DC Animated Superhero Retrospective Series - All-Star Superman (2010)

Written In January 2014

Wow, they really did cut a lot from this movie… So, am I the only one who wonders why these movies are all only 76 minutes or less? If you want to tell a long story, tell a long story! Go full on Return of the King for this movie! The fans think it deserves it and isn’t this movie for the fans? I mean who else really knew about All-Star Superman unless they were a die hard comic book superman fan! In fact, why split Dark Knight Returns into two 76 minute movies? Why not just go for one two and a half hour movie, if people see the movie is that bloody long, they might take it seriously and buy more copies. Everybody wins!

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

Dr. Leo Quintum and team are exploring the Sun when they are sabotaged by a booby-trapped genetically enhanced clone, turned into a time-bomb by Lex Luthor. Superman stops the clone but in doing so receives an overdose of solar radiation. Though the radiation is slowly killing him, it does give Superman new powers. Luthor, having orchestrated the death of Superman while under the employment of General Sam Lane, is arrested thanks to Clark Kent’s article and sentenced to death. Superman asks Dr. Quintim to keep news of his impending death secret from the public. Wanting to spend as much of his remaining time with Lois Lane, Superman reveals to her that he is Clark Kent. Lois doubts his revelation because she had been unable to prove Superman’s “Kent” identity herself. Superman takes her to the Fortress of Solitude. During this visit, Superman’s secretive behavior and her indirect exposure to alien chemicals heightens Lois’s paranoia.

She is startled by Robot 7, shooting it and then Superman with a kryptonite laser. The solar radiation having made him immune to green kryptonite, Superman is able to calm her, explaining his caginess was to hide her birthday present, a serum granting her superpowers for 24 hours. Now as aSuperwoman, she and Superman stop an attack by Subterraneans in Metropolis just as Samson and Atlas arrive. Samson flirts with Lois and gives her a necklace, the crown jewels of the Ultra-Sphinx. When Superman tells him to back off, he shows Superman a newspaper that reads “Superman Dead” and challenges Superman to contests to win Lois. The Ultra-Sphinx travels through time to reclaim the jewels Samson had stolen, placing Lois between life and death. Superman must answer an unanswerable question to save Lois. Superman then defeats Atlas and Samson in a double arm-wrestling match before spending the rest of the day with Lois as her powers fade.

Later, Kent meets Luthor for an exclusive interview at Stryker’s Island. However, Superman’s energy allows the Parasite to free himself and cause havoc in the prison. Clark stops him while not revealing his secret identity, with Luthor disclosing his respect for Clark as both a journalist and a man. Luthor then reveals a tunnel from his cell for Clark to escape through, aided by Nasthalthia, Luthor’s delinquent niece. Luthor chooses not to escape as the satisfaction of outliving Superman is rewarding enough. Weeks later, after taking the city of Kandor to a new planet to thrive, Superman returns to find Metropolis has been repaired with Kryptonian architecture and that Earth has been protected by Bar-El and Lilo, lost astronauts from Krypton. They followed the trail of the vessel that brought Superman to Earth. To his dismay, the two have less altruistic goals and intend to turn Earth into a new Krypton. As they fight Superman, Bar-El and Lilo begin showing signs of illness: the two had passed through the remnants of Krypton and thus were saturated with kryptonite. To save them and at their request, Superman places the two in the Phantom Zone until a cure can be found.

After settling his affairs, Superman proceeds to finish his last will and testament. Luthor reprogrammed one of the Fortress' robots to steal the serum he made for Lois’ birthday. Having the powers of Superman, Luthors’ electrocution failed and he escapes, unfettered. He meets with Nasthalthia below one of his lairs to continue his plans. Superman finishes his will when he learns of Luthor’s secret ally: Solaris, the tyrant star computer, which betrayed Luthor by tampering with Earth’s sun and turned it blue. With his robots, Superman engages Solaris in space. All seems lost until Superman’s pet Sun-Eater sacrifices itself to weaken the tyrant star, which allows Superman to destroy Solaris.

Clark returns to the Daily Planet, very ill, and dies upon completing his article. As the staff tries to save him, the super-powered Luthor arrives and attempts to kill Lois. Clark revives and fires a gravity gun at Luthor. Superman tells Luthor he has been on to him ever since Robot-7 first malfunctioned. As his powers fade, Luthor briefly sees the world as Superman sees it and weeps as he gains a measure of understanding of the subatomic and how it interconnects. The gravity weapon has warped time causing Luthor’s powers to burn out at a faster rate. As his powers drain, Luthor wishes the experience to continue. He believes he can solve the grand unification theory but when he reaches for his next vial of serum, he realizes that Superman has stolen his supply. Superman then destroys the serum, over Luthor’s protests, pointing out that if Luthor truly cared about solving the world’s problems, he would have done so long ago.

With Superman’s body starting to turn into pure energy, he and Lois embrace one final time and he proclaims his love for her once and for all. He flies into the Sun, seemingly sacrificing himself to save the Earth. Later, when Lois sits on bench in front of a statue of Superman, Jimmy invites her to attend a memorial service being held for Superman. Lois does not go as she believes Superman is not dead and will return after he repairs the sun. Quintum visits Luthor in his death row cell. Now enlightened from his ordeal and accepting his impending death, Luthor presents Quintum with the only thing that could redeem him for his actions over the years, a formula to recreate Superman’s genetic structure through a healthy human embryo. The movie ends with a picture of Superman fixing the sun and a voice says he will come back after fixing the sun.

So the last time we reviewed a solo Superman movie, I admitted that I hadn’t read the source material, well this time around I have read this book… And I don’t like it. I think it’s a mess with great artwork that has some interesting ideas and some nice quotes, but unfortunately Grant Morrison doesn’t seem to know how to tell a focused story. The first chapter of this story starts with Lex making it so that Superman has cancer, and then promptly does absolutely nothing with it for 10 chapters, then comes October of ‘08, almost three years after the first chapter and says “Oh golly gee, I’m dying! I’d better make sure the sun doesn’t die.” Why do we need to see Superman besting Samson and Atlas? Why do we need to see Clark Kent interviewing Lex Luthor in prison while Parasite tries to kill everyone in the building? Why do we need to see him trying to escape the square bizarro planet? Why do we need to see these two Kryptonian scientists be dicks to Earth only to randomly start dying so Superman can show them the error of their ways?

Now what we needed more of, was Superman telling Lois he’s Clark Kent and taking on the best date of her life on her birthday no less! Clark going back in time to say goodbye to his father one last time. Superman simultaneously frees Kandor AND CURES CANCER! These are things the story needs more of, not Superman being tested. We already know he’s the best, and we already know he’s the greatest. We don’t need to be shown that’s he’s super strong, super powerful or super smart. We need to show why the world is going to miss him so terribly once he’s gone. But instead, we’re shown everything we DON’T need to know. But enough about that comic, let’s talk about this movie.

PROS:

• Christina Hendricks is a wonderful Lois Lane!
• James Denton is a pretty good Superman!
• MATTHEW GRAY GUBLER AS JIMMY OLSEN! PER-FUCKING-FECTION!!!!!!
• I don't know who Anthony LaPaglia as Lex Luthor, but he did a pretty nice job!
• Really great animation!
• Ed Asner as Perry White, fantastic casting!
• Christopher Drake has another great score for this one!

CONS:

• They cut out the bit with Pa Kent, curing cancer and the Bizarro world, which are some of my favorite parts of the book, but for some reason left in the sequence at Ryker’s and the stuff with Samson and Atlas.
• Speaking of Samson and Atlas, these are some of the most generic and unentertaing performances I’ve ever heard by John DiMaggio and Steve Blum, shame on you movie!
• I think Christina does a great job as Lois, but I hate the Lois she’s written for. The fact that she completely disbelieves that Superman is Clark AFTER HE FUCKING TOLD HER always rubbed me the wrong way.
• This Lex rubs me from the wrong way too, definitely the more “I’m crazy and I hate Superman because he’s a good! GRAH!!!!!” variety. Not a terribly huge fan of that type of Lex.

All in all I don’t have a ton to say about this movie, it’s not awful, but I don’t think it’s good either. I’m going to give All-Star Superman, an extremely apathetic, 6 out of 10.