And now for something completely different!
I just saw Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and I have some ranting to do thoughts to express. Spoilers beneath the cut, but it shouldn't ruin too much.
Let me start by saying this is NOT a bad movie. Not in the least. I mean, duh, if you get Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, and Susan Eisenberg to team up again, you can't come away with a bad product.
However.
In the amazing line up of DCAU movies, this one is unfortunately not as high up there as I had anticipated. The weirdest part is that the movie didn't do one huge thing wrong--its flaws come from tiny, little details and changes that eventually lead up to me trying to tear my hair out by the Irk Factor.
S/B: A is an animated adaptation of Superman/Batman: Supergirl, which is a comic I bought a couple years back because the art is fucking gorgeous, it has my favorite heroes in it, and it wasn't too hard on the wallet. Honestly, I love the comic. It's not too complex and it's a well-done follow up to Public Enemies. I think the problems I had with Apocalypse probably stem from the fact that I read the comic first so I noticed every little change they made. Normally, I'm alright when a film version of a comic has to change things. I didn't mind most of the changes Chris Nolan made to Batman's origin story nor did I mind the things they tweaked in Spider-Man. This is because the changes had function and meaning behind them.
The changes in Apocalypse unfortunately did not.
There are so many teeny tiny things that they changed in the film for no apparent reason. And if they were irrelevant things, I could have just gotten over it but no they changed things that made explanations of the plot and character motivations flow better and that is just unthinkable. I'll just point out the ones that REALLY irked me:
-The opening sequence: in the comic, Bruce goes out to the Gotham Harbor to pick up Kryptonite meteor fragments when he comes across Kara's ship. The entire time he's excavating the site, he's on the comm link with Superman and Clark is complaining about being cooped up in the Fortress since his battle with Luthor and Bruce is making him keep a low profile. The two of them argue like an old married couple, but it has a PURPOSE. (1) To introduce their relationship to the reader and show that while they seem to argue non-stop, they are actually good friends (2) It's funny as hell. Seriously, Batman ends the argument by saying: "Stay off the line and go play with your dog." And Clark replies: "Oh, why do you ALWAYS have to bring the dog into this?!" And Bruce says: "I just find it odd that the only things that survived Krypton are you, these hunks of rock that can kill you, and a laser-beam shooting, cape-wearing, cat-barbequeing mutt." (Mind I paraphrased it, but LOLZ.) (3) When Batman is later chasing Kara through the city, she accidentally hits a blimp and blows it up, which causes it to come crashing down. Batman gets back on the link with the sulky Superman and tells him he has something for him to do. Thus, Superman comes in and grabs the blimp.
In the film, they cut the entire dialogue out.
All of it.
Seriously, Batman finds the ship and chases Kara and then Superman shows up with no explanation at all. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. There was no reason to change that! It was the exact same scene, just silent! So they can't use the excuse that it was cut for time because the sequence wouldn't have changed. And it explains why Superman caught the blimp. Whomever decided to cut that out was gravely mistaken. It irked me to absolutely no end and that was no more than five minutes into the damn movie.
-Bruce following Clark and Kara through Metropolis: in the comics, Clark and Kara go shopping and he explains things about Earth to her (like hot dogs, for instance, and Clark makes a really cute line about "You don't wanna know what they're REALLY made of" but they cut that too >/) and soon afterwards, Wonder Woman and her women show up to take Kara to train on Themyscira. Setting aside the fact that Wondy should have just bloody asked, why did they cut the simple scene of Bruce following them? That explains why he showed up at the end of the confrontation and convinces Clark to back down and let them take her. Hell, he even had a brief but awesome fight with Artemis before finding Clark and Kara. There was no reason they couldn't have taken ten seconds to show him there. GAH. *flails*
-Big Barda's willingness to help: in the comics, Superman, Batman, and Wondy all go to Barda's house to ask her to guide them through Apokalips. She's not thrilled about it, but sees it as a challenges and agrees to help them. In the movie, she argues with them for about two minutes and then magically changes her mind. What was the point of all that arguing if you just give in like six seconds later?! In the comics, Bruce, Diana, and Clark had all been arguing about their decision and were tense with each other because of Kara and what needs to be done about her. Clark brings up Jason Todd and Bruce gets very intensely upset while Diana tries to soothe the situation, and then Barda comes in with a smile and sees them all glaring at each other and says: "...go team?" That was brilliant. Why would you remove that? GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
-Kara's coronation: at the end of the comic, Kara decides to become Supergirl and Superman introduces her to all the heroes in continuity, meaning the Titans, Outsiders, Justice League and etc. In the movie, he just does this in front of the Amazons. Which makes both of their speeches seem silly and irrelevant since only about 20 Amazons, Batman, Wondy, and Barda are all standing around. The comic even had a few members making little, cute comments in reaction to what Supes was saying and it really endeared the moment and made it more heartfelt. Removing that just annoyed the hell out of me. Granted, there could be copyright issues, but it couldn't have been for every single member. GAH. *flails*
So those are the changes that irked me the most. The rest of the movie can go in list form.
The Good:
-The fight scenes were utterly flawless and incredibly well-done. The ass-kicking was off the scaled and I loved every minute of it.
-Kevin Conroy. 'Nuff said.
-Tim Daly. 'Nuff said.
-Susan Eisenberg. 'Nuff said.
-Majority of the time, the animation was goooooooooorgeous.
-Few funny lines of dialogue, especially Diana elbowing Bruce in the gut when he said something sarcastic about Clark during a generally sweet moment and he sulkingly rubs the spot where she hit him. Very, very cute.
The Ugly:
-The men's faces in this particular animation didn't make out so well. The women all looked perfect, but the drawing style didn't suit the guys well because of the heavy cheekbone shading and the eyelashes. Seriously, Superman looked like he was wearing mascara and it bugged me. Nitpicky, of course, but it was pretty noticeable.
-Summer Glau is a lovely girl and I like her, but she was not a very good voice actress. Maybe the film was rushed, maybe she needs more time practicing, but half of the time her lines were totally emotionless and flat. It didn't suit Supergirl at all, imo. SUMMERRRRR!
-Darkseid's voice actor did NOT work for me. He wasn't bad, he was just totally wrong for Darkseid. I mean, shit, I can't really blame him because no one can top Michael Ironside's deep, incredibly scary voice, but this guy's voice was too high and too clinical. Darkseid is intimidating and his voice really undermined his appearance.
-The chemistry was off in this film. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies worked because there wasn't a second during the film where you couldn't feel how much Bruce and Clark's friendship, how they are almost like brothers. In this film, it's almost non-existent. They only make a couple of jokes and you can't feel the same comfort level as you did in PE. I understand that they're supposed to be at odds over Kara but their lines weren't written well and just left me...cold. Yeah. Cold is about right. Not to mention they totally underused Susan Eisenberg, who does great voice work and works incredibly well with Conroy and Daly. Nakama has always been an undertone with the Big Three and the movie didn't give me that notion at all, and that's quite upsetting.
Once again, this was NOT a bad movie. It's just...disappointing. Maybe because the standard is so high for these films because they're generally amazing, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. But I do recommend seeing it despite these flaws.
I mean, seriously. Kevin Conroy. That's all you need. 8D
~Kyoko
Let me start by saying this is NOT a bad movie. Not in the least. I mean, duh, if you get Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, and Susan Eisenberg to team up again, you can't come away with a bad product.
However.
In the amazing line up of DCAU movies, this one is unfortunately not as high up there as I had anticipated. The weirdest part is that the movie didn't do one huge thing wrong--its flaws come from tiny, little details and changes that eventually lead up to me trying to tear my hair out by the Irk Factor.
S/B: A is an animated adaptation of Superman/Batman: Supergirl, which is a comic I bought a couple years back because the art is fucking gorgeous, it has my favorite heroes in it, and it wasn't too hard on the wallet. Honestly, I love the comic. It's not too complex and it's a well-done follow up to Public Enemies. I think the problems I had with Apocalypse probably stem from the fact that I read the comic first so I noticed every little change they made. Normally, I'm alright when a film version of a comic has to change things. I didn't mind most of the changes Chris Nolan made to Batman's origin story nor did I mind the things they tweaked in Spider-Man. This is because the changes had function and meaning behind them.
The changes in Apocalypse unfortunately did not.
There are so many teeny tiny things that they changed in the film for no apparent reason. And if they were irrelevant things, I could have just gotten over it but no they changed things that made explanations of the plot and character motivations flow better and that is just unthinkable. I'll just point out the ones that REALLY irked me:
-The opening sequence: in the comic, Bruce goes out to the Gotham Harbor to pick up Kryptonite meteor fragments when he comes across Kara's ship. The entire time he's excavating the site, he's on the comm link with Superman and Clark is complaining about being cooped up in the Fortress since his battle with Luthor and Bruce is making him keep a low profile. The two of them argue like an old married couple, but it has a PURPOSE. (1) To introduce their relationship to the reader and show that while they seem to argue non-stop, they are actually good friends (2) It's funny as hell. Seriously, Batman ends the argument by saying: "Stay off the line and go play with your dog." And Clark replies: "Oh, why do you ALWAYS have to bring the dog into this?!" And Bruce says: "I just find it odd that the only things that survived Krypton are you, these hunks of rock that can kill you, and a laser-beam shooting, cape-wearing, cat-barbequeing mutt." (Mind I paraphrased it, but LOLZ.) (3) When Batman is later chasing Kara through the city, she accidentally hits a blimp and blows it up, which causes it to come crashing down. Batman gets back on the link with the sulky Superman and tells him he has something for him to do. Thus, Superman comes in and grabs the blimp.
In the film, they cut the entire dialogue out.
All of it.
Seriously, Batman finds the ship and chases Kara and then Superman shows up with no explanation at all. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. There was no reason to change that! It was the exact same scene, just silent! So they can't use the excuse that it was cut for time because the sequence wouldn't have changed. And it explains why Superman caught the blimp. Whomever decided to cut that out was gravely mistaken. It irked me to absolutely no end and that was no more than five minutes into the damn movie.
-Bruce following Clark and Kara through Metropolis: in the comics, Clark and Kara go shopping and he explains things about Earth to her (like hot dogs, for instance, and Clark makes a really cute line about "You don't wanna know what they're REALLY made of" but they cut that too >/) and soon afterwards, Wonder Woman and her women show up to take Kara to train on Themyscira. Setting aside the fact that Wondy should have just bloody asked, why did they cut the simple scene of Bruce following them? That explains why he showed up at the end of the confrontation and convinces Clark to back down and let them take her. Hell, he even had a brief but awesome fight with Artemis before finding Clark and Kara. There was no reason they couldn't have taken ten seconds to show him there. GAH. *flails*
-Big Barda's willingness to help: in the comics, Superman, Batman, and Wondy all go to Barda's house to ask her to guide them through Apokalips. She's not thrilled about it, but sees it as a challenges and agrees to help them. In the movie, she argues with them for about two minutes and then magically changes her mind. What was the point of all that arguing if you just give in like six seconds later?! In the comics, Bruce, Diana, and Clark had all been arguing about their decision and were tense with each other because of Kara and what needs to be done about her. Clark brings up Jason Todd and Bruce gets very intensely upset while Diana tries to soothe the situation, and then Barda comes in with a smile and sees them all glaring at each other and says: "...go team?" That was brilliant. Why would you remove that? GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
-Kara's coronation: at the end of the comic, Kara decides to become Supergirl and Superman introduces her to all the heroes in continuity, meaning the Titans, Outsiders, Justice League and etc. In the movie, he just does this in front of the Amazons. Which makes both of their speeches seem silly and irrelevant since only about 20 Amazons, Batman, Wondy, and Barda are all standing around. The comic even had a few members making little, cute comments in reaction to what Supes was saying and it really endeared the moment and made it more heartfelt. Removing that just annoyed the hell out of me. Granted, there could be copyright issues, but it couldn't have been for every single member. GAH. *flails*
So those are the changes that irked me the most. The rest of the movie can go in list form.
The Good:
-The fight scenes were utterly flawless and incredibly well-done. The ass-kicking was off the scaled and I loved every minute of it.
-Kevin Conroy. 'Nuff said.
-Tim Daly. 'Nuff said.
-Susan Eisenberg. 'Nuff said.
-Majority of the time, the animation was goooooooooorgeous.
-Few funny lines of dialogue, especially Diana elbowing Bruce in the gut when he said something sarcastic about Clark during a generally sweet moment and he sulkingly rubs the spot where she hit him. Very, very cute.
The Ugly:
-The men's faces in this particular animation didn't make out so well. The women all looked perfect, but the drawing style didn't suit the guys well because of the heavy cheekbone shading and the eyelashes. Seriously, Superman looked like he was wearing mascara and it bugged me. Nitpicky, of course, but it was pretty noticeable.
-Summer Glau is a lovely girl and I like her, but she was not a very good voice actress. Maybe the film was rushed, maybe she needs more time practicing, but half of the time her lines were totally emotionless and flat. It didn't suit Supergirl at all, imo. SUMMERRRRR!
-Darkseid's voice actor did NOT work for me. He wasn't bad, he was just totally wrong for Darkseid. I mean, shit, I can't really blame him because no one can top Michael Ironside's deep, incredibly scary voice, but this guy's voice was too high and too clinical. Darkseid is intimidating and his voice really undermined his appearance.
-The chemistry was off in this film. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies worked because there wasn't a second during the film where you couldn't feel how much Bruce and Clark's friendship, how they are almost like brothers. In this film, it's almost non-existent. They only make a couple of jokes and you can't feel the same comfort level as you did in PE. I understand that they're supposed to be at odds over Kara but their lines weren't written well and just left me...cold. Yeah. Cold is about right. Not to mention they totally underused Susan Eisenberg, who does great voice work and works incredibly well with Conroy and Daly. Nakama has always been an undertone with the Big Three and the movie didn't give me that notion at all, and that's quite upsetting.
Once again, this was NOT a bad movie. It's just...disappointing. Maybe because the standard is so high for these films because they're generally amazing, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. But I do recommend seeing it despite these flaws.
I mean, seriously. Kevin Conroy. That's all you need. 8D
~Kyoko