No, don’t bother turning up your speakers, “Superman vs. The Giant Robot from Outer Space” is meant to be silent. John Jordan’s short animated experiment is a film that would have pretty much benefited from some theme music, some voice work, and perhaps better dialog in the end, but for what entails, “Superman vs. The Giant Robot from Outer Space” is an entertaining short for the Super Geeks out there.
Spelling errors aside (Superman Verses?), Jordan’s short adventure is blunt and straight to the point. A giant robot crashes down to Earth, (“Because Hey, it’s what they Do”) and begins wreaking havoc on what looks like Metropolis destroying buildings and zapping citizens “War of the Worlds” style. Superman crashes the party to battle the robot and but not before dispensing of a giant dinosaur in Japan, and saves the day.
When you consider that this online short basically looks more like a first time experiment from Jordan than anything else, it’s a considerably competent little vignette hearkening to the Fleischer era, that’s entertaining in its own unique flavor. The spinning newspaper cliché is there to broadcast the plot developments, and like all silent productions, subtitles explain the story that’s pretty simple to figure out on our own.
All flaws aside, though, “Superman vs. The Giant Robot from Outer Space” made with Adobe Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker (filmmakers take note), is much more of a loyal Superman installment than “Smallville.” Sad, isn’t it?
