All-Star Superman

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Okay, I had real problems with the book - the whimsy of certain things really distanced me from the material - like someone who hates comics was trying to write Superman but just didn't get it. Sure I've loved some Grant Morrison, but his take on Superman just didn't grab me.

In the film they've addressed some of these issues for me, and there is some brilliance in the script - some original and some taken from the book, but it doesn't really work as a film for me. Much too episodic (like the book) and still has that 50s whimsical wackiness that put me off from the comic.

However the art style that made Clark look like Lenny from Of Mice and Men in the comic, works very well in the film and I really love the "look" of the movie, even though it reminded me of Heavy Metal at times (and not in a good way). Quite a departure from other DC animateds. The music is also really good.

It's getting great reviews all over the place, as did the comic - and it may be the most intelligent of the DC movies, but overall I'm still not that impressed.

I never read the comic but enjoyed the movie.
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Another successful DC animation in my book.

Read the book and I'm picking up the Blu-ray this weekend.

Darklord Dave said:

Okay, I had real problems with the book - the whimsy of certain things really distanced me from the material - like someone who hates comics was trying to write Superman but just didn't get it. Sure I've loved some Grant Morrison, but his take on Superman just didn't grab me.

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Oh ok, well at least I'm not the only one that didn't really enjoy it...There were alot of parts that just confused me and just didn't seem to get the spirit of Supes...Don't get me wrong, it was still man enjoyable take on the man of steel...I dunno, I'm still on the fence about it, but I am looking forward to checking out this animated version..

I enjoyed it, don't like his face towel for a cape though

Didn't read the comic but DC is hitting their animation movies out of the park, forgot to PO it and do a pick up for the bestbuy exclusive. I did it yesterday but it won't be instock and it will ship around March 3rd. Looking forward to watching it.

Really enjoyed it. I was surprised with how close it was to the book.

Spoiler:

A shame they left the bit with the suicidal girl out though. That was one of the best moments in the comic.

Even bigger shame that he actually killed Solaris and said that he had no mercy left. It really clashes with Superman's depiction throughout the rest of the movie. Couldn't they have kept one or two lines about Solaris being humanity's guardian in the future, and then merely have him disable it, like in the comic?

I found it good but far from perfect.

The runtime is too short to pull off it's episodic structure. As someone who read the comic series and has seen the Blu-ray I found some of the stuff they kept was less relevant to the main arch than what they left out.

A story about Superman getting what is effectively Super-cancer. Yet there's a lot of cheese here such as The Samson and Atlas stuff. There were some more epic side stories in the book they could have used here.

The idea of Superman dealing with his mortality has been dealt with more effectively in two other stories (both by Alan Moore) "For the Man who has Everything" and "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" On of those was adapted to a Justice League episode and had much more emotion.

My wife was watching too. Since she had never read All-Star Superman she had a truer first impression of the story. She said "He's dying. Instead of telling Lois he's playing head games with her. What an -sshole."

I know some people are saying this is their new fav DC universe movie. "Batman: Under the Red Hood" is still the top of the pack for me.

I didn't care for the film or the comic either. I'm convinced that people say "they love Grant Morrison's writing" because someone somewhere said it was cool to do so. The film itself felt like it was all over the place and had scenes in it that left me scratching my head as to exactly why they were there and exactly how were they helping the story along, Jimmy's cross dressing scene come to mind.

The main story itself felt disjointed, fractured even. It seemed like the story was making actual progress and then it screeches to a halt with scenes like the Samson and Atlas and the city of "Kandor/I've gotta go and I'll be back later" portions. I've read a lot of different takes on Superman by countless creators and this take just felt...wrong. On the flip side though, I loved the way Lex was written, just absolutely maniacal, calculating, genius, and misguided - Wonderful stuff.

And one last nitpick - No short to go along with the film. I was really disappointed by that as I look forward to those as much as the actual main feature.

Ra88 said:

Spoiler:

A shame they left the bit with the suicidal girl out though. That was one of the best moments in the comic.

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I can't believe I forgot that. That was a fantastic moment. Huge omission. It would have taken 30 seconds to put it in there. Nuts.

I thought the film was okay, not great, but not horrible either. I'd put it in the bottom half of the DC animated movies and in that I'm disappointed. The animation was not as good as I had hoped and the story wasn't as good in the comics, the choices they made of what to keep in and what to leave out etc. just didn't work for me. I wasn't a huge fan of the comic (I liked the art more than the story) but I had high hopes for the movie.

I'm pretty much in line with you guys on this. Good, but not great and certainly not up to par with some of the more recent DC Animated films. And I also agree that some of the choices they made (what to keep, what to omit from the book) were odd.

Loved how they handled the ending, though.

There was a not so subtle difference between the end of the movie vs. the book.

In the comic Lois says he's not dead, he's building a new heart for the sun and someday he will be back. They go to a image of Superman pulling a lever in a great act of strength. Is it just a metaphorical image of Superman? It's left to the reader to decide.

I always felt the picture was suggesting Superman is alive, building the very heart that Lois mentioned. It looks like a Quintum design for a machine. It seemed to suggested Lois was right. Dr. Quintum will be ready for the day Superman is truly gone, but I think even he has a belief he is still alive out there.

This is underscored by Clark's vision of his father. Jor-El tells Clark he is dead and offers him a choice to return, which of course he does. So the 'death' of Superman occurs in that moment, and he returns, further suggesting later he lives within the sun. He will return as soon as he can pull the quintillion ton lever.

I liked that the comic presented this image and left it open to interpretation. The movie on the other hand does not.

In the movie the "worker with lever" image looks like a tribute, like the statue in the park. It's just a bas-relief art deco piece somewhere in Metropolis. This version leaves a different feeling. We aren't really seeing Superman. There is a much stronger impression that he really died. The only way Superman will return is from the efforts of Quintum applying Luthor's notes to create a clone.

I thought the book was by far the best Superman story in ages. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, I just wish it had more of a Frank Quietly look to it.

I don't think the sublime ending of the comic would have worked for a more family-oriented animated film, though.

I liked this movie, but I felt the story was very jumpy.