Movie Review: All Star Superman

All-Star Superman.... what can I say about it?

Slow and rushed, pretty much sums up how I felt about the movie.

Normally, I’m all for DC Universe animated movies, as I can usually find some silver lining in most of their stories. However, All-Star Superman seemed to drag on and on without really getting anywhere at times.

I have not read the source material written by Grant Morrison, nor have I had any interest in reading it. I’m not a Superman fan. I’d rather read/watch something about Batman, Flash, or Green Lantern. Though, I wanted to give this a shot. I try to support animated comic book movies. It’s something I grew up with and loved as a kid, and even into adulthood.

Yet, watching this movie, I felt that time stalled. It was painful to sit through as it bounced from one story line to another so quickly and sharply, while only marginally keeping the full underlying plot active.

The overall plot was that of Superman being overly saturated with the sun’s radiation and having to deal with facing death. Okay, this was a good plot as it tried to delve into how someone will react when they know they are dying. Superman, a being that is nigh omnipotent, is slowly dying as his cells are basically exploding inside of him. He goes on with his life, trying to live his last days and to tie up loose ends.

Those loose ends are sometimes the extra story lines. The first extra story line involves Lois Lane being shown that Clark is Superman, followed by him giving her a birthday present in the way of superpowers. Now, maybe I’m not all up to speed on my Superman history, but Superman is a chemist, rocket scientist, inventor, archaeologist, sculpture, and many, many more things? I honestly thought most of those things were left up to others, like Star Labs.

From here on, the scenes here seem a bit awkward. I don’t believe it was the artwork so much as the voice acting. It left me feeling uneasy while watching the interaction between Lois and Superman. Once Superman gives Lois the serum of his superpowers, things seem better for a moment. Then two new characters arrive. Samson and Atlas. The viewers are apparently suppose to know these characters already. We, the viewers, are thrown into a middle of a battle that ends as quickly as it’s mentioned. Now, we have three men puffing out their chests for Lois’s affections. We obviously know who will win, but just the lead up was forgettable and slow.

The next storyline is the prison scene with Lex Luthor. Now, to me, Lex is one of the better comic book villians. He’s only human, relying only on his intellect to be Superman’s true arch nemesis. The conversation between Luthor and Clark was beautiful, as Luthor described his hatred for Superman in detail and allowing the audience to realize why there is such a hatred. This particular storyline is perhaps my only real favorite in this movie, and mainly for this scene. Though, I am surprised that Luthor wasn’t able to come to the conclusion that Clark is Superman. It seemed as though he was putting it together, but then it seemed that the thought was swept under the rug.

Perhaps the most rushed storyline was that of Superman leaving Earth to find the city of Kandor a home. It first shows him tying up his loose ends and was a nice touch. Though upon his return to Earth, things happened at such a high rate of speed that you barely realize what is going on. At this point, I lost all hope in this movie and could only wait for it to end.

The animation for the movie was superb, as I have come to expect from all DC animated movies. The voice acting was, for the most part, dead on to the characters. I did enjoy having Ed Asner as Perry White, as it fit so perfectly. Anthony LaPaglia portrayed an excellent Luthor, evil and conniving in the beginning, and yet enlightened by the end. James Denton’s voice for Superman was on par with Tim Daly’s version from most of the other animated movies. However, something was missing, some spark of emotion that Daly put forth as Superman. Though, to me, Tim Daly is to Superman that Kevin Conroy is to Batman.

Overall, I was disappointed with the movie, mainly for its storyline. That disappointment is enough to sadden me, as it was one of the last movies written by Dwayne McDuffie who recently passed away. McDuffie has been an excellent writer for both the animated movies and shows as well as the comic books. To have this at the end of his legacy adds more disappointment than the movie itself.