman locks Lex in the red room and takes the entire thing into the stratosphere then throws it to the ground.

Meanwhile at the Fortress of Solitude, Superman weight-lifts and exercises to tone his body. He hears the news reports of Lex Luthor's death. The army is mobilized in Metropolis to take out "Superman" for "killing" Lex Luthor.

The real Superman, in a solar suit, armed with a Kryptonite gun, flies to Metropolis to confront the clone "Rogue Superman". Superman tries to use the Kryptonite gun, but it goes flying. Superman and Rogue Superman fight. There is a lot of destruction during the fight. Lois grabs the Kryptonite gun, but when she fires at Rogue Superman - she misses. Rogue Superman beats up Superman. However, Superman is able to get the Kryptonite into Rogue Superman's chest and it explodes - destroying him. Superman is also weakened by the blast but survives. He kisses Lois Lane as proof that he's the "real" Superman. At the end he reveals himself to Lois as Clark Kent.

Luthor also is reveal to be not as dead as he appears.

This animated film adapts the Death of Superman storyline from the regular weekly Superman comic books. The blu-ray is accompanied by three excellent documentaries - especially the one on the public and press reaction to the Death of Superman (Superman #75), as well as trailers and sneak peeks for other films in the DC Animated Universe series of films. However, this film also has some changes and unique features that differ from the original printed story. First, Bruce Timm, who co-wrote, produced, and co-directed the film with others introduced Luthor both as a narrator for the story and as the cause of Doomsday's escape. I thought that made the film stronger - if someone's going to kill Superman - it should be his well-known enemy. Second, though, simply for time limitations, many of the vignettes of the one to two-year long story arc of the death of Superman and his return weren't used.

Also, this story, like many Superman stories, is a slug fest. Yes, it's a slug fest where Superman loses, and he has to sacrifice himself to stop the threat, but it's still a slug fest. The second half of the film -the world without a Superman, and Lois, Perry, Jimmy, and Martha all coping with there grief in their own ways, was better than the opening and closing fight scenes. However, I wanted to see more of that human story - especially Lois and Martha. Specifically, when Lois goes to see Martha at the Kent family farm, and Martha invites her in - I really wanted to see what happened next.

The animation in Superman- Doomsday was incredible. It was gorgeous and at times I forgot I was watching an animated film. It was that good. I haven't seen a DC Comics / Warner Brothers Animation film that looked this good since Batman: Under the Red Hood (which, yes, I realize chronologically came after this - but I saw it first.) The realistic animation style and the seriousness of the subject matter also reminded me strongly of Batman: Under the Red Hood.

I will say though that this animated film from several years ago handled Doomsday and the Death of Superman better in many ways that a certain live-action film that is probably still in theaters.

Recommendation:  See It - especially  if your a fan of Superman or good animation
Rating: 4 Stars

All-Star Superman

• Title:  All-Star Superman
• Director:  Sam Liu
• Voice Director:  Andrea Romano
• Date:  2011
• Studio:  Warner Brothers Animation
• Genre:  Action, Fantasy, Drama, Animation
• Cast:  James Denton, Christina Hendricks, Anthony La Pagulia, Edward Asner, Alexis Denisoff, John Dimaggio, Robin Atkins Downes
• Format:  Widescreen, Color
• DVD Format: R1, Blu-Ray

"Lex Luthor, you're under arrest for attempted murder and crimes against humanity!" - SWAT Captain

All-Star Superman opens with a group of scientists in a spaceship that's about to crash into the Sun, in no small part due to evil goings-on by Lex Luthor. Superman flies near the Sun and rescues the scientists but soon finds out that he suffered and overdose of solar radiation and he's dying. Essentially, the theme of the story is Superman with cancer. You would think that would be depressing, but this animated film has a wonderful tone to it. The story is very episodic, but in a very real sense we're seeing Superman actually fulfilling the items on his bucket list.

Superman, tells Lois Lane he's Clark Kent - something she barely believes, and brings her to his fortress of solitude. There he gives her a serum that gives her his powers for a day, and the two have a romantic day playing superheroes together. They even stop a fight between Samson and Atlas and intelligent dinosaurs from the center of the Earth. When Superman brings the creatures back where they belong, he's goaded into a fight with Samson and Atlas. However, he ends-up besting them with his intelligence solving the Riddle of the Ultra Sphinx. The riddle is what happens when "the irresistible force meets an immovable object", Superman answers, "They surrender", and rescues Lois. He then bests Samson and Atlas in arm wrestling.

Meanwhile, the Daily Planet has exposed Luthor's water crisis scheme, and Luthor's been charged by the International Court of Justice. Not only is Luthor found guilty he's sentenced to die in the electric chair even though it's been banned for years.

Clark goes to interview Luthor in prison, and Luthor states he likes Clark Kent but he hates Superman - and he's happy that even though he will die, Superman will die first. The Parasite escapes during Luthor and Kent's discussion and starts a riot in the prison, killing guards and prisoners alike. Luthor escapes.

Superman, in his fortress with her, tells Lois he's dying. Lois insists he will figure out an answer.

Superman takes the bottle city of Kandor to a planet that they can safely colonize. Two months later he returns to Earth.

Two Kryptonians show up and prove to be spoiled, superior, colonials bent on cultural imperialism. Superman discovers, however, they have been poisoned by Kryptonite. In the end, they are sent to the Phantom Zone.

Superman even goes to his father's grave, leaving a Kryptonian flower there. He says hi to his mother, Martha Kent, but doesn't stay long.

Lex Luthor is "executed" but he doesn't die - he's stolen some of Superman's serum to give himself super powers for 24 hours.

Superman records his final journal entry in the Fortress of Solitude.

Luthor's next stratagem arrives - Solaris a living, intelligent sun eater who will poison the sun and turn it blue. Luthor thinks he's gotten Solaris to turn the Earth's Sun red, which will leave Superman helpless - but Solaris betrays even Luthor and poisons the Sun to turn it blue.  There's a classic fight scene.  Superman has his pet sun-eater attack Solaris, but Solaris rips it to shreds. Superman then faces the super-powered Luthor, including firing a gravity gun at him. The gun eventually speeds up Luthor's personal time, so just as Luthor is beginning to see the real meaning of things, and that everything is connected, he collapses because he's burned through the serum.

But Superman is also dying. As his face cracks with light, he kisses Lois then flies off to the Sun to "fix it" and reverse the poisoning done by Solaris. The film ends with Lois sitting in a park. Jimmy Olsen drops by and asks her if she's "going to the memorial". Lois says no because she knows that Superman isn't dead, he's fixing the Sun and he will be back.

All-Star Superman has a wonderful 50s/early 60s quality to it. It has innocence and sweetness without being saccharin. The story is episodic, but underlining the individual bits is the very real threat that Superman is dying, essentially from cancer, and there's nothing that can be done about it. You'd think that would be depressing, but Superman takes the news in stride and does take the time to do the things he wants or needs to do. It's even Clark Kent who writes the "Superman Dead" newspaper story then collapses at his desk. The animation style also has a wonderful retro look to it that works wonderfully with the story.

There are some lovely special features as well, including interviews with Grant Morrison who wrote the original graphic novel. Overall, it's an enjoyable and feel-good Superman story that doesn't get bogged down in just fight sequences but shows the audience a human side to the Man of Steel.

Recommendation: See it, especially if you're a fan of Superman or Classic DC Comics
Rating: 4 Stars