"Superman: Doomsday" (2007) - Not That Bad

The major concern I had going in was wondering how they were going to manage cramming three large (and rather significant) storylines, which spanned over three multi-month arcs in four monthly titles, into a 75-minute video.  For the most part, this concern was negated by the fact that the stories were largely changed from their comic book counterparts.  75 minutes were definitely enough to cover the resurrection tale they decided to give.  However, I did feel somewhat cheated in my time with Doomsday.

Certainly I wouldn't expect the story to exactly mirror that of the comics.  I'm glad the Justice League didn't make an appearance, as this served in the comics mainly to illustrate just how powerful Doomsday really was.  However, the comics took time to make the story much more emotional, and the fight dragged on for quite some time before the final blows were dealt.  In this movie, the fight takes place in apparent real time, which is about fifteen minutes (this is an estimate).  When the death scene actually took place, I felt like the magnitude of the situation was cheapened by the fact that we didn't get the introspection on Superman's character as he fought the monster.  We didn't see the emotional toll it took for him to keep getting up and carrying on in the fight.

Despite this disappointment, the Doomsday fight did have its "wow" moments, like a very cool bird's-eye shot of Superman grabbing him by the top of his mouth, swinging him over his head and slamming him into the ground.  The actual way in which Superman kills Doomsday (and thus himself) is also pretty exciting, although I admit that, given the way in which he did it, I was baffled as to why he didn't think to take the fight outside of Metropolis while he was at it (if you've seen the film, you know what I'm talking about).

The Return story is the heart of the movie and is therefore given more time, and because it strays so much from the story in the comics I found it easier to accept (I am more open-minded than some when it comes to movie adaptations of stories from other forms of media).  Lex Luthor's way of mourning the death of the Man of Steel is intriguing and really made for an enjoyable antagonist aspect.  I only had one major issue with Luthor in this film:

*MAJOR SPOILER IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH*

How on Earth did Luthor even survive being tossed off the top of a sky scraper by Superman's clone?  I don't care if he was encased in a metal box -- he should have been DEAD, not just maimed to the point of ALMOST dying.  A much more believable ending would have been showing us a group of LexCorp scientists in the process of cloning Luthor himself and inserting his memory into his body.  It would have gone along with the storyline, and it would have made another tie-in to the books.

*END OF MAJOR SPOILER*

The movie had a lot of cool "wtf" moments, such as the out-smarting of Luthor by his own creation, the end of the climactic battle scene (specifically the manner in which Superman overcomes), some of the heavy blows dealt by Doomsday to Supes (some of which cause the Kryptonian to vomit blood; this film DEFINITELY earns its PG-13 rating), a cameo by Kevin Smith which openly mocks some of the back story behind his "Superman Lives" script, the fate of Toyman, and more.

Before I move on to another feature on the DVD that I really enjoyed, here is a summed-up list of my final critiques of the film:

-Animation: Influenced by the DC Animated Universe, but with a slight twist.  Superman has some odd-looking lines all over his face, Luthor is much skinnier and bony-faced, and Lois has longer, darker hair.  Given that DC is producing these direct-to-DVD movies in response to the success Marvel has had with such films as "Ultimate Avengers," I feel that the animation was subpar and could have been given a lot more attention for fluidity and overall impressiveness.

-Jimmy Olsen: Jimmy has his own storyline that comes up now and then in the movie, but it is never REALLY resolved.  It exists to show how the world begins to go into a downfall without the influence of Superman around to buoy it up, but I felt like this was weakly and heartlessly carried out.

-Continuity: The DC Animated Universe is dead as we know it.  I knew that going into this movie.  However, I think this is one of the movie's problems.  Which mythos does it fit into?  As best as I could tell, it fit in best with the continuity of "Superman Returns," although the animation of some of the characters didn't match how they were depicted in the live-action film.  Superman and Lois sleeping together in the Fortress of Solitude was the biggest indicator that this story belongs in a continuity we may not have seen in this medium before.  Given a lack of continuity, I think this contributed to the lack of emotion I complained about earlier with the Doomsday fight.  Which Superman is this?  What is his character like?  How am I supposed to care about him when I'm somewhat unfamiliar with his background?  Establishing his past adventures/development would give the writers more leeway to jump into his death so quickly.


Finally, what confirmed to me that I'd made a great purchase on this DVD was the "Superman Lives!" special feature, a 45-minute-or-so documentary on the Death/Return of Superman in the comic books.  It was so much fun seeing the creative team behind his death being interviewed about how it all happened, while seeing archive footage of the meetings that took place to plan it all out.  Louise Simonson is fantastic -- she actually cries and becomes very emotional when discussing Lois and the Kents' reactions to Superman's death.  I love how attached she is to her characters!  I also learned a lot, too (for example, did you know that the Death came about as an indirect result of the "Lois and Clark" TV series on ABC?).  They also discuss the awesome impact this story had on the DC Universe, as well as comics in general (which reminded me of an article I wrote for Fanzing quite some time ago... not the most eloquent of things I've ever written, but still a demonstration of how profound the "mother of all deaths" in comics was).

All in all, I give the movie a 6.5/10, and the DVD itself a 7.5/10.  Definitely worth watching, but if you are looking to buy it then wait for it on sale, like I did.