When I heard that there was going to be a direct-to-video, full-length animated Superman movie, I was very excited: the animated Superman is one of the best portrayals of the Man of Steel, his family, his friends, his enemies (I can’t wait for the next volume of Superman, coming next week, along with Superman: Brainiac Attacks). Superman: Brainiac Attacks also has the voice of Tim Daly, returning to voice Superman after many years.

Unfortunately, the film fails on nearly every level. While Tim Daly still does a great Superman, the normal voices of Lex Luthor and Brainiac are nowhere to be heard. And, truthfully, no one does Lex Luthor like Clancy Brown (and Powers Boothe does a poor job in this movie). But it is probably good he wasn’t doing the voice, since the Luthor in this movie isn’t very similar to the one from the series (or from the Justice League series). It’s like they wanted to tie this film into Superman Returns, so Luthor is more comedic, less threatening; the Fortress of Solitude seems straight out of the Donner movie; Brainiac seems much less robotic and, therefore, much less threatening.

There’s a lot of Superman doing stupid things (like repeatedly getting hit by the same weapon over and over and over), and a pointless trip into the Phantom Zone. There’s a cute subplot of Lois trying to get Jimmy to look beyond a co-workers glasses to see her inner beauty, but Jimmy only has eyes for Luthor’s henchbabe, Mercy.

Ultimately, though, there’s just not enough that’s good in the movie to recommend it. It’s only related to the animated series on a superficial level, and it just doesn’t seem epic enough, considering what we’ve seen Luthor and Brainiac do in the Justice League. So catch this one on the Cartoon Network if you have an hour or so to waste, but avoid buying it.

Technorati Tags: Superman, Luthor, Brainiac

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 18th, 2006 at 8:17 pm and is filed under DC Comics, Entertainment, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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