Superman/Batman: Apocalypse – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

Picking up right after the events of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, a strange meteor crashes into a lake by Gotham, only to reveal a key reason why Superman’s mythos is a hard entity to get a hold of. Superman, while being the Godfather of Superheroes when he arrived in 1939, is pretty one-note, despite some stellar attempts at adding a personality to his goodie-two-shoe persona, but I can live with that. What I never got as a kid, and even now as an adult, is all of the Super-relatives he had. Apocalypse is Supergirl’s story, and a reasonably decent telling of a character that is essentially Superman with boobs.

Supergirl debuted in 1959 and has gone on to become pretty popular, despite the box office bomb that was Supergirl (1984). Her origin is odd, as it mirrors Superman’s, and if you care about continuity, she came nearly 20 years after Superman did to Earth, so how did her parents shoot her off of Krypton? I don’t know. Even odder is Krypto, the Superdog (lol) who came to be in 1955, exists and barks heroically (huh?). Such strange characters, but a product of the 50s mentality in America, I suppose. It’s characters like these, that has made Batman such a bad-ass…oh, wait. Crap, I forgot about Batwoman and Ace the Bat-Hound. What was wrong with DC in the 50s?

Anyway, it’s no easy feat to take these characters and morph a solid story with them, but Superman/Batman: Apocalypse streamlines (perhaps too much so) “The Supergirl from Krypton” story from writer Jeph Loeb into an action-heavy and entertaining 80-odd minutes. Where as Public Enemies was a neat set-up, followed by a string of action pieces, but thin on plot, Apocalypse enables a well-craft tale of Kara Zor-El, a fish out of water, and a powerful undeveloped hero in a shadow of The Hero. There’s plenty of interesting dynamics between her and her cousin, Superman.

While Batman is in the title and has a memorable game of out-witting Darkseid, he’s a background character to Superman and Supergirl. With Kara unable to control her new-found powers, Darkseid looks to capitalize off of it to get back at Superman. The film whizzes on by, until our heroes go to Apokolips, then the film crawls for some reason. Is it my own personal disconnection to Superman’s world? I know Christopher Nolan did a fix on me, but I suspect it’s cruising running time, where it moves too fast, we aren’t given the time to assess this world of Darkseid, as we’re giving another fight sequence.

Don’t get me wrong: the fights are stellar, with great animation. Case in point: In Smallville, Darkseid vs. Superman/Supergirl. But while the film has a bit more meat on its bones when compared to Public Enemies, we DC Animated Original Movie fans have just been blown away with the deep and richly painted Batman: Under the Red Hood. I guess it’s an oxymoron, but Apocalypse feels too comic-bookish, yet for the comics fans, it’s a decent adaptation that marks the return of Superman: The Animated Series voice actor for Supes, Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy as Batman, the one true voice of The Dark Knight. This should tickle fans.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Warner Bros. delivers a reasonably decent presentation here. Not as good as some other DC Animated Original Movie releases, as we get some animation in HD no-nos with banding, grain, and artifacts, but I wasn’t too distracted. Colors are bold in HD, as they should be, and the blacks are ink dark.

The DTS track, however, rattles as an action film should. Deep bass, constant speaker activity, it’s just as good as live-action sound fields.

DC Showcase – Green Arrow: Here’s another wonderful animated short film from Bruce Timm’s team. Featuring the voices of Neil McDonough and Malcolm McDowell, Green Arrow fans and fans of DC animation will be greatly pleased.

Behind the Story: This is broken up into four really good documentaries dealing with various aspects of characters in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

These features are in HD.

The Fourth World: The New Gods: This explores the great story arc from Jack Kirby and the emergence of Darkseid and how his character grew into a popular villain in Superman’s Rogues Gallery. This is really deep and quite good, especially for fans that knowledgeable into this story line.

New Gods: Mr. Miracle Pod and Orion Pod: This talks a little further on New Genesis and Orion, with plenty of interviews and Kirby art, that is just wonderful in HD.

Supergirl: The Last Daughter of Krypton: This finishes the documentary off with a deep look at the character: her origin, her popularity, the failed movie, and her longevity with more interviews from writers, DC Comics personal, and more.

These following extras are in SD.

Superman: The Animated Series Bonus Episodes: Like all of these releases, we get select episode that relate to the main feature totalling 85 minutes. Good stuff, too, in Little Girl Lost, Parts 1 and 2 and Apokolips Now, Parts 1 and 2.

All-Star Superman Sneak Peek: Here’s a quick, but in-depth look at the next DC Animated Original Movie based off of Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely comic series. Looks pretty darn good, but I’m getting tired of seeing Superman all the time in these films.

Trailers and the Digital Copy round out the extras.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: