superman:doomsday.

September 25, 2007 by paolo. | 1 Comment

Twenty-six minutes, twenty-nine seconds. (26:29) By that exact time during the movie, we see Doomsday’s fiery red eyes flicker and go dark. And that’s it. Superman dies. The world turns into a crazy place, well, until he returns. To describe the death and return in a sentence: parang makinang tumirik pagkatapos umahon, sabay jinumpstart.

1993 — I was 8 years old when The Death of Superman shocked the world. (It was a slow news day, plus, I was still enjoying the Adam West Batman show then.) For a film entitled “Superman:Doomsday,” the character pertained to by half the title disappears for most of the movie. Adaptation to the condensed format (less than 2 hours) required a ton of revision and editing, therefore creating a mere representation of what took place in the comics. (Is it any better for it? Without the silliness of the Reign of Supermen, yes, although Supergirl’s appearance is totally removed.)

The tweaked Timmiverse designs take a while to get used to, involving the cheekbones that appear to be engraved on Superman’s face, which makes him look older. The voices are really something too — if you’re making an animated film, better make sure you’ve got top-notch casting. Lois Lane suffers from this, as Anne Heche’s performance sometimes works, but fail most of the time. (What irked me the most is that I keep picturing Doctor Drakken whenever Toyman spoke.)

As for the story, watching the over-an-hour film version of the death and return of Superman really leaves tons to be desired. I remember being a kid and KNOWING that none of the other Supermen was the real Superman, so having one clone that has the moral absolutism of The Eradicator made tons more sense. And just because the producers are allowed to put more stuff in there means they could put inactive Superman fetuses (or is it fetii?) sprawled on the floor. Did it add anything to the story? No, but the scene where Superman pukes blood made sense, given that this isn’t your pamangkin’s JLU.

All in all, this is a 3/5. It’s an o-k representation of the infamous story arc, but there are tons more direct-to-DVD vids out there that would justify your purchase. (Mystery of the Batwoman! / Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker!) I would recommend hunting the season 2 episodes of Justice League where Superman apparently died. (Superheroes at the funeral? That made a lot more sense.)

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