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All-Star Superman Movie review

Started by drice6900,

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drice6900

drice6900

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From the GeekWatch blog:

 

Review: 'All-Star Superman' -- man of tedium

by Eric Henrickson (The Detroit News) on Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 7:30 AM

 

"All-Superman" (Warner Bros. Animated) -- After a string of well-done direct-to-video animated superhero movies, it pains me to say that "All-Star Superman" lands with a big thud.

 

It all starts with plot, which isn't entirely the filmmakers' fault. It's based on a limited series by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely. I never read the run, but it's largely a series of self-contained stories with an extremely moderate through-line as Superman puts his affairs in order when he learns he's going to die.

 

He was set-up by Lex Luthor. While saving a scientific expedition to the sun, he's irradiated with extra strong solar energy, which supercharges his body. His powers increase, he loses his weakness against kryptonite, and it's eating him up from the inside.

 

It's a series of vignettes that mostly have nothing to do with one another, and you spend the whole movie wondering when they're going to do something to try to fix the condition, at least. You just want something with meaning to happen. But it never really does. The whole movie is just going through the motions.

 

Things pick up at the climax as the few loose threads are brought together, but it's too little too late. The plot holes don't help either.

 

Facing mortality is a major theme in literature, but what probably makes for an interesting read makes for a yawner of a movie.

 

Then there's the animation. It apes Quitely's character designs. And while I like the look of the costume tweak, Superman's face looks ... off. The proportions are wrong. I've never liked Quitely's art, so to see a whole movie animated to look kind of like it is a big turn-off.

 

Plus the animation itself is just looking cheaper and cheaper.

 

The voice acting picks things up a bit. James Denton ("Desperate Housewives") does well as a world-weary Clark. Anthony LaPaglia ("Without a Trace") does great as Lex Luthor. But Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men") is flatter than a pancake as Lois.

 

And it doesn't even have a cool short to accompany it. What happened to that program? Since I know he'll never get a feature, I was hoping to see Aquaman. Or at least Flash. (Legion of Super-Heroes was a pipe dream, I know.)

 

I don't think there's anything they could have done to truly save this movie. The source material just didn't work as a feature film.

 

GRADE: C-

 

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Reno McCoy

Reno McCoy

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Hmmm, I've read elsewhere that it's pretty solid.

 

I've enjoyed most of the DC animated films (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman), but I guess I didn't like New Frontier that much, and the Batman Red Hood one was only so so.

 

I'll have to check out other reviews on this one to see what the consensus is.

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Boboset

Boboset

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netflix won't have it 'til 3.22.11. :tonofbricks:

 

Redbox it :baiting:

 

i can wait. there's also a 'very long wait' for the 'marvel knights: black panther'. (shrug)

 

Is that the one that ran on BET, with the moving JR JR art similar to the FF cartoons of the 60s?

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supapimp

supapimp

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netflix won't have it 'til 3.22.11. :tonofbricks:

 

Redbox it :baiting:

 

i can wait. there's also a 'very long wait' for the 'marvel knights: black panther'. (shrug)

 

Is that the one that ran on BET, with the moving JR JR art similar to the FF cartoons of the 60s?

 

seriously? damn. i missed it. smh :pullhair:

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gcwatson94

gcwatson94

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The biggest complaint I have read about this movie is the voice acting. I have to say I don't like that they have changed up batman and supermans voices since the justice league stuff. Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly should be their voices until they die.

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nearmint

nearmint

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I like Frank Quitely's art, so a review by someone who admits that he doesn't like Quitely's art is pretty irrelevant to me. It's like an Entertainment Weekly review of one of the Star Trek movies that started with "I've never been a Star Trek fan." After reading that, there wasn't much reason to read on.

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whisp

whisp

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This movie was the first one in a long time that I have seen from the animated movies by DC I did not like. It had ok parts but it just didn't amount to some of the others. Last one I watched was Batman: Under the Red Hood and that was pretty good.

 

 

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