Monday at the Movies - July 23, 2012

Welcome to Week Twenty-Seven of “Monday at the Movies.” After a Batman-heavy week last week, we’re going to shift gears dramatically this week and spend the day with a few animated Superman movies, all adapted from recent comics storylines (all of which are worth reading).

All-Star Superman (2011) – This is a difficult film for me to review, and so I’ll say up front that your results may vary.  I’m a huge fan of the Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely series from which this film is adapted, and the film is a very faithful adaptation with many of the book’s highlights included (my favorite, alas, didn’t make the cut).  That said, I recognize that the film has structural problems endemic to the source material; rather than a unified story, the film feels like a series of vignettes starring the same characters.  There’s an ongoing plot holding the vignettes together – Superman is dying – but viewers may be turned off by the somewhat fragmented storytelling (though, again, the late Dwayne McDuffie did a marvelous job adapting the 12-issue source material).  While this isn’t the classic voice cast we know and love (see the last two reviews of this post), James Denton is surprisingly heartfelt as the Man of Steel, embodying the heavy emotional burden that comes with being a dying savior, while Anthony LaPaglia does a Lex Luthor dripping with hatred for his enemy; LaPaglia is no Clancy Brown, but he’s a solid fill-in.  The surprise success, though, is Christina Hendricks as Lois Lane, who handles the character’s trademark snark with aplomb but, like Denton, hits the pathos when needed.  And for a superhero film that brings a tear to the corner of your eye, All-Star Superman might just be the most successful Superman movie of our lifetime.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009) – Public Enemies is iconic in every sense of the word, and while I wasn’t overly enamored with it the first time I saw it, I’ve found a lot to appreciate in a film that is far more than the mere slugfest for which I initially mistook it.  This film reunites Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy as Superman and Batman, the first extended team-up since 1996’s The Batman/Superman Movie; for good measure, Clancy Brown returns as President Lex Luthor, who uses his new political power to seek revenge against his caped foes when a Kryptonite meteor enters Earth’s atmosphere.  I could spend pages falling over in a dead faint over the strength of the voice cast, but if you’ve read my blog for more than a day you know that for me these are, simply put, the definitive voices of the DC Universe.  Adapted from the Jeph Loeb/Ed McGuinness series, Public Enemies is admittedly light on plot, with waves of supervillains assaulting our costumed protagonists, and a few plotlines have been streamlined for the abbreviated direct-to-video format (gone is any mention of Batman reopening his parents’ murder).  But what the film lacks in narrative substance, it makes up in thematic depth.  This film – especially the first twenty or so minutes – gets at the heart of the modern Superman/Batman team-up story by showing how unlikely it is that these two radically different types would ever work together, then demonstrating just why the partnership works.  It’s one built on mutual respect and understanding – perhaps begrudgingly so at times, on Batman’s part – and the chemistry between Daly and Conroy atones for any of the film’s missteps.  It’s unlikely we’ll see these two on the big screen any time soon, but Public Enemies fills that spot nicely.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010) – Apocalypse is misleading, and consequently disappointing, on several very important levels.  In short, Apocalypse is a sequel to Public Enemies that picks up on the Kryptonite meteor, revealed to contain another survivor from Superman’s doomed homeworld – his cousin Supergirl.  For one, what seems like executive sexism prompted the title to be changed from Superman/Batman: Supergirl, which is a shame because the original title much more accurately reflected what the film truly is – a Superman film in which Big Blue meets his Kryptonian cousin with Batman caught in the middle; Batman’s very much a supporting player in this film until the very end, so the inclusion of Supergirl might come as a surprise to unsuspecting viewers.  Secondly, the film goes to great lengths to reunite Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy with Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, but principal villain Darkseid is voiced by newcomer Andre Braugher, who brings almost no gravitas or personality to the role.  Indeed, Braugher is barely threatening as the ostensible god of evil, a sad step down from Michael Ironside’s voice as gravelly as the mad god’s craggy face.  As for Summer Glau as Supergirl, she’s spunky and endearing, and the film gratefully straightens out the murky origin she had in the comics; it’s just a shame that she didn’t have a better vehicle to headline as the Maid of Steel.  What we have is perfectly serviceable and not a colossal waste of time like Superman: Doomsday, but it likely won’t hold much for viewers who aren’t already fans of the source material.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!  But stay tuned for Wednesday's review (finally) of The Amazing Spider-Man!