Batman Forever (1995) Written by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott-Batchler and Akiva Goldsman Directed by Joel Schumacher Runtime 121 min. 3 out of 5
Two Face has been terrorizing Gotham for a while and after executing a terrible sentence at Gotham Circus, he inadvertently changes the life of the Dark Knight forever by setting in motion a chain of events that lead to the birth of Batman’s legendary partner, Robin.
Continuing in the “double villain” trend as established by Batman Returns, a disgruntled—and stalker-ish—employee of Wayne Industries, Edward Nigma, gets revenge on his boss by becoming the Riddler, and steals his way to the top of the technology enterprise game.
It’s two-on-two in this third installment of the Batman franchise.
Riddle me this: what do you get when you cross Adam West and Michael Keaton? You get Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Batman, one who is part serious and part humorous. This is the film that I’ve always viewed as the “transition piece” between the dark Bat-flicks done by Tim Burton and the all-out camp-fest that is Batman & Robin.
Though a bit over the top, the story of Batman Forever is a good one and if you watch it just for that, you’ll highly enjoy it.
It was the humor that brought this film down.
First, Batman ain’t funny. He’s so serious and dry he makes Al Gore look like Superman.
Second, Two Face isn’t funny. Tommy Lee Jones, as much as I enjoy him as an actor, got the character wrong. Two Face is a gangster not another version of the Joker.
Third, Riddler isn’t all whacky and zany, though by director Joel Schumacher’s choice to cast Jim Carrey in the role, it’s evident he was after Frank Gorshin’s Riddler from the ’60s instead of the comic book Riddler. Jim also got this part shortly after he became super famous so obviously this role was playing to his strength of being a rubber-faced whack job.
Fourth, though it was a neat thing to add Robin to the mix, Chris O’Donnell was too old, but, I suppose, having a kid running around in an anatomically-correct rubber suit would have raised too many questions.
This film was 50/50 for me. Had its pluses and minuses. I’m going to leave this in the “decide for yourself” category.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) Written by Paul Dini Directed by Curt Geda Runtime 77 min. 5 out of 5
He was thought dead. The laughter was supposed to have ended.
But evil never dies.
The Joker is back!
His mission? Why, give Gotham a wedgy again!
But this Gotham is different than the one the Joker left behind. It’s a new Gotham with a new Batman.
Plenty of surprises abound in this thrilling chapter in the Batman Beyond universe.
This movie is brilliant, pure and simple.
I’ve seen both the regular and the uncut versions of this film and it’s the uncut version that’s being reviewed here (the regular is virtually the same and has only a few altered scenes).
The uncut version doesn’t hold back and isn’t sensitive to the viewer’s eyes. This one’s much more violent than the regular version. In the original release, certain events were only implied. In this one, they are shown. (If anything, I was surprised at how graphic this cartoon was compared to the Batman Beyond and Batman: TAS episodes.)
The Batman in Batman Beyond, Terry McGinnis, is real. You care about him, you relate to him. You want to be him even when the tension mounts between him and his mentor, Bruce Wayne.
The Joker’s nasty in this and once more Mark Hamill, with that creepy laugh of his, reminds us why he was born to play the Joker. The dialogue, the jokes—utterly fantastic!
The story is stellar, with multiple plots going on at once. It also answers the questions you have about the fate of the characters from Batman: TAS, which had a series finale that fell flat. (It was just another episode, really.)
The first time I saw this film I couldn’t believe what happened to one of the Bat regulars. It still blows me away every time I see it. Wow.
Batman Begins (2005) Written by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer Directed by Christopher Nolan Runtime 140 min. 5 out of 5
Bruce Wayne’s parents are brutally murdered right before his eyes. He is only eight years old. His father holds his hand. His mother lays in her own blood beside them. His father’s dying words: “Don’t be afraid.”
Vowing vengeance, Bruce travels the world, learning all that he can to become a one-man army against crime. He leaves behind the life of a billionaire playboy and instead seeks to find the man rooted in pain and anger, the one inside him.
Trained by a man named Ducard, a representative of Ra’s Al Ghul, Bruce learns how to harness his rage and use it to exact vengeance on those who would dare break the law.
But to do so as Bruce Wayne would only put those he cares about in danger and would not be the symbol required to get the job done, and so is born . . . the Batman.
Drugs are secretly being pumped into Gotham City’s waterways, the underground crime circuit somehow connected to a mysterious figure overseas who has big plans for Gotham. No one knows his face . . . until it’s too late.
Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, uses his position in Arkham Asylum to get the inmates gathered for what’s to come, and when the moment finally arrives, all hell breaks loose on Gotham’s streets.
The night grows dim, the knight grows dark.
Batman is born.
Wowser.
This flick was amazing.
After the disaster that was Batman & Robin, I was so scared about how this would turn out. Sure, the trailers looked cool, dark, and edgy, but studios always put the best bits in the trailers anyway. All we had were hopes and good-sounding quotes from those involved in the film’s production.
And, man, did they deliver!
This stuff was real. Real-real. Batman Begins was grounded in reality in a way I hadn’t seen since X-men. This stuff could really happen. It was that tone that brought a level of seriousness to the movie that the other Bat-flicks—except Batman in 1989—didn’t have. This wasn’t a superhero movie, but a story about a man lost in rage, darkness and needing a way out. It was about the very real contrast between revenge and justice, and making right what once went so terribly wrong.
It’s a story about redemption, love, and fighting to protect strangers in a city where crime, filth and evil are the everyday norm.
Christian Bale is Batman. Period. When the mask was on, you could tell Bruce was channeling pure rage and distaste for evil, focusing all that anger on the task before him. When the mask was off, he was the Bruce Wayne who was a spoiled rich boy, dumb, and no one took seriously. Excellent duality.
Katie Holmes as Bruce’s childhood friend/love interest, Rachel Dawes, was a good thing. The other Bat-movies always had a girlfriend for him. Though there was romantic interest here, it was rooted in friendship, which was a nice change.
Michael Caine as Alfred—brilliant. He was your loving father-figure, yet was stern with Bruce when the need arose, and even got behind him despite reservation when Bruce told him his grand plan for saving Gotham. Only the love of a friend would allow such a thing: to believe in an ideal and not necessarily the method.
Cillian Murphy was downright creepy as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow. I only knew him from 28 Days Later so wasn’t sure how he’d play this. Let’s just say I was happy.
Liam Neeson as Ducard/Ra’s Al Ghul was all right. As Ducard, sure, made sense. He did a great job as Bruce’s mentor. The two were the same at heart. Just chose different paths. As Ra’s—that twist didn’t surprise me (solely because I stumbled upon the script online before I saw the actual movie), but it did surprise me in the sense that Liam Neeson will always be Qui-Gon Jinn to me. It was hard to see him as a bad guy.
Gary Oldman is James Gordon. He looked the part, acted the part, and I fully sympathized with him being pretty much the only good cop in a bad town.
Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998) Written by Boyd Kirkland and Randy Rogel Directed by Boyd Kirkland Runtime 70 min. 4 out of 5
In an effort to save his dying wife, Nora, Victor Fries (aka Mr. Freeze) kidnaps Barbara Gordon, Commissioner Gordon’s daughter because his wife needs an organ transplant and Barbara possesses the same rare blood type as his ailing wife. Batman and Robin are quickly hot on his tail and soon it’s a game of cat and mouse between the Dynamic Duo and Mr. Freeze as our heroes seek to find Barbara before it’s too late and she falls victim to Mr. Freeze’s evil plan.
After the amazing thrill that was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and when I heard they were making another Batman animated movie, I was pumped. Mask of the Phantasm was insanely good and since SubZero was to be done in the same style by the same people, my expectations were high. While not as good as Phantasm, SubZero is still a solid flick. What makes it cool is it’s a team-up movie because Batman’s joined by Robin, something Phantasm didn’t have. You also get to briefly see Batgirl in costume in this one as well.
Mr. Freeze is a tricky bad guy because while powerful, you take away his freeze gun and he’s got nothing and it’s easy to turn him into a one-trick-pony that way and diminish the complicated character that he is. Not in SubZero. You get to see Mr. Freeze for who he is under that armor and, well, he’s just a heartbroken guy who’s doing what he believes is the right thing. So distraught over his wife’s fatal illness but brilliant enough to figure out a cure, he’s willing to stop at nothing to save the woman he loves, even if that means killing an innocent person in the process. For those who have gone through immense heartbreak, you know how easy it is for unclear thinking to reign and how nothing but emotion takes over.
This flick also showed how Batman and Robin feed off each other and work together, and not in that “Way to go, chum” way that was the staple of the 1960s Batman series. You see two professional crime fighters playing off each other’s strengths, giving each other ideas, each keeping the other encouraged and balanced as they fight the good fight.
There was also some 3D animation in this movie, back when 3D was a new thing. While the 3D parts didn’t blend against the 2D as seamlessly as they do nowadays, it did add a “wow” factor to the flick—for its time—and kept Batman on the cutting edge of animation.
I’m really pleased with this movie and it gets better with each viewing, and with an ending that is both sad but satisfying, Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero is a Bat-movie that should be part of any Bat-fan’s collection.
Batman & Robin (1997) Written by Akiva Goldsman Directed by Joel Schumacher Runtime 125 min. 2 out of 5
A freeze is coming.
Gotham is under siege, this time by not one but three supervillains: Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) and Bane (Jeep Swenson).
The Dynamic Duo (George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell) is called to the rescue despite the tension growing between them. Complicating things, Barbara Pennyworth (Alicia Silverstone), Alfred’s niece, has come to Wayne Manor to liberate her ailing uncle from a life of servitude. She also has a secret: a wild side that needs to be tamed.
When an all-out assault is declared on Gotham by Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, the caped crusaders rise to the occasion, and this time they have a little help.
If you took the cheesy, camp-filled ’60’s Batman series and shot it with a huge budget, tons of effects and modern day equipment, Batman & Robin is what you’d get (and is what we got).
Clearly this was the film that killed the Batman franchise. It took eight years for Warner Brothers to recover from the disaster that was this movie.
The story—the “what it’s about”—though farfetched, is bearable. It’s the dialogue and stupid jokes that catapult this Bat-flick a zillion miles into the campy canyon.
On the plus side, if you watch this movie solely for the bright colors, glitter and action, you’ll have a good time.
If you’re looking for substance, go back to the beginning, namely Burton’s ’89 triumph.
Batman (1989) Written by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren Directed by Tim Burton Runtime 126 min. 4 out of 5
There are rumors of a six-foot bat in Gotham City. Whispers. Suggestions. Nothing concrete. But all that changes after the Batman confronts Carl Grissom’s men at Axis Chemicals and Grissom’s top hood, Jack Napier, gets dropped into a vat of chemicals, transforming him into the maniacal Joker. Discovering he had been set up by his boss to take the fall at Axis, Joker takes over Grissom’s operation, in turn allowing him to try and take over Gotham City itself, with only the Dark Knight to stop him.
This was the film that gave us the “movie Batman” we know today: dark and armored. If it wasn’t for director Tim Burton’s gothic and grim vision of crime-ridden Gotham City and its brooding protector, I suspect the edgy superhero movies of today wouldn’t exist.
Michael Keaton takes on the title role as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and his rubber-clad alter ego Batman, delivering one of the greatest Batman performances that many, at the time, hadn’t expected from “Mr. Mom.” And after his memorable line during the opening rooftop scene, “I’m Batman,” from that moment on he had you sold that his version of the Dark Knight meant business and quenches any lingering thought that Batman, thanks to the 1960s TV series, is a campy superhero.
Stealing the stage is Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Basically take the Jack from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and crank it up to a hundred and you have the Joker. Nicholson does a brilliant job of blending the serious and twisted Joker while also playing the crazy, laughing, psycho killer. I’m sure when Batman: The Animated Series came along, Nicholson’s Joker was the template for Mark Hamill’s performance when he voiced the character. Awesome.
Danny Elfman’s haunting and lonely score only adds to the movie’s eeriness.
My only problem with the film was there wasn’t enough Batman. I remember that bothering me as a kid. Batman shows up all of four times in the film, the first being something, like, only for a minute. Each subsequent time gets progressively longer, thankfully.
Bold, atmospheric and downright fun, Batman is one for the ages. It was where the modern dark superhero movie started.
Batman (1966) Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. Directed by Leslie H. Martinson Runtime 105 min. 4 out of 5
Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed!
The dynamic duo, Batman and Robin, hit the big screen in this 1960s action/adventure camp-stravaganza!
When the caped crusaders’s most dangerous foes—Joker, Riddler, Catwoman, Penquin—team up and plot to dehydrate the United Nations Security Council, Batman and Robin find themselves in over their heads and must pull out all the stops to put an end to the evil villains’ dastardly plans in this big screen adaptation of the hit TV series.
This movie rocks! And here’s why:
It’s fast-paced, exciting, and is the definition of superhero fun. What? You mean superheroes can be fun? Of course! Remember dressing up as a kid and flying around the house as Superman or climbing the stairs as Spider-Man or swinging from room to room as Batman? Remember laying waste to all those imaginary villains while also saving the damsel in distress and trying to ignore your parents when they called you for dinner? That was superhero fun. Easy-going, super adventure.
This film is the same thing . . . but with grownups. Of course, it’s also a giant Batman TV episode complete with such goodies as the animated THOKs and POWs bursting across the screen, crazy bat-gadgets for every occasion (i.e. the [in]famous bat-shark repellent), a host of bat-vehicles, and goofy special effects that work well in the context of the movie.
What’s brilliant about this Batman movie are the jokes. First, it’s meant to be silly and funny, but the humor is both overt and subtle, whether it’s the dialogue, facial expressions or even actions in some cases. It’s also amazing that despite it being purposely campy, Adam West and Burt Ward—Batman and Robin, respectively—played their characters straight. What I mean is, they played these guys seriously in the crazy, colorful world they inhabited—the characters matching the story, the environment and those they interacted with—and not once did it seem like actors goofing around and simply scoring a paycheck. That’s a feat on its own, in my books.
Nowadays, superhero filmmakers have a hard time trying to do more than one villain in their movies. Why they don’t go back and look at this flick for help, I don’t know. Granted, the four villains in here all had their TV history backing them up, but they still were able to each stand on their own and each share the spotlight and fulfill their roles. No one is second stringer to anyone else.
If there is a movie out there that represents superhero fantasy, this flick is it. Everything is so over-the-top that it actually works and you feel like you’re watching an old school comic book come to life. Joel Schumacher tried to recreate this with Batman Forever and Batman & Robin and wasn’t able to pull it off. The big reason, in my mind, is because he tried to merge the old with the new and that’s like mixing black and white—you get a bunch of gray and no one knows what’s what.
Anyway, I love this movie. My kids love this movie and I let them watch it because compared to the ultra dark Bat-flicks of today, I need to know they’ll have fun watching a Bat-movie, will have at least a general sense of what’s going on, and won’t get nightmares after. (I mean, Heath Ledger’s Joker creeps me out and I’m an adult.)
Batman (1966) is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s lighthearted, it’s funny, it’s exciting, and is a showcase of everything that made the TV series such a hit, even now, nearly fifty years later.
The Avengers (2012) Written by Joss Whedon Directed by Joss Whedon Runtime 143 min. 4 out of 5
When Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki, makes a deal with the alien race the Chitauri to help them secure the Tesseract Cube so they can conquer the galaxy, the Earth suddenly falls into great peril. With even the powerful top secret agency S.H.I.E.L.D. having difficulty containing Loki, there is only one call S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury can make: Avengers Assemble!
The team is gathered—Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye—and they set out to do battle with Loki and his alien cohorts. If they don’t overcome their differences and learn to work together as a team, the Earth will fall and Loki will rule the planet.
The Avengers brings together Earth’s mightiest heroes to combat a force of evil so great they either stand together or fall together, with the fate of the planet—even the galaxy—hanging in the balance.
The Avengers is a difficult movie to review, more so, give a proper rating to because this movie is very much black and white between its story and its presentation, so that said, I’m going to quickly go over both and you’ll see where I’m coming from at the end.
The story: This is a single-plot movie, very much an A-to-B narrative and incredibly simple—too simple. Aliens are coming, we need to stop them so we’ll get the Avengers to do it. That’s it. From a storytelling perspective, it’s too simple and too predictable. Big bad guy, big good guy(s), let’s fight, good guys win. The end.
However, if you view The Avengers as an end cap/final act to all the movies leading up to it: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America—then you have something that definitely serves its purpose and more or less lets each character shine for the same amount of time. In this case, a simple story works despite, um, the many continuity flaws from the previous movies (i.e. Thor is somehow now able to come to Earth, which renders the ending of Thor’s movie moot; Tony Stark called upon to be Iron Man in The Avengers despite being banned from doing so in Iron Man 2; the characters communicating to each other without earpieces or any communication devices. Maybe they’re telepathic?).
The presentation: this movie is a nerd’s dream come true from start to finish. Assemble your favorite superheroes—of which each were spotlighted in their own movies, almost—put them together and have them go toe-to-toe with a larger-than-life threat that will squash the planet if they don’t come through.
From an eye candy perspective, this movie nailed it. Huge battles, lots of explosions, combat action, hammer throwing, Hulk smashing, shield boomeranging, repulsors firing, arrows shooting, girl fists punching—yeah, it has it all.
It’s also very important to point out that the casting of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk was an amazing choice. I honestly wasn’t too thrilled with the news when I first heard it, with Ruffalo being more of a chick-flick romance guy, but he got the role done so well that if there’s a spin-off, I hope he gets the job. He’s definitely earned it.
Chris Evans as Captain America—a Superman performance, which is good and brought a traditional superhero element to the team. As the running joke was throughout the movie, a little “old-fashioned” was what was needed.
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man—do I really need to talk about this? He’s the same Tony Stark from the first two Iron Man movies, the only difference being he’s mellowed out a bit because, despite his arrogance, he understands life isn’t all about him and there are other people out there, too. This bit really comes through in this movie.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor—bold, poetic, commanding, everything his character is supposed to be so kudos to him for carrying on with a great performance from the stand-alone movie.
Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye—I don’t know much about the comic character other than he’s like Green Arrow, but perhaps with a more military-mind-set, so I can’t comment. Renner did sell me on Hawkeye though, but why couldn’t they give him that awesome mask? Maybe in the sequel.
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow—she really comes into her own in this flick because in Iron Man 2, it was more a back-up appearance so we didn’t know much about her. I’m glad she got the screen time she deserved and, come on, her fight scenes were fantastic.
Tom Hiddleston as Loki—he’s the bad guy you love to hate, the one that, even just looking at him, you want to punch in the face. I appreciated how Loki, to a degree, was a villain to sympathize with because of his exile, but you also get mad at him for being such a jerk about it.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury—an excellent portrayal of Samuel L. Jackson being Samuel L. Jackson—but under a fictitious alias. Yeah.
The Avengers is a solid good-times-turn-your-brain-off-action-fest that is great for escape and is recommended for that reason. As a spoiler warning, if you want just the action parts, start the movie around thirty minutes in.
Honest assessment is 3.5 out of 5, but because it’s the first movie of its kind and because of all the building up to it that has been going on since 2008, I’ll give it a 4.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves Directed by Marc Webb Runtime 136 min. 4 out of 5
After getting bitten by a genetically-modified spider, teenager Peter Parker discovers he has spider-like abilities. However, after looking into his past, he meets Dr. Conors and becomes the scientist’s pupil. When Peter’s uncle is murdered in cold blood, he uses his new spider abilities to try and track down the killer and ends up creating an alternate identity in the process. Meanwhile, Dr. Conors’s own limb-regeneration experiments goes haywire and the good doctor is transformed into a giant lizard. Peter, now under the identity of Spider-Man, takes it upon himself to stop the Lizard at all costs before others get hurt.
When I first heard they were rebooting Spider-Man, I was like, “Come on, really? You just did that in the movies, the cartoons, in the comics . . .” It seems Spider-Man has only one story to tell: his origin. They keep doing it, after all.
But I got something more than that in The Amazing Spider-Man and I was won over. While I enjoyed the Raimi films on the whole, this one seemed more comic book Spider-Man to me as they dialed back the clock all the way to his childhood and got a bit more into Peter Parker’s (Andrew Garfield’s) parents’ history, introduced Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and went with a villain that fans have been itching to see ever since his civilian identity was mentioned back in the 2002 Spider-Man movie: Dr. Conors aka the Lizard (Rhys Ifans). While Spidey’s origin stayed true to its main components—getting bitten by a spider, Peter Parker as a student, the tragic death of Uncle Ben—they modernized it a bit and seemed to suggest that, kind of like in the 2003 Hulk movie, our hero’s destiny was mapped out for him many years before. This part I wasn’t too keen on, to be honest, nor was I big on how the Peter Parker side of things was done: pretty cool dude, likeable, good looking, hot girlfriend, etc. Pretty much the opposite of nerdy Parker becoming a superhero.
However, on the Spider-Man side of things, we got one wicked webcrawler on our hands. We’ve got three movies prior to this one to learn how to make him move, swing around, climb walls, spin webs—everything that was showcased in this flick was like a comic book come to life. What made it work, too, was that it was believable and didn’t look like a 3D cartoon unlike some sequences in 2002’s Spider-Man. What made it even more special was that this Spider-Man actually cracked a lot of jokes, something that was missing for the most part from the other outings. And the Spider-Man-point-of-view wall crawling and swinging around scenes? Yes, please! Totally made you feel like you were there and reminded me a lot of the Spider-Man ride at Universal Studios in Florida. Bring back the mechanical webshooters instead of the organic variety (I didn’t mind those, actually, as it makes more sense), and Spider-Man is back in business, baby!
The stakes were high in this movie, too, with the Lizard being a serious bad guy to contend with. He was strong, powerful, showed no mercy, and that sewer scene was spooky.
This movie was a lay-the-groundwork movie, setting things up for what is currently rumored to be three sequels and, according to director Marc Webb, aiming for the Sinister Six storyline, which was being mapped out even while they were making this Spider-Man movie. I can’t wait. A giant Spider-Man story is going to be awesome and I’m glad they started from scratch to make it happen as they can then link everything together, starting from scene one.
So what can I say? I’ve been pulled to the other side and am glad they rebooted Spider-Man. A part of me can’t help but wonder what might’ve been had Spider-Man 4 happened, but this new journey we’re on with our favorite webhead is off to a good start.
All-Star Superman (2011) Written by Dwayne McDuffie Directed by Sam Liu Runtime 76 min. 5 out of 5
The Man of Steel is dying after receiving an extreme dose of solar radiation. Trying to live out his last days and wrap up all loose ends, he spends it with Lois and gives her a special serum that grants her superpowers for twenty-four hours. When unexpected twists and turns arise, the two must save Metropolis together. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor has plans of his own and when he gets his hands on the serum that granted Lois superpowers, he becomes as powerful as Superman.
Can the Last Son of Krypton stop his arch nemesis while also saving the Earth from a damaged sun before he perishes?
When I think of classic Superman, I think of this story. The reason is because this story involves all of the classic elements of Superman lore, everything from the basics like Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, all the way to the Fortress of Solitude, the bottle city of Kandor, a full array of superpowers—and in the case of this story, some new ones, which reminds me of the “bonus” powers portrayed in Superman IV (though they’re not silly in this one like they were in that flick)—the Phantom Zone, Superman using not only his super brawn but also his super brains, Lois having superpowers (which has happened quite a lot in Supes’s history—she’s got a cool costume in this, by the way), and a ton more.
Based on the graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, this flick asks the hard questions about Superman’s mortality, if such a thing is possible, and if it is possible, then how would that possibly play out? Unlike Superman’s death when the Man of Steel went up against Doomsday, this story isn’t about a giant slugfest, but about a slow death caused by the very thing that gives Superman his powers: the sun. It’s about him coming to terms with his own mortality and setting things in order before his final moment arrives.
One of the great things about these direct-to-DVD super flicks from DC is they’re all stand-alone features based on a graphic novel and by being so, they also carry with it the same art style from the book. In this case, it’s Frank Quitely’s art animated. I admit it took a while for his art to grow on me. Perhaps because it’s so simple and clean, yet by being that way, he’s able to create some pretty realistic-looking superheroes. Seeing it animated like we do in this flick brings Superman et al. to life and makes this comic book fan very happy.
Out of all the Superman adaptations done thus far, All-Star Superman is one of the greats and gets high props for being an awesome animated flick with a great cast, great art direction, a great story and, most importantly, having the greatest hero of them all, one who’s definitely an all-star: Superman.
