Superman Doomsday - My Review

So I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Superman: Doomsday. I went into Edmonton on Sunday with the explicit purpose of buying it, but lo and behold, every where I went was sold out! So I came home Sunday night, bought it online, and it arrived yesterday afternoon.

I've been blogging about this for pretty much a year, so I'll just give you a quick re-cap. Warner Brothers and DC Comics decided to get into this straight-to-video animated film market pretty hardcore, and decided to pump out a series of straight-to-video animated films based on some classic DC Comics story lines. They are to be PG-13 rated, and be a little more grown-up than the Batman and Superman cartoons of the past. The first one out of the gate: Superman: Doomsday, based on the now-legendary The Death and Return of Superman story line.

Let's do this like how I do most of my movie reviews, shall we?

Superman: Doomsday

Directed by Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery, and Brandon Vietti

Starring the voices of Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters, Tom Kenny, John diMaggio, Swoozie Kurtz, Cree Summer, Ray Wise, Adam Wylie and special guest star Kevin Smith as "the grumpy man."

Backstory: Well, I pretty much covered this all up above, so let's keep going.

Plot: A LexCorp expedition unearths Doomsday, a near-indestructable, soulless killing machine. Superman goes out to stop this monster, but the only way he can do it is with his own life. The world grieves and tries to move on in a world without Superman. But then, a being claiming to be Superman turns up. He looks like Superman, acts like Superman, but...he's different. And when things go horribly wrong, the world holds its breath and hopes that the real Superman will return.

What I Liked: I've got to give it up to Adam Baldwin. When I heard that he'd be taking on the voice of Superman, I didn't think he could pull it off, but he did it spectacularly. Of course, there's some pretty spectacular action sequences. And Lex Luthor is portrayed pretty good to, especially in the way he slowly unravels because HE didn't get to kill Superman. And Kevin Smith's cameo is nerd-tacular.

What I Didn't Like: No more animated films for you, Anne Heche! You are a not-very-good Lois Lane. And what's with the extra lines on Superman's face? He looks so...old. And of course, quite a bit had to be clipped out in order to get it down to a 75-minute film.

The Final Verdict: Actually, how they decided to adapt this to the small screen really reminded of a Batman story line called Knightfall, which some consider the Batman knock-off of The Death and Return of Superman. Sadly, I was expecting something "bang, zoom, spectacular!" but it doesn't quite get there. It's just merely OK.

2.5 Nibs

DVD Bonus Material: I'm just starting to pour through the bonus material. There's a running commentary by director Bruce Timm, writer Duane Capizzi, voice director Andrea Romano, and producer Gregory Noveck; a documentary about the original story line and its impact on the comic book world; a featurette with interviews of the voice cast; a trailer for Justice League: The New Frontier (which will be PG-13 rated, straight-to-video movie #2) and an interactive game.