Lex Luthor enacts his plan to rid the world of Superman, once and for all. Succeeding with solar radiation poisoning, the Man of Steel is slowly dying. With what little times remains, the Last Son of Krypton must confront the revealing of his secret identity to Lois Lane and face Luthor in a final battle.
Superman/Clark Kent - James Denton.
I'll say this about Denton, he's an extremely good actor, and I enjoy his work quite a bit. That being said, I believe there could have been a better choice for Superman, it could have been better yes, but I have no major complaints about him lending his voice to the character. He brought some good elements to the film but overall I found his interpretation to be a bit mono-toned, I just don't think he did very well with conveying Superman's emotions throughout the film.
The art work of Superman was fantastic, one of my favorite looks for Superman, minus one small detail, the cape. I didn't like the cape at all, it was too short, only going down to about his waist, it was the first thing I noticed about the costume and once I noticed it, it was extremely distracting lol. The protrayal of Clark Kent was fantastic, making his clothes a little too big for him, showing him as the clumsy Clark we've all missed, his bad hair-cut, it brought to life the real disguise that is Clark.
Lois Lane - Christina Hendricks.
I've never seen any of Christina's work before this movie so my opinion is 100% un-biased.
I really enjoyed her voice as Lois, she really brought to life all the classic qualities that define Lois Lane as that intrepid, curious, and determined reporter from the comics. There aren't a whole lot of bad things I can say other than I found her voice to be a little too girly lol. Now I don't mean I want Lois to sound like Danny Devito or something, but Christina's voice is just a little too sweet and beautiful for Lois.
I really enjoyed how Lois is drawn, she has all the characteristics of what Lois Lane looks like, but she still looks absolutely stunning, but still looking like your average run of the mill woman.
Lex Luthor - Anthony LaPaglia.
By far one of my favorite performanes in this film. I love Anthony's previous work and what he brought to the character of Lex is outstanding. You can really tell that he was devoted to bringing to life just how ruthless Lex really is, and he accomplished it. His voice is perfect in my opinion for Lex, we really get to hear Lex's anger with Superman, and how much he truly dispises him, even when he's not even talking about Superman, you can still hear it.
Lex looks exactly how Lex should look. He looks like that rich cranky guy that you would not want to run into in a dark alley, all the while still looking like an absolute genius. This is the type of Lex I'd like to see brought to life on film. Hackman's Lex was good, and Kevin Spacey was amazing, but I'd like to see a Lex who's pyshically strong, and terrifying.
Jimmy Olsen - Matthew Gray Gubler.
This brings us to my last character review, Matthew Gray Gubler as Jimmy Olsen. I don't know how else to describe this casting choice other than perfect. Never in a million years would I have ever thought of Matthew as Jimmy, and frankly I'm glad somebody did because his work was amazing, and I was disappointing that there wasn't more of him in the film, he managed to embody Jimmy Olsen perfectly in every aspect, just in the short amount of time he was actually in the film. As soon as Jimmy walked into frame for the first time, and I heard his voice speak those first few lines, I immediately thought "Yes, perfect!".
Jimmy isn't the classic Jimmy, not clean cut and dorky, but the more modern Jimmy, messy hair, cross-dressing, and dare I say a little more rugid, but they've still kept those important details of who he is, Lois Lane's partner, and most importantly his bow-tie. I love the modernized Jimmy Olsen and taking such an old character and making him more modern isn't an easy thing to accomplish, but if Zack Snyder can manage to update Superman in the same way that was done with Jimmy, I think he'll have a hit on his hands.
Overall I really enjoyed this film, of course I'm a little biased because I'm a huge Superman fan. There were a few problems I had with it, I would've liked it to be a little bit longer, and I felt the small and short sub-plot with the Kryptonian astronauts wasn't necessary and could've been left out.. Definitely not my favorite DC cartoon film so far, but it's right up there with 'First Flight', and I highly recomend watching it if you haven't done so already.