Movie Review: "Superman: Red Son" - Rushed and Shallow

An alternate history story that depicts what would happen if the rocket that brought the last son of Krypton to Earth landed in Soviet Russia, the "Superman: Red Son" comic miniseries is regarded as one of the best Superman and Elseworlds stories published by DC. Henry Cavill even included it in his reading material when he was prepping for the role in "Man of Steel." It was really only a matter of time before the series was adapted as part of DC's animated film line. While I was looking forward to its release, the final product makes me wish they had made this a two parter in the vain of the Dark Knight Returns and Death of Superman adaptations.

For the most part, the movie hits the main points of the original story. The important thing that remains the same is Superman's character. Despite being raised in a different part of the world, much like his mainstream counterpart, this Superman still values the sanctity of life anywhere on Earth.
The problems lie in the changes they make, both in story and characters. Certain moments are either rushed or lose the significance they had in the comics. One such instance is the fight between Superman and the Superior Man (this universe's version of Bizarro) created by Lex Luthor for the United States. In the movie, the two just fight until Superior Man's power overloads and he melts into a puddle of goo. In the comic though, the fight between the two accidentally causes a nuclear missile to launch and the clone sacrifices himself to save millions; it showed that despite being flawed, the clone still held Superman's value of life. In the movie, Superior Man's personality is best described as "'Merica!"

One of the biggest changes from comic to film is Superman's discovery of a gulag full of dissidents that had been kept secret from him by Stalin. One of the prisoners of the gulag is Superman's childhood friend, Svetlana, who dies in his arms asking him to be the savior the people need. It's a really emotional scene. Unfortunately, this moment is undercut later in the film when Superman, now the ruler of Russia, begins lobotomizing those who would go against his rule with electronic implants to make them productive members of society. Superman justifies this as saying it's better than imprisonment or execution, but he's failing to realize he's imposing his will as much as Stalin did.
In the comic, Superman eventually took over Russia after Stalin had died of cyanide poisoning, working to raise people from poverty and create a utopia. The electronic implants are introduced, but this is supposed to be a step in Superman ultimately realizing he's overstepped his bounds in a world not his own. Having Superman use the electronic implants after seeing the atrocities ordered by Stalin that lead to his friend's death makes him no better and it disrespects Svetlana's memory.

The Red Son version of Wonder Woman is changed as well. Wonder Woman works with Superman like in the comics, but the reasoning for the dissolvement of their partnership is different. In the comics, she ended things after seeing how far Superman was going with the electronic implants. In the movie though, they make her experiences lead her to a conclusion as simple as "all men are bad"; it's the narrowminded idea of what some think feminism is and the kind of thing I'd expect from Frank Miller. If she had been working with Superman and acted as an ambassador for Themyscira for a short time, I may have understood her thought process. (Remember how close Diana was to giving up on man's world in the 2017 film before realizing their potential for good? She had only left Themyscira for roughly a week.) But in "Red Son", she had been acting for at least two decades; was her whole time that unpleasant that she saw nothing good about the rest of the world? Even her role in the third act is severely limited to the point where she could have been cut, and yet it's her final appearance that seems to push Superman over the edge to invade the US; it makes it look like Superman is doing it over a girl rather than just being manipulated by Brainiac.

It may seem like I'm being nitpicky about this, but I just expected the Red Son movie to be as riveting as the comic was. As I said before, I feel this should have been a two part film to give it a proper adaptation. That way, the characters and relationships that were cut would remain and the moments that were rushed or changed could resonate as they should, as well as include the twist ending that was left out. Granted, I'm not sure where the break between would be considering it's a three issue series, but the point is it needed a longer run time.

Before you think I'm being totally negative, I do have some positive notes to mention.
I found it politically relevant, even more so that when the original comic was published. It deals with the issues of social injustice and inequality, as well as the issues between America and Russia rising again.
The animation is pretty good, with my favorite fight scene being between Superman and Batman for its brutal nature.
The voice cast is decent while not that outstanding. We have good performances from Jason Isaacs and Amy Acker as Superman and Lois Lane, while Vanessa Marshall and Roger Craig Smith do well reprising Wonder Woman and Batman, respectively. The best of the lot though is Diedrich Bader as Lex Luthor, who perfectly captures the arrogance and bravado this version of the character exudes.

Overall, "Superman: Red Son" is an alright film adaptation that captures some moments of the story better than others. Those familiar with the comic may have problems with the changes made, but the uninitiated may find it more enjoyable.