My Review of All-Star Superman (2011)

 

Written by Dwayne McDuffie

Directed by Sam Liu

Lex: "Give it back. I saw everything. I saw how to save the world. I could have made everyone see. If it wasn't for you, I could have saved the world."

Superman: "If it had mattered to you, Luthor, you could have saved the world years ago."

Lex: "You're right."

With the imminent arrival of Superman (2025), I thought it was time to watch and review the animated that adapted one of its key inspirations. I've seen this movie before but it's been a while. I forgot how good this one was.

Our heroic Superman (James Denton) is dying. His actions involving stopping a time bomb clone resulted in being exposed to too much sun (solar radiation). On the plus side, it also increased his powers but maybe not that much of a plus side.

With the threat of death, Superman also thought it was time to celebrate Lois Lane's (Christina Hendricks) birthday by telling her his real identity and by giving her powers for a day. She became Superwoman and got more insight into what it was like to be Superman. She also didn't react well to his imminent death.

Then there's Lex Luthor (Anthony LaPaglia). His actions were the reason behind Superman being exposed to solar radiation and Superman tried to appeal to Lex's better nature. This movie highlighted the consequences of Lex's envy towards Superman with some hints of him wanting to do better.

There's a plot with both Superman and Clark Kent being gone for months and the latter getting various welcomes from Perry White (Edward Asner), Jimmy Olsen (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Steve Lombard (Kevin Michael Richardson). There was also Lois's conflict as she knew that death was approaching.

As for the main villain, Lex had unwisely teamed up with Solaris (Robin Atkin Downes) and the latter inevitably betrayed him. Add in a poignant sacrifice from Superman himself to save the day and a slight redemptive moment from Lex, it's not hard to see why this animated movie has been so highly regarded.

- There's an appearance from Parasite (Michael Gough) in the movie while Jimmy has a very different look at the start of the movie.

- Other characters in the movie include Martha Kent (Frances Conroy), Cat Grant (Cathy Cavadini), Dr Leo Quintum (Alexis Denisof), Atlas/General Sam Lane (Steve Blum) to name a few.

- The DVD release of this also came with two episodes of Superman: The Animated Series and a preview for Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.

- Chronology: Present day Metropolis, Fortress of Solitude and outer space.

Easily one of the best animated adaptations that DC have done. All-Star Superman beautifully captured the story, got to the very core of both Superman and Lex Luthor as characters and delivered a poignant sacrifice from the former. 

Rating: 8 out of 10