Kind of a simplistic way of looking at Grant Morrison's amazing All Star Superman as a graphic novel and now as a movie, but it felt like a good title. Anyway, this post is about the new movie that was just released on Blu-ray/ DVD. The movie, like the graphic novel, is a showcase of why Superman has been the standard of what a superhero should be. It also showcases all the things that makes Superman and his world amazing. Combining all the different eras and interpretations of the characters and combining them all into a extremely entertaining and deeper more personal look at Superman than I think people are used to seeing in a Superman movie.
The movie opens up exactly like the graphic novel, telling the all familiar origin story. The only difference from the same old same old is that it's told in one minute in amazingly creative way (Take notes Zack Synder). As Superman races to save a group of scientists trying to take some flame samples from the sun, on Earth Lex Luthor has booby trapped the ship of scientists which caused Superman to intervene. By being this close to sun and absorbing that much solar radiation has overloaded Superman's cells. This ends up giving him new powers, but also overwhelming his cells which is slowly killing him. At this point Superman decides to keep this secret to the public and begins to start taking care of loose ends before he dies. That's the gist of the story. I'm not going to go into the rest of it as to not spoil anything for people who decide to watch this after reading this (here's hoping).
What makes this such a great movie is how this story really brings out the best qualities of why people have loved this character for so many years. Whether it's finally revealing his identity to Lois and then showing his love for her by making her birthday the best one she's ever had, finding a home for the bottle city of Kandor, or trying to find the good of Lex Luthor so he can finally show the world all the good he would have done if Superman wasn't around. Superman's always looking out for others and still trying to show best in all of us. There's also the personal moments that we see with him. When he meets his mother at Jonathon Kent's grave. That's actually my favorite scene in the movie. You can see the struggle Superman has with his face and words about telling his mother that he's dying. And with animation that's quite a feat.
Another highlight in the movie is Anthony LaPalagia's Lex Luthor. He captures everything that makes Lex an amazing and intriguing character. He captures all the narcissistic, ego driven and delusions of grandeur that we've all come to know from old Lex. Other than the DC animated movies, none of the live action movies have come close to capturing these characteristics of Lex. Much as I love Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor, from the animated series and the Superman/Batman movies, Anthony LaPalagia's performance is at the top of my favorites for Lex.
As an artists (I'm alright, I guess) and a fan of comics, the animation in this movie is phenomenal. How closely they come to capturing Frank Quietly's art is amazing. Really amazing. I can't recommend this movie enough to people. Whether you're a fan of Superman or if you just enjoy a good action/drama, do yourself a favor and get over your preconceive notions of what a animated movie is supposed to be like according to the mainstream (i.e. the completely closed minded and unimaginative) and gives this movie a try and experience a truly fantastic Superman movie. When was the last time, recently, you've heard that said about a Superman movie?
