Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is the ninth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the story "The Supergirl from Krypton," by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, which appeared in DC Comics' Superman/Batman # 8-13. It stars Tim Daly as Superman/Clark Kent, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Andre Braugher as Darkseid, Summer Glau as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, and Edward Asner as Granny Goodness.

It's probably best to warn you going in that I am neither a fan of Supergirl, the focus of this particular movie, of Jeph Loeb, who wrote the story it adapts, or of the late Michael Turner, on whose artistic style the character designs are based. I should point out, too, that I haven't read the story in comic book form, and so don't know in what, if any, ways the movie differs from the original version. If, knowing all of these things, you feel I can still turn in a fair assessment of this film then please, read on.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse begins when a chunk of meteorite, part of a kryptonite meteor destroyed by Batman at the end of last year's Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, crash-lands in Gotham Harbor. Batman arrives to investigate and encounters a naked, frightened girl who speaks in gibberish, exhibits Kryptonian powers, and creates the kind of havoc you might expect from someone in that situation. Superman arrives on the scene, and it is soon  discovered that the girl is his cousin, Kara Zor-El.

 

Characterization here is spot-on, and remains so, for the most part, throughout the movie. Superman is hopeful and optimistic, and thrilled that, after years of being the Last Son of Krypton, he at last has a blood relative. Batman is suspicious and cynical; he questions the convenience of Kara's arrival, the veracity of her story, suspects she may be part of a plot to harm Superman, etc. Kara herself radiates a perfect blend of little-girl-lost and feisty teenager. All well and good, but what is Batman even doing here? At all? He moves from scene to scene with little to do but stand around being Batman. He can be lifted out entirely without damaging the story, which leaves me to think the only reason he was included is because his name's in the title.

While Wonder Woman's name is not in the title, she suffers from the same problem as Batman in that she feels like a pointless addition, though she is given a little more to do. She and a contingent of Amazons arrive, at Batman's request apparently, to forcibly remove Kara to Paradise Island for training in the use of her powers. That's right. "Forcibly remove," as in they attack Superman (in Clark Kent mode) and Kara in a Metropolis park in an attempt to kidnap the girl. If you're shaking your head in incredulity, you're not alone. There's so much wrong with this scene that it's hard to explain it all without charts, and it illustrates what I feel is the essential flaw of this story. It's forced and artificial. Why on Earth don't Batman and Wonder Woman feel Superman is capable of training the girl himself, given that he has the same powers and taught himself to use them fairly well? Why, if Wonder Woman wanted to train Kara, didn't she just call Clark up and ask? Did they really need a fight scene that badly? Meh.


Speaking of forced and unnatural, let's talk about the villain of the piece, Darkseid. He's one of DC's best villains, one of the richest among their pantheon, but here it seems as if his name was drawn out of a hat. His reasons for wanting to kidnap Kara make sense given his personality, but his presence isn't a natural development of anything in the plot. He's simply dropped in a little before the story's midpoint because they needed a villain. I take back what I said before; Darkseid wasn't picked out of a hat, he was chosen deliberately to add star power and conflict to a story that, by itself, is short on both, which is probably the same reason Batman and Wonder Woman were shoe-horned in as well. I won't bother summarizing the rest of the story; given what you already know, I'll bet you can figure out much of what follows. The movie's final fight scene does come as a bit of a surprise, given some well done misdirection, but once it starts you can predict how it will go, pretty much blow for blow.

Given the tone of this review, I can understand if you think I dislike Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, but that really isn't the case. I'm just seriously underwhelmed by it. All of its flaws might be forgiven in a really great story, but this unfortunately isn't one of those. The original story that introduced Supergirl back in the sixties is about discovery rather than conflict, and reads a little dated and dull by today's standards, so we might forgive our current crop of writers for spicing things up a bit. I just wish they'd done a better job of making it feel a bit less contrived.


On the technical side of things, the animation is smooth and polished for the most part; the action scenes are visually exciting, though the animation in less frenetic moments is a bit stiff. Director Lauren Montgomery is an excellent artist and a top-notch animator but, while she's a capable director, I feel that she hasn't quite found her voice yet. Apocalypse is visually solid, but there isn't much to set it apart from any of the other DC films. As I said above, I was never a big fan of Michael Turner, and his style informs the character designs in this film. They didn't do much for me, as you might expect. While I haven't disliked the look of any of the DC Universe animated films, I'm getting a bit bored with all the angularity present in their character animation. One of my favorite animated series is Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, which displays more rounded, naturalistic figures. It'd be nice to see a DC Universe film done in a similar style.


Superman/Batman: Apocalypse isn't my least favorite DC Universe Animated Movie (that honor goes to Batman: Under the Red Hood) but I can't say I feel it's worth the price of admission. Put it on your Netflix list if you're bored some weekend but otherwise, give it a miss.


---Rob'ry