Superman: Man of Tomorrow

Glad to finally have a decent representation of Superman back in the adaptations. The New 52 movie universe... I don't know what that was, but it didn't work.

And this should be required viewing for Zack Snyder and his sycophant fanboys. If they don't like this version of Superman, then they don't like Superman. There are plenty of grim and gritty edgelord j.o. Fantasies out there to get into, don't ruin Superman by trying to make him one of them.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow is a great change for DC animated movies whilst also being a solid Superman origin story, although it would have benefited from a longer run time. Darren Criss gives a great lead performance, Ryan Hurst is perfect and Zachary Quinto, Alexandra Daddario and Ike Amadi are all really good. The animation is great and much better than the usual style. Chris Palmer's direction is really good and the music by Kevin Riepl is good.

At the beginning, when Clark is crying because of the alien movie. That set the tone for the rest of the movie and to me, it didn't disappoint. It was a bit in your face about humanity but sometimes it needs to be that way. Lois Lane, is always the star in every one of her appearance. It shows her as someone hungry to discover the truth and keeping people informed but also she's so sure of herself, an icon. I like the few interactions we got between them. I hope we get more movies in this universe.

Through and through this movie actually captured the essence of Superman. Any comic book fan will enjoy this movie, because this movie shows the director did his research. I wondered how putting multiple antagonists in this movie would work, but wow they actually were able to make this work right down to the ending. The animation is stellar and if anything comes from this movie, please at the very least be the animation style. The previous DCAU was fine but this one just blows it away by a mile. I will say that if you've seen Justice League Dark Apokolips War and SOMEHOW liked it, well you won't like this. There is death in this, but it's not just for the sake of ending a whole universe. I'll finish by saying again this movie NAILED Superman and would be the perfect opener for the next universe because it knows what DC stands for.

Origin stories are always tricky. Too much exposition, too much reliance on old themes and old storylines, they become dull. Too little, they're empty. This effort is somewhere in between. While it isn't terrible, it isn't that great, either.

What we have here is another reboot of how Superman came to be and a riff on how Parasite came to be but not unbe. The story is familiar and with a "love conquers all" message at the end--not needed, IMO, because of how treacly it was--it brought down the movie to a level of barely passable.

Pluses. The voices are good, particularly Zachary Quinto as Lex Luthor. I'm used to Clancy Brown, but Quinto's riff on it wasn't bad, and the evilness of Luthor in the final showdown was solid. Darren Criss as Superman/Clark Kent was fine, and Alexandra Daddario as Lois Lane was good. I'm sort of spoiled by Brad Garrett's interpretation of Lobo, but Ryan Hurst does well enough, showing the meanness...but not all the humor. Ike Amadi as Martian Manhunter does well enough in his role, investing his character with gravity and pathos.

Music. Good, but not great. Direction also good but not great. The story could have moved a bit faster. It was a by-the-numbers direction job, but not terrible by any means.

Minuses. The animation could have been a lot better. It reminded me of The Brave and the Bold style, with somewhat less of a black outline around the characters.

Parasite reminded me more of Godzilla: Resurgence (which was pretty awesome, IMO) but his character really didn't move me one way or the other. He's supposed to garner the audience's sympathy for his condition; he left lukewarm. Couldn't hate him, but definitely didn't like him. Every superhero needs a villain, and Lobo was more compelling in his own way.

But the biggest drawback was the overall familiarity of the story and the unwillingness to move in a different direction. I'm a huge DC fan, so I always look forward to what they come up with, but this is a far cry from being their best or even being near their best. It's worth a watch, but not a buy.