Saber Forum

Has anyone else seen this movie?

(https://evilgenius180.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/img_0290.jpg)

It just came out on Blu-Ray and DVD a few days ago, but it's been out on digital since July 24. I picked it up last night at work. Anyway, I've been interested in it since I found out they were doing another adaptation of my favorite Superman comic event, though I also was a bit cautious. Not cautious enough to stop me from buying it, but then I'm a terrible impulse buyer, especially when it comes to DC animated movies. I actually have a steadily growing collection of them on Blu-Ray and DVD. My caution comes from the fact that WB (specifically: Warner Premier) has adapted this story line before, titled Superman: Doomsday, and it was a bit of a mess. In the last film, they crammed the whole death and return of Superman into one movie, and it's too much story for that. They took shortcuts and chopped it up. This time around, they appear to be doing things right.

The Death of Superman only focuses on the first part of the story, where Superman fights Doomsday. The story has been adapted to fit into the newer DC animated universe, so much of the first part gets you into the universe. There's a lot of character building before Doomsday even appears. I'm glad they did it this way, as opposed to how the comic just jumps into things, assuming you've read all of the previous comics. Aside from some modernization, they also changed the Justice League team that Doomdsay fights. In the comic, he fought the "Justice League America" team, made up of Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Maxima, Guy Gardner and Bloodwynd. (or, as I called them the first time I read it: Who?) In the film, we get a more familiar Justice League team made up of Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, (Barry Allen) Green Lantern, (Hal Jordan) Cyborg, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Aquaman. And, of course, Superman is in it all. Of course, Superman winds up fighting Doomsday to the death, as he did in the comics. (not a spoiler, since it's the title of the film)

So, I think they did a really good job. The characters are dynamic, and they got an all star voice cast, led by husband and wife duo Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn as Clark/Superman and Lois. The animation was well done. I watched the special feature on the fight between Superman and Doomsday, and they went a far as to bring in fighting experts to make it realistic. It was really well done. A sequel, titled Reign of the Superman is due out early next year and I can't wait. ;D

Right on.  I'll be looking for this...

I did hear of it before, but my attention was redirected...lol

I didn't follow the comics, but do own that issue.  It's stashed away safely - somewhere. :P

Good to know that it'd be familiar to me. :)

Well, the comics are available in graphic novel form. There are three volumes: The Death of Superman, World Without a Superman and The Return of Superman. In my opinion, it's one of the best story arcs they've ever done. It's also one of the few where they got all of Superman titles to work together. The Death of Superman even includes an issue of Justice League America. It was pretty massive, back in the early 1990s. I used to have all three volumes and I've read it through many times, but I don't have all of them anymore.

Aside from the paperback form, the whole story arc is available in four volumes for Amazon kindle devices. The Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend, Reign of the Supermen and The Return of Superman. Oddly, they also have a fifth volume that takes place after the others listed as first. I don't know why that is. (morons, would be my guess)

There was also a novel published, The Death and Life of Superman, which is a bit of a condensed version of the story. (all the important stuff is in the novel) I have a well worn paperback copy.

Or, you know, just watch the movies. As I said, it's modernized, but it looks like they're pretty much doing the whole arc, or at least a condensed version. Honestly, some of the sub-plots for the characters in the Reign of the Superman arc get a bit long winded, I imagine the movie will trim it all down.

I do wonder how deep into the Reign of the Supermen they will get.  Since you know the story, basically I wonder if we will see Coast City

I am picking this up on Tuesday when I pick up Infinity War.

I have not but remember when it first debut, I'm more of a Marvel guy but still dig into DC comics and movies.  My favorite DC series to date is the Injustice series, DOS is definitely my second favorite since it brings so many characters into the story line.

You know an Injustice/Masters of the Universe crossover just started

Yes indeed!  Really excited!

I hope that leads into a MOTU DLC for Injustice 2.  If you're gonna put Hellboy and the Ninja Turtles in it He-Man isn't a stretch

Interesting, going to have to check this out...

I don't see why not, as long as they get the DCU working and learn from WW's success.

They'd better do the Coast City thing. I'm looking forward to that.

Count me in on that one

I've been thinking about watching this. I've heard it is amazing, and the random clips I see of it look pretty good. I have a whole list of animated DC movies that I need to watch still, so it might be a while, but I'm looking forward to it still.

Do yourself a favor and skip Batman: Ninja unless you're really into anime. ::)

Already decided upon. I don't care for Batman as it is, and honestly, that movie didn't look that great to me.

Batman Ninja was good to me

I concur with this statement.
Don't care for Batman? Now I am sad....


Curious, do you follow anime regularly?

Batman: Ninja had such great promise. I mean, Batman is already a ninja, and putting him into a feudal Japan setting was a great idea. However, it's just an anime with Batman dressing. Now, Gotham by Gaslight is an awesome film. (yes, I have the comic on my Kindle) I also have Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, which is a good one and the two animated 1960s Batman films starring the late great Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar. Those are a lot of fun. Those are my newest DC animated films, and I have some older Batman and Green Lantern films. The Dark Knight Returns is a really good one from a few years back, and it's a great adaptation of the comic.

I watch anime here and there, I wouldn’t say regularly since it has to be something I whichwjich falls into the action, sci-fi, and fighting types of anime.   I’m pretty selective on what I watch.  I’m more of a sci-fi and comic book kind of guy so any animated Marvel and DC series are my go to but I did give Batman Ninja a chance and liked it. 

I didn't like Batman Ninja and has kind of kept me from seeing Gotham by Gaslight.  But maybe I'll give it a chance since Sci mentioned it was good.

There are many things about Batman that I like, and a few portrayals that I like, but in general I just don't see why a lot of people think he is the greatest person ever. I don't have a problem if you like him, he just isn't me. I'm really more of a Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Flash type of guy, though I do like WW, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter quite a bit too. Overall however, I prefer Marvel of DC.

Adding to my statement, anime doesn't automatically mean that I'll like it and watch it.  It has to follow my taste which are action, sci-fi, and some humor either separately or collectively. 


Give it a try, you'll either like it or not but it's still a good watch in my opinion.


Agreed.  I think he's a great character for the DCU; however, he isn't the be-all-end-all characters and my preference is Marvel as well from comics to cards and the MCU.  I may take DC seriously when they stop making movies so dark and give them vivid colors, filming them in the day time like WW.  Aquaman looks really promising as well.

Two totally different movies by different studios. Ninja was made by one of the top anime studios in Japan, Gotham by Gaslight was made by Warner Bros. Animation. Basically, the same people who made The Death of Superman.

What irks me is when people call superman Overpowered and boring then turn around and say "Batman always wins".  Batman was not supposed to be unbeatable....just unstoppable.   He could be beat...but he was coming back and not going to get beat the same way twice.  One of the things I loved was when Dark Knight III finished ( continuation of  The Dark Knight Returns) some Batman fans were not happy.  Superman had to fight 3 Kryptonians, and he was not holding back.  Batman was watching the fight and realized that Superman could have killed him at anytime over the years. 

Superman is so powerful that he holds back in almost every fight. There are a few enemies he's gone at full strength, but not many. Obviously, anyone Kryptonian would have the same powers as him, so he can't afford to hold back against other Kryptonians. He also gave Doomsday everything he had.

Batman always "wins" (and, technically, never really has in canon comics) when fighting Superman by using Kryptonite. Plain and simple. It's one of Superman's weaknesses, his main one in fact, and Batman knows it. Superman even gave Batman Lex Luthor's Kryptonite ring to use against him in case he ever went bad. Superman also has a weakness to magic and witchcraft. He's got no real defense against it and it has been used against him on more than one occasion, though it's a less frequently exploited weakness.

And, yes, Batman can certainly be beat, and has been on many occasions. After all, he's only human. He just learns from his losses and figures out how to beat his opponents. He's even been killed more than once in the comics. The Golden Age Batman was eventually killed, and Robin continued fighting crime with Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyles daughter, the original Huntress. Then, of course, there was his defeat at the hands of Bane.

I would like to have this issue:

"In Superman: Speeding Bullets, rather than crashing in Smallville, Kael-El crashed in Gotham City where he was discovered by Thomas and Martha Wayne who raised him as their son. Following the same tragedy that befell the Batman we’re familiar with, Kal-El became The Flying Batman!"

One thing I hate about Superman is that a lot of people will use electricity against him, and hurt him with it. He isn't weak to electricity, so that always ticks me off when they do that. I like when he has to fight magicians, because that is something he can't deal with (as he he doesn't know how). Kryptonite just beats him down so much that anyone can beat him with it (Alfred), but it is so overused. There is supposed to be only a very small amount of it on Earth, yet every single big bad seems to have some. But I would love to see Supes go full power against Darkseid in the DCEU (like we saw in Justice League Unlimited). I think that battle would be cool.

Yes, Kryptonite is majorly overused. As for its availability, certain genius scientists such as Lex Luthor have been known to synthesize Kryptonite. In 1950's Atom Man vs Superman, that's what Lex Luthor did. Though, his synthetic Kryptonite quickly weakened to the point of being ineffective. But, it was pretty darn effective at first.

Many people mistake Superman being vulnerable to Magic as being the same as Kryptonite.  Of course it isn't.  Magic just negates his invulnerability, if he gets around a magicians spell he can still knock them across the park.  Kryptonite (green at least ;P) doesn't just zap his powers, but slowly kills him.  Just a distinction so many overlook.  Why I'm looking forward to the rematch of He-Man vs Superman in the injustice comics.   I once read an article years ago that talked about how technically...Superman is faster than the Flash.  I don't know how the science holds up but basically it boiled down to this.  An object weighing as much as the Flash weighs (about 195 for Barry Allen so we'll use that) would cause a lot of havoc on the environment around him moving at the speed he runs.  But the Speed Force acts as a buffer for that allowing him to move through the atmosphere with minimal affect.  Superman however does not have the buffer of the speed force and also weighs even more ( 235lbs is generally given).  If he truly moved at his top speed on earth he would cause massive damage (like Neo in the Matrix when he was rushing to save Trinity and was upturning cars and breaking windows), but in space he can move at his top speeds. Which haven't been measured.

In truth, Superman is as powerful as the comic writers need him to be, and he keeps getting more powerful. There was apparently a comic where he "heard" the signal from Jimmy Olson's signal watch several light years away (which is impossible, but that's not the point) and arrived in minutes to help Jimmy. That's insanely fast, and likely faster than Flash can go. Though, it also depends on which Flash. Barry Allen generates the Speed Force that the others tap into, making him much more powerful and faster than the rest of the Flash family. Though, Wally West was responsible for "rebooting" the whole DC Universe at least once.

Superman is also so powerful that he can apparently hit something so hard that the blow will shatter whatever planet he's on at the time. That's one reason he holds back in fights, even against even other super powered beings. His own powers literally frighten him.

No, Magic doesn't kill him, it's just much harder for him to defend against or combat. It can also be used to incapacitate him. But, he has certainly taken down many beings with magic powers.

I agree with both of you.  Superman holds back his true strength since he's so strong as you two have mentioned, that he can destroy entire worlds with just a punch.  I think the only time that he got close to using his full strength was when the Joker tricked him into killing Lois in the Injustice comics.   

Well, he gave everything he got against Doomsday, but that was prior to the being able to destroy a planet thing. He got more powerful after he "died" and came back. I don't read the newer comics, but I've heard of some of the insane feats he's done in the past 25 years.

Currently he isn't "planet destroying" powerful.  There was the whole New 52 crap which got then was fixed with Rebirth...currently its been reveled Krypton didn't just blow up...it was destroyed by someone.

And the plot thickens!  I do like how comic books both Marvel and DC revisit original stories and throw in a different path whether it's the main or a parallel universe.  Makes for better reading and infinite (pun intended) storytelling. 

Indeed.  Now Superman is no longer the Orphan of a Dead World, he's the Orphan of a Murdered World

But, if they do it in a film, people whine about it. It amazes me why that happens, when comics get rebooted every few years. DC has gone a bit off the rails in recent years with the reboots, though.

Just finished this movie, enjoyed it a lot and looking forward to the sequel.

Yea, that's an understatement.  Now with The Watchmen being brought into the main Universe its going to get interesting 

Sweet! I'm glad you enjoyed it too. One of my coworkers who is pretty much a human comic encyclopedia liked it too, which is saying a lot. He often doesn't like modern Sci-Fi films, especially comic films.