Well then DC fans this is a review I wasn't expecting to be giving you this early (i'm writing this the day before the digital release) I was honestly expecting to do this review the day the film came out on Digital platforms since that's usually when i'd do it anyway but I don't know what the heck happened and the film popped up online a day early and well you know I never miss a chance to see a movie i've been dying to see early. So here is my review of the follow up to last years kind of hit movie The Death Of Superman with Reign Of The Supermen.
The plot of the movie is Six months after the events of the last movie the world is still mourning the death of it;s greatest hero when four new heroes all claiming to be Superman show up. As alot of you will know this film adapts the second half of The Death Of Superman storyline and while I personally havn't read that arc I can say that it's great that Warner Bros Animation decided to re-adapt the book this time splitting it into two movies. How the film handles the storyline is pretty good the story is very easy to follow so you won't get lost at all.
Starring in the movie is Rebecca Romijn as Lois Lane , Rainn Wilson as Lex Luthor , Cameron Monaghan as Superboy , Black Lightning as John Henry Irons / Steel , Patrick Fabian as Hank Henshaw / Cyborg Superman , Jason O'Mara as Batman , Rosario Dawson as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman , Shemar Moore as Victor Stone / Cyborg , Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern , Christopher Gorham as Barry Allen / The Flash , Nyambi Nyambi as John Jones / Martian Manhunter and horror legend Tony Todd as Darkseid.
Now I know that I left out alot of actors but there's alot of people in this movie and I can't just name the ones crucial to the plot because alot of them are. That said tho the acting is actually really good Rainn Wilson makes for a terrifying Lex Luthor and Tony Todd is just great in anything he's in. There was one name that I left out on purpose tho and if you've read the comic book you'll know why but I will say that this actor has been alot of the recent Dc animated films.
Now I can't fond who did the animation for this film but common sense would dictate that it was the same company who did the animation for the previous film. If that is the case then I have to say that in my opinion the animation in this film is a huge step down from what was seen in the previous film. Don't get me wrong it's still great animation but by DC standards it's not that good which is a shame because this storyline really would require the best animation that you can get on a small budget.
I said this in my review of The Death Of Superman but I prefer Superman: Doomsday not only because it was the first DC animated movie I ever bought but because I think it's a great movie. I can see why they did split this story in half because there's no way in hell it could have been done as one movie. Even if your movie is a great movie there still would have been alot of stuff cut out so at here they won't have that issue and they could have included things that people thought was missing from Doomsday.
Speaking of doing this story as one movie that's kind of what DC are planning I say kind of because there re-releasing both films but now they'll be edited together and have new footage added to them. I have to wonder why there even doing that it makes no sense no sense at all and it now means that the people who already have both films on DVD or whatever now might have to go and spend even more money just to see what the extra footage is.
One of the other things that I didn't like about the film was the pacing for me this film felt alot longer then what it really was. This film really didn't need to be an hour and a half especially because it's a second half of a story so if anything it should have been around an hour and fifteen minuets long but that's just my personal opinion. Another kind of issue that I had with the film is that the emotional moments just don't work as well in this film as they did the in the first film and i'm not sure why that even is.
This film does have a lot of humour and rather fittingly alot of the jokes do go to Nathan Fillion's character. I say that because the guy has pitch perfect delivery and can make pretty much anything funny and it helps that the jokes he's got in this film are genuinely quite funny I mean there nothing special but there alot better then anything you'll find in the typical episode of Teen Titans Go and that is a huge plus.
This is a superhero film so that means we have to talk about the action scenes and I honestly think that the action scenes in this movie are kind of dull. There honestly not that bad to look at but when you think about how good that they could have been compared to what we've actually got it does make me feel disappointed and also because DC animated films usually have great fight scenes so to have action scenes here that aren't as good when they so clearly could have been much better is a huge let down in my personal opinion.
I know that this might not go down well with alot of people but I can't help but think that this would make a great live action film. I know they kind of did it in Dawn Of Justice and Justice League but imagine if dawn Of Justice didn't do that storyline at all and Justice League part 1 was basically The Death Of Superman except you don't do it in under two hours you make the film two and a half hours because don't forget you'd still have get the league together. You have part 1 end with the death of Superman and the death of doomsday and then for part 2 it's the return of Superman that to me just sounds awesome.
Like the first movie there kind of is a nod to the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie and unlike the previous film where it's used at a highly emotional moment here it's just done as a joke i'm not going to spoil what it is but if you've seen the 78 movie you'll know what I mean. There's also a rumour to another classic DC live action show and again i'm not going to spoil it but I will say it's not Batman'66 and it involves a WONDERful character and yes that is a huge clue.
Overall this film is not as good as the previous film it is still a good film but it could and should have been so much better and so with all of that in mind the film is getting a 7 out of 10 from me if you want to own the film it's out on DVD and Blu-ray on January 29th.