This weekend, a superhero film hits theaters that is a must-see for fans. It’s full of great characters, has many big surprises and twists, includes amazing sets and costumes, and is wildly entertaining. No, not the latest Avengers movie — although, as my review of that film makes clear, you definitely should see that, too. I’m talking about writer-director Jon Schnepp’s wonderful documentary The Death of Superman Lives, What Happened? opening this weekend in extremely limited release. Schnepp has done fans and history a great service with this film, telling a story that otherwise never would’ve been heard — and showing us artwork and designs that never would’ve been seen, which would’ve been a major tragedy. The film has limited screenings this weekend, before its release on VOD and Blu-ray on July 9.
I’ve complained in articles in the past that the Oscars frequently fail to nominate more unique and diverse films in the Best Documentary category, and The Death of Superman Lives is precisely the sort of creative attempt to tell a story that would never have been told, and with an internal narrative that — as you’ll see when I discuss the film in detail below — demonstrates a clever method of completely upending audience expectations with a setup that intentionally gets viewers thinking in a way the filmmakers are determined to ultimately undermine and eventually reverse entirely. It’s the best documentary I’ve ever seen about superheroes and the comic book film genre, and it’s about time the Academy gave it some love… or, if they don’t, then next year they can just expand the Best Documentary category to ten films or something…
The film’s release in a handful of theaters means it’s not going to join Furious 7 andAvengers: Age of Ultron in breaking any box office records, of course. But the subject matter and its appeal to some hardcore fanbases means it should enjoy good theater averages in the few it plays in. It’s the Blu-ray where most of the money will come from, while the potential on VOD is quite interesting. I’m not sure how documentaries tend to fare on-demand, but there is enough interest in this project and its topic, and the genre in general, to help it get the attention of mainstream viewers. Plus, there are so many high profile interviews, and so much never-seen footage — including Nicolas Cage in several super-suits, and some test footage of flying — that there’s reason to think it will do okay (for a documentary) on VOD.
Schnepp funded the documentary on Kickstarter, as well as out of his own pocket, and it took years to complete. He was literally up the night before the Los Angeles premiere doing final edits and suffering through some frustrating technical issues. But the final result is impressive and a joy to experience.
For those unfamiliar with this documentary’s topic, Warner Bros. set out to make a film called Superman Lives, based in part of the comic book story The Death of Superman. The film would tell the story of Superman’s death and rebirth in a story starring Nicolas Cage as Superman, Christopher Walken as Brainiac (yes, seriously), and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. The original script was written by Kevin Smith, and the film was to be directed by Tim Burton.
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