Superman/Batman: Apocolypse!

[Admiral_Young]

Ah very cool. A reunion of sorts then.

 

[Christopher]

Whatever they say about the decline of video stores, quite a lot of people seemed to be renting Superman/Batman: Apocalypse in the day or two after its release. I went there Wednesday (it came out Tuesday, I think) and there were plenty of shelf cards representing checked-out copies, but the only remaining copy in the store was lost in the piles at the checkout desk. It took some time for the clerk to unearth it.

So was it worth it? Well, more so than its predecessor Public Enemies was. The story had potential, but the execution was superficial. It jumped from set piece to set piece without a lot of analysis or character exploration. For instance, it never explains why, if Kara was launched from Krypton at the same time Kal-El was, she's younger than he is now. I think I read that in the comic, it was explained as some kind of kryptonite-induced stasis, but the movie skips over the question altogether (not to mention the question of how she could hitch a ride on a kryptonite asteroid and even be alive).

Also, when a large "meteorite" crashes in Gotham Bay and sends a tidal wave into the city, how come the only person who investigates the impact site is Batman? Where are the police and the military?

As with the previous S/B movie, the characters don't show a lot of intelligence. As Batman was chasing Kara, it was pretty obvious that she was confused and afraid, trying to run away rather than attack, but Batman treated her like a common thug. That's weak. Batman's a keen observer of human(oid) behavior. He should've recognized that the best way to handle her was to calm her down, not scare her more. But no, Batman's role in this story was to be the "bad cop," the one who didn't trust Kara, and he wasn't allowed to have any more dimension than that, even if simple common sense had to take a hit.

And then you have the silliness of Wonder Woman and her Amazons trying to take Kara by force for training rather than just talking to her good friends Clark and Bruce and convincing them that some training on Themyscira would be good for the kid. This is the same problem Public Enemies had -- all the characters defaulting to brawn over brain at the drop of a hat.

Too many ideas are crammed in and make it feel cluttered; maybe it worked better in the comic, but with a Jeph Loeb story, I can't be certain. Like, why would Darkseid clone an army of Doomsdays? And why would he clone them so badly that the Inverse Ninja Rule was in full force? The original Doomsday was an unstoppable force, an enemy Superman couldn't defeat except by sacrificing himself. Here, Superman takes out a whole horde of Doomsday clones with very little effort, and even Batman is able to kill a few (which raises some awkward questions about Batman's characterization, even allowing for the "they're not really alive" dodge). If the role of these entities was merely to be a bunch of mooks for the heroes to take down en masse, isn't it overkill, as well as a non sequitur, to use Doomsday clones? Wouldn't Parademons have been a better choice?

And I would've liked more exploration of how Kara was subverted by Darkseid -- and how she was brought back. For a while, it seemed that Kara had switched over willingly, as a perhaps understandable response to how she'd been treated on Earth, an act of teenage rebellion against authority. That would've made sense and been interesting. But instead, after her rescue, she wakes up and is instantly back to normal, suggesting that the whole thing was just brainwashing and rendering it all meaningless from a character standpoint (not to mention, how did they deprogram her??).

Moreover, how did Darkseid even know Kara had arrived on Earth, let alone what her name was? And hang on -- Darkseid not only knows that Superman is Clark Kent, but knows where his family lives?? If that's so, why are the Kents even alive? Darkseid's totally the kind of guy who'd bump them off just to hurt Superman. The illogic here reminds me of the early Power Rangers shows, where the villains are the only people who do know the heroes' secret identities, yet somehow never try to kill them in their sleep.

(And is it me, or did the Smallville sequence pretty much copy the Smallville TV series' design for the Kent farm and its main house? It definitely copied the "Creamed Corn Capital" sign from the show.)

The greatest strengths of this movie are the animation and direction. There's some truly spectacular action here; director Lauren Montgomery has a real flair for that, as well as a real flair for character animation. There was some marvelously imaginative fight choreography. (I particularly liked a move where Wonder Woman caught Lashina's lash, wrapped her foot around the cord, and stomped down to pull Lashina off-balance.) And the animation, by Moi Animation Studio in Korea (who also did Montgomery's Wonder Woman movie and worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender), was significantly better than in Public Enemies.

The character designs were based on Michael Turner's work in the comics, so I didn't expect to like them much; the way he drew women was creepy to me, with disturbingly pale eyes and anorexic figures. But while the female designs here reflect elements of his style, they come out much better-looking than they do on the comics page. I particularly like Wonder Woman's and Barda's designs here. However, the Turner-styled male characters look kind of odd, particularly Superman, whose eyes and lips are oddly effeminate here. And the character design on Darkseid is the worst version of him I've ever seen.

As for the voice work, Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy are their usual stalwart selves as Superman and Batman. Susan Eisenberg has really matured into the role of Wonder Woman; her vocal performance here conveyed far more power and majesty than it did in Justice League/Unlimited, though I'm not crazy about versions of WW that stress her martial side to the detriment of her nurturing/diplomatic side. Ed Asner's Granny Goodness was more hard-edged and toned-down than it was in the DCAU, and thus less interesting.

And the newcomers? My reaction to Summer Glau as Kara was mostly positive, but not completely. In normal conversation, her delivery's a little flat, which isn't ideal for a vocal performance. But in Kara's more emotional moments, I felt Glau did an excellent job, showing a good deal of range. And she's very, very good at exertion grunts, an important skill for an actor in action animation. Maybe it's because she's such a skilled physical performer that the vocalizations associated with physical exertion and strain sound so convincing from her. (I'd be curious to see video of her recording sessions. I wonder if she acted out some of the motions.)

The great disappointment here was Andre Braugher as Darkseid. Braugher's an impressive actor with a strong voice and presence, so I was surprised that his version of Darkseid came off as kind of a lightweight. He didn't seem to be putting a lot into it, just generally being Andre Braugher rather than bringing anything specifically Darkseidish to it (like deepening his voice or speaking more slowly). Maybe it's just that Michael Ironside's Darkseid is such a hard act to follow, but this just didn't do it for me.

So overall, it's worth it for the returning cast members, for Summer Glau, and for Lauren Montgomery's top-notch action direction. Just don't expect much plot or character logic.

 

[Mr Light]

I liked this one a lot. And aside from the ending being slightly altered it was practically a line by line adaptation of the comic. Great animation, great action, a great story. I was so surprised that they kept all the characters in it like Wonder Woman and Harbinger and the Doomsday clones. I kept waiting for some random character substitution like in Batman Under the Red Hood. And of course it's always delightful to see the original DCAU voice actors return.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I watched it a couple weeks ago and thought it was really good, much better than "Public Enemies" yet both the source material for both these films was pretty weak, I can understand why many fans don't like them. As for the Doomsday army....they weren't even clones, they were constructs...this was explained in the film, used as a distraction. They weren't real. Darkseid is a GOD...it's not far fetched to think he wouldn't know who Superman is...perhaps a stretch to know who Kara was right off the bat. It was explained by Leph and Turner that they thought of this plot as a way to establish Kara's importance to the DCU right off the bat and what better way to do that than have Darkseid's interests in her? Lame? Possibly. I understood where they were coming from.

 

[hamudm]

I was really excited and bought it as I do all the other DCU blu-rays. However, after watching I have to say this is one of the weaker efforts. Great to have Conroy and Daly back, but the story was hideously underdeveloped, and the characters were not fleshed out enough in terms of their motivations -- particularly Darkseid. Meaning that although as a fan you can fill in the blanks, the movie really can't stand on its own two legs.

Under the Red Hood was a FAR superior offering that balanced everything very nicely. Apocalypse amounts to just a series of fistfights and not much more.

S/B Apocalypse - 6/10
vs.
Batman Under the Red Hood - 9/10

 

[Christopher]

I've read a couple of the Superman/Batman trade paperbacks that weren't by Loeb, and I liked them somewhat better, though there seems to be a certain Silver Age goofiness to them. It might be worthwhile if they made a movie out of, say, The Search for Kryptonite.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The first three arcs are the only real arcs of Loebs that I enjoyed. I'm enjoying what they're doing with the book currently. Last week's issue Judd Winnick flashed back to post Final Crisis to see how Superman reacted to Bruce's "Death" and revealed that he wasn't entirely enthusiastic of Dick's choice to succeed him. In fact the two of them had a shouting match about it.

 

[Warped9]

So was it worth it? Well, more so than its predecessor Public Enemies was. The story had potential, but the execution was superficial. It jumped from set piece to set piece without a lot of analysis or character exploration. For instance, it never explains why, if Kara was launched from Krypton at the same time Kal-El was, she's younger than he is now. I think I read that in the comic, it was explained as some kind of kryptonite-induced stasis, but the movie skips over the question altogether (not to mention the question of how she could hitch a ride on a kryptonite asteroid and even be alive).

Also, when a large "meteorite" crashes in Gotham Bay and sends a tidal wave into the city, how come the only person who investigates the impact site is Batman? Where are the police and the military?

As with the previous S/B movie, the characters don't show a lot of intelligence. As Batman was chasing Kara, it was pretty obvious that she was confused and afraid, trying to run away rather than attack, but Batman treated her like a common thug. That's weak. Batman's a keen observer of human(oid) behavior. He should've recognized that the best way to handle her was to calm her down, not scare her more. But no, Batman's role in this story was to be the "bad cop," the one who didn't trust Kara, and he wasn't allowed to have any more dimension than that, even if simple common sense had to take a hit.

And then you have the silliness of Wonder Woman and her Amazons trying to take Kara by force for training rather than just talking to her good friends Clark and Bruce and convincing them that some training on Themyscira would be good for the kid. This is the same problem Public Enemies had -- all the characters defaulting to brawn over brain at the drop of a hat.

Too many ideas are crammed in and make it feel cluttered; maybe it worked better in the comic, but with a Jeph Loeb story, I can't be certain. Like, why would Darkseid clone an army of Doomsdays? And why would he clone them so badly that the Inverse Ninja Rule was in full force? The original Doomsday was an unstoppable force, an enemy Superman couldn't defeat except by sacrificing himself. Here, Superman takes out a whole horde of Doomsday clones with very little effort, and even Batman is able to kill a few (which raises some awkward questions about Batman's characterization, even allowing for the "they're not really alive" dodge). If the role of these entities was merely to be a bunch of mooks for the heroes to take down en masse, isn't it overkill, as well as a non sequitur, to use Doomsday clones? Wouldn't Parademons have been a better choice?

And I would've liked more exploration of how Kara was subverted by Darkseid -- and how she was brought back. For a while, it seemed that Kara had switched over willingly, as a perhaps understandable response to how she'd been treated on Earth, an act of teenage rebellion against authority. That would've made sense and been interesting. But instead, after her rescue, she wakes up and is instantly back to normal, suggesting that the whole thing was just brainwashing and rendering it all meaningless from a character standpoint (not to mention, how did they deprogram her??).

Moreover, how did Darkseid even know Kara had arrived on Earth, let alone what her name was? And hang on -- Darkseid not only knows that Superman is Clark Kent, but knows where his family lives?? If that's so, why are the Kents even alive? Darkseid's totally the kind of guy who'd bump them off just to hurt Superman. The illogic here reminds me of the early Power Rangers shows, where the villains are the only people who do know the heroes' secret identities, yet somehow never try to kill them in their sleep.

(And is it me, or did the Smallville sequence pretty much copy the Smallville TV series' design for the Kent farm and its main house? It definitely copied the "Creamed Corn Capital" sign from the show.)

The greatest strengths of this movie are the animation and direction. There's some truly spectacular action here; director Lauren Montgomery has a real flair for that, as well as a real flair for character animation. There was some marvelously imaginative fight choreography. (I particularly liked a move where Wonder Woman caught Lashina's lash, wrapped her foot around the cord, and stomped down to pull Lashina off-balance.) And the animation, by Moi Animation Studio in Korea (who also did Montgomery's Wonder Woman movie and worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender), was significantly better than in Public Enemies.

The character designs were based on Michael Turner's work in the comics, so I didn't expect to like them much; the way he drew women was creepy to me, with disturbingly pale eyes and anorexic figures. But while the female designs here reflect elements of his style, they come out much better-looking than they do on the comics page. I particularly like Wonder Woman's and Barda's designs here. However, the Turner-styled male characters look kind of odd, particularly Superman, whose eyes and lips are oddly effeminate here. And the character design on Darkseid is the worst version of him I've ever seen.

As for the voice work, Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy are their usual stalwart selves as Superman and Batman. Susan Eisenberg has really matured into the role of Wonder Woman; her vocal performance here conveyed far more power and majesty than it did in Justice League/Unlimited, though I'm not crazy about versions of WW that stress her martial side to the detriment of her nurturing/diplomatic side. Ed Asner's Granny Goodness was more hard-edged and toned-down than it was in the DCAU, and thus less interesting.

And the newcomers? My reaction to Summer Glau as Kara was mostly positive, but not completely. In normal conversation, her delivery's a little flat, which isn't ideal for a vocal performance. But in Kara's more emotional moments, I felt Glau did an excellent job, showing a good deal of range. And she's very, very good at exertion grunts, an important skill for an actor in action animation. Maybe it's because she's such a skilled physical performer that the vocalizations associated with physical exertion and strain sound so convincing from her. (I'd be curious to see video of her recording sessions. I wonder if she acted out some of the motions.)

The great disappointment here was Andre Braugher as Darkseid. Braugher's an impressive actor with a strong voice and presence, so I was surprised that his version of Darkseid came off as kind of a lightweight. He didn't seem to be putting a lot into it, just generally being Andre Braugher rather than bringing anything specifically Darkseidish to it (like deepening his voice or speaking more slowly). Maybe it's just that Michael Ironside's Darkseid is such a hard act to follow, but this just didn't do it for me.

So overall, it's worth it for the returning cast members, for Summer Glau, and for Lauren Montgomery's top-notch action direction. Just don't expect much plot or character logic.

A very good assessment of this movie although I think I liked it a little better than Christopher does.

I think I liked Batman: Under The Red Hood somewhat better yet I still rather enjoyed this. But I, too, was bothered by some of the shortcuts that Christopher points out that a little exposition could have fixed. Of course it would have been even better to see those bits fleshed out.

 

[Stevil2001]

For instance, it never explains why, if Kara was launched from Krypton at the same time Kal-El was, she's younger than he is now. I think I read that in the comic, it was explained as some kind of kryptonite-induced stasis, but the movie skips over the question altogether (not to mention the question of how she could hitch a ride on a kryptonite asteroid and even be alive).

In the comic, both she and Kal-El are launched at the same time, when Kara is a teenager and Kal is a baby. They're both in stasis-- but since Kal's pod gets to Earth first, he's an adult. The plant was for the teenage Kara to look out for baby Kal, but it's the other way around.

I thought that was a neat character point that Loeb pretty much did nothing with. Because, you know, he's Jeph Loeb.

 

[Admiral_Young]

"Smallville" handled this aspect of Clark and Kara by reversing it to it's original intention where Kara mentors and guides Clark. It's explained in the comic that she was put in suspended animation after her ship got stuck in the asteroid which protected her from the Kryptonite.

"Batman: Under the Red Hood" is the bar none best of the animated flicks that Warner Animated has produced to date. I'm very much looking forward to their "All-Star Superman" adaption next spring, the trailer looks really cool. I might be the only one who actually liked both "Public Enemies" and "Apocalypse"

 

[Mike Farley]

I'm glad I finally broke my habit of blind buying these. So sar I've liked New Frontier, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. The rest have ranged from dull to horrible. Still better than the Marvel animated flicks though.

 

[drychlick]

i enjoy it! love dr

 

[Showdown]

I might be the only one who actually liked both "Public Enemies" and "Apocalypse"

Nope, I like both of them as well. I enjoyed the comics, so it’s a joy to see them animated, especially by Timm and his crew. They did another amazing job. It’s not as good as Under the Red Hood or Crisis on Two Earths, but well worth the price.

Thumbs up to Timm and crew for making the visuals of films look like the art from comic books. Personally, I liked his style better, but this is a different continuity and a different world. They needed their own look and feel. Daly, Conroy, and Eisenberg still got it, easily nailing their roles. Or they just make it look easy.

Also, the plot is faithful to the comic. It both acknowledges the events in Public Enemies and does not require the audience to watch/read it to understand the story. Like Public Enemies, Clark's and Bruce's thought bubbles are not used. I think it is for the best, since that technique works better on the written format than motion picture.

The action is truly epic. It more violent than the comic depicts. Clark combines his powers. Kara knocks Clark into the air, flies up, and hit him back. Diana wraps Lashina's whip around her leg and pulls her down. Darksied is almost unstoppable, smiling as he burns the Kryptonians with his Omega beams.

There are some minor changes from the comic. Some made the story better, and some I disagree with. They are in the spoiler section...

Spoiler: changes from comic to film

Parts where better than comic...

- The title is better.

- Kara is more covered up when she meets Clark.

- Extra bit scenes, like Kara fearfully stepping away from Krypto when he growls and Barda's neighbors looking through the window.

- Diana demonstrates and explains why she wants to take Kara and Kara begging Clark not to let her. This is better than kidnapping.

- Treasure/Precious was better at fighting the Furies. In the comic, it looked like she lasted only seconds.

- Barda talks about Darksied's brainwashing, so it doesn't seem like Kara has gone crazy and joins him willingly. Also seen in S:TAS Legacy

- The heroes took out the two Apocalypse tanks when they arrive before splitting up.

- Bruce used his own tools to stop the calvary instead of Scott's.

- Diana lassos the sword from Gillotina instead of taking Granny Goodness hostage. Barda and Diana defeats the furies instead of trading Granny for victory.

- Clark doesn't use Kryptonite.

- When Kara goes to Smallville to meet the folks, she is not in uniform. This makes more sense anyways.

- The ending fight was amazing. Clark and Kara go up against Darksied. It looks like they were winning but he was toying with them. He seems nearly unstoppable, which is better.

- Jonathan's and Martha's reaction to the carnage.




Parts where its not...

- Kara's shopping spree was added for time filler.

- The conversation at Superman's statue is different. In the comic, Kara learned why a pair of glasses were enough to fool the public of Clark's secret idenity.

- Bruce's fight with Artemis at the park was removed.

- Barda is against going to Apocalypse at first.

- It looks like Stompa was killed instead of being injured.

- Bruce does not punch Darksied. In the comic, he punches him twice.

- There is no way to translate the Kryptonian to English. The subtitles just said [Speaking in Kryptonian]. Knowing what Kara said adds more to her character.