Wow it has been just under a year since i have been away from the Filmlead, but I'am back, full steam ahead and ready to tackle this site once and for all. I have finished University for the summer and as i look on to the four months of intense California sun with constant days of trying to think of amazing innovative things to do, i realize i must have some projects and goals to achieve and thus the Journal is born. Don't worry it won’t be as Melodramatic as Julie & Julia. Now rather than talk about the vast number of films that I have seen over the last year this journal will chronicle films I have never seen. Whether I be viewing a brand new film on opening night or checking out a great classic on DVD, the only big rule will be that it is considered a film and that I can’t have seen it.
And so begins,
THE EPIC SUMMER FILM JOURNAL
The goal – to watch at least one film that I have never seen everyday.
The reason – to be productive, to learn, to develop, to critique and to be awesome.
Day one
Film One - Superman Doomsday
This epic journey I have embarked on has finally begun. The difficult task at hand was in picking the perfect film to begin with, after much deliberation and procrastination I gave up and simply picked something form my Netflix queue that is not the most blatant choice. A Superman movie that I haven’t seen tha
t’s animated it must be watched (It is important to know that I still haven’t taken the leap of faith and watched Superman 4 yet, this is because I hear it is absolutely terrible). I realize that this mission I have embarked upon is going to involve some very meaty and intellectual subject matter along the way that is going to take a lot of thought from me to write about it. Here is something that is not going to put me out of action on my first day.
The only contact I have really had with the animated superman was in the classic Fleischer cartoons which are an amazing feat and I have yet to see a cartoon series that was as captivating, although the Batman and Robin cartoon of the 90’s came very close. Superman Doomsday was released straight to dvd about a year after Bryan Singer’s live action reboot, Superman Returns, which I think is one of the best superhero films ever made whilst everyone else seems to hate its existence. I was a huge fan of the first two superman films from the seventies and I even remember enjoying the Superman soap opera Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, I’m sure if I were to re-watch it now I would probably hate Superman forever, I was also a big fan of Smallville. About six or seven years ago I really got into comics, particularly Graphic Novels as buying a new comic every month and waiting didn’t really interest me. Whilst I loved reading Graphic novels, reading Superman stories never appealed to me, they looked corny and silly and I just thought that there would be no peril, tension, or interest in reading about this brilliant demi god. Then I bought the infamous The Death of Superman graphic novel which as I understand is one of the best selling graphic novels of all time. Now I haven’t actually read the graphic novel but I should, what actually got me into Superman comics was Grant Morrison’s amazing All Star Superman series which sadly only ran for twelve issues and if you need twelve issues to read of anything I would highly recommend this.
Now onto the issue at hand – Superman Doomsday, I understand that this is meant to be a slight adaptation of the Death of Superman storyline. The film has a very slow credit sequence that just doesn’t grab or capture me due to the lack of John William’s epic and iconic score, for the love of me I can’t think of anyone in history that would try and make a film of Superman without using that score, even Smallville incorporated elements into it’s music. We begin knowing that Lois has no idea that Clark Kent dons the tights daily which sets up Lois as a bit of a bitch in the way she is horrible to Clark but then in the next scene she is very loving and caring to Superman which kind of makes sense but also makes me think about what Superman is thinking. Here I’ve got this great girl who is wonderful to me but just a stone cold bitch to everyone else? Anyway back to the film, as the title character Doomsday finally comes to view he really makes a pretty huge impact looking like a strange Vodoo drag queen. Even looking fucking ridiculous he manages to be completely badass, and causes a great deal of carnage fucking up everything in Metropolis. What is very odd is the lack of emotion in the characters faces, I have never seen animated faces look so unanimated; Lex’s blank expression when he sees’ Doomsday wouldn’t be such a problem if we didn’t have to look at it for what feels like ten seconds, then to add insult to injury as Doomsday is destroying something gigantic in another quite innovative way the shot slowly zooms in on the expressionless Luthor.
When superman finally does turn up to take on Doomsday the fight is epic, the action moves from set to set at a rate that is incomprehensible. I really haven’t watched a lot of animation lately and I completely forgot why this medium can be so strong. This seven minute or so action scene if it were a live action film would probably have cost thirty to forty million dollars alone to film, but the animation really allows this epic scene to take place. It is thrilling and full of awe. When the first drop of Superman’s blood is spilled splashing onto Lois’ face it becomes very clear that this film is not really aimed at children, the PG-13 rating is quite surprising the film is very violent, Doomsday is breaking necks destroying cars and fucking shit up, him and Superman are leveling buildings. Supes then grabs Doomsday flies up into space and then pushes Doomsday with all his mite all the way into the ground creating this fire plume vortex full of punches and kicks which result in the death of Doomsday and Superman. Doomsday already dead? Why the fuck is this called Superman Doomsday? Who is gonna buy this title over the many possibilities out there The Death of Superman, Superman Bites the Dust, Superman- The End. There are so many possibilities why did they settle with this? So Doomsday’s eyes burn out and the world morns the loss of Superman, like we are all expecting crime rises and all the crazy arch villains that have been hiding crawl out of the wood work, the only one we get to see how ever is the Toymaker in a giant robot mechanical spider. Normally this scene would really annoy me but the saving grace comes from a cameo line by Kevin Smith, referencing his hilarious experience with writing the Unproduced Superman Lives screenplay, to truly understand this line I suggest watching An Evening With Kevin Smith.
Back to the scene, it actually gets pretty dark Lois tries to save the children and ends up being attacked by a mechanical baby doll holding a meat clever, this scene was so out of place that I was a little disappointed not to hear Lois drop the one allocated PG-13 F-bomb. Superman comes back from the dead surprisingly quick (about ten minutes) and saves the day and I feel this is the biggest problem of the film. As cheesy and clichéd as this would be plot wise its presence is needed for a reason, we need a fucking reason for Superman to come back, Metropolis needs to be is a peril it needs to feel like “Doomsday” and it never does. We do find out that this isn’t actually Superman as soon as he will not make sweet love to Lois Lane, it is uncovered that this is a clone of Superman and Luthor is harvesting evil Superman clones. Superman finally returns looking like an 80’s glam rock guitarist in a tight black cat suit and saves the day beating his evil artificial doppelganger.
This was an interesting little film to watch, extremely dark at times, A child is murdered and tons of people are killed. I feel that even with all these limits being pushed the film remained quite safe, I honestly can’t think who this was aimed at, it’s a bit to adult for kids and is too childish for the mature viewers. It walks an interesting line, it was fun to watch but there were some huge problems with the writing, and the story although interesting could have used 15 more minutes of the world without Superman to make some drama. Would this make it too cheesy? It’s fucking Superman whatever you do its going to be slightly cheesy. As for the voices Adam Baldwin is a bit of a letdown as Kal – el, I’m a huge Baldwin fan – he was awesome in Firefly and he kills me in Chuck weekly but here it just feels as if he is reading from cue cards. Should you rush out to buy/rent a copy? I don’t know, it’s not a great film but if you’re a superman film you may enjoy it. Its only 75 minutes, worth a watch, it is what it is, a thoughtful rating out of ten let’s give it between 5-6 out of 10 for some truly inspiring action scenes and some interesting stuff. Should I have written so much about a short 75 minute animated film? Deffinatly not but it’s a good way of getting back into the rhythm of it all.
Film Number 2 – Tales from the Script
Whilst this is not a film I don’t really know if I could call it a documentary either, it is essentially a collection of Hollywood screenwriters (mostly bitter) telling their stories about the industry and their process as writers. Some truly in-depth interviews, William Goldman’s interviews are captivating a true great, out of all the people interviewed he is the one who looks at it all maturely, he has just wonderful insights into the world “Your going to make a few turds” this is my favorite line and the fact that it comes from the frank and bitter writer of The Marathon Man is another mind blowing revelation.
Out of the people interviewed about 50% of the writers tell very interesting stories. There are moments when you hear about this persons harrowing experience and then you find out that it is someone talking about a film that bombed in every sense of the word. Part of me thinks, why bother dwelling on this person? I want to hear more about John Carpenter or can’t we see some more footage of Frank Darabont? But these people are important and I feel this is where the documentary really succeeds and we get to learn about the painstaking love and skill that goes into a truly great script. The idea of seventeen drafts of Chinatown is a daunting one and then coupled with all the testimony that a script with this many drafts could easily be given to the wrong person and fucked up royally is another bittersweet idea.
The highlights of this are the interviews with William Goldman, Frank Darabont, Shane Black, John August, John Carpenter, Peter Hyams, Paul Schrader, Steven E. De Souza, and Larry Cohen, If you don’t know who any of these people are then this title probably won’t interest you in the slightest but if you are even a fan of any of those people films you should be able to find something here. It could use a slight re-edit because some of the material cut out in the deleted section of the special features is great stuff that should have been part of the entire feature. Another great thing about the film like so many other great film documentaries (Easy riders, raging bulls and Z channel) is that it tells you about a collection of films that you have never heard of that aren’t main stream and have been forgotten, I particularly love these cause I then go on the case to retrieve these lost treasures.
Anyway as for a rating I would give it an 8 out of ten for being incredibly informative to me, but as for a general member of the public with zero aspirations for a career in the film industry this is probably looking at a 3 or 4, then again I would be surprised if any one like the person I have just described ever sits down to watch this.
Well that’s the first day of what I hope to be a fun and challenging project for me over the summer. Interesting choices for today, who knows what tomorrow will bring…
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