Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)

Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)

Dir. Chris Palmer

A mere three months after the DC Animated Movie Universe came to an end, DC launched the Tomorrowverse, beginning with the aptly named Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020).

It explores the Kryptonian's early years, firstly as a youth in Smallville and then as a twenty-something adult in Metropolis, working as an intern at the Daily Planet newspaper. The latter period is a modern 'smartphone' era. In ways that are both subtle and not, we see his pain at feeling alien and misunderstood.

Things thereafter descend into mostly mediocrity and blandness, with some very uninspired directing choices. It was the director's first feature film, so some allowances must be made, but even with those in place some scenes — such as the one wherein a costumed Supes first meets Lex Luthor — are amateurish at best. I don't mean that to sound unkind; it's simply an opinion.

All of that, however, pales in comparison to the animation style. It made sense to change things up from the DCAMU phase, but opting for a visual style that looks like it was outsourced to a work from home YouTuber who only understands flash animation wasn't a good idea. The spiritless, sterile, too clean, block colour fill with crap shadows, no personality, and no texture animation fails to imbue even the most explosive scene with any kind of presence or power.

NOTE: the next few paragraphs have what I consider to be many SPOILERS, so if you want to avoid knowing things that may impact your enjoyment of the movie, I suggest either skipping past the bulleted list, or stop reading now. The closing paragraph is trifling, anyhow.

SPOILERS BEGIN 

Voicework was hit and miss. Darren Criss was okay as Clark Kent, simply because he had the kind of soft, forgettable, nonthreatening tones that help characterise a mild-mannered reporter intern, but he was less convincing as Superman, for the same reasons. Alexandra Daddario as Lois Lane was mildly annoying, but not terrible. Zachary Quinto was a middle-of-the-road Lex Luthor, lacking menace or conviction. Ryan Hurst's Lobo was functional, but generic. Ike Amadi as Martian Manhunter was the best of all, and is the only one that gave any kind of memorable gravitas to their performance.

There were a few interesting plot gems amongst the trash; I'll list them below, but please note, the SPOILER warning still applies:

• The 1950s sci-fi movie watched by the kids on TV was an excellent way to introduce Clark's feelings about his alien origins;
• Clark's finding out a little more about his heritage and the effect a yellow sun has on his powers came during conflict with [SPOILER];
• Clark's reason for liking the cape gave an insight into his feelings for [SPOILER];
• Superman's Martian colleague is also the last of his kind, which helped Clark feel less alone;
• The main threat took powers from its enemy, meaning Superman's own strength became a challenge that he must overcome;
• It turned into a kaijū movie;
• The attempt to use the power of emotion to win the day was admirable, but, alas, the scenes in question had zero actual emotion to work with.

SPOILERS END

But overall, the combination of mostly anaemic storytelling, flat direction, and ugly animation meant I was utterly bored by the 20 minute mark, and there was still 66 more minutes to go after that. In general, it was a disheartening and worrying start to the Tomorrowverse series of movies. Hopefully things will improve on the next one, or I'll struggle to go the distance.

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