LUTHOR FOR PRESIDENT
Web site

review written 8/22/2004

If there is one word to describe this film, it is "ambitious". The very fact that this epic stretches to ninety-one minutes is a sure assurance of its place in fan film history. It also is made by, and with, actors who have appeared in legitimate studio films and on television.

With that said, I confess I was a little daunted when confronted with the DVD of the very long movie. Yes, I was interested in reviewing it, but my heart was sinking, envisioning the horrors of what I would be up against if the ninety minutes were filled with the content of subpar filmmaking.

I will save the readers of this review ninety minutes and say that watching this fan film is a task for diehards only. Perhaps it is for people with Superman and Batman (yes, Batman is here, though left out of the title) closer to their hearts, or people familiar with the specific issues of the comics that brought this screenplay about.

But let us get back to the title. A ninety-one-minute film called Luthor for President does not announce Luthor's candidacy until nearly twenty-one minutes in, and continues for about forty minutes after the election.

If there are additional words beside "ambitious" to describe this film, they are "sprawling" and "overlong". Cinema is an art of condensing, of getting to the point. I believe it was William Goldman who described the importance of entering a scene late and leaving it early.

For whatever reason this DVD was divided into chapters of roughly two minutes each, regardless (as nearly as I can tell) of the actual story structure. This allowed me to consider it as units of two minutes each, and judge if each chunk was well-used.

The opening shows much promise. It opens very cleverly, with an American flag and a quote, putting us in the mind of any normal political drama. It might have been more artful to fade the quote up and down, but it is a well-chosen quote, and this opening sums up for us important themes.

Then the opening strains of "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik". And then more strains. And more. As nearly as I can tell, the tune is on repeat, and we are treated to endless silent vignettes of Lex Luthor going about his day. We get a pretty nifty shot inside an elevator, but we also get some shoddily made props (newspaper and magazine), and the rather disquieting feeling that Superman has gone commercial, with a toy and an advertisement on TV. Is that what Luthor is so mad about? It is driven home for us again, and again, and again, that Lex is mad about something. I am getting sick of the wipes across the screen to the next unneccesary moment.

Furthermore, I am not getting the sense that the scenes were edited with the music in mind, and this does not help pacing either.

Then, after ten minutes, the movie actually starts. I'm wondering why there's no widescreen matte on the titles. I'm also wondering why it's taking so long to get things going. Granted, Richard Donner's 1978 film didn't start up quickly, either.

It takes thirteen minutes to get a line of plot-creating dialogue. Thirteen minutes. I know cinema is more about visuals than dialogue, but really, this has been excessive.

Hey, Catherine Grant... nice.

We get a news report about Lex's life. The use of old photographs is genuinely clever, and the Citizen Kane reference made me laugh out loud. But why is this spanning multiple DVD chapters? How much do we actually need to know about Lex's background to tell the story?

I like co-director Jason Bailey's performance at Lex, by turns charming and chilling. He exudes calm confidence in his campaign speech (which, as noted, comes way too late in the film). I'm familiar enough with the music to know where it come from, but I still think it's a beautiful choice, and works well.

Oh, and hey, Batman's on the phone.

And the Joker shows up. I'm not saying what the exact circumstances are, except that it is one of the strangest dream sequences I've ever seen, and should have been over in thirty seconds. The long discussion was not needed. Even the music seems to be cueing us in on the unexplainability of this use of screen time. And I'm not going to even comment on the makeup.

Then we get a bit of Queen music. In fact, quite a lot of it, and it's even repeated. So that we can watch a guy go from one place to another.

Otis. This is unexpected. I rather liked seeing Otis, even though I don't like him in the 1978 Superman film. My favorite shot in Luthor for President is Mercy's understated reaction to Otis arriving.

Batman makes a welcome appearance in full costume—an old-fashioned gray costume, which I enjoyed seeing. His voice is perfect on the line "I want the ring" but a little high everyplace else.

Superman and Batman meet on a rooftop. I can tell how it was done, but I still think it's clever. Your average fan filmmaker would have panicked and thought of ways to try and do the scene digitally. I prefer the simple approach here. I also rather liked Batman's strange-looking eyes, making him seem a little dehumanized. All in all this was my favorite scene, with good dialogue and a fine sense of truth to the characters' personalities.

We get footage of Washington; the credits tell us that a "second unit" (directors' friend who lives around there, presumably) shot this. Good choice; the editing makes for a perfect establishment of the White House interior, and I do not question the location. I do begin questioning the cinematography in the White House scenes, however, which takes a turn for the even-murkier-than-usual.

I liked the idea of Superman vs. Batman acting out their conflicting ideologies, though something ought to click in the viewer's mind that something isn't right when Batman escapes Superman by simply sneaking away. Whether the filmmakers intended to place this doubt in mind this early is debatable. I say 'this early' due to a plot twist that I will not discuss; suffice to say that the audience learns about it when Lois does. (Yes, she's in this too.)

We have some antics with a Kryptonite ring. There is a real one and a fake one. You can guess what happens.

A scientist shows up, played by William E. Pilger. I liked the performances in the scene between him and Lex. It is, however, a bit overlong.

We get a shot of Lex's desk, and I liked the details in the choices of books for him to read. Though did we really need it explained in bold, easy-to-read text who, precisely, lives at the Kent farm?

In fact, that is really a good way to sum up Luthor for President. I wonder what sort of film could have been resulted by just dropping unneeded information from the screenplay. Entire pages, even. When a ten-minute movie feels overlong, it is forgivable. When entire ten-minute sections of a movie feel unneccesary, it maddens this reviewer.

There is no way I can give this a poor grade, not when the amount of effort put into it is so obvious. I do hope that Jason Bailey and Michael Walters took as much education from the experience as they did enjoyment, because it's clear they have passion and drive, and that's good enough for a starting point. With that said, given my issues with the final product, I can hardly give it a grade of praise, either. If it's any consolation to the filmmakers, it was a hard grade for me to assign.