The Death of Superman

Apart from the obvious predictability (it's literally in the title), The Death of Superman is a surprisingly amazing remake/adaptation with really good animation, genuine emotion and great pacing. The action in particular is incredible, well made and visceral. The voice acting is really good, especially from Jerry O' Connell, Rebecca Romijn and Rainn Wilson.

First a surprisingly great "Gotham by Gaslight", then an overall ok Suicide Squad animation, then, we have this one.

Let me say upfront that (1) I've never seen the other Death of Superman movie, so I wont compare this one with that one, and (2) really I hadn't dug into this story itself before, therefore, this is kind of my first real experience with this arc.

But man, I just love this movie! I went and saw it without expectations, but wow! This time around even the bad animation's style that all these "DC Animated Universe" movies have didn't bother me.

I know it's a Superman film, but I loved the way they approach the Justice League here. Their relationship, it's so cool to see our heroes interacting, telling jokes, or just being friends really. The chemistry was there, and it was amazing.

And another amazing thing is that even though the movie has a couple of comical moments, there are also some dark scenes, they've talked about some pretty intense topics, they approach (as Zack Snyder also did on the recent DCU movies) this whole "messianic" image the population have on Superman which always cool.

The set up to Superman's death is also really well done. Through the whole movie he is almost unbeatable, he kicks everyone's ass without much effort, until... boom! Doomsday! And you feel the impact. Also, another great set up is how the population feels about Superman, he is a god, he is hope, we will always be there for them, until... boom, he isn't. And, once again, you feel it. There is one specific scene, where he saves a little boy, and the boy hugs him, it's such an emblematic moment, it's one frame that really just defines who Superman is. Wonderful.

I guees, my only issue is kind of a spoiler. I don't how much you are able to not know this story, but well, I wont say it. But genericaly speaking, it's the end, like the last 2 minutes or so. It would just be more powerful if they had the "corage" (or something like that) to finish the movie without this 2 last minutes and what happens there. I don't know, for me the movie would just be perfect, and its message potentialized. But it wasn't.

Summing up, The Death of Superman is a great piece of animation, and, in fact, the first one of the "DC Animated Universe" which really get me excited to see what is comming next. Don't get me wrong, there were some pretty good other ones, but for me this is the first GREAT one. Just love it.

This movie does a really good job at building up the love for Superman, making the impact of his death hit just right. It's emotional. There were actual tears in my eyes. The battle between Superman and Doomsday is brutal. The relationship between Lois and Clark gets us invested in his life. The subtle way that Batman and Wonder Woman react to Superman's death display their unique connection with Superman and breaks our hearts even more. There is humor, romance, action and sadness all piled into this one grand movie. To get the full effect, be sure to watch the previous movies leading up to this one. The Death of Superman is movie 12 of 16 in the DC Animated Universe based off of the New 52 series.

In 2007 we got an animated film covering the full Doomsday/return of superman saga. For some reason, I guess DC wanted to do it again.

The good- the film looks very good; the animation is great, the drawings are detailed, and the characters have their authentic look from the comics. The fight scenes are also quite good, and make the battles epic without going into Man of Steel level carnage. The presentation of Doomsday is also top-notch, he's never felt more dangerous or unstoppable. The "graphic" violence adds a degree of danger, but I wouldn't oversell it- anyone over the age of 11 has probably seen worse on network television. Also, lots of nice little touches to the world, like people trying to take selfies with Superman, give this film a little more character.

The middle- the voice acting left me cold. Nothing is too bad (although Rain Wilson is kind of hammy as Lex Luthor, which I didn't like). Superman and the rest certainly have conviction, but the dialogue doesn't really stand out. The script is also a bit simplistic- generally kind of blah and predictable.

The bad- the pacing is inconsistent. The film takes *forever* to get to "the good stuff," and the time before that is not exactly captivating. They're trying to build suspense and world-build and everything, but we already know what Doomsday is and what he's going to do! The subplot about Clark and Lois also didn't do much for me- the overall point of it was fine, but the pacing just dragged it out too much. In this regard, the 2007 film wins out. That film was much more "cartoony," but it had quick pacing and covered twice as much material in less time.

So basically, we have a more "adult" version of the Doomsday story (but not the entire story). What the film adds in production values and fighting choreography, it lacks in pacing and originality. Although the 2007 film was less popular, I'd much rather watch the 2007 one again, as it was more entertaining, had better pacing, and tells the entire story in less time than this film.

The Death of Superman is a story-line that Warner bros. And DC have over used in the last decade and a little bit, back in 2007 DC released "Superman:Doomsday" which is based off the same story and that was definitely a great movie. 9 years later in 2016 they adapted that story-line in live action for the first time in 2016 with the ending to Batman Vs Superman:Dawn of Justice where Doomsday shows up and spoiler alert kills Superman and that definitely was not done well. Now in 2018, DC's newest animated venture adapts that same story-line in the Death of Superman, but the fact that it's been done before doesn't hinder the movie at all,in fact it is probably the best version of the story adapted to movies. Don't get me wrong Superman:Doomsday is really good and I still think it's great but The Death of Superman has actually surpassed that movie as the best version of this movie.

One of the things this movie does so well that say ... Batman Vs Superman doesn't, is it makes you actually care about the actual death of Superman. we all know that he's gonna come back in a year but the reason it's still really emotional is because characters like lois and bibbo and his parents don't know that, and think he is dead and is never coming back. which also wouldn't matter if those relationships were not developed throughout the movie and they definitely were extremely well which makes you actually feel something when Superman dies and I gotta say It actually was a very emotional death scene when he died and I think a big reason for that is they showed how superman actually was a beacon of hope to metropolis and how metropolis loved him and on top of that Superman is a really 3-dimensional compelling character and an excellent version of the character. so much so when he died it was emotional which is insane because you know he's gonna come back,which is basically the exact thing that happens in Infinity War although to a much smaller and less emotional way but still it's very similar. But yeah I give huge props to this movie for developing everything so that when the title actually happens and Superman dies you actually feel something more so than in Superman:Doomsday and way more so than in Bvs.

This movie had a lot of set up for the sequel but not to the point where it was obnoxious,in fact it was the exact opposite whenever one of the other 4 supermen showed up like Hank Henshaw,Superboy,the eradicator and steel it was a pretty awesome how they subtly set up the sequel in the background,that's something I really liked about this movie.

Considering a big part about this story is the fight between Doomsday and Superman as well as the justice league,the action has to be great and the death of superman does not disappoint the action in this movie is bad-ass,it's amazingly animated and choreographed if that's how animated fight scenes work,i don't know. but the action and the fight scenes specifically Doomsday Vs Superman was awesome and doomsday fighting the justice league was pretty awesome as well.

So I've been praising the hell out of this movie, but there is one thing that I don't like and that is Lex Luthor. Mainly because his voice acting was straight up terrible,that voice actor just didn't fit the role at all and because of that whenever he showed up he kinda took away from the movie.

9.5/10