Movie, Book and Comic Book Reviews

I wanted to review the animated movie, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

I don’t want to give an extensive plot of the movie however you can read it all over at Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman/Batman:_Apocalypse

However I will briefly talk about the story of the movie. I will go more in-depth when it comes with what I considered the pros and cons of the movie. This movie is rated PG-13 and it was released on September 28, 2010.

The story of movie is basically taken from a storyline in comics written by Jeph Loeb during his run on the Superman/Batman comic book title. The story was basically an introducing of Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. Somehow Supergirl lands on earth over in Gotham City. Batman eventually finds Supergirl and has to throw kryptonite at her in order for her to sleep so Batman and Superman could study who she is and how she has those powers. Darkseid finds out this new Kryptonian girl and wants to capture her for own evil deeds.  Clark shows Kara around Metropolis yet gets into a fight without knowing who it is until the last minute.  It turns out to Wonder Woman who came after Kara in which Batman had setup because he wanted Kara to get some proper training down in Paradise Island.  There is a big fight down in Paradise Island yet I won’t say what happens other then Darkseid finds a way to kidnap Supergirl. Darkseid does find a way to brainwash Kara when Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Big Brada traveled back to Apokolis. They go after Darkseid since she had been kidnapped. They battle some various opponents and over time someone of the four makes a deal with Darkseid in order to free Kara. There is a fight scene between Superman and Kara. Eventually Darkseid frees Kara. Once they all returned to Paradise Island, it appears everything is OK. Clark decides to take Kara to move in with his adoptive parents, Ma and Pa Kent over in Smallville, Kansas. Kara is a bit nervous to meet his folks yet once they open the door, Darkseid has been waiting for Superman. He said, I had let Kara go yet I didn’t say you could go home right now.  There is a big fight between Superman vs. Darkseid and Supergirl vs. Darkseid. Yes, these are two separate fights when one of the person is immobilize at the time. By the time the fight ends and Darkseid gets thrown out of the earth, Clark parents arrived and see their house and barn totally destroyed. They cannot say a word about it. There is a big speech at the end of the movie yet I won’t say what happens, you will just have to watch it yourself.

Here is what I liked the movie, the animation was top notch as usual. The voice cast as always continue to be up to notch. It was good to hear Kevin Konroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg who reprised her role as Wonder Woman and Ed Asner who reprised the role of Granny Goodness.  I thought Andre Braugher had brought an interesting twist as the role of Darkseid. The voice of Darkseid had been previously played by Michael Ironside on the TV animated shows such as Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited.

Over time, it is interesting to see how these DC animated movies have been using different actors to play the voices such as  Superman, Wonder Woman,  Lois Lane, Carol Ferris, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern and Flash. Of course, It is nice some of old familiar voices from the previous animated TV series to reprise their voices in some of the animated movies.

After watching this movie, I have to say it is one of the weakest animated movies that I have seen so far. The animated movies that I have been disappointed with so far are Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: New Frontier and this film.  I had been slightly disappointed with Batman: Gotham Knight yet with the Japanese animation for Batman, that movie has kept from me a totally bad movie.  I am also curious about the new animated DC movie, All-Star Superman in Spring 2011.

One of the biggest problems, I thought of this movie is that it did not feel long enough, I felt, there should have been more of an explanation about Kara, more in-depth about Darkseid and his warriors. Why was Wonder Woman brought into this situation more in-depth. At 78 minutes, I feel there is not enough time to explain everything. I wished these movies were slight longer, say for example, at least 90 minutes long. In other words, I felt the plot was lacking in so many areas which had made me not like this movie as much as I was hoping for in the beginning.

If you were to check out this movie, I will at least put it as a rental, not a buy. Some of you may like the movies, other will hate it and finally there will be a few who thought it was a mixed bag.