The story of Batman/Superman Apocalypse revolves around Kara, Superman's long lost cousin and future Supergirl. Picking up after the destruction of the kryptonite asteroid in "Public Enemies", Kara crash lands in Gotham city and quickly finds herself possessed by powers she cannot control. Once subdued Superman takes the young girl under his wing and attempts to integrate her into everyday life. Batman on the other hand, sees Kara as a potential threat and makes no attempt to disguise his concerns. Meanwhile, Darkseid (ruler of the planet Apokolips) learns of Kara's arrival on earth and decides to kidnap her and brainwash the young Kryptonian into leading his honor guard (the Furies). Wonder Woman also gets involved thanks to the prophetic dreams of Harbinger, and brings Kara to Themyscira to keep her safe and train her to control her powers. Anyway, Kara eventually gets captured by Darkseid and taken to Apokolips where Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Big Barda must finally try and rescue her. If this plot sounds paper thin, that's because it is.
In terms of writing, the story of Batman/Superman Apocalypse has numerous problems. Let's start with the dropped plot point concerning Kara's identity. During the first act of the film Batman is clearly unconvinced that Kara is who she claims to be. This skepticism is reinforced - for both the Dark Knight and the audience - when Krypto (that's right, the Superdog) takes a very hostile attitude towards Kara in the Fortress of Solitude. Then ... nothing. The whole subplot about trusting Kara just disappears into an orgy of fights between Amazons, Doomsday clones, Furies and Darkseid. Don't get me wrong the action is great, but you can't just abandon plot points like this and think your story will work.
Another issue I had concerned the portrayal of Kara as a typical teenager during the shopping spree montage. Once Superman takes Kara to Metropolis for the first time (keep in mind this is her first exposure to human society outside of her crash landing) she immediately starts buying up trendy clothes like some character from a Bratz commercial. This makes absolutely no sense. Kara is an alien from Krypton, a society nothing like earth. Wouldn't she be more confused and lost than anything? Hell, there are people from our own planet freaked out by western civilization, I have a hard time believing Kara would gorge herself on it like some fanboy with a bag of Doritos. Ultimately, this depiction of Kara feels like some middle aged mans cliched view of teenage girls and the story is cheapened because of it.
Though this shallow depiction of Kara early in the film does subside later in the story, she never really finds any depth. An attempt is made to show her as sad upon losing a friend, but the film never develops the relationship enough for us to emphasize with her. Her reluctance to embrace her powers and use them for good gets downplayed throughout most of the movie, so when she decides to become Supergirl it really doesn't have any weight. Lastly, the bitterness and anger Kara feels toward the people who keep telling her what's best for her gets completely negated by the Darkseid brainwashing. Basically, every shot this film takes at making Kara three dimensional misfires horribly and the character suffers as a result.
Then there's the overall story macguffin. Why does Darkseid want Kara to lead his honor guard so bad? I know he hates Superman - and it would be fun to take away the only living blood relative he has - but somehow that just doesn't feel meaty enough. The whole thing just seems ... random. Like someone threw together a story with as many "hot chicks" and "heavyweight fights" as possible so the person illustrating the story could cut loose. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened. You see, Michael Turner was a very popular artist back in the early 2000s (Sadly he lost his battle with cancer in 2008. He was only 37 years old.), but he had never worked for any of the mainstream comic companies like Marvel and DC. When DC finally snagged Turner to do a short stint on Batman/Superman in 2004, they decided to make the most of the opportunity and gave the penciller a story he could really sink his teeth into. Unfortunately this turned out to be the comic book equivalent of Transformer Revenge of the Fallen, all flash and no substance. In the end we were left with some pretty pictures and little else.
So, with its numerous flaws - including a story that's about as substantial as a Kleenex tissue - why is it I didn't absolutely hate this film? Well there are a several reasons actually. For one, the humor works rather well. I chuckled numerous times throughout the story, and even laughed once or twice (and they weren't laughs of disgust!). Secondly, the action is amazing. Yes, I know it sounds hypocritical of me to both praise and damn this movie for having so much action; but while I would have liked to see a story with more substance, I can't help but admire the amazing fight choreography Warner Premiere is doing these days. Lastly, the biggest reason I didn't hate this movie was because the writer who adapted the story had the common sense to remove the egregious des deux machina Jeph Loeb wrote into the source material. Originally, the final showdown with Darkseid began with Kara being "killed" by Darkseid's Omega Beams. This led to a bunch of angry yelling about how much "spunk" the girl had, as well as some woefully deep reminiscing by Superman on the life of Kara. Then it turns out she's alive! How you ask? Well as luck would have it, Superman, Batman and the rest of Kara's new friends knew exactly what Darkseid was going to do and faked her death by teleporting her away at the last second! Brilliant ... no wait, I meant to say lame. This is exactly the kind of writing that has turned Jeph Loeb from one of the best writers in comics into one of the worst. Thankfully, the screen writer for this film saw how incredibly stupid and unnecessary this plot device was and removed it entirely from the story (now if they could've only done the same thing with that egregious Batman/Superman robot from Public Enemies, I might have actually liked the film a little). Anyway, the story for Batman/Superman Apocalypse is definitely not good. Knowing how bad it could have been however, I actually found myself giving the screenwriter a little leeway. Not exactly resounding praise I know, but considering the source material I decided to cut the movie a break.
As one would expect, the animation in Batman/Superman Apocalypse is impressive (or at least the traditional stuff was, the CGI was pretty weak). Based on the excellent art of Michael Turner, I thought the overall look of this film was solid, albeit not great (Turner's art is far too "sketchy" to adapt accurately in animation). I was definitely impressed with the way the animators captured the eyes in particular. Turner had a very distinct way of drawing women's eyes and this movie captures it perfectly. One criticism I did have however, was with the exploitative depiction of women in the film (Big Barda covered only by a towel, naked Supergirl running around Gotham city). Though this stems from Turner's own work (he was both celebrated as, and denounced as a "Hot Chick" artist) I can't help but feel that the "cheesecake" factor was a little overblown in this movie. Still, this is nothing new to comic books - or entertainment in general for that matter - so I'll cut the sanctimonious crap and move on.
I've already mentioned the amazing fight choreography found in this film, but the point definitely bears repeating. Every time I think that Warner Brothers animation (Warner Premiere) has reached the absolute pinnacle of action perfection, they find ways to improve upon it. Seriously, almost all of the battles in this film have mind blowing staging and choreography, especially the battle between Wonder Woman, Big Barda and the Furies, words cannot describe the level of awesome achieved in that scene. In the end, Batman/Superman Apocalypse lived up to - and in some cases exceeded - my visual expectations, a feat I try to not take for granted.
I don't have anything to say about the film's music, but the voice acting is worth noting because it - once again - reunites actors Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Tim Daly (Superman). For me, these two performers (especially Conroy) define Batman and Superman, and it's always a pleasure to hear them reprise these roles. Summer Glau (Kara/Supergirl), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman) and Andre Bragher (Darkseid) all turn in solid performances as well.
I wish I could say this movie was good - or even decent for that matter - but the truth is my less than hateful views on this film stem from lowered expectations. It's not that the movie's story did anything right (because it didn't), it just wasn't as bad as the source material, and I (for some strange reason) feel grateful for that. In the end I would probably rank this movie in the lower third of DC DTV films. Better than Public Enemies and almost as good as Doomsday, but no where near as good as New Frontier, JLA Earth 2 etc. If you're looking for an animated action/adventure movie with some meat on its bones, Batman/Superman Apocalypse is not it. If however, you are looking for a beat-em-up action/adventure DTV with tons of action and a story that doesn't require any thought, it's a perfect match. Though I'm not going to recommend this film as a buy, the movie is worth renting as no brainer entertainment (if that's what you're looking for).
