Since the news of Man of Steel's production, the Superman fan-film phenomenon has been spreading like wildfire. A wildly popular one being Superman: Requiem, set to debut November 11, 2011 (I will definitely be reviewing that). Then there's Superman: Golden Child, which is set for release mid 2012.
Surprisingly, another, pretty much unknown fan-film surprised me (a fan-film connoisseur) with it's unexpected release, which I happen to find on the release date. This film is called S: A Superman fan-film, a pretty vague title, I feel Superman vs Brainiac (sorry for the spoiler) would have been better, but the title doesn't take away from what the film has in store for us.
If you watched the film expecting to see something comparable to Superman I, you'll be a bit disappointed. If you watch hoping to see something a lot more action packed than Superman Returns, you might just like it.
The official plot summary is:
With the intent of finally destroying Superman, Brainiac finds his way to earth. However, he doesn't go about this task alone, as Lex Luthor finds his way into the mix. Now two of Superman's greatest villains are working together to take down the Man of Steel. Guest Starring Lois Lane.
The Plot
The Plot's pretty simple (I won't be revealing much), but it's also something we haven't seen from a Superman film since 1/4 of Superman: Doomsday. Villain attacks, Hero fights, someone dies (It's not who you'd think it would be.)Being that it was only 18 minutes long, I feel it was a bit rushed, and do feel it could have gone maybe 10 minutes longer, as they had a good plot, but it could have become more than it was had it been developed just a little more. Overall, the plot was good. Lex for some reason knows Clark is Superman, which I don't understand.
Acting
The acting was surprisingly good, I've seen a lot of Superman fan-films (and Superman films) with cheesy acting.
Superman: In this film the Man of Steel was played by young actor George Tutie (who's previous work includes a low-budget film called The Rapture) His acting was okay, I felt he could have delivered several lines with a stronger voice, at times he sounds like a 15-year old in the middle of a school play. My problem with the actor chosen was the fact that he looks and sounds too young to be Superman, and ended up looking a little more like Superboy-Prime. He had the muscular build for Superboy-Prime (which they did not allow to go unnoticed.)
Brainiac: I'm not sure if it was the lack of acting, or very good acting, but
Kyle Znamenak's Brainiac has the wooden, nearly life-less personality you'd expect a mass-murdering super-computer to have. Throughout most of the film, I noticed he stares directly at the camera, albeit creepily, rather than at Superman, who was kneeling in front of him.
Lex Luthor: Upon seeing E. Ray Goodwin Jr. as Lex, I caught flashbacks to the Lex Luthor of Superman: The Animated Series, there's a small resemblance between the two. Being that he is Lex, who has never failed to gloat in both the comics as well as the movies, he has the most lines in the film. Goodwin perfectly captured the humor you'd expect Lex to have and represented the character excellently. Definitely the strong point of the film.
Lois Lane: She might have just turned out to be the strongest actor of the bunch, she delivered her lines with plenty of emotion. (That's all I have to say, no spoilers remember.)
Special Effects and CGI.
For a fan-film, the special effects were impressive at times, and cheesy and laughable at others (The rolling car wheel, Superman flying through a building, Superman crashing into concrete, the Heat Vision battle.) A lot of the scenes do however look impressive, and I was pretty pleased with those specific ones, such as the bridge background, which was pretty well done.) Much of the flying and mid-air scenes look rather laughable, not to mention the sliding land-fight, which was odd to see, they were just hitting each other, and sliding without even the tiniest leg movements, it distracts from some other's wise great fight choreography.
Costumes
The Superman suit has the same design as the Returns suit, save for some more traditional coloring (darker blues, lighter reds). The cape lacks the yellow S-Symbol, and appears to be made out of silk.
Brainiac lacks the green skin (The reason is explained by watching the movie). his suit seems to be made out of tights, surgical tape, and aluminum foil, with tubing and lights. He wears a lot more armor than Brainiac usually does.The make up is pretty good, and they even included Brainiac's 3 dot symbol on the forehead, as well as metal flesh under the skin which is surrounded by blood stains and wounds
Lex Luthor appears in his battle suit as always. It lacks the traditional purple and green for silver and black, It looks to be made out of the same material as Brainiac's suit, except it looks a bit more traditional to his comic counter-part. The main difference is the inclusion of the LuthorCorp symbol on the chest.
Sound and Camera quality.
The film has some pretty good sound effects, and an even better music selection, which do help capture the tensity of many of the film. My biggest problem was the echo, which most likely has something to do with the fact that it was shot entirely in a green screen studio in 4 days, so there's some echo and at times their voices make it seem as if they're far away from the camera. The film was shot in HD, which is pretty convenient.
Rating:I'd rate this film with a 3 out of 5. It has some bad points, but also some good points.
You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDADP0MLZHQ&feature=player_detailpage