By: Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Sam Liu (director), Bruce Timm (producer), James Denton, Christina Hendricks, & Anthony LaPaglia (voice actors)
The Story: How does Superman spend his last days? Shuffleboard probably isn’t on the bucket list.
The Review: Anyone who has ever tried to adapt anything into film will come across a lot of challenges: how to fit all the story elements into the span of a watchable movie; how to bring alive the characters and details that make the work so appealing; and how to possibly inject some new ideas to make what you see on the screen respectful to the original while still giving you a sense of freshness.
The animated adaptation of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman clears these hurdles very convincingly. Written, produced, and directed by veterans of animated comics, the movie lifts its script (even, delightfully enough, much of the dialogue) straight from Morrison’s words, and the animation is clearly trying its hardest to mimic Quitely’s distinctive lines. For fans of the original, rest assured there’s plenty of love involved in the making of this movie.
It’d be unfair to compare it to its comic predecessor; it doesn’t have the luxury of unlimited time to tell its story and include every clever detail the originators put in. McDuffie (God rest his soul, as I sadly heard in the midst of writing this that he has passed) wisely chose those stories that linked together with the most thematic sense to create kind of a thesis on why Superman, as a character and symbol, is so important, beloved, and inspirational.
The pace moves fast, and big jumps in time are common, but the script respects the audience’s intelligence and offers enough details in the dialogue and setting to let you get your bearings easily. The one plotline that sort of had little point (other than to let Superman and Lois dish out some drama) is the transfer of the Kandorians. You’re set up expecting to see it, but then you never do. Disappointing, and a little off-putting when you’re suddenly next thrown into the space-faring Kryptonians plot.
The ideas at work are so good that even if the movie was poorly or indifferently executed, it would still be stronger than your usual animated film. In fact, the story’s extraordinary concepts get beautiful treatment, from Superman forging tiny suns on an anvil to feed his pet Sun Eater to the fireworks sparking in the bottle city of Kandor. In fact, you can thank the animation for doing half the characters’ acting; never has the Clark Kent disguise seemed so convincing as when you get to see his lumbering, cow-like movements knocking into every object in the room.
The voice-acting is fine, but there’s a sameness in some of the characters’ delivery that doesn’t bring quite the energy the scenes deserve. Mostly these shortcomings fall on Denton (as Superman) and Hendricks (as Lois). No matter how amazing the action or tense the drama, their tones never get more excited than if they were making small talk in an elevator. The bright exception is LaPaglia, who brings a great sense of mania and arrogance to Luthor’s grandstanding.
Conclusion: For the fans, you’ll find a lot to like and little to disapprove of. For newcomers to the story, you’ll be so taken with the fun concepts in the film, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ll wind up reading the original comics for more of it. It lacks the epic quality of Morrison and Quitely’s work, but makes for an outstanding animated film.
Grade: A-
– Minhquan Nguyen
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