All Star Superman Blu Ray Review
Sat, February 12, 2011 
The newest installment in the DC Animated series is All Star Superman. The film serves as not only an adaptation to the graphic novel of the same name, but also what felt like a throwback to Superman from his earlier days, while at the same time taking a much more modern and needed approach to the character.
The plot starts off with Superman saving the world once again only to find out that He’s been tricked by none other than Lex Luthor, and he is now slowly dying. Both Superman and his alias Clark Kent decide to keep the news to themselves while he attempts to formulate a cure or ultimately decides to come to terms with his fate.
The plot tries to give an observation of Superman’s story in his last days as opposed to being the all out action-fest you might have expected. That’s not to say he isn’t kicking some asses and taking some names throughout, but more so it has to do with the revelation to Louis Lane that Clark Kent and Superman are one in the same. It even go as far as to explore a level of intelligence we rarely see from Superman on film. His fortress of Solitude is a prime example of this; loaded with full size navy ships and space craft’s he had apparently built as models for recreation and his team of numbered robot minions he built to work with him.
The one real downfall was the step backwards DC seemed to take in terms of the quality of the animation. In comparison to Batman: Under the red Hood the animation is far less superior to what I've come to expect. The voice acting however was at least on par with what I would have expected. I would even go as far as to say Anthony Lapaglia who voiced Lex Luthor did a fantastic job in conveying the tone of evil genius with a hidden conscience. The plot also suffered from a few “filler” moments which felt like they were added only to lengthen the story, but added only cheese and none sense to the mostly witty dialogue.
All Star Superman is a film kids and long term diehard fans of the character are sure to enjoy. But for general audiences or just casual fans of Superman it might not be quite what you're looking for. Although it is passable as a Superman film it felt more like Clark Kent and Lois Lanes story.
As entertaining is it was for the most part I’m giving All Star Superman 6/10
Reader Comments (6)
I don't really agree that they took a step back with the animation in this one. If anything it looks to me that Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and All Star Superman took a step up with the animation values. If you watch them back to back you clearly see an improvement from Red Hood to this one. Batman fanboyism a bit?
I just picked this up today. Good review Mtich. I hate that Dwayne McDuffie passed right as this was being released. He did a terrific job translating it from comic to screen. This is one of my personal favorite Superman stories comic wise and it ended up great as an animated feature. Next up is Emerald Knights which should be a blast. I can't wait.
@ The Animator
I agree with you that Superman/Batman Apocalype animtaion was just as good as well. I was only using red hood as an expample. It had nothing to do with batman fanboyism. I would actually say apocalype was just as good as red hood and that's cleary more of a Superman film.
Maybe if I had read the comic first I would have enjoyed the movie more, but I still have to say i don't think the animation was as good as some of the other recent releases. I'm not saying it was total dog shit, just not quite as good. Thanks for the comment.
Emerald Knights does look pretty cool Matt. I really like GL First Flight so I imagine I won't have a hard time getting into this one. Hopefully I can get a review up for it around the end of May.
Are you also amped up for Batman: Year One being adapted into animated? We got bits of it in Batman Begins but it will be great to see something follow it even closer. Hope they use a nice gritty style, something similar to that Spectre short if you've seen it.
I have seen it. I'm hoping for something similar to the tone of Red Hood. I really wanna see Conroy back as the voice as well.