All-Star Superman begins with Superman (James Denton) attempting to save the first manned mission to the sun which has been sabotaged by Lex Luthor (Anthony LaPaglia). In an ingenious and diabolical plan Luthor uses Superman's greatest asset, his invulnerability, against him. Knowing that Supes is the only person who would be able to get close enough to the sun to save the shuttle he mutates one of the crew and controls him remotely from earth, Superman manages to throw the kryptonite charged mutant into the sun and the resulting solar flare over-saturates his cells with power. What has always been the source of his power, earth's yellow sun, becomes his death sentence. His cells are now supercharged and destroying themselves from within, solar-cancer if you will. Once this information sinks in Superman sets out to make his final months on earth meaningful.
The first step for him is to reveal his true identity to Lois Lane (Christina Hendricks), Lois has a hard time believing that the clumsy Clark Kent is the man of steel but goes with it. He designs a super-serum based on her genetic code that will give her his powers but none of his vulnerabilities for 24 hours. What follows are almost episodic adventures some featuring Lois some not, it is based on a comic book after all and they have tried to be as faithful to the source material as possible. Competing with arrogant deities for Lois' affections, answering the unanswerable question posed by the mighty Sphinx, interviewing his murderer Lex Luthor as Clark Kent in an attempt to understand the power mad megalomaniac, escaping from a power obsorbing monster at the prison, encountering 2 fellow kryptonians who intend to rule earth rather than protect it and the inevitable showdown with Lex (who manages to get his hands on the super serum for himself giving him powers equal to Supes). All this before his final humanity saving effort to stop the sun from turning blue at the hands of an almost unstoppable entity, the mission that finally leads to his apparent 'death'.
If it sounds like a busy 77 minutes, that's because it is, fortunately it never feels overly complicated or messy. Each story element is handled well and all the major players are given the opportunity to flesh themselves out a little. Thanks in no part to director Sam Liu and Producer Bruce Timm sticking so closely to the source material, so much so that the dialogue is literally lifted from the page ver batim in as many places as possible. Even the art is pretty faithful to Quitely's original work. While this allows them to develop the story well it also hurts them a little in as much as the original material is so rich in detail and they are obviously limited by time and other factors. Unfortunately for fans of the source material, like myself, this gives the adaptation a slight feel of paling in comparison. Not so much that it can not be enjoyed thoroughly though. Morrison himself declares his delight with this adaption giddily and often during the commentary because it is so faithful to the tone and heart of his book.
Despite this little hiccup, which won't even be a blip on the radar to anyone who hasn't read a single issue of the comic, this is probably the best DCU animated production to date. Relying on it's main character, rather than throwing a deluge of hero's at you, to carry the story definitely worked in their favor here. The voice work by all the cast is top quality, LaPaglia in particular nails the superior, crazy Luthor. If your even a casual Superman fan you owe it to yourself to check out this flick, it's perhaps one of the best man of steel stories to be put on film yet.
Special Features:
The special features package is particularly tight for an animated presentation, with a few exclusives including a peek at the next DCU animated feature, an audio commentary, a digital copy of All Star Superman #1 and more.
- Audio Commentary: Producer Bruce Timm and original story writer Grant Morrison deliver an informative and engaging commentary that looks at the original comic, its story, characters and Morrison's opinion of the film.
- Superman Now: Morrison, DC Comics co-publisher Dan Didio, discuss the genesis of "All-Star Superman and the many, many twists and turns Morrison applied to iconic elements of the Superman mythos
- The Creative Flow: Incubating the Idea with Grant Morrison: This featurette shows Morrison's development process on the original book.
- Virtual Comic: All-Star Superman #1: The complete first issue of the comic, definitely worth a look even to just see how faithful the feature is to the source.
- Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Sneak Peek: An extended look at the next DCU animated feature: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights featuring Nathan Fillion as the man himself Hal Jordan
- Bruce Timm's Picks: Produce Bruce Timm selects a pair of Superman: The Animated Series episodes, "Blast from the Past" parts one and two.
- Trailers and Sneak Peeks: A Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Sneak Peek, Batman: Under the Red Hood preview, theatrical trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and a videogame trailer for DC Universe Online.
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Directed by: Sam Liu
Written by: Dwayne McDuffie (screenplay), Grant Morrison (story)
Starring: James Denton, Christine Hendricks and Anthony LaPaglia
Distributed by: Warner Home Video
Website: http://warnervideo.com/allstarsuperman/
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