Reign of the Supermen 2019
I recently watched my first DC animated feature, The Death of Superman, which was good, though maybe not as good as a fairly small group of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes said it was. This sequel was not released to theaters and doesn’t have a score, but it would presumably be less. It is not as strong a movie, with less character development and a little too much space magic, characters frequently referencing “advanced tech.” After the events of the previous movie, there are several pretenders (maybe?) calling themselves Superman and fighting crime in Metropolis, and sort of competing with each other. While the earlier movie had some decent character development, this movie is more action oriented and relies too much on sci-fi for the characters and plot. One bad guy’s motivations seems particularly weak. There is still some interest as the mystery of whether Superman can actually still be alive is unraveled (it is hinted that something is up at the end of the first movie). Also there is a continuing story arc that probably makes this required viewing if you are following the 16-film DC Animated Movie Universe (this being the 12th episode of that series). One of my biggest complaints is the poor animation. I noticed one character in the near background walking and his feet were not moving in a way that would do much of anything. These aren’t big budget movies, but they can do better, even if maybe they are trying to reflect comic book artwork more than live action.
Written: 24 Apr 2021