Official Synopsis:
“The Acclaimed DC Comics storyline comes to life in an all-new animated movie packed with Supermen! It’s been months since the unfathomable death of Superman, and the world is still shaken when four Super Heroes arrive in Metropolis, all battling to be the reincarnation of the Man of Steel. The single-minded Eradicator, the cocky Superboy, the heavy-metal-hammer-wielding Steel, and a sentient Cyborg Superman. Even Metropolis isn’t big enough for these brawlers, and with the Justice League adapting to life after Kal-El, it’s only a matter of time until dark forces make their moves from the shadows.”
I want to preface this review by saying that I am not a huge fan of DC Comics, or most comics in general for that matter.
That being said, the characters presented in this film are incredibly interesting in their own ways. The film presents four different “Supermen”: Superboy, Steel, the Eradicator, and a Cyborg Superman. The story follows the ways these individuals attempt to act as Superman and fight against greater evils, and how they inevitably fall short.
The Blu-Ray copy itself has a few Special Features. Two interviews: one about the upcoming Justice League movie and another where the creative team of these films are analysing the character of Lex Luthor. Both of these are interesting because they show how much the creative team cares about the characters and stories they have an opportunity to tell.
It also includes a couple of DC Animated TV show episodes that reference the characters in the film. These were pretty neat to watch alongside the film.
This film was fun. The writing was very good. Even I, whose knowledge of the DC Universe exists wholly through cultural osmosis, could easily follow along with the plot and understand what these characters are supposed to represent. I would really like to see what this team could do with something more akin to a mini-series as opposed to a mostly self-contained film.
The voice acting was good. They had a lot of fairly well known actors portray the characters and they do it well.
However, I do have some issues with the film.
My biggest gripe is that the animation isn’t great. The talking animation just doesn’t look good. They may have had to compromise so that it was easier to overdub in other languages, but it can still look good with that limitation. The character’s faces also seem to shift around unnaturally sometimes.
A fair number of scenes lose gravitas because of the animation quality. The fight between the Supermen at the beginning of the film would have been infinitely cooler. This scene is still one of my favorites because there are great ideas. The way Steel fights is awesome, and the Eradicator dive-bombing and exploding the glass was a good choice. It just could have looked better.
There are also some aesthetic choices I personally don’t like and I think are indicative of grander issues I have seen in very recent animations.
For one, there are 3D models used alongside of the 2D characters. I assume the 3D models are used to make it easier and/or cheaper to animate larger set pieces. What bothers me about this is that these 3D models are designed to emulate the 2D look. They don’t seem to be designed to look good as animated 3D models. 3D models make great backdrops for digital artwork, and can be used well in animation. However, I think they are tricky to use well.
Another problem I have is that it appears as if they are attempting to make the animation look like it was shot with cameras. They use blurring to look like a focus plane in a camera, there’s a shot that’s drawn as if the character was being viewed through a fisheye or similar wide-angle lens, and so on. All of these aren’t inherently bad, but, to me, they signal an issue with the mindset the work was created with. The camera is not the end-all-be-all of visual art. It’s a medium. It has its advantages and it has its disadvantages. If you want photographic images on paper, why would you use a pencil instead of a camera? Why would you take a picture of something to make it look painted? There is a reason this film is animated and not shot with a camera. Why not lean into the animation instead of trying to emulate a camera?
In conclusion, this seems like a good film for people who like these films. If you have seen and enjoyed “The Death of Superman” or other DC Animated films, you will like this one. If you haven’t, I would recommend watching the earlier ones so that this one makes more sense.
It was a fun film, but I would like to see more and better.
