Friday, 7 June 2013

Superman/Doomsday (2007) review



My preparation for Man of Steel has been mostly torturing with me hating the last three Superman films with a passion. I wasn’t sure whether or not this film is where I should go next but only decided to watch this simply because I enjoyed the ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ films from 2012 and this year. I can happily say that Superman vs Doomsday is a surprisingly entertaining film that shows us the characters of Kal-El, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor far better than they were shown in Superman Returns and in some ways, brings back old memories.

Superman/Doomsday tells the story of Superman, on a quest to bring peace to Metropolis, realizes that he has found a new enemy called Doomsday, a genetically engineered warrior. During a fight, Superman manages to defeat Doomsday but succumbs to his injuries. Following his death, whilst the residents of Metropolis mourn his death, Lex Luthor has begun an all new and terrifying plot against Metropolis.

Whilst the introduction involving the title was disappointing as it didn’t contain the traditional John Williams score, I was surprised that the theme composed for this film was surprisingly good and showed an extremely emotional side to it. The film begins with a sequence where Lex Luthor talks about god and compares him to Superman and states that even God must die sometimes. I thought that this was a truly fantastic way and intriguing way to open up the film. It immediately brought our attention on the story and made us loathe Lex a bit more than we had done in the past. It was a rather powerful beginning.

The story in this film is generally fantastic, giving us many great sequences and full of surprises. I had always viewed Lex Luthor as a rather bland character but here, he seems a little more energetic and seems clever. His plot in this film is an extremely unique one and though it may sound cheesy, comes off rather well in the film. Lex, after Superman’s supposed death, creates clones of Superman as he makes his army of ‘Supermen’ to rule Metropolis. I thought that this was a completely awesome idea and worked a lot better than the plots to Superman III, IV and Superman Returns.

The action sequences in this film are generally exciting though some action sequences do go on for quite sometime, to the extent where you wonder how it could possibly stuff. The best action scene is quite possibly the scene involving Doomsday and Superman who fight, as Lois and Jimmy are on the plane. This scene had the most surprises and was rather short, quick and extremely effective. The most drawn out scene was the fight scene right at the end with clone Superman and Superman.
The voice acting in the film was done extremely well. Adam Baldwin was fantastic as Superman and his voice for even Dark Superman was good. Anne Heche did a good job as Lois Lane, providing a much stronger and courageous Superman than Kate Bosworth’s terrible performance the year earlier. James Marsters did a great job voicing Lex Luthor, giving a powerful voice.

However, this movie is far from perfect even though it is the best Superman film since Superman II, that I’ve seen. The vision of Metropolis didn’t necessarily meet my expectations and I was disappointed. I’m not sure how loyal this film is to its comic book and I’m not sure how the Daily Planet looks in the comics, but here it seems too spacious and seems like an important place. I wasn’t pleased by this aspect of the film but it makes up by several other great aspects such as voic acting, action scenes and some great character moments such as Superman explaining to Lois that he cannot give away his secret identity because of her own safety which links back to Superman II.

Though I was definitely pleased with the story and Lex’s plot, I was truly disappointed at how quickly Doomsday was finished in this film. He made for a great villain and I thought that if he could’ve returned and still being Lex’s puppet it would’ve been great, considering he is one of the toughest enemies Superman has faced thus far- Hopefully, Michael Shannon’s Zod continues Terrence Stamp’s Zod.

Overall, on my quest to experience different Superman films I was truly happy to stumble upon this one. It gives us a new take on the character of Superman and thus so, in a great and entertaining way. Even if a few action sequences go on a bit too long, an interesting story and some great characters make up for a great comic book film. 

Grade- 7/10

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