Rating: ***
Review Date: 11/21/09
Music: Christopher Drake
Cast: Clancy Brown, Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly
As America plunges further into chaos and decay, the unthinkable happens: Lex Luthor is elected as President of The United States. One of his first mandates is to outlaw superheroes and put a one billion dollar bounty on Superman's head. This introduces an endless parade of people who want a piece of the action, and the majority of the film is just mindless brawling. Adding to Superman's troubles is the fact that a large meteor made of Kryptonite is heading towards Earth, which has the potential to wipe out the human race. Luthor has his own plans for the meteor, but the job ultimately falls to the fugitives Superman, Batman, and Power Girl.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the animation style and character design is much different than the previous Batman and Superman animated series. While most of the animation is quite good, the film also suffers from some incredibly poor computer animation, which is disappointing and inexcusable in this day and age. Power Girl's laughably enormous breasts are also inexcusable, and her character is given very little to do other than give doe-eyed looks of bewilderment. The film is basically one long fight sequence, which is sure to please action fans and adrenaline junkies. Christopher Drake's big heroic score perfectly complements the action and stands out as a high point. A handful of obscure villains from The Legion Of Doom also show up, including Giganta, Black Manta, and Soloman Grundy, which definitely made me giggle. The teaming up of Superman and Batman always puzzled me because they operate on completely different levels. Batman is just a guy, whereas Superman and all of his enemies are non-human and ridiculously overpowered. Batman wouldn't stand a chance against any of them, and as a result he is always portrayed as being superpowered when he works with Superman. This unfortunately dilutes his character. The film starts out strong, but sadly falls apart in the last twenty minutes with the introduction of Toy Man. But overall, it's a fun action outing that requires very little thought or attention.