Review of Superman: Doomsday (2007) by Michael L — 12 Jul 2008

Superman: Doomsday starts off with a bang that only lasts about 20 minutes.The whole premise of the film revolves around Lex Luthorâ??s company accidentally unearthing an alien merciless killer called Doomsday.

The alien is programmed to literally destroy everything and everyone in his path. Superman, fresh after beginning a romantic relationship with Lois Lane, fights Doomsday literally to the death. Metropolis is shocked to learn of the death of Superman.

The film chronicles the events immediately following Supermanâ??s death and the way different characters react. It seems as if finding the alien serial killer Doomsday and pitting him against Superman happens all too quickly.

There are no explanations for anything regarding Doomsday. The battle between Superman and Doomsday feels rushed. It is an epic affair that pushes Superman to his limits, but never fully delivers. The ending comes as a complete surprise and does not wrap up the story at all.

The major twist in this animated feature feels forced. The run time does not allow for the story to really unfold properly. After the fight with Doomsday, the film becomes unfocused and unable to sustain the rest of the story line.

Anne Heche does an excellent job voiced Lois Lane as does Adam Baldwin voicing Superman and Clark Kent. I must say that the voice acting in the film is very crisp and on point. The animation is not far off from the animation on the old cartoon shows on Fox.

The characters look block-like and unrefined. The animation of Doomsday was especially bad. He looked very under drawn, especially as compared to the way he was drawn in the comic books. I expected a feature animated film to up the ante a bit in the animation department.

As I stated previously, the film suffers from a lack of coherence. The film tries to set different sub plots in motion which fails miserable. Besides the first half hour, the remaining 40 minutes feel jumbled.

Something didnâ??t work for me with this film. The whole scene involving toy man on top of the building just seemed superfluous, like they needed to add some fluff in there to fill running time to meet feature length expectations.

I expected the film to be much darker. Doomsday is violent for an animated film that replicates Fox Saturday morning cartoons yet, it doesnâ??t feel dark enough. Lex Luthor does not look sinister enough at all.

I was very unimpressed with the film. Unless youâ??re an avid fan of the comics, then you should really avoid this one.