"Reign of the Supermen" Animated Release Talkback (Spoilers)

[tenderheartbear]

Death of Superman had a DVD only version. I've no idea where it was available from as I'm in the UK and order all my DC animated movies through a market place seller on Amazon.

While I get the UK Blu-ray steelbooks where available, I still like to own the US DVDs as they look great on the shelf. For a while, the German DVDs matched the US ones on the spine (which is all I really care about) but now they've added the WB logo on the spine so everything is moved higher and the characters often made smaller to fit the space. The UK DVDs have been a mess for ages, what with having 2 sets of ratings on the side.

I hope this does have a matching DVD somewhere so I can continue the range.

 

[James Harvey]

Is this not available in DVD ONLY???? All they have in stores are DVD/Bluray 2 pack.

A representative for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment confirmed that there is no "DVD only" edition of Reign of the Supermen available in North America.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I was looking for the DVD version as well (purely out of curiosity)... shocking that they've dropped it. I guess the single DVD releases just weren't selling anymore.

 

[tenderheartbear]

A representative for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment confirmed that there is no "DVD only" edition of Reign of the Supermen available in North America.

Which is odd as it's easy enough to find an official mock-up DVD cover online that Warner produced.

Amazon UK often uses US images for their DC animated titles until a UK version is sent to them. Reign of the Superman was no exception. Title at the top of the spine, Superboy, DVD logo and DC logo both in white. The UK version showing now makes Superboy smaller, adds 2 rating certificates and the WB logo at the bottom.

 

[Yojimbo]

I just realized that President Joan Dale, in addition to being Miss America in the comics, was the First Lady in "Justice League War". We were never given her name in that movie and her husband, the President at the time - we only knew his first name was Julian. So in-universe, in she won the 2016 election and succeeded her husband.

Was those robot army human suppose to be knock off manhunters?

With the New Gods in mind, the Cyber Corps reminded me of Doctor Bedlam's Animates.

I was disappointed. I expected change, but a lot of it seemed unnecessary. It didn’t flow well to me. I really, really wish they’d left Darkseid out and just had Cyborg as the main villain.

Didn't they? Cyborg Superman took over and cut ties with Darkseid and became the nominal threat in the end. Smartly, they kept Darkseid in an Emperor role. More Empire Strikes Back than hands-on Return of the Jedi in that he was the puppet master but ultimately left to be dealt with in a future movie.

But I thought "Reign" was worse. On top of already having 4 new Supermen to introduce, we didn't need significant time for the JL or to have Darkseid unnecessarily shoved in when Cyborg would have made a perfectly good villain on his own. Making Doomsday and Cyborg part of an elaborate (and stupid) plan for him to invade...it felt rushed and somewhat out of character. We've had past invasions where his boom tubes open and his forces arrive. Why the hell would he need to turn the populace into cybernetic puppets just to open up a portal? Especially since all it took to stymie him was closing it again. And Cyborg can rip stuff out from his head and chest and then just continue like nothing?

This part of the story relies on you remembering Justice League War, imo. In War, Darkseid used his tried and true direct approach - he sent Parademons with Mother Boxes straight to Earth to establish a beach head and bring in forces from multiple breach points ala Boom Tubes. That failed.

So here in Death+Reign, Darkseid went with the indirect route. Bioengineer an assassin and kill Superman then find a puppet for phase 2. He was able prey on Hank Henshaw's petty anger to convert him into Cyborg Superman as a homegrown warrior (a bit too ISIS) to sneak in a Mother Box. Then he used the Parademons at the launch gala to trick the rest of the Justice League into an ambush and get rid of them, which would then manipulate the masses to agree to Cyborg Superman's proposal and unknowingly become homegrown Mother Boxes for Darkseid and when the time came, Cyborg Superman uses the master Mother Box in his chest to turn the Cyber Corps into a mega Boom Tube and... bob goes your uncle, Earth is wiped out.

 

[Frontier]

Overall, I really, really, enjoyed this movie, and I feel like this and Death make for both an excellent double-feature adaption in it's own right as well as strong, individual, Superman movies. Which is nice to be able to say after the long drought of Superman films since Unbound (and Man of Steel, even). I think this has definitely been one of the strongest of the in-continuity films in my opinion, and I hope they can keep up the quality moving forward .

Obviously there's a lot more they had to condense in this movie, and I certainly wouldn't posit it as a completely 1-to-1 faithful adaption as I'm sure some would have hoped, but all around I felt they captured all the important beats and elements from the Reign/Return stories (particularly the Supermen) and delivered them well into the Animated Feature continuity. I hope the same holds true for Batman: Hush later this year .

Did anyone else feel like the animation in the film was particularly strong and on-point? I know there are those who feel the animation in the Feature films hasn't been as strong as they used to be, but I thought this was visually one of the strongest of the Animated Feature line in a while, with the characters all looking good and on-model, the character beats were all conveyed well, and the action sequences were all fluid and dynamic .

I love that you could make a convincing argument that Lois Lane is basically the main character of this film, maybe even moreso then Superman himself. We got to see Lois really involve herself in the plot in an active way and use her Ace reporter skills to uncover the mystery of the Supermen, and casually infiltrating her way past security after security. Lois even proves invaluable in Superman's eventual overcoming of Cyborg-Superman, surviving some Heat Vision blasts in the process. I recall the criticisms of the Wonder Woman relationship in past movies (and in general) was that it downplayed Lois' role and importance in the Superman mythos, so it was awesome to see these movies really re-emphasize all of that in a strong way and showcase just how awesome Lois Lane is .

I loved Superboy in this. I mean, I enjoy Conner on Young Justice too, but it was really great to see an adaption of Superboy that captured what he was like from his inception as this hotshot, fun, "stud" who grew as a hero in trying to emulate Superman and not his "other dad." Both visually and in personality this was a very faithful adaption of 90's and late Post-Crisis Superboy, and I think Cameron Monaghan did a great job injecting a lot of personality and youthfulness into the Metropolis kid. I was expecting Superman would send him to live with the Kents, but I hope we get to see Conner again soon. Maybe he can join the Titans ?

I thought the movie had a solid take on Steel. John Henry Irons is a good and smart man who tries to do good and honor Superman in his own way, and the movie captured that quite well. He doesn't have the more exaggerated personalities of the other Supermen, but that's just who he is. Steel also looked really cool in action even if it felt like he spent most of the movie getting the tar kicked out of him, but I guess he did help Lex bring the League back .

I felt Eradicator was really cool in this movie, being this cold, logical, and insurmountable individual (seriously, he doesn't lose a single fight in this movie). Pretty impressive for an AI intended to be a nanny, huh? Really, Eradicator was kind of the MVP for Superman in this movie, creating the Fortress of Solitude, helping restore Superman, giving him the Kel-Ex robots, and then ultimately being the key to stopping Henshaw. I was half-expecting him to give Supes Krypto and Supergirl on-top of that .

I thought this movie really did Cyborg-Superman/Henshaw justice. There's an element of tragedy to his character as someone who lost his family and everything he held dear, but then there's also the insanity of how he directs all his violent and negative feelings regarding that into a hatred of Superman and obsession with killing him. A hatred that's furthered by his belief that Superman "failed" him and his family. I felt Patrick Fabian did a great job of capturing Henshaw's complex feelings and pure hatred for Superman, especially once the vocal switch happened between him and O'Connel after Lois revealed she knew the truth .

I thought the Darkseid element worked to help make the story more cohesive between Doomsday and Cyborg-Superman as well as tie-in to the continuity of the Animated Feature line and potentially move the movies into a new direction going forward. It was also really nice to hear Tony Todd as Darkseid, as he does a pretty strong take on the lord of Apokolips .

I wonder if they're going to follow up on Godfrey showing up in the beginning of the movie. I guess if they want to develop the conflict with Apokolips more they can seed him in different movies, bandying hate and distrust in the heroes, because otherwise it felt like he was just there to be there. Maybe the next Justice League movie will be an adaption of Legends?

I'm glad the Justice League wasn't just in this movie to get taken out by the villain of the month like they usually are in these movies, even if they did get transported out of the plot. Still, I thought the League was handled well for the scenes they were in and had some fun moments, like Batman authorizing GL to fire on Superboy or Hal being kind of robo-racist to Cyborg .

Did Cyborg's body look different to anybody? It seemed shinier and newer compared to past movies, at least to me .

I feel like the Justice League trapped in space would've been the perfect spot to throw in a Mongul cameo just as a nod to the comics, but that's just the fanboy in me. And don't hide behind Wonder Woman Barry .

I wonder if we're ever going to hear Hawkman talk. Maybe they'll bring in Hawkgirl as his "translator" ?

Lois and Wonder Woman's meeting was a really nice moment. Watching these two bond over the loss of Clark and come together as strong women in their own right was pretty nice to see, and I like seeing them developing a friendship. I also liked that the Kryptonian Eradicator was the Superman who Diana preferred .

Although it felt kind of disrespectful to Cat for Lois to say she's never had a "girlfriend" before, since that feels like exactly what Cat was to her by the end of Death .

I also feel bad for Wonder Woman that she doesn't seem to have very many female friends on Man's World. There aren't that many major established female heroes in this universe, or at least that are on the League (I guess Zatanna turned Batman down?), so she doesn't have many she can hang out with. She and Mera should join up for a date or something, and hey, maybe she'll meet Etta Candy in Bloodlines ?

It's cool that they worked in the Wonder Woman transformation sequence. I also thought Diana looked really good with her hair down, short-lived as it was

Rocky Caroll made a surprisingly good Perry White in the one scene he was in. We even got a "Great Ceasar's Ghost" and "Don't call me Chief" out of him !

It would've been nice to see Jimmy do a little more, which is one element where I feel like this movie faltered a little compared to Doomsday, where Jimmy felt like more of an integral character. Here he really does just kind of stand around, which feels like a waste of Max Mittelman. But at least the rest of the supporting cast felt well-utilized in my opinion, especially Bibbo .

I thought it was neat how, intentional or not, they incorporated an element from the original ending for Superman: Doomsday where Superman is recharged with solar radiation to be able to beat the evil Superman .

I have to say, I wasn't really sold on him at first, but Rainn Wilson has really won me over as Lex Luthor. He just does a really great job of capturing what an egotistical, condescending, elitist, selfish tool Luthor is. I love how he seemed so annoyed at virtually everything going around him, especially Superboy. His reaction to the revived Superman was priceless .

Poor Dabney Donovan. And apparently he was married, which I guess make it doubly sad (even though he was planning to cheat on her with Lois)? Although you kind of have to wonder who would wind up marrying a guy like Donovan...

Poor Mercy. Used as a human shield by Lex. But at least she survived (thanks to Superboy) .

Poor Becky. Her purse gets stolen twice, her boyfriend becomes a brainwashed cyborg soldier, and then he dies once the heroes save the day. Not a good couple of days for her .

I'm glad to see them integrate the Superman Reborn costume for Superman's post-revival suit, since I felt like it was a pretty awesome costume that was short-lived what with them bringing back the classic look. Given this is pretty similar to the outfit Supes is currently sporting in Young Justice, I wonder what are the chances that Wonder Woman will don her Outsiders costume for Wonder Woman: Bloodlines ?

The League planning to take the fight to Darkseid is certainly an interesting note to end on, especially depending on what it might lead to in future movies. I don't expect we'll see it immediately followed up on, since the next two in-continuity films seem to be smaller scale solo features, but it does give me the sense that the next Justice League movie will be very Kirby/New Gods-centric .

I love how Luthor just forces himself onto the Justice League, complete in his Legion of Doom costume. That's so going to end well .

That's neat they made Joan Dale aka Miss America in the comics, the new President.

I thought she had to be somebody from the comics, but I completely forgot about the civilian identity of Miss America. Fitting to make the female President of the DCU Miss America (JSA movie when?) .

At first when I heard "Joan" I thought Joan Garrick was President .

I also think this is the third or fourth DC continuity with a female President (I know Earth-1 and Earth-38 in the Arrowverse both have female Presidents).

I just realized that President Joan Dale, in addition to being Miss America in the comics, was the First Lady in "Justice League War". We were never given her name in that movie and her husband, the President at the time - we only knew his first name was Julian. So in-universe, in she won the 2016 election and succeeded her husband.

Ha! Nice bit of continuity. That stuff is always cool to see in an ongoing continuity (and makes the animated movies doing this type of continuity worth it in my opinion) .

I also guess that makes President Dale a successful Hillary Clinton...which makes me wonder if Lex ran against her at some point (I know, I know, I couldn't resist).

Didn't they? Cyborg Superman took over and cut ties with Darkseid and became the nominal threat in the end. Smartly, they kept Darkseid in an Emperor role. More Empire Strikes Back than hands-on Return of the Jedi in that he was the puppet master but ultimately left to be dealt with in a future movie.

I thought that was fairly in-line with the original Reign/Return storyline where Mongul comes in as a purported "Big Bad" and then you get the reveal that Cyborg-Superman is the true villain of the story.

True Darkseid is basically behind Cyborg-Superman and his plan, but then Henshaw basically screws Darkseid over and becomes the real threat for the heroes, so I think they did right by him there.

 

[Yojimbo]

Did anyone else feel like the animation in the film was particularly strong and on-point? I know there are those who feel the animation in the Feature films hasn't been as strong as they used to be, but I thought this was visually one of the strongest of the Animated Feature line in a while, with the characters all looking good and on-model, the character beats were all conveyed well, and the action sequences were all fluid and dynamic .

Maven puts out some great animation. They and Studio Mir from The Death of Superman are some strong contenders and are way better than the go to overseas studios WBA uses a lot, imo.

I love that you could make a convincing argument that Lois Lane is basically the main character of this film, maybe even moreso then Superman himself. We got to see Lois really involve herself in the plot in an active way and use her Ace reporter skills to uncover the mystery of the Supermen

I loved that bit where she broke into Steel's hideout and was just waiting for him to come back, then pointed out it was super obvious who he was.

I loved Superboy in this. I mean, I enjoy Conner on Young Justice too, but it was really great to see an adaption of Superboy that captured what he was like from his inception as this hotshot, fun, "stud" who grew as a hero in trying to emulate Superman and not his "other dad." Both visually and in personality this was a very faithful adaption of 90's and late Post-Crisis Superboy, and I think Cameron Monaghan did a great job injecting a lot of personality and youthfulness into the Metropolis kid. I was expecting Superman would send him to live with the Kents, but I hope we get to see Conner again soon. Maybe he can join the Titans ?

Totally agree with all this.

League was handled well for the scenes they were in and had some fun moments, like Batman authorizing GL to fire on Superboy or Hal being kind of robo-racist to Cyborg .

Yeah, they had some of the funnier lines. "Those aren't stars" "What are they?" "Hungry."

Did Cyborg's body look different to anybody? It seemed shinier and newer compared to past movies, at least to me .

That's the 'Zoolander' in Phil Bourassa. He seems to tweak designs subtly to slightly noticeable. I believe in past movies, Cyborg had red on his circles but this movie was light blue and you saw the pipings on his ribs light up during the fight with the Parademons.

I feel like the Justice League trapped in space would've been the perfect spot to throw in a Mongul cameo just as a nod to the comics, but that's just the fanboy in me. And don't hide behind Wonder Woman Barry .

Devil's advocate, why not just boom them directly into deep space and hopefully kill a few before GL makes a bubble? Sending them on a one way trip to monster planet seemed random.

Although it felt kind of disrespectful to Cat for Lois to say she's never had a "girlfriend" before, since that feels like exactly what Cat was to her by the end of Death .

Eh, work friend. Not friend friend.

I also feel bad for Wonder Woman that she doesn't seem to have very many female friends on Man's World. There aren't that many major established female heroes in this universe, or at least that are on the League (I guess Zatanna turned Batman down?), so she doesn't have many she can hang out with. She and Mera should join up for a date or something, and hey, maybe she'll meet Etta Candy in Bloodlines ?

That bothered me. They went to the trouble of mentioning the Titans were busy helping take up the slack but they didn't do the same with the Dark cast - Zatanna or Constantine could have easily cast a locator spell to find the League. To a lesser extent, the extended Bat Family. They cameoed Alfred, Damian, and Titus in Death after all.

It's cool that they worked in the Wonder Woman transformation sequence. I also thought Diana looked really good with her hair down, short-lived as it was

That had to have been dictated from James Tucker.

It would've been nice to see Jimmy do a little more, which is one element where I feel like this movie faltered a little compared to Doomsday, where Jimmy felt like more of an integral character. Here he really does just kind of stand around, which feels like a waste of Max Mittelman.

It was crowded enough. Ron Troupe had an arc in the comic but he had just the line here. And they totally exicised Tana Moon from the movie.

I have to say, I wasn't really sold on him at first, but Rainn Wilson has really won me over as Lex Luthor. He just does a really great job of capturing what an egotistical, condescending, elitist, selfish tool Luthor is. I love how he seemed so annoyed at virtually everything going around him, especially Superboy. His reaction to the revived Superman was priceless .

Me, too. I clicked with me like, this is kind of his hat tip to Gene Hackman yet still trying to maintain the more modern interpretations of Lex. Justifiably annoyed. The 'Superman 2.0.1 -- that was horrible--I'll throw it marketing to sort out' made me chuckle. It was a nice surprise he showed a speck of humanity when he admitted to Lois he hoped Superman was alive.

Poor Becky. Her purse gets stolen twice, her boyfriend becomes a brainwashed cyborg soldier, and then he dies once the heroes save the day. Not a good couple of days for her .

Unexpected part of the cast, a random couple in Metropolis. That a grim homage to the end of Death of Superman with Lois clutching Superman, but here with Becky finding Eric's body. I guess that was the answer to the 'we have to be our own heroes' -- a big nope.

I love how Luthor just forces himself onto the Justice League, complete in his Legion of Doom costume. That's so going to end well .

Well, remember the Luthor-Orm end tag? I'm like 50:50 that part of Luthor showing up was a gag, but I recall reading in the recent comics he did join the JL or something.

I thought she had to be somebody from the comics, but I completely forgot about the civilian identity of Miss America. Fitting to make the female President of the DCU Miss America (JSA movie when?) .

Ha! Nice bit of continuity. That stuff is always cool to see in an ongoing continuity (and makes the animated movies doing this type of continuity worth it in my opinion) .

Agreed.

I also guess that makes President Dale a successful Hillary Clinton...which makes me wonder if Lex ran against her at some point (I know, I know, I couldn't resist).

Eh, let's not compare her to Clinton.

 

[Frontier]

Maven puts out some great animation. They and Studio Mir from The Death of Superman are some strong contenders and are way better than the go to overseas studios WBA uses a lot, imo.

Good to know! I hope WB uses them more often .

I loved that bit where she broke into Steel's hideout and was just waiting for him to come back, then pointed out it was super obvious who he was.

I love where she just turns up in Luthor's penthouse to see Superboy with virtually no explanation .

Yeah, they had some of the funnier lines. "Those aren't stars" "What are they?" "Hungry."

"Zippy? Wait...did he just say 'Chillax'?" .

That's the 'Zoolander' in Phil Bourassa. He seems to tweak designs subtly to slightly noticeable. I believe in past movies, Cyborg had red on his circles but this movie was light blue and you saw the pipings on his ribs light up during the fight with the Parademons.

You can even justify it plotwise by saying he upgraded himself after the fight with Doomsday .

Devil's advocate, why not just boom them directly into deep space and hopefully kill a few before GL makes a bubble? Sending them on a one way trip to monster planet seemed random.

Considering Darkseid wanted to kill Superman himself once he learned Supes was alive, I think it's possible he was expecting to keep the League alive long enough to bring them back to a conquered planet Earth .

Eh, work friend. Not friend friend.

Ah. The classic distinction .

That bothered me. They went to the trouble of mentioning the Titans were busy helping take up the slack but they didn't do the same with the Dark cast - Zatanna or Constantine could have easily cast a locator spell to find the League. To a lesser extent, the extended Bat Family. They cameoed Alfred, Damian, and Titus in Death after all.

Yeah, it's the kind of problem you get with these kinds of sequential movies when you start building up the cast and the universe so much that there's only so much you can address (I mean, Aquaman vanished and we have no idea where Shazam's been since ToA) .

That had to have been dictated from James Tucker.

I expect we'll see it again in Bloodlines .

It was crowded enough. Ron Troupe had an arc in the comic but he had just the line here. And they totally exicised Tana Moon from the movie.

Yeah. Hopefully if we ever get in-continuity another Superman movie we can shine a spotlight on the rest of the supporting cast a tad more .

Me, too. I clicked with me like, this is kind of his hat tip to Gene Hackman yet still trying to maintain the more modern interpretations of Lex. Justifiably annoyed. The 'Superman 2.0.1 -- that was horrible--I'll throw it marketing to sort out' made me chuckle. It was a nice surprise he showed a speck of humanity when he admitted to Lois he hoped Superman was alive.

I honestly thought that was probably the most genuine moment with Luthor in the whole movie...not that it stopped him from being annoyed to see the Man of Steel alive again. But he's Lex Luthor, so what can you expect ?

Unexpected part of the cast, a random couple in Metropolis. That a grim homage to the end of Death of Superman with Lois clutching Superman, but here with Becky finding Eric's body. I guess that was the answer to the 'we have to be our own heroes' -- a big nope.

I think the answer was more "you can be your own heroes, just not by getting powers from a menacing cyborg-man" .

Well, remember the Luthor-Orm end tag? I'm like 50:50 that part of Luthor showing up was a gag, but I recall reading in the recent comics he did join the JL or something.

I think Rainn Wilson teased Luthor joining the League. If he is in Batman: Hush, as the leaked cast suggests, I imagine we'll get a better idea of where they're moving with his character .

Eh, let's not compare her to Clinton.

Yeah, probably for the best ...

 

[Yojimbo]

Good to know! I hope WB uses them more often .

2/3: Me, too. It was a pleasant surprise to see Studio Mir did "Nightmare Monkeys" for YJ.

You can even justify it plotwise by saying he upgraded himself after the fight with Doomsday .

Good point.

I expect we'll see it again in Bloodlines .

I expect we'll see the inside of Diana's freezer stuffed with the same flavor of ice cream.

Yeah. Hopefully if we ever get in-continuity another Superman movie we can shine a spotlight on the rest of the supporting cast a tad more .

Just more Superman movies period.

I think Rainn Wilson teased Luthor joining the League. If he is in Batman: Hush, as the leaked cast suggests, I imagine we'll get a better idea of where they're moving with his character .

True, but I've learned to be skeptical of leaked cast lists.

3/10: The Numbers reported Reign did $1.6 million in DVD+Blu-Ray sales in its first week.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

3/10: The Numbers reported Reign did $1.6 million in DVD+Blu-Ray sales in its first week.

Much less than The Death of Superman, but that was to be expected. Hopefully, it's held steady these past few weeks.

WB is not really helping it's physical media sales.

 

[Frontier]

WB is not really helping it's physical media sales.

I wonder if it's less not helping themselves and more just realizing that they get better returns from digital sales then physical ?

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I wonder if it's less not helping themselves and more just realizing that they get better returns from digital sales then physical ?

Most likely... I suppose they know what they're doing.

 

[Yojimbo]

I wonder if it's less not helping themselves and more just realizing that they get better returns from digital sales then physical ?

Hard to say but I'd speculate this is raw numbers like gross sales and there's a lot of financial calculations that I'm going to bore you to death about so that sales of this title can be accurately compared to a past one like Death of.

And yes, we don't know how much of the pie this is compared to digital sales. Even that data probably gets muddled now that it's offered on DC Universe in addition to current venues like Amazon or iTunes. I'm always curious how much of a true sales amount they are able to gather for digital sales. Or does a lot go unreported.

 

[Frontier]

All in all, I at least hope sales between Death and Reign are enough to convince WB to do more Superman animated movies, in-continuity or otherwise .

I mean, supposedly we have Red Son coming up, but hopefully that won't be the last .

 

[Fone Bone]

Reign Of The Supermen

Okay, I have mixed feelings about that. But it doesn't change the fact that I loved and still love the first movie. This does not diminish the first part for me.

But it's confusing. People were able to follow this in the comic books? This had a whole bunch of characters I didn't know in situations I didn't really understand all that well. Okay, so Lex is joining the Justice League in the next movie? I dunno, the whole enterprise was outright weird.

I laughed at Lex believing that with Superman gone, he'd be Lois' rebound. Nice try.

"Excuse me, do you mind if we kick your ass?" was a terrific action movie one-liner. I loved it.

Ultimately, that was fun, but I'm not really sure what happened or why Superman isn't dead. It doesn't take from the first part, but it was all a bit much for me. ***1/2.

 

[Batboy84]

But it's confusing. People were able to follow this in the comic books?

If you thought that was confusing, the original story featured the destruction of Coast City, setting up Hal Jordan going down the whole "turn evil except not really because fans didn't take too kindly to the idea of a legacy character going crazy" thing, which by the way was all done by Mongul so that he could begin rebuilding his home planet in the city's ruins. Also, Superman got his powers back because Eradicator shielded him from kryptonite gas, killing Eradicator, but his death apparently evolved the gas so that when it passed into Superman, powers restored.

 

[Frontier]

They really had to condense a lot of the Supermen's respective plots and stories to keep the movie and plot to anything close to consistent and straightforward.

 

[DarkAngel]

Okay, I have mixed feelings about that. But it doesn't change the fact that I loved and still love the first movie. This does not diminish the first part for me.

I thought it stunk. You're right, it doesn't diminish the first part. In fact, I found the first flawed, but in comparison to this, it comes across stronger.

But it's confusing. People were able to follow this in the comic books? This had a whole bunch of characters I didn't know in situations I didn't really understand all that well.

The comics had more room to work with and to expand/develop the storylines. This relatively short movie on the other hand...its my big criticism. I found none of the magic or thrill of the comics. Less coherence. Odd creative choices given the limited time to work with. I'm very disappointed in this.

 

[Frontier]

The comics had more room to work with and to expand/develop the storylines. This relatively short movie on the other hand...its my big criticism. I found none of the magic or thrill of the comics. Less coherence. Odd creative choices given the limited time to work with. I'm very disappointed in this.

Thye definitely had to condense things down, but I thought they did as admirable a job of doing each Superman's respective story justice and having it all come togethr with what limited amount of run time they had to work with.

But that's just me .

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Way late to the party.

I dunno, maybe if I saw this movie in 2007, I would've been a bigger fan. I'm just really worn out by death/resurrection Superman stories. I'm also extremely bored by stories where Superman has to fight other heroes (particularly Batman...) so having seen the Hush trailer today, I guess I'm going to continue being somewhat weary from DC animated movies.

It's ok. I think Death did a better job of distilling the comic into a 70-minute cartoon because it's a far less complicated story, but something about this movie relative to the comic storyline was so underwhelming. The 2007 Superman: Doomsday movie was essentially a Lois Lane story, and it worked perfectly fine IMO. This time, though, I felt they really wasted screen time that should've gone to the other Supermen. It also didn't help me that I found the action climax scene kind of rushed, like all Superman needed to do to get his powers restored was to be exposed to sunlight for 10 seconds. People used to joke that 2013's Man of Steel looked for whatever stupid reason to inject Lois into an action scene, and I largely disagreed with those arguments. But this movie? I feel like it was too much, especially since this was the time to let us get to know the other Supermen better.

I didn't come into this movie unbiased, as I've said I'm simply uninterested in the Big Three of Superman stories (origin/death/fight Batman) these days. I should be glad that they brought back a Superman solo-ish film after a five-year hiatus, but I feel like we simply got something a little better than recent DCEU offerings.