In the world of comic books, every now and then a tale emerges that is so monumentally epic that it forever raises the standards of what make a comic great. I've never been much of a comic book reader, but when Death of Superman was released in 1993 (wikipedia.org), even I understood that the tale being told was of epic proportions. Aside from the mere fact that DC Comics was killing of a character that had been around in comics for the better part of a century, they were killing off a character who's power was on par with the great gods of countless civilizations. Superman was a modern-day god and to kill him off (even with the intent to eventually bring him back), required a story as epic as any the Greeks or Romans could dish out. While I doubt that The Death of Superman will be as timeless of a tale as Ulysses, it is still worthy of being called an epic story.
A little while ago, I was happily surprised to see that the epic tale of Superman's death was being remade in Movie format under the title: Superman: Doomsday. The movie was a direct-to-disk production but that didn't sway my intentions to get it on release day last Tuesday. At the same time that I was looking forward to the movie, however, I was also worried that I would be let down and that the movie would end up sucking. Despite my worries I drove to the closest Best Buy over my lunch hour and picked up the movie. As soon as I got home I started watching the movie with great expectations. Considering that the movie was inspired by the graphic novel I was expecting a good hour and twenty minutes of intense fighting followed by the inevitable death of Superman. The Death of Superman comic, especially the final chapter, was centered around the colossal fight between Superman and Doomsday where both forces beat the snot out of each other until the both of them finally succumb to their injuries and perish. Sadly, the movie I was really looking forward to was not the movie that I had purchased.
Superman: Doomsday, suffers from many of the same follies that other novel-based movies suffer from. First off, this movie does not even begin to compare in greatness to the original comic; I wanted to get that on the table right now. The movie seems to focus less on the death of Superman and focuses more on the world after Superman's death. This is supported by the act of killing off Superman less than halfway through the movie, having the rest of the movie devoted to bringing him back. The way that the movie was advertised, and thus my expectation of the film, was that the film was a retelling of the Death of Superman. The movie in-fact goes further than that and essentially surmises the spin-off comics that depict how Superman returned. I really wanted a bittersweet ending with the world being saved but at the cost of its greatest hero, but instead I got an uninspiring and all too common ending where everything is back to normal. What the point of taking the adventure if in the end, nothing changes?
There were a lot of liberties taken with the story line, some of which I liked and some I didn't. The movie focuses a bit on the relationship of Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, which I personally felt was a definite plus. I'm not super concerned about the relationship between Lois and the Last Son of Krypton but it was nice that the relationship was clearly defined right away and didn't pussy-foot around by trying to make the viewer slowly figure it out throughout the movie. Additionally, Doomsday enters the world in a different fashion then in the comic: In the comic there wasn't really an explanation and Doomsday just appeared, however, in the movie there is actually an attempt to explain where Doomsday came from, another definite plus. Another liberty taken was obviously done to save time and complexity by combining characters and plot lines from the offshoot comics that arose after Death of Superman. These offshoots would have been far too complex to cram into just one movie as they were originally written, so parts had to be omitted or combined to simplify things. While this was done relatively well, it still would have been better if they were omitted altogether; imagine what Lord of the Rings would have been like if there would have just been two movies like originally planned?
What it really comes down to is this: If you're going to focus on the Superman vs. Doomsday battle, then focus on the battle. Include more aspects from the original story like the Justice League getting involved (and getting the crap beaten out of them). The biggest downfall of the movie was that it tried to focus on too much and over too little time. If you're going to kill off a much-loved character that is essentially a god, then give his death the credit it deserves, instead of having it be just a break in the movie. If you're looking for a movie based on the original comic then you're out of luck because this movie was only inspired by the original comic and it really shows. Superman: Doomsday isn't a bad movie by any means, its actually pretty well done, but its not what I was hoping for. If I had to rate the movie I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars: good, but crushed my dreams.
A little while ago, I was happily surprised to see that the epic tale of Superman's death was being remade in Movie format under the title: Superman: Doomsday. The movie was a direct-to-disk production but that didn't sway my intentions to get it on release day last Tuesday. At the same time that I was looking forward to the movie, however, I was also worried that I would be let down and that the movie would end up sucking. Despite my worries I drove to the closest Best Buy over my lunch hour and picked up the movie. As soon as I got home I started watching the movie with great expectations. Considering that the movie was inspired by the graphic novel I was expecting a good hour and twenty minutes of intense fighting followed by the inevitable death of Superman. The Death of Superman comic, especially the final chapter, was centered around the colossal fight between Superman and Doomsday where both forces beat the snot out of each other until the both of them finally succumb to their injuries and perish. Sadly, the movie I was really looking forward to was not the movie that I had purchased.
Superman: Doomsday, suffers from many of the same follies that other novel-based movies suffer from. First off, this movie does not even begin to compare in greatness to the original comic; I wanted to get that on the table right now. The movie seems to focus less on the death of Superman and focuses more on the world after Superman's death. This is supported by the act of killing off Superman less than halfway through the movie, having the rest of the movie devoted to bringing him back. The way that the movie was advertised, and thus my expectation of the film, was that the film was a retelling of the Death of Superman. The movie in-fact goes further than that and essentially surmises the spin-off comics that depict how Superman returned. I really wanted a bittersweet ending with the world being saved but at the cost of its greatest hero, but instead I got an uninspiring and all too common ending where everything is back to normal. What the point of taking the adventure if in the end, nothing changes?
There were a lot of liberties taken with the story line, some of which I liked and some I didn't. The movie focuses a bit on the relationship of Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, which I personally felt was a definite plus. I'm not super concerned about the relationship between Lois and the Last Son of Krypton but it was nice that the relationship was clearly defined right away and didn't pussy-foot around by trying to make the viewer slowly figure it out throughout the movie. Additionally, Doomsday enters the world in a different fashion then in the comic: In the comic there wasn't really an explanation and Doomsday just appeared, however, in the movie there is actually an attempt to explain where Doomsday came from, another definite plus. Another liberty taken was obviously done to save time and complexity by combining characters and plot lines from the offshoot comics that arose after Death of Superman. These offshoots would have been far too complex to cram into just one movie as they were originally written, so parts had to be omitted or combined to simplify things. While this was done relatively well, it still would have been better if they were omitted altogether; imagine what Lord of the Rings would have been like if there would have just been two movies like originally planned?
What it really comes down to is this: If you're going to focus on the Superman vs. Doomsday battle, then focus on the battle. Include more aspects from the original story like the Justice League getting involved (and getting the crap beaten out of them). The biggest downfall of the movie was that it tried to focus on too much and over too little time. If you're going to kill off a much-loved character that is essentially a god, then give his death the credit it deserves, instead of having it be just a break in the movie. If you're looking for a movie based on the original comic then you're out of luck because this movie was only inspired by the original comic and it really shows. Superman: Doomsday isn't a bad movie by any means, its actually pretty well done, but its not what I was hoping for. If I had to rate the movie I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars: good, but crushed my dreams.
1 Comments
I just wanted to let you know, since you voiced many of the feelings I did about this video. But I'm going to do something about it. [If you want something done right...] I'm currently penning a script for The Death Of Superman. I'm trying to work it as a "combining the movie universe and the comic universe", bringing the movies so much closer to the newer ideas in the comics. Some trimming occurs, some additional scenes to blend the two, but what I want most is to capture that timeless feeling that was created within me the first time I read the novelization of the story. [The novel that I'm using as source material, as well as using Wikipedia for information past and future for each character. Superboy is a Lex half-clone? I missed that!] I do hope to hear back from you. I'd really like to discuss this with fans who know the story better than I do.