DVD Features:
• Audio Commentary: Audio Commentary (featuring the commentary of
Bruce Timm (producer), Duane Capizzi (writer), Andrea Romano, and
Gregory Noveck) {duration of feature film}
• Challenges: Supermans Last Stand (menu challenge)
• Featurette: Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives! - (a
re-dramatized telling of the DC Comics decision to kill Superman. Filled
with interviews, news stories and behind the scenes footage of the board
room meetings where the fate of Kal-El was decided. The story permeates
with the frenzied pace and key moments which culminated in Issue #75 The
Death of Superman.) {60 minutes}
• Interviews: Behind the Voice (Featuring the voice talent of the
feature film going through the motions and inspiration which helped
bring Superman Doomsday to the screen) {5 minutes}
• Other: Justice League: New Frontier Teaser Reel (With the
interviews of the filmmakers, voice talent, and DC Comics executives,
the world is introduced to the next chapter of the DC Universe: The New
Frontier) {10 minutes}
Synopsis: The most shocking showdown in Superman history! When
Lexcorp accidentally unearths the intergalactic serial killer Doomsday,
Superman battles the creature head on in the fight of his
life...literally. The world collectively mourns their fallen hero;
humanity realizes it will never feel truly safe again. Superman's
enemies rejoice all but Lex Luthor, who grieves the loss in his own
demented manner, setting off a chilling chain of events that even he
couldn't have foreseen. Inspired by the bestselling graphic novel of all
time, DC Comics' The Death of Superman, this feature-length animated
adventure boasts exciting action sequences that rivals anything you've
ever seen starring the Man of Steel!
Review (Zach Demeter)
The first of the animated DC Universe films out of the gate, Superman/Doomsday
has the odd distinction of setting up the “mature” line of animated
projects and at the same time staying true to the source material it’s
based off of, which, while adult, is not exactly anything other than a
bloody fist smear in the DC Comics timeline.
During the 90s when Superman was airing on television in both
live-action (Lois and Clark) and animated (Superman: The
Animated Series) form on television, the Man of Steel was having a
bit of a crisis his comic book (or rather, comic books, as, like now, he
had more than one monthly story going on). Because the writers of Lois
and Clark wanted to be the first to marry Lois and Clark, the comic
book was forced to wait years while the television show played catch up
and the writers were stuck in a rut trying to figure out where to take
the story of Superman for another year now that their original idea had
been pushed to the side.
What followed no one, not even DC Comics, saw coming. When it was
announced that Superman would be dying at the hands of a brutal alien
known as “Doomsday”, the media went nuts. Press picked up stories of
Superman’s impending demise and by the time the comic book had hit comic
shop shelves, lines were forming in the early A.M. hours with fans and
non-fans alike waiting to get their hands on a comic book that would end
the life of the Man of Steel. Many in line read the comic as they
waited, not wanting to wait to see how it ended.
While this was all very dramatic for the Man of Steel and the characters
around him, what followed in the place of his book for a year was
convoluted. Throwing in a myriad of other Supermen to take his place
while the world awaited the true return of Superman, the comic book,
despite being more popular than ever, went from being the one that
killed the Last Son of Krypton to being one loaded down with stories to
extend the life of the story.
Of course that last paragraph was laden with my own personal views on
the comic book. Like many others who read the comic book way after all
of the hoopla died down (I had, in fact, not read the trade paperback of
the comic until after this direct-to-video feature was announced), I was
thoroughly unimpressed with the story. While the documentary on the
story of Superman’s death on the Superman/Doomsday DTV paints the
death of Superman as dramatic, the truth is that even with all the
planning that went into the story and the art, it eventually boiled down
a single page panels of Superman and Doomsday having a knock-down,
drag-out battle. Great and all, but hardly fitting for the Man of Steel
to die over. While it was nothing the comic world had seen before, I’ve
no doubt this started DC Comic’s obsession with creating big, convoluted
stories for nothing more than media attention. Not that you can blame
them—in a world of declining comic book sales, everything helps, but one
tires of the overly dramatic stories all the time.
For the full film review, click here.
The DVD
Since the film arrived on only a test disc without packaging, I can’t
grade the final shelf product; however, the final retail copy is
supposed to carry a cardboard slipcover with a lenticular image of
Superman busting through a bloody “S” logo, so it will certainly gain
shelf appear for those who browse DVDs every Tuesday. Menus are static,
aside from the main menu which features animation and music.
The video on this release is downright amazing. Not a single flicker of
interlacing or ghosting and very little compression, the faintest of
which is seen only when the camera moves too fast, which causes
compression even in live action. I was really surprised and relieved to
see the film was interlace free, as the amount of red in this film could
have made it very ugly to look at on a progressive scan display.
Unfortunately the audio mix is underwhelming by a large margin; although
it is 5.1 and the rear channels occasionally get a voice or sound
effect, the track might as well have been 5.0 as there is very little,
if any, thunder felt from the subwoofer. Only when Luthor’s goes off
during the second act do we feel anything, Superman’s entire brawl with
Doomsday is unfelt—extremely disappointing. This is what you buy
a subwoofer for and whoever mixed this track must have completely
forgotten about the bass. It’s not merely a case of underuse; the
subwoofer channel was simply not utilized in the least. My receiver does
a better job faking bass with the 2.0 Justice League Unlimited
mixes than this audio track did with its supposed full surround.
Negatives aside on the audio transfer, the disc is rather loaded with
extras. First up on the disc is a full audio commentary with
producer/writer/director Bruce Timm, writer Duane Capizzi, voice
director Andrea Romano and executive producer Gregory Noveck. The track
is lively throughout and Timm and Capizzi freely share their experiences
on the film and what they like about it. Timm is quick to correct those
who question just how violent this film is over his past superhero
outings, although he does yield when Romano insists that Superman was
never punched three times repeatedly in the face like he is by Doomsday
early on in their battle. The track is well worth listening to and the
only real dry moment comes when Timm begins to comment on Superman’s
face getting pushed into the train by Doomsday—he seems to be gearing up
to compare it to the Spider-Man/Sandman subway fight in Spider-Man
3 when everyone goes quiet on the commentary for nearly a minute and
the discussion that starts up after it is completely unrelated. I guess
if they did mention Spider-Man 3 it might have been cut for legal
reasons, but you’d think they’d have trimmed his comment about the head
bashing completely.
“Requiem and Rebirth” is the heaviest portion of the DVD, covering the
entire history of the “Death of Superman” storyline. Running a full hour
in length, nearly all the original artists and writers of the Death and
Return storylines are interviewed and a couple even get choked up
remembering some of the more dramatic issues that followed Superman’s
death. Rightfully so as no matter how you feel about the comic, a few of
the writers threw their heart into some of the stories, even if most of
them were all just filler before the Man of Steel returned. Overall it’s
a cool featurette to watch, but having read the comic myself and finding
it a giant waste of time, the back-patting everyone gives one another
made me roll my eyes after awhile.
“Behind the Voice” is a quick featurette on the voice actors that worked
on the film. Although the crew discussed some of the voice decisions on
the commentary, we go a bit more in-depth here and even get interviews
with Anne Heche, Adam Baldwin and Ray Wise. Oddly enough the Amazon.com
video clip of James Marsters talking about his work as Luthor is
completely omitted from the DVD, meaning we don’t get any word from
Marsters at all about his role in the film on the DVD. I understand
making clips exclusive to retailers to help promote the DVD, but I’d
think making exclusive clips from the film would be more appealing than
completely omitting what an actor has to say about his role from the
DVD. I’m more disappointed about this than the fact that the commentary
and “Behind the Voice” extras are the only thing that actually relate to
the film itself.
Of course one of the coolest things on this disc is the exclusive look
at the upcoming Justice League: New Frontier DTV, coming in
February. Not only is the film shaping up to be remarkable looking and
nearly a complete mirror image of Darwyn Cooke’s original comic book
(the art style reminds me of the Spy Smasher flashback in the Justice
League Unlimited episode “Patriot Act”) in terms of art style. We
get to hear what David Boreanaz, Lucy Lawless and Kyle MacLachlan sound
like as Hal Jordan, Wonder Woman and Superman and we’re teased with
images of Neil Patrick Harris as The Flash and Jeremy Sisto as Batman.
It’s kind of sad I was more amped after seeing this preview clip than I
was during the entire period between the announcement of Superman/Doomsday
and up to the point I received my review copy, but I greatly enjoyed New
Frontier as a comic book and it’s something we haven’t seen in
animation before.
Other extras on this release is an incredibly annoying “Superman’s Last
Stand” DVD game (hit “Enter” at the right time and win! Or at least
that’s the supposed rules, I hit “Enter” eight different ways and I
still lost every time) that I’m sure the mature audiences this DVD is
aimed after will love and a mixture of trailers for kid films (“The Last
Mimzy”), adult TV shows (“Blade: House of Chthon”), adult cartoons
(“Spawn: The TV Series”, which you should buy, by the way) and even a
trailer for the upcoming Will Smith “I Am Legend” movie. If it weren’t
for “The Last Mimzy” I’d say this DVD was almost entirely adult
oriented…well that and the annoying DVD game. Seriously, who the hell
plays those?
Overall it’s a fine DVD package for a fun movie and comes
Recommended. The commentary alone makes the DVD worth it and
while full of self-congratulatory fluff, the sixty-minute documentary
was a good watch as well. Hopefully Warner Home Video keeps the extras
at this high of quality for all the future releases—although more extras
relating to the actual animated feature itself would be nice, even if
it’s just animatics, deleted scenes or music-only snippets.
Review (James Harvey)
If you believe Superman has gotten tired and stale, think again!
Superman Doomsday is not only an excellent movie, but also shows
just how edgy and even twisted Superman can be when in capable hands.
With Bruce Timm and Duane Capizzi overseeing the project, it’s no wonder
that the film has an emotional core to go along with the very bloody
action. And yes, there’s blood. Let’s cut to the chase and get to the
synopsis, shall we?
When Lexcorp accidentally unearths the intergalactic serial killer
Doomsday, Superman battles the creature head on in the fight of his
life…literally. The world collectively mourns their fallen hero;
humanity realizes it will never feel truly safe again. Superman’s
enemies rejoice – all but Lex Luthor, who grieves the loss in his own
demented manner, setting off a chilling chain of events that even he
couldn’t have foreseen. Produced by Bruce Timm (Justice League
Unlimited, Batman: The Animated Series) and written by Duane
Capizzi (The Batman, The Batman vs. Dracula), Superman
Doomsday is inspired by the best-selling graphic novel of all time,
DC Comics' The Death of Superman. This feature-length animated
movie boasts exciting action sequences that rival anything you’ve ever
seen starring the Man of Steel.
That last line of the synopsis has it pretty dead-on, I must admit.
There is a massive amount of action in this movie. From the opening
battle with Doomsday, to some jaw-dropping action in the middle, all
leading up to an amazing and . . . simply excellent finale, this movie
is dripping in action, from beginning to end. Those looking for long,
complex action sequences and relentless battles will not be let down.
Like I said earlier however, this movie also has a heart to go with it.
That alone saves this movie from being just a mindless action movie.
There’s heart in here, which I’ll get into in a moment. What I do want
to say now is there will be spoilers up ahead. Skip to the last
paragraph if you do not want the movie ruined for you.
For the full film review, click here.
And, much like the very enjoyable movie, the DVD for Superman
Doomsday looks to be amazing. I want to stress that this DVD was not
the final product, and we’ll be reviewing the full release version of Superman
Doomsday as soon as it becomes available. But, based on this
release, this is one of the best Animated DC DVDs Warner Bros. has ever
released. This set is easily on par with a major theatrical release DVD
in terms of quality in both presentation and extras. So, let’s dive in!
The audio and video is clear and sharp for this release. The transfer is
crystal clear, with no visible problems that I could notice. The
widescreen transfer is simply gorgeous, and it sounds amazing. You hear
every single punch and grunt, but you also hear the smaller things, too.
A slight breeze. A quiet foot step. A sigh. A shuffling of papers.
Everything is clear and concise. As far as I’m concerned, this is a
great standard DVD transfer on WHV’s part, and I can only wonder how
great this movie will look and sound when it is inevitably released to
the next generation platform.
Of course, what everyone wants to know about is the extras. And, yes,
they are good! Like I said before, this is one of the best DC Animated
releases from WHV, and that includes the DC toons that have come before.
In fact, this release edges out Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
in terms of extras-content. There’s a full-length commentary, an
hour-long documentary, plus a featurette on voice acting, a ten minute
peek at Justice League: The New Frontier, plus an assortment of
trailers an a menu game.
The commentary is a full house, featuring Timm, Capizzi, Romano, Gregory
Noveck, Brandon Vietti, and Lauren Montgomery. It’s a full commentary,
and an engaging one, at that. There seemed to be a great dynamic amongst
the group, and I was glad that the majority of the participants really
got face time in here. While Timm, Capizzi, and Romano certainly ruled
the roost here, the other participants were able to squeak in here and
there, specifically Montgomery (who was responsible for the greats
second act to Superman Doomsday). I can’t say it’s the best
commentary I’ve heard on a DC Animated release, that still belongs to
the unedited Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker commentary, but
it’s a lively one. Plus, it’s great to hear Capizzi and Timm discuss
their work together. There’s actually a few times when they don’t see
eye to eye, which provides for some entertaining discussion.
Next up is Requiem & Rebirth: Superman Lives!, an hour-long
documentary about the Death of Superman storyline. It’s a great
and incredibly detailed look at the whole process, from start to finish,
of killing Superman. It’s great to see the major artists of that era,
who are still great today, interviewed for this documentary. And we see
just about everyone. Jurgens, Grummet, Stern, they all seem to be there.
And, surprisingly, a lot of them are still very emotional about the
whole storyline. It’s pretty fascinating. I remember picking up Superman
#75 as a very young child, and the storyline that came afterwards, and
while it’s pure 1990s story-telling, it was still a major event, and
it’s interesting to see it revisited. Personally, I was surprised that
Superman was originally supposed to get married around this time, but,
due to the horrible Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
TV show, they had to buy time. So . . . well, they just killed him.
I do want to note that Superboy is not seen once in this documentary.
Despite a section of the documentary dedicated to his character, only
his legs are seem. It’s ridiculous and actually ruins the flow of the
documentary. Every other possible character is seen here, but not
Superboy.
Following that is the amazing Justice League: The New Frontier
Teaser Reel, which is ten minute of Darwyn Cooke goodness. It is . . .
amazing. It’s more than what’s been seen before, and is easily double
the length of the Justice League: The New Frontier teaser that is
circulating the net. We see more finished animation, we hear more
dialogue, and we see a lot more concept art. It looks simply amazing.
Rounding off the disc is a featurette on voice acting, a menu challenge
(which seems very out of place), and a selection of trailers. The
featurette is your standard EPK, but, as always, it’s nice to get a look
at those who provide the voices for the characters here. It’s well done.
Overall, the DVD is solid all around. The transfer is great, the extras
are bountiful, and the movie is pretty excellent, as well. Overall, it’s
very much worth the wait. Superman Doomsday will please fans, no
question. If you’ve been waiting for a Superman slugfest flick, this is
the answer to your prayers. More importantly, there’s heart to be found,
and a touching story, and that alone really sells the movie and the
character interactions. It goes without saying that I Highly
Recommend Superman Doomsday. It’s a great movie, one that
Superman fans will watch again and again. Plus, it's great that Warner
Home Video has packed this DVD with extras. There's over two hours of
special features on here, and the level of detail is pretty astounding.
It's a great package from start to finish. |
