Sunday, July 30, 2006
A Different Sort of Superman Returns
I watched Superman: Brainiac Attack tonight, and was disappointed. For all the talk of Tim Daly returning to the role, he never has a stand-out moment. Powers Boothe is no Clancy Brown when it comes to playing the part of Lex Luthor, and Lance Henriksen is no Corey Burton when it comes to playing Brainiac. In fact, Henriksen is far worse because he puts inappropriate emotion into his performace (which the illustrators inexplicable translate onto the machine's face). The video has the look of the Bruce Timm-produced series from the late 90's, but Timm had nothing to do with this, and it shows. It doesn't even seem to fit into the continuity of the Superman series or the later Justice League series, nor is it as skillfully written as those shows (which are written by comic book geeks for comic book geeks with as many references shoved into each episode as possible). For example, Superman has to go into the Phantom Zone to get some element to rescue someone, but he doesn't encounter any of the villains that he sent away there. Instead, he battles a huge spider/slug creature. No General Zod or anybody else. But the most ridiculous moment (for me) came when Braniac invades the Fortress of Solitude and attempts to connect with Superman's computer. For some reason, the machine is greedy for Kryptonian data. What the writers seem to have forgotten is that in the very first episode of Superman, Brainiac, then Krypton's everywhere super-computer, downloaded everything before saying farewell to the doomed planet. (I will never forget the strange moment when the planet is starting to come apart from earthquakes and volcanic activity, the citizens of Krypton gathered around a Brainiac station demanding to know what is going on, and the long-silent machine suddenly says, "Goodbye, Krypton," with just .01% of pity, before it beams the last of its intellect to an escaping satellite.) SO BRAINIAC ALREADY HAS ALL THE KNOWLEDGE OF KRYPTON! That he fails to remember this only shows what a lame video this is.
I watched Superman: Brainiac Attack tonight, and was disappointed. For all the talk of Tim Daly returning to the role, he never has a stand-out moment. Powers Boothe is no Clancy Brown when it comes to playing the part of Lex Luthor, and Lance Henriksen is no Corey Burton when it comes to playing Brainiac. In fact, Henriksen is far worse because he puts inappropriate emotion into his performace (which the illustrators inexplicable translate onto the machine's face). The video has the look of the Bruce Timm-produced series from the late 90's, but Timm had nothing to do with this, and it shows. It doesn't even seem to fit into the continuity of the Superman series or the later Justice League series, nor is it as skillfully written as those shows (which are written by comic book geeks for comic book geeks with as many references shoved into each episode as possible). For example, Superman has to go into the Phantom Zone to get some element to rescue someone, but he doesn't encounter any of the villains that he sent away there. Instead, he battles a huge spider/slug creature. No General Zod or anybody else. But the most ridiculous moment (for me) came when Braniac invades the Fortress of Solitude and attempts to connect with Superman's computer. For some reason, the machine is greedy for Kryptonian data. What the writers seem to have forgotten is that in the very first episode of Superman, Brainiac, then Krypton's everywhere super-computer, downloaded everything before saying farewell to the doomed planet. (I will never forget the strange moment when the planet is starting to come apart from earthquakes and volcanic activity, the citizens of Krypton gathered around a Brainiac station demanding to know what is going on, and the long-silent machine suddenly says, "Goodbye, Krypton," with just .01% of pity, before it beams the last of its intellect to an escaping satellite.) SO BRAINIAC ALREADY HAS ALL THE KNOWLEDGE OF KRYPTON! That he fails to remember this only shows what a lame video this is.
# posted by Test_Pilot @ 4:02 AM 
