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| Thursday, December 4, 2008 09:40 PM |
| On the Viewer - Superman: Doomsday |
 by Fëanor |
Wow, I read The Death of Superman almost two years ago! It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but there it is in black and white. You might think from the rather negative review I gave it that I wouldn't want to watch the animated film adaptation... but you'd be wrong!! I received the DVD from Netflix a while back and watched it in 20 minute increments while running on the treadmill in the mornings. And you know what? It's fantastic!
Seriously. I was pretty surprised. They totally one-upped the source material in every way. Of course, it's possible I feel that way partly because I read only the middle part of the source material. Death of Superman is nestled deeply within the DC continuity of the time, and refers to storylines and characters of the time, all of which I was unfamiliar with. There's a Luthor there, but he's not the Lex Luthor I know (I think he's Scottish or something?), and furthermore he's in a relationship with Lois, who is apparently on the outs with Superman. Other random heroes show up to try to help Superman, and they were mostly unfamiliar to me. All of which was very off-putting.
But besides missing out on the beginning and the context of the story, I also missed out on the end. After the death of Superman came the funeral and the grieving and the learning to live in a world without Superman, none of which I read. I get the feeling from the documentary about the comic books, included as a special feature on this DVD, that that story was actually far more powerful and interesting than the death itself.
So I'll give the comic a little slack; maybe fitted into context and read as part of the larger saga of Superman, it's not as bad as it seems. Still, as far as the actual story of Superman's death goes, the movie does a far better job of telling it than the comic did, and I feel like it boils the drawn-out comic book arc of Superman's death and resurrection down to its essentials in a very smart and powerful way. The first good choice the movie makes is to set Superman's death in a more familiar part of DC continuity - with Lex Luthor as an evil mogul who hates and wishes to destroy Superman; Lois in love with Superman and very much in hate with Luthor; Superman returning Lois' love, but as yet unwilling to share with her the truth of his secret identity, or to make their relationship public. The movie also gives us a little more backstory and explanation for Doomsday, making him a more credible villain, and even implicates Luthor in unleashing him. One of the things that really bugged me about the book is that Doomsday just came out of nowhere, a creature we'd never heard of and knew nothing about, and beat Superman to death. It was a disappointing and anticlimactic end for the greatest hero of all time. In the film, I was more willing to accept Doomsday as Superman's killer, especially since that part of the story was over and discarded with halfway into the movie, and it was quickly made clear that Superman wasn't really gone after all.
In the comics, there's a weird, spiritual angle to Superman's resurrection, and how he comes back to life is never really totally explained. The movie explains it in a pretty straightforward fashion: Superman's body had simply slowed its processes way, way down to allow him to heal. I like this simple, reasonable, believable explanation much better than the hand-wavy one from the comics. The movie also avoids the whole drawn out storyline with the four different guys who say they're Superman (interesting as that was); instead, it introduces only one faux Superman before bringing back the real one, and then setting the two Supermen on a collision course for a nice big juicy climactic fight. The sequence with the "dark" clone Superman is really quite fantastic, too. He's essentially Superman if he hadn't been brought up by the Kents. He hasn't been instilled with their simple decency and respect for life and law, so he imposes his idea of law and order with ruthless amorality, brutally killing his enemies when he feels it's necessary. So yeah, this is not a nice cartoon for the kiddies! The whole film is quite dark and violent and bloody, and quite a few people lose their lives.
The interesting thing about clone Superman is that even though his means are reprehensible, his ends are the same as Superman's. (Spoilers ahead.) As he's dying, the clone Superman's last words to the real Superman are that he protect the people of Metropolis. And when he murders the hideous Toyman, you can't help but cheer a little bit, and kind of wish the real Superman had the balls to do the same thing every once in while.
The action is also exciting and epic in scale; the fights between Superman and Doomsday, and between Superman and his clone, are massively destructive and impressive. But the film isn't all fighting and action and death; there are also quiet, dramatic scenes between Lois and Clark's mother after Superman's death, and these are surprisingly effective and moving. I also like the way they handle Luthor in the movie. He's such a twisted bastard. It's hilarious watching him sulk after Superman's death, pissed that he didn't get to do the deed himself. It's also pretty awesome the way he gets totally pwned by clone Superman. Although that sequence is also a little silly. Luthor the evil super-genius should have been smarter than to assume he had complete control over the clone after sticking one tiny device inside him that the clone could easily remove. It's also funny/stupid that he's dumb enough to think the clone will walk into his red sunlight room and accept a beating from his kryptonite brass knuckles.
But to get back to the bit about the clone removing Luthor's control device: the scene where the clone walks into the beauty parlor and performs brain surgery on himself is absolutely priceless, especially when he turns in the doorway after he's done and says, "A safe Superman means a safe Metropolis." Then there's the great scene later where he saves the old lady's cat, only to then threaten the cat, and the old lady.
The movie also handles Superman's secret identity very well. It doesn't try to make us believe the ridiculous idea that Lois could somehow not know after all these years that Clark Kent is actually Superman. She knows. She's just mad that he hasn't come out and officially told her, and is being kind of passive-aggressive about it. I like that. That makes sense.
So, the movie is funny, moving, exciting, smart, and dramatic, and it nails the characters perfectly. It gets to the heart of what Superman is: a good man, who would give everything, even his life, to protect the people of his adopted planet. As he says multiple times throughout the film, that's why he's here. Great, great movie, and highly recommended, even for people who aren't necessarily huge comic book fans. Just, uh, don't let your kids watch it. |
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