- Creativity counts, but it doesn't count for everything. That's what I find myself saying every time I read something by Grant Morrison. As a comic book writer, Morrison has a well-earned reputation for being what was traditionally called an "idea man." In both the graphic novel and animated film versions of All-Star Superman, some of Morrison's ideas are brilliant, such as reducing Superman's (James Denton) tiresome origin story to a handful of panels and permitting the Man of Steel to smile every once in a while. But Morrison is also behind Superman's ill-conceived competition with Atlas and Samson (Steven Blum and John DiMaggio) for Lois Lane (Christina Hendricks), his exchanging riddles with something known as Ultra-Sphinx (also John DiMaggio), and his big showdown with a rogue intelligent star (Robin Atkin Downes). I'll be charitable in describing these outcomes as a mixed bag.
- So what single plot thread could possibly tie all of these wacky events together? The simple answer is that Superman's days are numbered. By manipulating a solar exploration mission led by Dr. Leo Quintum (Alexis Denisof), the diabolical genius Lex Luthor (Anthony LaPaglia) arranged it so that Superman received a fatal dose of solar radiation, even if it would take a year to completely kill him. In that year, Superman gets to do all of the things he ever wanted to do, starting with informing Lois of his true identity just before whisking her away to his Fortress of Solitude and giving her a superpower cocktail. In addition to the aforementioned asininity, he also confronts power-hungry Kryptonian astronauts (Arnold Vosloo and Finola Hughes), drives a rogue army of dinosaur people (Fred Tatasciore) back into the Earth's core, and evades the deadly Parasite (Michael Gough). It's a bit like the twelve labors of Hercules, right down to the detail that most of them don't make much sense written down.
- Honestly, it's difficult to imagine a much better film adaptation of All-Star Superman than was accomplished by director Sam Liu, the late writer Dwayne McDuffie, and the WB Animated Studios. The bizarre silliness of Lois' transformation into Superwoman is perfectly captured, just as the Ultra-Sphinx is as disappointingly pseudo-philosophical as he was in the graphic novel. The voice work is completely adequate, and the animation is probably better-than-average for a studio that generally does strong work. So, we're back to my main problem, which is the source material. Morrison's "throw everything at the wall to see what sticks" approach to writing is about as fun as reading the silver-age comics that so obviously inspired this work. A wildly goofy story here and there is okay, but more than an hour of this stuff becomes pretty hard to swallow. When you realize that the same production crew was also responsible for Superman: The Animated Series, you can't help but be disappointed that in filming All-Star Superman they substituted apparent creativity for genuine quality.
