The Death of Superman (2018)

I own this movie on DVD.

So, 11 years after DC Animation studios started with their line of original movies, we come to The Death of Superman. The first movie they made with this line up was Superman/Doomsday. This new movie is effectively a remake of that film, but set in the new continuity that was created after the events of Flashpoint Paradox.

This is a new way of telling the same story, and this time having the Justice League fight against Doomsday. They tried to up the violence in this film and in many ways it does work. The animation has come a long ways since the 2007 Superman/Doomsday, but not devoid of mistakes as I can easily spot.

This time around they did make the fight between Doomsday and Superman much more brutal, and gave it a feel that Superman was really struggling. Though some parts of the original film did do that better. In both they do end the fight by crashing down back into the city from space like a meteor and I will give this new film props for doing that scene better in every way. In the 07 film, Superman just holds onto Doomsday and dive bombs right into the city with little hint of struggle, and the impact alone is what kills Doomsday. Superman walks away and then collapses with just a little blood coming out of his mouth before he "dies." In this film it's done much better. While falling down from space, Doomsday is just whaling on Superman the whole way not letting him have a chance to fight back much or steer their decent, showing that there was a reason they fell back into the city endangering more people. And Doomsday just walks away from the crater leaving the bloodied Superman helpless as he heads towards Lois. And they give Lois a very awesome and strong moment here.
The way Superman does finally defeat Doomsday is amazing. And they did similarly to the Batman V Superman film where Doomsday kills Superman at the same time by stabbing him pretty much. But it's done much better... And Doomsday looks great in this film. Unlike the that cave troll "thing" that was in Batman V Superman. The animated version looks ten times better and even more realistic than the live action CGI crap. That's just sad.
Hell the 07 Doomsday looks better than the live action one.

The emotional moment of Superman dying in Lois' arms is also done much better in this version and even brings tears to my eyes.
One thing I don't like about it and the main reason i'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is the start of the fight with Doomsday and the rest of the Justice League. He does completely wipe the floor with them... but it's done I a very "fluffy" way I should say. To that point, Doomsday had been show to grab and kill people in an instant. Like grabbing the Atlantians that find him and crushing their skulls in a single motion. But in the fight with the Justice League he suddenly becomes much less vicious or dangerous, with his fighting dumbed down so that the animators don't have to have members of the League being killed. And this even happens very frustratingly bad later when Lex Luthor tries to step in and fight Doomsday. Doomsday rips open his mech and grabs Lex, pulling him out and just holding the mortal human there. But oh, we can't have Lex being killed off like that now can we? So rather than doing what would actually happen with Doomsday crushing Lex or ripping him apart limb from limb... this violent rage monster of gore that has no restraint just throws Lex like a baseball where Superman can swoop in and save him unharmed...

Another thing I don't like about the film, is how Lex is portrayed. He's just a whiny brat with a squeaky voice. I didn't like his voice in the 07 film either, but even that was better than this.
I don't know, maybe it is just because I grew up hearing Clancy Brown as the voice of Lex for so many years. It's hard to hear a high pitched voice behind the character and take him seriously or have any credibility at all.

The 07 Superman/Doomsday is more like two films rolled into one though, with the fight with Doomsday and Superman being killed just the first half. With the second half of the film picking up with a clone of him made by Lex trying to take over until the real Superman comes out of his coma and is strong enough to fight his clone.

This film is all about the fight and death, with the film setting up the continuation in the next movie for the Rise of the Supermen. I'm really looking forward to that next film. This one is good, but some parts could have been better. But that's just my opinion.


Mistake Status: Skimmed through it on a viewing to establish it on this site. Later on when I get to this film in my rotation I will give it a much thorough look through and rip it apart for each mistake.

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