While Batman and Superman investigate an on-coming meteorite big enough to destroy the world made completely of Kryptonite, Lex Luthor, now President of the United States, devises a plan to frame Superman for murder and puts a 1 billion dollar bounty on his head. As the 2 heroes continue their attempts at stopping the meteorite, they are forced to fight a number or heroes and villains all looking to stop the now criminal duo.
Another in what will be a long line of DC animated movies, Bruce Timm and company continue their fantastic portrayal of the DC Universe in animation form. In tow is the original voices of Lex Luthor, Superman, and Batman from Timm's first television series, Clancy Brown, Tim Daly, and Kevin Conroy respecitvelly. Kevin Conroy especially. He is easily the most recognizable Batman performer, but hearing Tim Daly, who was unavailable to play Superman in the Justice League spin-off of his show. His replacement, George Newbern, went over smoothly, but it was not until this video I realized how great Daly is as Superman. He brings a certain gentle strength needed for the ultimate boyscout with super strength. The cast is surrounded with various other slightly familiar voice actors like John C. McGinley, Levar Burton, and Allison Mack all of which were ultimately underused leaving most of the dialog to the 3 stars. Corey Burton, a long time Timm collaborator, provides the voice for Captain Marvel, but seems very out of place. It is hard to put your finger on it.
The animation was much different than what Timm fans would be used to. The muscle is much more defined, and other little details were also much more apparent as opposed to the tv series. The design overall were mild improvements, but some things dropped the ball. Captain Marvel was given comedically squinty eyes and Amanda Waller was drawn more like Violet from willy Wonka than your everday overweight lady. And even though everyone had ridiculously inflated muscles, Captain Atom's looked the most strange.
The story itself does what Superman/Batman comic series does best. It spotlights the relationship between Superman and Batman. Two heroes from incredibly different backgrounds and powersets getting along like some of the best partners in fictional history a la Butch and Sundance or Han and Chewy, never more so than in the scene where both are injured and helping each other back to the Bat-cave. The two call each other by their real names, and volley quips back and forth with eachother like two co-workers carpooling. But it also balanced the side-story of the obsessive Lex Luthor and his attempts at being both President and super-villain (some would say that is very familiar). The ultimate flaw of this movie is that the large cast, the dual storylines of Superman/Batman and Lex Luthor are crammed into little over an hour. A cynical bunch have claimed foul on 2+ hour movies that have become popular, but usually the time is needed for proper character development and good plot pacing. So many interesting characters are just glossed over.
Superman/Batman is one of the better DC animated movies, but they have yet to make a lot of them so who knows.
8/10
