- Title: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
- IMDB: link
DC Comics and Warner Premiere’s follow up to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies improves on some of the flaws of the earlier film but still struggles to turn a comic arc from the Superman/Batman comic into a animated film.
The story picks up weeks after the events of Public Enemies when a meteroite lands in Gotham Harbor containing a confused female Kryptonian who causes havoc throughout the city before Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Superman (Tim Daly) stop her and realize she’s Kara Zor-El (Summer Glau), Superman’s cousin.
The story gets a little fragmented here as Kara’s attempts to make a home for herself in the Fortress of Solitude, Metropolis, Themyscira, Apokolips, and Smallville all end in destruction. Things aren’t helped by Darkseid‘s (Andre Braugher) army of Doomsday clones (feel free to groan your way through this part of the story, I know I did), her kidnapping and brief stay on Apokolips, before returning to Earth and finally taking up the mantle of Supergirl.
One of my major complaints with Superman/Batman: Public Enemies was how the characters seemed stilted, more like action figures put to motion than super-heroes. With the exception of Darkseid (who looks and moves with all the grace of a steroid addicted body builder) things are better this time around. Both Superman and Batman are move more naturally, but it’s the female characters who steal the show.
And this movie has tons of strong female characters. Aside from Supergirl we also get Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg), Big Barda (Julianne Grossman), the Female Furies of Apokolips, Granny Goodness (Edward Asner), and the Amazons of Themyscira including Artemis and Harbringer (both voiced by Rachel Quaintance). It’s too bad the story they’ve been thrust in doesn’t deserve them. Kara’s journey from lost orphan to Supergirl should feel more important and far less convoluted.
As is the case with these straight-to-DVD DC features the one-disc includes no extras on the movie itself (sigh), but does include trailers for previous movies and a feature for their next film. The two-disc and blu-ray are a little better with Darkseid and Supergirl episodes from Superman: The Animated Series, featurettes on Darkseid and the New Gods, and a short Green Arrow film. However, once again we don’t get a single feature on the making of this film.
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse isn’t a bad movie, it certainly has plenty of action, a plethora of strong female characters, the animation has been cleaned-up since the last film, and, at times it proves to have a sly sense of humor. The problem is it’s all weighed down with a very forgettable story. It’s worth a rental, but there’s nothing in the movie or the extras that merits a purchase (even at a highly discounted price).