Superman: Doomsday

[anarky]

Here's a cut and paste review from elsewhere:

Just watched Doomsday, and I have some mixed feelings.

First, let me get it off my chest: Lois not knowing Clark's identity at the beginning was a major mistake. I have nothing against Superman getting his groove on, though it's sorta like walking in on your parents. But doing that when the girl doesn't know who he really is? It's totally and completely out of character for Superman. It also goes against every modern interpretation of the character, where he knows he can win Lois as Superman, but wants her to fall for Clark so that he knows it's not just some misguided hero worship. And it robs the movie of the chance to work in the most powerful moment in the comic, where we see Lois holding his dead body, and we know what's going through her head.

Never mind that Superman is a bastion of morality, even if his morals often seem outdated.

Huge mistake. It really, really brought the movie down a few notches. Especially since, being out of any existing continuity, a few lines of dialogue could've established that they were engaged, or married, or at least that she knew who he was!

The first portion was horribly rushed. Some great action sequences, but nearly every aspect should've been fleshed out more. It would've been nice to work in the most classic image of the story (aside from Superman's cape flapping in the wind): Doomsday pounding a wall. Hell, had his escape from the pod just been fifteen seconds longer, it could've easily have been worked in. Minor detail, but the classic "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! KRAKA-DOOM!!" IS Doomsday, just as much as "snikt!" is Wolverine.

I think this would've worked much better as two movies. Have the death of Superman as one movie (especially as short as this is), with a teaser for his return, coming to DVD next year.

However, as soon as the funeral was over (I thought it seemed a little cold, and Martha having such a prominent spot despite Clark's identity being secret was weird), the movie quickly redeemed itself.

We didn't have Steel, Eradicator, Superboy, and the Cyborg. They were awesome in the comics, but not in a movie. (It could take an hour just to explain who they were!) The clone storyline was an excellent surrogate, and handled far better than the first half of the film. Obviously, a lot more work went into this part.

Kevin Smith's cameo was great for anyone who knows the convoluted history of Superman Returns. Not sure why the Toyman was re-imagined as Marilyn Manson, or what his obsession was with kidnapping kids, but it worked. Pseudo-Man killing him was actually far more powerful than anything involving Supes' death.

And the final battle was fricking amazing, though they seem to have cleaned up rather quickly afterwards, considering that all of Metropolis appeared to look like the WTC site on 9/12/01.

All said, though, the preview for Justice League: New Frontier looked far better than Doomsday. (It'll be awesome to get a modern animated Hal Jordan outside of that Duck Dodgers episode.)

As cheap as it is, I'd recommend it.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I didn't like the way did Supes cheekbones. It was distracting.

Dropping Toyman off the roof was pretty hardcore, though.

----–--------

This has been Rollo's Timely Movie Review Follow-Up®