Movie Review: All Star Superman

As a fan and a collector, I hold some comics to be sacred. A few Batman titles, the ever-popular Watchmen, and the unique comic perfection that is All Star Superman. What a colossal disappointment this DVD is to it. All Star Superman is a miniseries of comics created by the similarly all star team of writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely. There are multiple opinions on the series, ranging from dismissive to fanatical devotion, but it is generally received as at least a good comic, if not spectacularly great. I followed the series when it first came out, and since then have re-read it countless times, including once after having seen this film. Having done so allows me to see how much the film fails to grasp. Where do I even begin?

The pacing is awful. You'd think being a comic book geek I'd take issue with character portrayal or changing story lines or screwing with continuity, which I will get to, but no, this film's biggest weakness is the awful pacing. The whole movie moves with this rapid pace, allowing for no scenes to linger, and there are scenes where just a few seconds of silence and stillness would have made a world of difference, but they are tossed aside as the film powers forward with this enthusiasm as if the ending we rush towards was even worth the wait. All Star Superman has a run time of just over an hour. There's comic content for at least 3 hours of movie. An extra ten minutes even could have made this film a lot better. Left out are all of my favorite moments from the comics, moments that at most would have added 2 more minutes to the film. I'm talking about parts of scenes that are already in the film that were cut, one assumes, for run time.

Despite the breakneck speed of the film, everything feels static. All of the glorious flowing art of the comic is not even close to imitated. Everything feels still, like watching a play on a fixed stage. The artist for All Star Superman is famous for his ability to convey movement from still images, something the movie isn't able to convey with actual movement. People gripe about the book's art because everything looks a little ugly and superhero comics and their characters famously feature almost all super-model level attractiveness, and All Star Superman doesn't. But the movie does! I don't understand how they could have screwed up so completely.

Despite being a little average-looking in comics, All Star Superman's titular character portrayed an amazing strength of heart and sincerity and all of his actions and dialog. The superman of the film is an arrogant, patronizing, jerk. James Denton plays all his lines with this syrupy moral goodness, but none of the heart and soul that makes the character what he is. I appreciate that they are trying to use new voice actors in all of these different movies, but not many have been able to live up to the ones we grew up with. 2010's Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths featured a new take on the voice, employing the excellent Mark Harmon in the role. I had my doubts about him but loved his portrayal, even though it wasn't the familiar Tim Daly. Why couldn't Harmon have been used again? I feel similarly about Christina Hendricks' Lois Lane. It just didn't feel real.

Conversely, the voice of Lex Luthor, Anthony LaPaglia, despite being utterly different from every Luthor portrayal I've seen since Gene Hackman held the role, was excellent. I loved his more business-man like approach to the character's arrogant inflection. It is an absolute shame that we didn't get to hear him deliver some of the comic's classic lines, such as, "And then the inimitable Lex Luthor opened up the floor and shook hands with a baboon in a Superman suit." I could have dealt with some of the confusingly bad line changes in this film if only everyone gave as powerful a performance as LaPaglia. The voice for Luthor's neice Nasthalthia "Nasty" Luthor, Linda Cardellini, was also spot on in her delivery of this unique voice.

While we're on voices I have to mention that Robin Atkin Downes' Solaris was utterly perfect, and I just wish we got to see that battle in its complete length, and that the Superman he was bantering with wasn't James Denton. Ed Asner as Perry White was amazing, but were there any doubts? As usual, All Star Superman employed Andrea Romano as voice director. I'm not one to doubt her legendary casting choices since she's been doing casting and direction for essentially every animated DC picture since the early 90's, but with rare exceptions, All Star Superman's cast needed an overhaul. Where's the Andrea Romano who cast Neil Patrick Harris, or James Woods?

The inner fanboy won't let me leave this review without touching on the differences between the comic and the film. They are numerous, and they are confusing. The most discussed has been the removal of the Bizarro world subplot. In the comic Superman goes to the planet of what is essentially a twisted mirror world. There's more to it than that, but this is not the place to explain it. It features such heroes as Bizarro Flash, the world's slowest man, and Bizarro Superman who has such powers as freeze lasers from his eyes and fire-breath, the reverse of Superman's powers. The section is perhaps the most poetic of the comic, and its removal is disappointing, but understandable. The removal of other sections such as Doomsday, Kandor, and the Superman squad, are confusing. All Star Superman is intended to be a modern retelling of the Hercules myth in which he must perform 12 labors, with Superman in his place. The film touches on maybe 4.

As one last insult to the comic, the final frame of the film is the same as in the comic, an unmoving picture of Superman. While in the comic the image is glorious, in the film it is bland. Despite using the exact same pose, context, character, and so on, they chose to draw their own. Had it been animated, this would be fine. But it is not animated. It is a still frame shot, just as in the comic, but not drawn as well.

All Star Superman just misses all the points that made the comic great. The deep understanding of the character's mythos, the acknowledgment of modern interpretations as well as deeper mythological allusions, the genuine love for the characters, for the story, for the legacy that is Superman, everything that makes the comic great. The fights are sub-par, the music is forgettable, and the overall film leaves little to no impact. It is really quite sad. The comic is great, and with just a few more minutes and a little extra effort, this could have been one of the great DC animated films, and could have gotten a lot more people interested in reading the much better comic. The film is worth a viewing, but only if you're a fan. Precisely one viewing, and absolutely not worth the purchase. Two and one half stars, out of five.

**.5 out of *****

Movie Review: The Mechanic

Very unusual for me to be reviewing something still in the theaters, I know, but I went with my girlfriend to see this movie after she expressed a desire to. I went not because I had any particular notion to watch it, but because she wanted to, and I want to make her happy.

This movie is ok. It isn't anything special, and there's not a whole lot to be said about it. The Mechanic is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name starring the legendary Charles Bronson. Jason Statham plays an assassin who goes by the name of Arthur Bishop, and after killing his one friend in the world, he trains the friend's failure of a son to be a hit man like himself in an attempt to try and justify his actions, as well as to help him fix his own inner loneliness. Donald Sutherland plays the dead friend, and Ben Foster plays the gun for hire in training.

Frankly, as far as shoot 'em up plots go, I was impressed. We get to see a fairly engaging story, which I was not expecting. True, it could have been done better, but it wasn't done that badly. Jason Statham continues his trend of playing Jason Statham. Not impressive, but not unexpected, and he fits the hole his particular peg has been assigned to quite well. Ben Foster provides the best performance in this picture, really selling himself as the sort of pitiful but not hopeless inured puppy person he is playing. Donald Sutherland is wonderful as usual.

The music for this film is memorable not for the quality, but for how shoved into your face it is. There's a piano theme used at least 3 times that is supposed to be what you come away with when you think of the film's music, and there's a quasi-James Bond action theme they use at least twice, that fails as many times.

Now for what you actually came for, the action. Is it good? Yes. Is it great? Once or twice. There are a few knock down drag out fights that impressed me, both with their choreography and their ruthlessness. Obvious fight directions are ignored and unusual but not unlikely choices are made in combat scenes. It is refreshing as hell to not see the same fight in 40 successive films, and The Mechanic really does deliver some satisfying combat scenes. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Overall, not as bad as I was expecting. The fights were entertaining, and even got me to wince once or twice, not an easy feat I assure you. Though the R rating level content in some places was absolutely unnecessary. The nudity is in there for no purpose, and comes from characters that are picked up, never developed, and thrown away before the credits. Furthermore, there was a homophobic undertone to a section of the movie that could have been lost and no story element would have been affected. I understand its a machismo fueled film, but it is 2011 people. Still, despite its issues, it wasn't terrible. If you're the kind of person that likes Jason Statham movies, you'll probably like this one. What more can I say? 3 stars, out of 5.

*** out of *****

On a personal note

Like a machine with the wires ripped out, the entire Katie situation broke me. For months I haven't been able to cry, not from deep emotion, from my favorite films, from powerful music. I cried, but it was from deep depression.

But Elaine, she fixed me.

Movie Review: Trick 'r Treat

After an exhaustively terrible series of films I was finally treated to this relatively unknown but widely reviewed piece of film stuff, Trick 'r Treat. Hailing from 2007, this film garnered little popular acclaim but was nearly unanimously well received by critics. I had actually not heard of it until recently, and that is a damn shame, because I absolutely loved this picture.

More a series of vignettes than an actual film, Trick 'r Treat features a few short but sweet scenes, all intertwined around one time-line and all set within one town. The stories have little effect on each other, but could function effectively as their own short films if viewed independently. No one section is weaker than any of the others. Despite being a collage of creepy Halloween stories, there is no one element that brings it down. Contained within you will find such glorious cliches as the serial killer principal, the old man with a shady past, the macabre town legend, a grim scavenger hunt, and even a squadron of horny women in slutty costumes. Yet nothing feels forced.

Trick 'r Treat simply could not exist were it not for the massive foundation of horror films that precede it, from the chilling to the creepy to the campy. We see shades here of slasher movies, stalker films, monster movies, and even television Halloween specials. Trick 'r Treat is as much a wonderful horror sampler as it is an homage to the entire genre. However, it is not a satire. It is a celebration! A film cartoonish at times in its portrayal of Halloween movies, but played entirely straight and without an ounce of pretension.

Coming out almost as strongly as the beautiful cinematography and rambunctiously creepy atmosphere is the constant but elegantly placed score. The music ranges from creepy classics to Marilyn Manson to borrowed pieces from other genre films, and the piano is channeling Danny Elfman's work in The Nightmare Before Christmas, or Shirley Walker's work on Batman: The Animated Series. A well-balanced addition to the film's imagery.

It is rare that a film of any genre can find the sweet spot between genuinely scary, and genuinely funny, but this one does, and it does it very well. With a very limited amount of time to establish any of its characters it still makes you root for some and against others, care about what happens in the story, and allows for both humor and terror to flow naturally around them. Featuring some dynamite performances by Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox, as well as the introduction of actress Samm Todd who plays Rhonda, and who I am hoping will continue to act. Trick 'r Treat appears to be her only film credit, but she absolutely stole the show in this picture.

My one concern here is that Trick 'r Treat is not a great film, by usual standards. It won't win any awards, it won't be considered a classic of cinema, and it doesn't have anything important to say. However, for a Halloween film, an annual tradition of fun and fright, this movie is irreplaceable. It feels much more like a television holiday special than a piece of real cinema. This is the only area in which Trick 'r Treat loses points and gets the score brought down. If I was reviewing on Halloween it would get a perfect rating, and I plan to start watching it annually starting next Halloween, but I can't in good conscience give it a perfect score. If, however, you are a horror fan, you will love it.

Actually scary, actually funny, very well written, and wonderfully atmospheric, I recommend Trick 'r Treat to anyone who has ever loved Halloween movies, or just loved the holiday itself. It's sweeter than a Snickers bar full of razor blades. 4 stars, out of 5.

**** out of *****