Directors: Lauren Montgomery, Bruce Timm
Writers: Jerry Siegel (character created by: Superman), Joe Shuster (character created by: Superman)
Stars: Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters
When LexCorps accidentally unleash a murderous creature, Doomsday, Superman meets his greatest challenge as a champion.
I read that Superman / Doomsday is based on the “The Death of Superman” storyline that appeared in DC Comics’ publications in the 1990s. Having said that, I have also heard that not a lot of the source material is actually used in this animated movie from 2007. Superman / Doomsday kicked off the DC Animated Film Universe over a decade ago and i’m pleased to see it is still continuing with fresh storylines and inspiration from the comics.
Adam Baldwin is Superman / Clark Kent and yes Dark Superman which I will go into shortly. Baldwin does a good job here in portraying the mild manner reporter briefly as this film doesn’t focus too much on Kent, which I felt was a wise decision. Clark is “shipped off” to the middle east to report and this allows us to get to know the Son of Jor-El and his relationship with Lois Lane (Anne Heche) Baldwin’s tone to the character is dark and moody, almost like The Dark Knight.
Anne Heche who is a terrific actress and more lately is appearing mostly on our television screens is a variety of shows. My introduction to the actress was in the decent 1998 film Six Days Seven Nights along with Harrison Ford. Here I’m glad to say that Heche has a lot of “voice time” and this is possibly the first time that I have seen Lois in a prominent role since 2006’s Superman Returns. As I am typing this, sadly the actress synonyms with the iconic character Margot Kidder passed away and she is the first person I think of when I hear the name Lois Lane.
James Marsters as Lex Luthor is good I guess. Honestly Luthor pops up in some key scenes but not enough for me to judge the voicing talents of Marsters. I can say he does a job. Luthor at the beginning really is just there to serve the plot and the creation of Doomsday, the main villain in this film. In fact, strangely Luthor is the victim of his own accidental experimentation and distances himself and Lexcorp from the murderous creature. Although he does pop up again in the films final third and it key to the plot for the final battle
Toe for Toe, Doomsday is a great match for the Man of Steel. Recently this generation is perhaps became a little bored with Superman as his super power strengths have become a little predictable to new audience members who have been brought up on more complex, tortured and darker anti-heroes in comic book characters like in Watchmen and The Dark Knight. I get that and thankfully so does the writers here and the directors. This is the first time I have witnessed Superman struggle with his arch rivals. The battle across Metropolis is amazing to see in an animated film and credit to the animation team as this movie is well presented.
Without giving too much of the plot and reveals away (although this film is over a decade old and you should have saw this by now) as I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who hasn’t saw the film yet. We get to see the Dark Superman and it is great to see. Last year I was excited to see the leaked photographs of Henry Cavill’s Dark Superman for the then upcoming Justice League film. Yes it’s been done on the big screen before in the now well known and disappointing Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. Here it doesn’t make that much of a big deal about it. It really is just to differentiate between two battling “Supermen” in the final battle scenes.
Overall Superman / Doomsday is an enjoyable take on the Man of Steel and I think it’s fair to say that although enjoyable, once Superman has dealt with Doomsday the pacing of the movie and it’s overall tone changes and possibly not for the better. It is still a worthwhile watch and I can honestly say that it is recommendable.
