Based on Jeff Loeb and Michael Turner's
The Supergirl from Krypton, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is the latest offering from DC Universe Animated. And it's good.
Now, it has to be said that, on the whole, I like the DC animated films. Except for the Green Lantern one, and
Public Enemies, I think DC have been doing a pretty good job overall. Certainly, a whole lot more successful than Marvel's animated efforts, anyway.
Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy are back to voice Superman and Batman, and there's a welcome return for Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, with Summer Glau turning in a reasonably convincing Kara/Supergirl, and Ed Asner hamming it up perfectly as Granny Goodness. Not the greatest fan of Andre Braugher's Darkseid, but what're you gonna do? He don't do too bad, just not scary enough for me.
Speaking of Wonder Woman there, I've noticed that they seem to be putting a lot of effort into her animated self of late, particularly in the action sequences. Batman fighting has always been Batman fighting - he jumps around a lot and chucks things at people. Superman does what you'd expect Superman to do - punches stuff, grunts, fires red shit out of his eyes. Both of which are way cool. But with Wonder Woman, they seem to be trying out something a bit different. In
Crisis on Two Earths, I noticed they went more for a lot of wrestling moves, and in
Apocalypse, they carry that through nicely; there's a lot of attention paid to more elaborate fighting techniques, as opposed to just hitting something and waiting for it to fall down.
And there's a lot of humour in there, as well, which makes for a change, with most of the funny lines coming from Batman.
It's a cool film, assuming you like that sort of thing, which I'm hazarding a guess that
most of you lovely boys & girls who visit here do. The acting's a touch above par for an animated comic film, and the punch-ups ( & let's face it: it's the punch-ups that we
really care about, isn't it? ) are all terrifically done. The final battle between Superman/Kara and Darkseid's a corker. You're not gonna want to miss that.
Give it a go.
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