Superman vs. The Elite - I believe I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I don't like Superman. He's boring, he's so ridiculously overpowered there's no drama whatsoever in his fight scenes, and he's often just a really corny character. That said, I liked Bruce Timm's Superman animated series where he was toned down quite a bit, and I've been hoping that maybe lightning could strike twice and Timm & DC might finally be able to make a good Superman film. Hey, 5th try (Superman Doomsday, the two Batman/Superman movies, All-Star Superman, and this film) just
had to be the charm
this time, right?.....Right?
Yes.
It took Bruce Timm and Co. 5 tries, but they finally managed to make a good Superman animated film
despite starring Superman.
Based on a circa-2001 story from the comics titled "What's So Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American way?", Superman vs. the Elite tackles a question that's always been a problem for me with the character: is Superman and his black & white ideals relevant in the modern morally-gray world? Considering all the people these villains (both human and metahuman alike) kill on a regular basis as they escape incarceration
also on a regular basis, shouldn't someone with as much power as Superman use it to rid our society of the undesirables...permanently? Lethally? And if not him, who?
You can draw your own parallels in this setup to current events, but this film is very much a character study of Superman and why he is not willing to "cross that line" when dealing with criminals. And
that is why this movie works, rather than the standard "superhero-supervillain battle" films we've had so far. The film isn't particularly deep or subtle with its message, but it works in its simplicity. And while the film could stand to be
considerably longer than it is (at only 75 or so minutes w/ credits) to flesh out more of the backstory on The Elite (a group of vigilante meta-humans who rise up to do what Superman will not, who serve as this film's villains), I think the film is paced very well and the story is well-told. As usual with these Andrea Romano voice-directed DC animated movies, the casting and voice acting is excellent, particularly George Newbern as Superman (not surprisingly, considering he played him in Justice League) and Robin Atkin Downes as Manchester Black.
Besides the short running time leading to the story probably being more simple than it was in the original comics, I really only have two big complaints with the movie: the first is Superman's character design. Now, these DC animated films have had a tradition of attempting to emulate the art style of whatever artists drew the original story, but Superman in this film just looks...weird and chubby. The animation's about on par with the other DC animated films (and that art style looks fine on the other characters) so it's not a
big deal, but it's just a very odd-looking Superman. Finally, the way the film ends is a total cheat, and I think it undermines the debate the film was trying to have. It's kind of understandable that it ends that way because...hey, it's a Superman movie, but it's unfortunate that the ending discards the interesting morality debate the rest of the movie sets up by making things extremely simplistic.
So yeah, DC managed to make a good Superman animated film. What were the odds? It's not the greatest DC animated film I've ever seen since it is a bit
too simplistic and the details of the story could be better fleshed-out, but I thought it was a pretty enjoyable film. The sequence at the end of the film where Superman finally "deals" with the Elite is worth it almost all on its own, just in terms of sheer awesome creepiness.
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Oh yeah, and it looks great on Blu-Ray. So did Arrietty, for that matter.
Topic: Rate the last movie you've seen (Read 1550245 times)
