Review of Superman: Doomsday (2007) by Kyle M — 29 Mar 2015

The first entry of the DC Comics Original Animated Movies seems to have done an impressive first impression to the superhero genre with improving the way of the animated films in the particular genre after what Marvel have done okay. The common qualities in the DC Comics animated films that this film presented are the performances of the animated action sequences and the voice acting; and there are sometimes other qualities that were added for the film. Each of these films are based on popular storylines, and they're usually given a smaller time than a live-action film to go over the whole event through main plot points.

"Superman: Doomsday" focuses on the infamous arc of "The Death of Superman"; and adapting it was well-done. The film holds the usual qualities that would soon appear in most of the DC Comics animated films, but it also has power. After "Superman Returns" reused John Powell's Superman theme and before Hans Zimmer created a new theme for the hero in "Man of Steel", the theme heard in this one definitely defined the hero like the others, as well being a cheerful source sporadically in the film. But besides the theme, other pieces of the composed score (by Robert Kral) put some resonance to understandable emotions around the significant moment of the storyline. So besides the performances of the voice-acting and the rough action sequences being very well-animated, the score puts more power to the Man of Steel through defining and some emotions.

As this is the first entry of DC Comics' run of DTV animated films and presenting qualities that'd be frequently-used in the succeeding films, this film also presented the acceptable flaws that aren't a bother to the entertaining value - well in most cases that is. There's an amount of violence going on that spits out blood (literally), which is usually and always an unpleasant shot to look next to some darkness. The main flaw that can do a little bothering is the running time of these animated films, rushing the storyline a little when the live-action films can fully expressed the storyline. But the most important skill is to be able to summarize the whole storyline with important plot points while containing a nice narrative structure.

"Superman: Doomsday" standout above the titular hero's solo animated films standing side-by-side to the live-action films as they shares the same power and entertaining value. (B+).

(Full review coming soon).