DCU Animated All-Star Superman Review

It’s an absolutely indisputable fact: All-Star Superman is the greatest comic series of all time. Never has a series explored the mythology of superheroes more and while Superman has been published for over 70 years, Morrison was able to present the world’s first superhero with a depth of humanity that no other writer has been able to create before.

When All-Star Superman was announced as DC’s next animated film, I was torn. On the one hand, it’s the greatest comic series of all time, but on the other hand, it’s a story that is told in twelve issues (the bulk of which are stand alone stories that could all be movies in and of themselves) that the movie has to condense in 80 minutes.

So . . . how does this film shape up? Well, before you click on, be warned that SPOILERS THERE BE!!!!

Visually, the film looks as close to Frank Quitely’s pencils as possible. All of the characters capture the look and feel of his work. In fact, most of the scenes in the film are directly lifted from the comic itself. More than any other DC Animated film (other than maybe New Frontier) All-Star Superman looks just like the comic book. For all intents and purposes, this is a perfect translation of the comic to film, but it still maintains the heart of the series.

Of course, my immediate concern going into the film was how much they would be able to get into the film. Surprisingly, almost everything is in the film – at least, the most important parts of the series were in the film. The Jimmy Olson issue (issue 4) was left out, and while it was a great issue, its omission from the film doesn’t harm the overall product. Likewise, the omission of the Bizarro storyline (issues 7 and 8) doesn’t take away from the film. They work within the context of the comic, but their omission from the film don’t harm anything.

Unfortunately, the film also omits the flashback issue (issue 6) where Superman battles the Chronovore along with Supermen from the future. While it makes sense to omit the issue due to time constraints and the fact that it doesn’t move the main narrative forward, the omission that hurts the most is the legacy that he leaves behind. Even though its clear that Superman is going to die by the end of the series, the inclusion of the Supermen from the future shows that he is so much more than just one individual. Being Superman is an idea that will live on and influence future generations and that is too important of a point to dismiss. While I understand that the flashback had to be taken out, I can’t help but feel as if a few minutes of the film could be dedicated to time traveling Supermen who affirm that life will go on without him.

The last issue to be omitted from the film is issue 10 which features a sort of day in the life of Superman as he visits children’s hospitals, stops a girl from committing suicide, and creates a mini-universe where he doesn’t exist in order to see what the world will be like without him. Most consider this to be the best issue of the entire series and while it would have been difficult to reproduce, a few nods to Superman taking care of average people rather than merely always battling giant lizards would have been nice.

So, cutting out five out of twelve issues isn’t all that bad in my mind. The issues left in were represented well, but I think my favorite translation has to be the jail scene where Clark interviews Lex Luthor and they must escape from Parasite. At times, the animation was so crisp and detailed that I felt like I was watching a Miyazaki film. Parasite’s animation felt like the blob monster from Spirited Away. It was beautiful.

The battle with Solaris is also a visually stunning piece. It could have been easy to make Solaris appear like any other giant monster, but the animation really presents the red sun monster in all its glory. The battle even has higher cosmic implications as Superman (representative of the Sun) battles Solaris (a jealous red sun who wants to be worshipped as a god). Superman battles for mankind because he loves us while Solaris wants to replace our sun and force mankind to pray to him. It’s really kind of haunting to think about.

Two scenes not appearing in the comics occur within the film. The first has Superman telling Lois that he has to leave the planet in order to find a new home for Kandor. It feels forced and contrived, but it was used to replace the Bizarro issues and it had to be done to get Superman off the planet. Seriously though, it is cringe-worthy because it feels as if the whole movie is about to unravel and leave the comic behind completely. Fortunately, this feeling doesn’t last long.

The last added scene is between Superman and Ma Kent and it is far superior. In fact, I’m not ashamed to admit that I got choked up and tears filled my eyes as she notes that Clark doesn’t look like he’s feeling well and he doesn’t have the heart to tell her that he is dying. It’s a touching scene and a welcome addition.

In terms of the acting, James Denton plays Superman and his voice acting and he is one of the better actors to have voiced Superman in recent years. While I love Tim Daly, I’ve never found him to be particularly dynamic as Superman. Denton portrays the character with a depth of emotion and compassion that Daly just isn’t capable of. Most actors come off as boring as Superman, but Denton strikes a nice balance in the character of kindness and life.

Anthony LaPaglia plays a decent enough Lex Luthor, but he sounds a lot like Ed Asner at times. He comes off a bit gruff rather than menacing or cold like Luthor should be. He’s not bad by any means, but he never gave me the chills that James Marsters was able to evoke during Death and Return of Superman.

Christina Hendricks is Lois Lane. She is sassy and smart, but madly and deeply in love. She was perfect.

For special features, there are two featurettes of the making of the comic. The first is Superman Now where Morrison shares his feelings on crafting the story based on mythological origins. I’ve heard a few of these stories before, but there were some new things as well. What I love about this featurette the most is that Morrison pulls no punches. I wondered if some of Morrison’s ideology and his ideas of magic were going to be toned down, but I was pleasantly surprised that he was represented in his full Morrison beauty and madness. Seriously, this was just as good as the movie itself and it feels a bit like a sequel to Talking with Gods . . . which is a movie that you really need to watch.

The second featurette is called The Creative Flow: Incubating the Idea with Grant Morrison and the focus is on Morrison’s sketches and how they evolved. It’s a fun, short little feature that works more as an appetizer for some of the stories in Talking with Gods . . . which is a movie you should have watched by now.

Overall, All-Star Superman is a great success for DC: Animated. The film is animated well, follows the story without any complications, and has some of the best special features I’ve seen on any of the animated films so far. It is definitely worth buying, so be sure to go out there and pick up a copy.