It's funny really, about two years ago, when Serenity came out and I was first turned on to Joss Whedon's Firefly universe I thought to myself, "gee, Adam Baldwin would make an excellent older, experienced Superman". I suspect that the movie gods were listening to me. It helps that Baldwin is a serious and experienced character actor who never gives anything less than his all to each character he plays. Among other great casting is an emotionally resonating Anne Heche as Lois Lane and a sinister James Marsters as Lex Luthor. For the first five minutes or so, as a fan of the 1990's animated series, it was a little odd hearing these new voices, but they quickly fell into place and one realizes that this is not going to be your parents Superman cartoons. The first thing to be noticeably different is an edginess that wasn't as common or explicit in previous animated versions, and it even outdoes the live action films in this regard. This is the first time that any Superman project has been rated PG-13, and it wasn't just violence amped up to make slack-jaws happy, this film forgets that it is a cartoon and deals with a fantastic story with a lion's share of adult drama. Just about everybody and their mom's know that Warner tried for several years to get a live action Death of Superman movie made, coming close once or twice, and making a seemingly endless string of missteps along the way before abandoning the project. There are innumerable sources for the back story on the project so I won't go into details, but let me say that for every possible mistake Tim Burton and Jon Peters could have made, this film does it right. For not following the actual comic book story very closely, it gets the look, feel, and characterizations perfect. The animation quality is outstanding, it actually looks better than its predecessors in most regards, though it takes a few minutes to get used to the new looks of many of the central characters. And the music is strong and fitting, though the film misses the traditional blaring triad of Superman projects. All in all, this film is far superior to either Superman Returns or the current run of Smallville, and deserves as high a profile as it can achieve.
Review of Superman/Doomsday
