All-Star Superman

This story is a little strange but it's also really interesting. The romance between Superman and Lois is actually touching. Some characters and scenes feel random but at least it's all entertaining and enjoyable to watch.

All-Star Superman is one of the most popular Superman stories there is. For some Grant Morrison fans it borders on being a sacred text. And as is the way with sacred texts, any deviation from the 'word' borders on blasphemy; however, in this case those fans have a point. Morrison (and artist Frank Quitely) crafted a deeply layered work. Morrison loves the more 'goofy' Silver Age of comics and it shows, but beneath all the 'wacky stuff' (dinosaur men??) is a narrative that's interwoven with the book's structure. Originally running twelve issues published over two volumes, each issue or chapter reflects a specific time of year and/or hour of the day (interviews with Morrison regarding this make interesting reading). Unfortunately, because of the necessity to edit the whole thing down to a 70 minute running-time much of that structure - along with many scenes and therefore continuity - is lost. The result is we're left with a series of what sometimes appear to be random incidents that head-scratchingly don't quite tie together. That said, the voice actors do an first-rate job, as do the illustrators/animators in recreating the feel of Quitely's artwork. And the story is still definitely a touching one. Overall, 7/10

All-Star Superman is the latest animated feature from DC Comics, based off the comic book series of the same name by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It is the seventh featuring Superman, that's including the Superman/Batman and Justice League movies. Eighth if you count the short film with Shazam. The comic, not part of the regular continuity, features Lex Luthor overdosing Superman with solar radiation so that the Man of Steel will die. Superman then goes on a quest to leave the world in a better place than when he left it.

Though I have not actually read the series this video is based off, I love Superman. I've read the comics, watched the series, bought the movies, and even listened to a few of the old radio programs.

The movie is a different version of the Superman character, much like the comics. The movie starts off with him realizing that he's dying and that Lex Luthor killed him. This is the first time since Superman: Doomsday that he's had to face the idea of his own mortality. Much of the movie focuses on the drama of the characters dealing with his impending demise. Though there are plenty of action sequences thrown in just to keep you entertained.

The voice cast does a good job. The voices of Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor are all terrific. Though I'll always hear the voices of Tim Daley, Dana Delany, and Clancy Brown when I read the comics.

The animation is great. One of my complaints about these animated features has always been that the animation was too close to Bruce Timm's Justice League. So it's nice to see that they're moving on in that aspect.

Sadly, this video left very much to be desired. Not that it was outright bad. It just should have been better.

The main problem with the movie is that it's too episodic. Watching it I felt I could tell where one comic book ended and another began. I understand that it is based off a specific comic book series, but then again so were Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: The New Frontier, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, and Batman: Under the Red Hood and those all seemed to work fine as a straightforward movie.

A resulting problem is that many of these episodes don't help the main story at all. I've read that the comics feature a lot more episodes and the producers cut them down. Honestly, they should have cut it down more. Take for instance the episode with Parasite. On it's own the scene was quite entertaining, especially seeing Clark try to save people without revealing his identity. However, afterward I found myself asking why they bothered with this segment. It added virtually nothing to the story of Superman dying. The scenes with Atlas and Samson are similarly unneeded.

There was only one thing about the movie that I hated. In one early episode Superman is able to grant Lois his powers for one day. For once she can do all the things he can. So what do they do? They fly to Metropolis where she watches him save the day, without doing anything just like she's always shown doing. I kept waiting for her to shoot heat beams, use freeze breath, or beat up some bad guy. Sadly this moment is wasted as they set up something later in the movie.

Just as a general complaint about these animated movies, I'm getting a little tired of always seeing Superman and Batman. As I said, it's the eighth movie with Superman while Batman has eleven with a twelfth on the way. While I do like Superman, I would like to see some other characters too. I loved Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight, but neither are getting sequels (GL: Emerald Knights is sort of a sequel but not really). I know they've had trouble getting another live action Superman movie off the ground, but must they flood the animated market with him? It's kind of like Marvel Animations obsession with putting the Hulk in everything. While I enjoy Superman, Batman, and Hulk, the animated film medium is the perfect venue to explore lesser known characters that don't have several live action movies.

Overall, the film simply does not flow as a cohesive whole. Fans of the All-Star comics may enjoy that it was adapted, or complain about what wasn't adapted. Superman fans will probably enjoy the different take on the character that the movie explores. But from a film audience point of view, it is too disconnected from itself to be truly enjoyable.

All-Star Superman is a real standout movie within the animated DC films, with an outstanding voice cast this one really surprised me but not entirely in a good way.

It tells the story of our hero becoming poisoned with excessive quantities of radiation from the sun and slowly dying. He sets about getting his affairs in order before he breathes his last breath.

With a host of other DC villians including Lex Luthor (Duh!) we see several mini-stories to keep Kal busy until his final moments.

The story is well done, heartfelt and enjoyable but at the same time badly flawed in places and left me scratching my head.

It just felt like the creators went into business for themselves, throwing much of the lore out and just writing whatever they wanted like a bad piece of fan fiction.

Make no mistake I found the oddly titled All-Star Superman to be watchable but I think it spread itself too thin considering how much it tackles and the magnitude of the story they are trying to tell.

The cast do however do a fantastic job including the criminally underrated Anthony LaPaglia as Luthor.

The Good:

Hell of a voice cast

Nice story

The Bad:

Too big a story for its run time

Pretencious finale

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Storing things that can kill you makes perfect sense, destroying them would be silly

Kryptonian formalwear is the same as casual just with a hood

I want super powers for my birthday as well!

I can appreciate that they did a comic book story on the big screen, just feels like cramming a few storylines into a short time didn't pan out that well. Lex Luthor is a badass though, and I wish that we can one day see a live action version of this Lex!