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 *****