Death Of Superman, The (2018)
This year is Superman’s 80th anniversary and DC decided what better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than to release The Death of Superman? It is an update to an animated movie they released back in 2007, Superman: Doomsday. Moreover, this update would be truer to its book counterpart.
Now, the book itself is nothing more than a versus fight; In the book, DC “brilliantly” establishes how much of a threat Doomsday is by giving us third-string Justice League members who are easily beaten by the monster. The movie wisely differs from this slightly by giving the audience well-known “A” list Justice League members: Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Martian Manhunter allowing the viewer to more easily assess the threat that Doomsday poses, and this is just one of the changes that make the Death of Superman better than its earlier movie and book counter-parts.
The relationships and the setups, I really like in this movie. The movie takes its time to allow the viewer to see how the DC Universe reacts positively to Superman. He is their beacon of hope that inspires people to do better and more. That is Superman’s true power in the DC Universe: Hope! Heck, that symbol on his chest is a big S, so Lois Lane called him Superman but it’s really Kryptonian for hope.
Sadly, though Superman himself has many doubts and fears. The movie does an excellent job of showing Superman’s fears of letting people get close to him; namely through his newly-formed relationship with Lois Lane in the movie.
A major plus for the movie; unlike Batman v Superman, [spoilers]you actually feel the weight of his death because they take the time to establish what Superman means to people beforehand.
We get to know Superman’s world and the characters that surround him from the first scene where people really admired him, up to his death where the people he saved throughout the movie are in literal tears at his funeral. Their loss is our loss.
It’s as if the people at DC Animation: Sam Liu (director of Young Justice), Peter J. Tomasi (writer of my favorite book: SuperSON), and Jake Castorena (director of Justice League Action), went and got together and said "Zack Snyder came up with some bull. We’re going to show everyone how the death of an iconic character should be handled and not the disappointing letdown of what we got in Batman v Superman."
And they do an amazing job of it. Unfortunately, the source material doesn’t give them much to work with. I think that’s where the failings are in this storyline, it’s one big set-up for the next movie. Come on, John Henry Irons as Steel! Can’t wait! (Just my personal favorite character to come out of Reign of The Supermen).
| FORMATS | DVD/ Blu-Ray/Digital |
| FROM | Warner Bros |
| RATING | PG-13 [US] 12[UK] |
| RUNNING TIME | 1hr 20m |
IN A NUTSHELL: Good for big Superman fans. But until next year's Reign Of The Supermen it's only half the story.
