All Star Superman rises to the occasion

Adaptations can be a tricky thing when it comes to feature films, whether it be live action or animation. Selecting the right source material and figuring out how to capture the "essence" of that story onscreen - while at the same time cutting out anything extraneous - is an art unto itself, one that - more often than not - leads to unsatisfactory conclusions. Take, for example, the Ultimate Avengers movie by Marvel. Despite having excellent source material, this film was an absolute wreck and failed miserably on almost every level. Superman Doomsday was better, but considering how bloated and tepid the original story was, the best one could expect from this animated adaptation was mediocrity. Yet, it's not all doom and gloom. Personally I loved the DTV versions of both Batman: Under the Red Hood and Planet Hulk, stories that were adapted from existing comics. With such a mixed track record, however, I found myself very concerned for All Star Superman.

All Star Superman is an Eisner Award winning, 12-issue, series that teamed up "All Star" writer Grant Morrison with "All Star" artist Frank Quitely. To say the story is a masterpiece is almost an understatement. Expertly crafted on every level, All Star Superman chronicles the final great deeds performed by a dying Superman. With a perfect mix of emotion, action and intelligence, this is the ultimate love letter to the iconic Superman of the 1940's and 1950's. Obviously adapting such a universally praised series would be a tall order for any filmmaker, yet Bruce Timm and company have sought to do just that with their latest animated DTV, the conveniently titled All Star Superman.

I had a number of concerns coming into this film, but the greatest among them was the quasi-episodic format of the original All Star Superman comic book. Though the story has an overriding plot involving Lex Luthor, the bulk of the 12-issue series is made up of self contained stories. Taking these stories and creating a single narrative seemed like a very daunting task to me, one that I feared was impossible. Fortunately the film's writer, Dwayne McDuffie, understood this and focused his adaptation on the core elements of the story while sprinkling in as much of the stand alone plot points as he could. This will, of course, lead to a lot of fans and critics complaining about how their favorite parts of the source material were either glossed over or cut from the film entirely. But while this may be true, I feel that McDuffie did exactly what was needed. The truth is you can't include everything from the comic book, to try and do so would wreck the movies pacing and story structure. Starting with the core theme, however, and choosing the plot points that best support that theme, was the correct course of action. Better yet, McDuffie stayed very true to everything that was included in the film, so it's not like he took a bunch of liberties with the material, he just couldn't include it all.

Personally, I was very impressed by the animated story adaptation for All Star Superman. Only the Kryptonian Astronauts sequence felt out of place, and that was only slightly. Sure, the original story will always be better, but that shouldn't take away from what this movie did right. Overall, I think this is an excellent representation of the source material, and one of the best animated DTVs I've seen of late.

Visually speaking, All Star Superman looks superb. Given the unique art style of Frank Quitely, I was - once again - concerned that the animated version of this story would not be able to adapt successfully from the source material. Thankfully, the films creators were up to the challenge, and did an excellent job recreating Quitely's work in animation. True, they'll never get as close to the original artwork as one would like, but the movies animators - much like its writer - found a really good balance. I was especially impressed with the way All Star Superman captured the posture of characters like Clark Kent. Unlike other artists, Frank Quitely wanted to contrast Superman and Kent by making the latter a fumbling, disheveled slouch. Fortunately, the films creators understood how important this contrast was and kept the idea intact. In fact, the only complaint I had regarding the films style was that Lois Lane doesn't look enough like her comic book counterpart. I'm guessing this is because of the very odd way Quitely draws women's faces (some even accuse him of drawing ugly women), and the animators wanted to do something a little more traditional. Other than that, I thought the style of this movie matched its source material nicely.

On a technical level, the actual animation itself is admirable. Movement is always smooth; staging is solid and the action powerful. Admittedly, the fight choreography found here isn't as good as other DC direct-to-video features. For example, films like Batman: Under the Red Hood and Batman/Superman Apocalypse have much better action. But I suspect this is because All Star Superman was trying to stay true to its roots. Sure, Bruce Timm and crew could have come up with some amazing battle sequences, but doing so might have compromised the style of the film. Considering how hard the movies creators worked to keep All Star Superman in line with the source material, I won't hold this against them.

Overall, I loved the look of All Star Superman. The animation, backgrounds and design are all fantastic, and the CGI wasn't half bad either (especially by DTV standards). Though the film isn't visually groundbreaking in any way, it still ranks in the upper echelon of direct-to-video animated offerings.

Rounding out the impressive production of All Star Superman is some respectable voice acting. While I don't feel that any one person stood out in the cast, everybody turned in a solid performance. If I had one complaint it would be that some of the secondary character voices sounded the same (even though they were performed by different actors). Still, this was an incredibly small issue, and does absolutely nothing to hurt the film.

There will be those who feel that All Star Superman should have never been made into an animated feature. While I don't share this sentiment, I do understand the reasons behind it. Regardless of your personal feelings, however, All Star Superman is a really good movie. Though it may have had a couple small hiccups - and could never approach the brilliance of its source material - this film's story, animation and overall execution is both respectful and impressive. True, the title "All Star Superman" makes no sense being that the phrase "All Star" was in reference to the creative team of the original comic book (DC created their All Star line to compete with Marvel's Ultimate line). But that little oddity aside I really enjoyed this movie and give it a full recommendation. Home video options include a bare-bone DVD with no special features, a two-disc DVD with a featurette and sneak peak of Green Lantern: Emerald Knight and a Blu-ray edition containing numerous special features including a featurette, audio commentary, sneak peak at Green Lantern: Emerald Knight and virtual comic book.

Gen-13 - a lost film that needs to stay lost

Gen-13 is a source of mixed emotions for me. Though I loved the original comic book in my late teens and early twenties, I now realize the story was ridiculously derivative and immature. The first Gen-13 mini-series was released at the same time I was finishing up high school and for some reason I found the inane story absolutely compelling. Maybe it was because the characters age was the same as my own, or perhaps the idea of trading mundane student life for superpowers and government conspiracies appealed to me, heck it could've just been Jeffery Scott Campbell's titillating artwork ... whatever the reason, I was hooked on the series after just one issue. Following its release, Gen-13 rocketed up the sales charts and become one of the most popular comic books on the market, before long an animated adaptation was in the works.

Produced by Buena Vista (Disney), Gen-13 the animated movie is based on the original five issue mini-series that started it all. Directed by Kevin Altieri (of Batman the Animated series fame) this planned DTV seemed to have everything going for it; popular source material, an experienced director and a good studio. Then ... nothing happened, the movie just never came out. According to Wikipedia, the reason Gen-13 never made it into stores was because DC acquired Wildstorm Studios (the publisher of the comic book) while the film was still in production. Being that Warner Brothers (the owner of DC) is a rival studio of Disney, the idea that the latter studio would be releasing a film starring the property of the former was an unappealing one for Buena Vista. So instead Disney shelved the movie and fans were left with nothing. Now, over ten years later, I've finally gotten to watch this lost film and I have to say ... it was in NO way worth the wait.

The story of Gen-13 begins with Caitlin Fairchild, an 18 year old college freshmen who doesn't "fit in". You see, Caitlin wears big glasses and doesn't dress well and is real smart and awkward and ... well let's just call her what she is, an archetypal bookworm. One day - out of the blue - Caitlin is offered a full scholarship to the government run program called Project Genesis. Realizing that her life at college is anything but desirable, Caitlin accepts the offer and quickly finds herself living at a secret military facility in the middle of the desert. Despite her surreal environment, Caitlin actually starts to fit in and even makes a couple of friends by the name of Roxy and Grunge. Like just about everything else in this story Roxy and Grunge are cliches. Roxy is the classic "tough chick" who always talks trash and tries to sneak a smoke. Grunge, on the other hand, is one of those typical "slacker surfers" who suffer from both mild retardation and bad hygiene. Along with Caitlin, this mismatched band of stereotypes soon discover the real goal of Project Genesis isn't to hand out college credit, but instead to find the children of super-powered soldiers and turn them Gen Active (basically that means turn on their powers). It all begins one night with Caitlin suffering a severe headache. While trying to make her way to the infirmary, Caitlin comes across an open door to a restricted area complete with a computer terminal revealing classified information about her father. Naturally(?) Roxy and Grunge stumble into the same room and before you know it the trio is discovered by the base's security. Her head now pounding uncontrollably, Caitlin becomes angry with the abusive guard who is threatening both her and her friends and decides to do something about the situation ... she punches him through a wall (actually I think it was glass, but whatever). After this display of superhuman strength, Caitlin realizes she has grown almost seven feet tall and her body ... well let's just say it "filled out". From there our story becomes one of escape as our heroes (Roxy and Grunge go Gen Active as well) try to flee Project Genesis and its evil wardens Ivana and Threshold (who himself is a Gen Active).

Surprisingly, the story of Gen-13 the animated movie doesn't stray all that far from the original comic book mini-series I enjoyed in my youth. The biggest change is probably the removal of two central characters from the source material; Burnout and Rainmaker. Though it's true that Caitlin, Roxy and Grunge received more focus in the original mini-series, I was disappointed with the exclusion of both Burnout and Rainmaker, even if they weren't instrumental to the story. That said, I can certainly understand why the films creators wanted to streamline the cast to just pivotal characters. Sadly, the focus gained from the absence of Burnout and Rainmaker does nothing to make this story more intelligent or classy.

When I say the writing of Gen-13 lacks intelligence, what I really mean is that the story is incredibly generic and overly familiar. Seriously, it's just a mishmash of tired ideas, settings and archetypes with no surprises and plenty of deja vu. Secret government experiments on soldiers, nefarious plots to unlock hidden superpowers, sadistic bad guys with their own agenda, cliche teenage superheroes ... my god, this story is so unoriginal it makes the latest NCIS show seem fresh by comparison. Even worse, the crass humor and gratuitous near nudity that may have appealed to me as a young man, now seems incredibly patronizing and unsophisticated. Fart jokes, swearing, vulgar hand gestures, steamy shower scenes, countless pantie shots and the ridiculous transformation of Caitlin into a fanboy wet dream, does nothing but expose Gen-13 for the lowbrow T&A that it is. Now these comments may seem a little prudish or even conservative in nature, but therein lays real kicker. I'm not a prude or a conservative! Yet, still I find the mindless writing of Gen-13 incredibly annoying and immature, not insulting per se, but definitely grating.

Exacerbating Gen-13's numerous problems is an excessively long run time. Clocking in at a staggering 90 minutes, this film takes way too long to tell a story with such little depth. In particular, the desert battle of Caitlin could have completely been cut from the film. Looking back at it now, I'm actually a little ashamed to admit that I - in my younger years - enjoyed Gen-13's tasteless antics and derivative story. Sure, most of us have enjoyed stories that pander to our less intelligent fantasies of youth (how else do you explain Twilight?), but I still have to judge this film on its own merits, and as an adult. That being the case, I'll just say that Gen-13 offers little to nothing of substance in the writing or storytelling department.

Visually speaking, Gen-13 looks ... well it looks terrible. Everything about this film - from the animation to the character designs - screams low budget DTV. I'll start with the character design. Stylistically, Gen-13 uses the popular "streamlined" look that Bruce Timm developed for Batman the Animated Series. Unlike Batman, however, Gen-13's characters appear to have been designed for a kids cartoon. Ironic when you consider that Batman's target demographic was children (yet the show was very visually mature) and Gen-13's audience was supposed to be teenagers. Anyway, the original artist of Gen-13 was Jeffery Scott Campbell, a very talented individual whose body of work is sadly small. Campbell's art was clearly based on the Jim Lee school of comic books, and despite his penchant for objectifying the female form, I was impressed with the detailed characters and environment that Campbell created. Absolutely none of this visual styling makes it into the animated adaptation of Gen-13 however. Where Campbell used curves the film used sharp edges, where Campbell emphasized detail the film went minimalist. In short, the source material and the movie look nothing alike. Of course, you can't expect to see a direct visual adaption of Campbell's style, but something along the lines of X-Men Evolution would have worked far better than the generic style used here.

The uninspired look of Gen-13's animated world also undermines any effort by the film's writers to establish a dark tone. While the movie has plenty of blood and violence, none of the sequences involving this subject matter feel right. This is because the look of the film is so childish and immature that scenes of death and destruction appear out of place in it. It would be like Dora the Explorer gaining psychic powers, then using them to blow up Diego's head. Unless you're trying to purposefully juxtaposition the extreme violence and innocent character appearance for comedic effect, it just doesn't work.

Besides my aversion to the film's visual style, Gen-13's designs just look lazy. Caitlin is supposed to be mousy and thin when the story starts, but in no way does she appear to be frail prior to her transformation. Heck, her body type doesn't even look all that different from any of the movies other female characters before going Gen Active. Then we have Threshold's hair. I know it may seem like an odd thing to complain about, but if you saw the laughable mane sported by this guy, you would understand why I had to call it out. All in all, I found the design work done on Gen-13 to be uninspired, inappropriate and apathetic.

As for the animation itself, it is decidedly cheap looking, even for a DTV. With boring staging, awkward movement and crappy fight choreography being the norm, I have a hard time believing anyone put much effort into Gen-13. Though I really don't know why this would be the case, I'd like to offer up two theories regarding the poor craftsmanship of the film. The first is simply that not enough money was put into Gen-13. If Wildstorm was trying to get a 90 minute movie made on a shoestring budget, then it is very possible that too many corners were cut and the end result was this. My second theory hinges on the sale of Wildstorm studios to DC. If indeed this film was still in the process of being made when the sale of Wildstorm went down, a lot of uncertainty regarding the productions future could've come about. In the end the film's creative staff may have just been "getting it done" instead of trying to craft something worthwhile. Of course I have no insider knowledge regarding Gen-13's production, so this is all just speculation. Regardless of the cause, the half-hearted effort being put into this movie was obvious, shocking when you consider Kevin Altieri was directing.

What's not so shocking is the abysmal voice acting of Gen-13. Outside of Mark Hamill's work on Threshold, none of the performances in this film worked. Caitlin's voice was droning, Lynch was off the mark and Grunge ... well let's just take a minute and talk about Grunge. Performed by Flea (that's right, the guitarist from Red Hot Chili Peppers), the voice of Grunge personifies every surfer stereotype I've come to hate. To give you some idea of what I'm talking about, imagine if Keanu Reeves' "Ted" character from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure had a child with Sean Penn's "Spicoli" character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High ... that's Grunge. Fortunately the film tries to keep Grunge's dialog minimal whenever possible. I'm guessing the producers edited out anything that wasn't completely necessary to help reduce the number of brain aneurisms brought on by Flea's egregious acting. Like I said before, the only voice acting in this film that holds water is Hamill's. Though his work on Threshold doesn't even approach his quintessential Joker performances from BTAS, it still holds up pretty well.

I had originally planned to comment on the lackluster musical score of Gen-13, but at this point I don't see the need. When it's all said and done this film is - simply put - a mess. Poorly written, cheaply animated and horribly acted, I can honestly say that I found nothing of worth in Gen-13. Even if you're a fan of the original comic book I would not recommend watching this film. Thankfully Gen-13 has never been released here in the US (a merciful act we should all be grateful for), so steering clear of it really isn't all that difficult.