DVD Review: Superman Batman: Apocalypse
Posted by Rodneyon 29. 09. 2010in News Chat, Reviews
Genre: Animated Action
Directed by: Lauren Montgomery
Staring: Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, Andre Braugher, Summer Glau
Released: Sept 28, 2010
THE GENERAL IDEA
Batman discovers a mysterious teen-aged girl with super-human powers and a connection to Superman. When the girl comes to the attention of Darkseid, the evil overlord of Apokolips, events take a decidedly dangerous turn.
THE GOOD
The visuals and the action in this film are amazing and its great to get Kevin Conroy as Batman and Tim Daly as Superman again. Their voices are a natural fit for the characters. And Summer Glau as Kara Zor-El.
The character designs are impressive. Obviously the traditional characters look like they are supposed to. And they somehow make the Kirby-esque Furies look good.
The final battle surprised me and easily the most enjoyable part of the movie.
THE BAD
Doomsday is the ONLY foe to ever best and “beat” Superman. Using him in this film was a ranwank, and sullies the terror that Doomsday represents. They were not the same as Doomsday and not nearly as powerful. It was cheap to even use the character in such a minor way.
The dialogue sometimes sounds weak and read. Like they were not in the same room recording the lines.
And Superman punching fire? I know physics take a backseat when we are talking about a man who can fly, but when the flamethrower spits and everyone dodges, there’s Supes … punching it.
The movie should have been called Supergirl… or Darkseid’s Fury. Calling this a Superman/Batman title is inaccurate. Sure, they are in it, but so is Wonder Woman, and almost half the movie takes place on Darkseid’s planet Apokolips. But the title is spelled Apocalypse.
The PG13 rating gives them permission to show some blood and say “bitch” and “ass” but outside of that, they didn’t really need this rating.
OVERALL
There seems to be a passion missing from this film that was present in previous releases. It pains me to say it, this is not the best film DC has put out. It has its moments and there is some fun to be had, but its not a great movie.
On a side note, the Green Arrow short included on the Bluray and DVD was pretty good. They use the traditional look of Oliver Queen, and they use a classic Green Arrow villain Merlin (who is basically an evil version of Arrow who also uses a bow). Lots of great action.
I give Superman/Batman: Apocalypse a 4 out of 10
I disagree on the passion of the film….seems just the same amount of passion was put into the redmask IMO. You are dead on the fact they shouldnt have titled the film as they did. It is a Supergirl film 100%. Darkseid was a good foe for Supergirl given the fact that Sueprgirl is stronger then Superman in just about every way. (Btw it is funny that spell check says Superman is spelled correctly and nor Supergirl haha). I understand the power of Darkseid but I also understand trying to tie in the training and the problems she has adapting to Earth.
Oh an d the cover art is awesome but it doesnt represent the movie at all.
I don’t think voice actors usually record their lines together. They usually come in at different times.
This is actually based on a story arc from the “Superman/Batman” comic series. I have yet to see the dvd but from your criticism of Doomsday’s involvement it sounds like they followed the graphic novel faithfully. I am not saying I disagree with your point about it lessening the intensity of the character but I think this is an issue with Jeph Loeb, writer of the original comic story arc, and not this dvd adaptation.
Darkseid cloned Doomsday and made an army in the graphic novels. They were no where near as powerful as the original Doomsday. So they stayed true to the comics. So you can’t fault them at all for that.
This movie seemed like it was more oriented towards teenage girls. Which is maybe why I didn’t like it as much. With the shopping spree and all the girly aspects.
The art style also seemed like it was done by the people who did the Totally Spies cartoon or one of the Barbie movies. Superman looked way to pretty IMO.
Batman and the final show down with Darkseid were the only redeeming qualities I found in the movie. That being said. I look forward to more of these Movies. Under the Red Hood is probably my favorite. And I just saw a Green Arrow short that was also quite good.
did you still buy the dvd and added it to your collection?
Kudos to Rodney for calling a spade a spade.
How so?
It’s common knowledge that Rodney is a huge fan of comics (I personally am fascinated by them, but don’t have the patience or the money to get really into them the way most fans do).
I have faith in Rodney as a reviewer, so it’s good to see him blasting something that isn’t good - even if he really loves the franchise it originates from.
It probably came off as more “attack” than I meant.
I was pretty disappointed with the movie as well. However, I really did enjoy the Green Arrow short and wouldn’t mind if they made an actual animated feature with just him. I like that DC/WB are making animated shorts and that they’re making them rather quickly, but this one just didn’t feel like the others like Rodney had stated. I think DC should really focus on making more animated features on characters that aren’t going to have a big draw for a live action film, for example Deadman, Animal Man, or Adam Strange. Batman and Superman do draw attention just because of who they are but this film had the feeling it was just made because of who the characters were and they weren’t really too concerned with how strong the story was, which it really wasn’t that strong.