Superman: Red Son

The comic of Superman: Red Son, despite its various "comical" moments, is one of the most exquisite DC story in recent history. The animated version, however, didn't thoroughly delivered even half the charm of its source material. In the comic, its writing was clever yet satisfying. They were reduced into uninspiring small talks and some were even cut off in the animated version. For those who seeks a new, light-hearted experience from an elseworld story, Superman: Red Son can provide you with an exciting premise, nothing more. I would love to recommend the comic to everyone, not this animated version.

Superman Red Son Animated movie is entertaining and enjoyable; but the jaw dropping twist ending in the comic version is what made it so good.

The animation was emotionless, the story was forced into a mere 84 minutes. The source material was so rich, so brilliant, that I couldn't believe I was witnessing this dumpster fire. The motives and character didn't come through, simply due to lack of time, and just bad dialogues. The final punchline, for example, was ruined by the verbosity. A TV Series could have done the material justice, because novels are best approximated by series and movies follow the structure of short stories more closely. Brilliant story, ruined by bad adaptation, I recommend people to try the graphic novel instead, and not to think of the novel lowly due to this movie.

I could have been a little biased because I've read the source material. I'm sorry, if that has colored my judgement.

I think there are the type of reviewers who read the graphic novel, and others who just watch the film. I think this film does a good job in encapsulating the spirit of the graphic novel.

Missing content and characters? You bet, you could say a pivotal character along with expanded character arks of someone like Brainiac, however like I said I think the general idea was executed in this film.

If you would like more content of "what If" Superman landed into Russia, read the graphic novel, if you would like a condensed version, this film is for you.

Overall the movie was entertaining and it kept the most important plot points of the graphic novel as well as its essential meaning. In certain aspects it lacks the depth of the source material e.g. the rivalry between Superman and Luthor does not feel like the intense chess game it originally was and the way Superman's reign affects the citizens of the Soviet Union is depicted even less detailed. There were also some interesting differences in the movie that provided a bit of a surprise element and sometimes even more nuance.

However, Hollywood's tendency in recent years to shoehorn social justice messages into every kind of fiction has also marred my viewing experience with this movie. Most evidently Wonder Woman's character was totally changed and ultimately ruined to score some cheap PC points. She is not really a character in this movie but a mouthpiece for blatant, in your face feminist propaganda combined with shallow and superficial man-bashing. The men are mostly portrayed as warmongers, some of them crude, some of them insidious, who destroy the planet whereas the few women in this movie are basically flawless, stunning and brave human beings who care for mankind and Mother Earth. Oh yeah, and Wonder Woman is of course stronger than Superman and a lesbian. My eyes hurt from rolling them so many times throughout the movie.

When will Hollywood learn that this kind of clumsy and frankly insulting inclusion of "progressive" messages into a comic book adaptation undermines the very effect it was supposed to have? It does not open people's minds towards social justice, on the contrary, it turns people off and makes them weary. As a liberal myself, I often find myself more and more drawn to conservative points of view because of movies like this.