All Star Superman Movie Review
All Star Superman Movie
All Star Superman was one of the best Superman stories I read when it was released and it still is. Yes, there was a problem with it, and it is the same problem any great story has: it was unable to please everyone. Superman fans are a demanding and diverse lot, but fortunately, enough of us recognised All Star Superman for what it is, a great Superman story. Thanks to this recognition, we have the option of seeing the aforementioned in action. Yes, mate, it’s that good!
All Star Superman is technically the last Superman story. It shows Superman at his best, knowing that he’s going to fall irrevocably. That’s not all, though. It also shows us Lois Lane, and why Superman loves her above all other women. It shows us Lex Luthor, explaining not only why he’s a villain, but why he’s just as human as any of us, and almost as super as Superman. It’s a faithful adaptation of the comic, but that doesn’t make it unapproachable; on the contrary, it just makes it more exceptional.
The voice acting of James Denton and Christina Hendricks is better than good. You will believe that these are the voices of Superman and Lois Lane. Superman sounds calm, assured, all ways in control, and Lois has the lilt of the girl you know and want to know better. The animation is not stellar, as it tries to follow Quitely’s art, which just isn’t possible on the screen, but it’s more than enough to gain your attention and maintain it. The two merged make for something more than just a comic adaption. What you get is a mature story of Superman, something you would expect in a live action film.
Lois Lane finally comes across as the woman Superman loves and you get why. She’s not pretty, she’s beautiful. She’s not sexy, she’s enthralling, and it’s all about attitude and deportment. You see why Superman loves her, because she has a depth that a man like Superman would see . . . and be taken with. Lex Luthor explains why he hates Superman, and you agree with him. Superman steals his thunder by just being who he is; he’s not even trying, while Luthor has to work at it. Even if Luthor is the smartest man on the planet, he’s still human: he gets tired, he ages, and he has to sweat. It has to burn when you see Superman flying just because he wants to. Still, even Luthor is shown to be closer to Superman than we expect, when he “sees”, finally sees what Superman can. Lastly, Superman is what he should be: a hero, an emblem, dynamic, and he completes each feat in a way that only he could. He turns every disadvantage to a plus, culminating in his death being just in time for him to fix the sun.
I had to view this three times, because I didn’t want to sound like a fanboy, but I probably still do. I don’t care. It’s that good. You want to have a great 90 minutes, watch All Star Superman: The Movie. Me? I’m going to go watch it again.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Everything that Superman should be and is, it’s all here! | Without some knowledge of Superman’s continuity, i.e. Kandor and the Silver Age stories, some scenes may be more confusing than entertaining. |
| Rating |
6 Comments
I dunno… I don’t think really liked it. I mean, it had some compelling bits throughout, but the whole of the film just felt a bit… off to me. Of course, I’m notthe biggest of Superman fans, and as far as comics go I prefer him in small doses where he displays his ultimate badassery (badassery? yeah, why not), and thus his own comics fail to really captivate me (this maxi-series was no exception)… but as far as film goes, I tend to enjoy most of it. I liked the Superboy show from the late 80′s growing up, loved Loid & Clark, and have been a devoted follower of Smallville since its get go (less a breif sabatical lasting from mid way into season 3 that came to an end when my brother “forced” me to watch the season finale of season 4, at which time I caught up on all that I missed), and as for the live action films, I’m one ofthe few who argues the value in the third and fourth films rather than raggin on them for their faults… even the Animated Series and all the animatedfilms that have followed (connected or not) have been mostly enjoyed by me (less Brainiac Attacks, which I could never sit through do to itsproduction value)… but this… I just couldn’t get behind. I watched it last night and truly whelmed. Not under or over, but like Robin in Young Justice… was simply whelmed. I liked the jail sequence with Clark and Luthor, but the rest of the film, and thus the story, was just “meh” to me. I niether enjoyed it nor hated it, but at the end really felt no worth in watching it ever again. I think this film is best reserved for true Superfans, and that casual fans, like myself, should probably pass on it… its not really a waste of time… but you may feel like it was if you’re like me. Good concepts, bad execution, imo… I guess thats really my complaint about Morrison’s work in general though, so its no surprise I feel this way given who wrote the original story.
I’ll go one step further than Parry: I absolutely hated it. Now, as is the rule before trashing something, i shall preface my criticism with the explanantion that i don’t really hate the character or the mythology, just this particular incarnation. Here goes: I love Superman, the comics as well as the Timm & Dini-verse cartoons but i’ve hated Smallville with a passion, and one of my biggest gripes has been the way they absolutely have to dumb everyone down to make them believe that Clark DOESN’t have superpowers, especially when he works in his street clothes. (For fans of the “but no one sees him when he’s the Blur!” argument…..Yes, It would be fine if he was NEVER shown at the scene of trouble, but ever since season 1, the show always emphasizes Clark arriving at the scene at normal speed right before the blur does his thing…whether or not anyone saw him is another story) In short, in order to sell Tom Welling as the man of steel, the directors HAVE to show Clark kent the person arriving before they show the VFX that imply he just did something Superman-y, then showing Clark the person dragging people to safety.
This movie was no exception, and like the decision to incorporate Lex’s smallville upbringing into the official DC canon, it seems to operate under the assumption that the comics world needs to adhere more closely to the smallville world, not vice versa. 1) Legendary strongmen like Atlas & Sampson show up to challenge Supes for Lois’ hand, a plot point that should be filler for a comic book, but given that throughout Smallville’s 10 seasons various heroes from DCU have showed up just to woo Lois….you realize that this development is completely expected in keeping with Lois Lane’s pre-relationship with Superman role as DC’s Helen of troy. 2) Lex’s almost hilarious brilliance in being able to use sound freuencies to dig a shawshank tunnel out of his lab in full view of armed gurads/surveillance, but still being oblivious to the fact that parasite broke out of his prison and became nearly unstoppable due to his proximity to a certain reporter who has the same size/build of his mortal enemy? Again, completely understandable in a world where Clark and Lex grew up together as BFFs, long before any lightbulbs went off in Lex’s head. 3) The Kryptonian Astronauts that magically appear with no backstory only to attack Clark for being too soft on the weak humans, only to be subjected to Superman’s kindness upon losing their powers and then dissappearing, never to be seen again? Basically the story behind each and every hostile Kryptonian that has ever visited Smallville. 4) The idea that normal humans can have Superman’s powers due to some unexplained mcguffin like a “formula” would’ve been ridiculous in the comics world where Superman’s powers and expertise in using them is one-of-a-kind….. that was until Jor-El’s brainwaves inhabiting the fortress somehow learned to take powers away from Kryptonians, and then “loaned” them to humans to reign clark in whenever he went rogue. 5) etc. etc. I could go on, but there’s no point. The truth is Smallville has forever poisoned the superman well, and unlike a 2hr movie, the DC writers believe that anyone who has watched the TV show for even a single 20 episode season is a potential comics reader, and thus the comics must be suited to fit his/her understanding of the superman world (Hereeeeee’s Chloe Sullivan!!!) This new world will be the norm for superman comics until some writer throws the whole superman mythos on its head and re-invents him for a new generation (just like Frank miller’s Dark Knight Returns washed the campy stink from Batman’s Boom-POW days forever)
Thanks for your comment. Like I said in my review All Star Superman didn’t please everyone, and the movie is no different. Smallville is a different topic altogether though.
Thanks for your comment. Like I said in my review, All Star Superman didn’t please everyone, and the movie is no different. Smallville is another matter altogether, though.
In the post you accidentally wrote, “…it was unable to please anyone” (end of second sentence). I knew what you meant though. All Star Superman is one of my all-time favorite comic book stories. With 12 very well done issues to cover in the story I am very interested to see how it was put into a 90 minute film. I don’t mind if a lot is left out, I am just hoping that it is entertaining. Thanks for the review.
Cheers! I made the correction.