S/B: Public Enemies
At about 3 in the morning last night, I remembered that I had located several links for watching the latest DCAU movie, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and sat down to watch it. It should be noted that I *didn't* fall asleep while watching it, which is probably the highest compliment I can give. I mean, this movie already had one major strike against it - it was based on an already very bad comic by Jeph Loeb. Of course, they took some of the weirder stuff out, like random KC Superman, and the Bat and Superman families. They kept some of the cooler stuff too, like Alfred with a shotgun and Batman disguising himself as Hawkman. Even so, it just wasn't really that good.
I'm going to go off on a tangent about Power Girl for a second- her characterization and animation were both SO. BAD. This is the first 'real' animated debut for Power Girl (yes, I know about Galatea, that doesn't count people) and she just seemed so dumb in comparison to her comic counterpart. Clearly she'd known Superman for years, but believed he'd killed Metallo just because Luthor compared that act to his becoming president. She also lost every fight she got involved in. Oh, and she totally killed Major Force and nobody cared. How did she become chairwoman of the JSA again?! Ugh, and the animation. Her boobs were so big...I know this is Power Girl, but they looked fucking ridiculous. Her eyes were weirdly shaped and kinda alienish. And her HAIR...ugh. Sorry, Allison Mack, even you couldn't have made this character enjoyable. (Speaking of voice actors - yay Tim Daly/Kevin Conroy! Even they couldn't save it though...) I didn't really like the animation in general - Captain Atom especially looked horrendously ripped, like in ways that aren't even possible, though I did like Captain Marvel's squinty eyes.
This movie did take out something that bothered me about the book, but also...not. I'm pretty sure that in the book, GL John Stewart was part of Luthor's task force, which bothered me to no end because he would never ever EVER work with Major Force. Here, he just wasn't there at all. Black Lightning was still there (voiced by Levar Burton, though you couldn't tell because he had like 3 lines), and so were the others, just not him. I think they were trying to make the audience forget the Green Lanterns existed, because the whole main plot device - a giant kryptonite meteor that could destroy the planet - could've easily been taken down by 4 Green Lanterns. Or even 1! Not to mention any number of the other "Alpha" level heroes, but whatever.
They also changed the ending a bit - so instead of Captain Atom taking the Superman/Batman amalgam rocket and destroying the meteor (and then getting transported to the Wildstorm Universe....) Batman just took it, in a manner very similar to when he used the Watchtower to destroy the Thanagarian thingamabob in the last episode of Justice League. (After watching this, btw, I missed that cartoon SO MUCH. Why can't we have nice things?) So then there was some paltry dramatic tension where Superman declares that Luthor "Just killed my best friend " (hahaha slash) and beats the crap out of him, but then it turns out he survived in a conveniently Batman-shaped escape pod thing! Hurray. I was actually surprised they kept the robot, and Japanese Toyman, but I guess they wanted to stick as close to the original as possible?
Meh. If you want to watch this, go ahead, just please don't spend money on it. I also realized after watching this that I had totally skipped GL: First Flight, so I'm going to watch that later. NO CLASS TODAY WOOT!!
I'm going to go off on a tangent about Power Girl for a second- her characterization and animation were both SO. BAD. This is the first 'real' animated debut for Power Girl (yes, I know about Galatea, that doesn't count people) and she just seemed so dumb in comparison to her comic counterpart. Clearly she'd known Superman for years, but believed he'd killed Metallo just because Luthor compared that act to his becoming president. She also lost every fight she got involved in. Oh, and she totally killed Major Force and nobody cared. How did she become chairwoman of the JSA again?! Ugh, and the animation. Her boobs were so big...I know this is Power Girl, but they looked fucking ridiculous. Her eyes were weirdly shaped and kinda alienish. And her HAIR...ugh. Sorry, Allison Mack, even you couldn't have made this character enjoyable. (Speaking of voice actors - yay Tim Daly/Kevin Conroy! Even they couldn't save it though...) I didn't really like the animation in general - Captain Atom especially looked horrendously ripped, like in ways that aren't even possible, though I did like Captain Marvel's squinty eyes.
This movie did take out something that bothered me about the book, but also...not. I'm pretty sure that in the book, GL John Stewart was part of Luthor's task force, which bothered me to no end because he would never ever EVER work with Major Force. Here, he just wasn't there at all. Black Lightning was still there (voiced by Levar Burton, though you couldn't tell because he had like 3 lines), and so were the others, just not him. I think they were trying to make the audience forget the Green Lanterns existed, because the whole main plot device - a giant kryptonite meteor that could destroy the planet - could've easily been taken down by 4 Green Lanterns. Or even 1! Not to mention any number of the other "Alpha" level heroes, but whatever.
They also changed the ending a bit - so instead of Captain Atom taking the Superman/Batman amalgam rocket and destroying the meteor (and then getting transported to the Wildstorm Universe....) Batman just took it, in a manner very similar to when he used the Watchtower to destroy the Thanagarian thingamabob in the last episode of Justice League. (After watching this, btw, I missed that cartoon SO MUCH. Why can't we have nice things?) So then there was some paltry dramatic tension where Superman declares that Luthor "Just killed my best friend " (hahaha slash) and beats the crap out of him, but then it turns out he survived in a conveniently Batman-shaped escape pod thing! Hurray. I was actually surprised they kept the robot, and Japanese Toyman, but I guess they wanted to stick as close to the original as possible?
Meh. If you want to watch this, go ahead, just please don't spend money on it. I also realized after watching this that I had totally skipped GL: First Flight, so I'm going to watch that later. NO CLASS TODAY WOOT!!