DC Universe Original Animated Movies

There's quite a few films in the DCUAM lineup, the majority of which are actually very good and if you're a fan should definitely check out. What are your thoughts on the ones you saw, and which were your favorites/least favorites?

My favorites were:

The Dark Knight Returns Part 2, the last of the movies to come out. The first Dark Knight Returns I thought was decent and I guess pretty solid, but due to the Mutant Leader being kind of a meh villain I wouldn't put it on my top list. I liked it over Year One which I thought was a little boring and paced badly, but part 2 surpasses both of them for me easily, and brings us the nastiest Joker yet in animation, though due to THAT real life event, one scene in particular seems a bit Harsher in Hindsight and is kind of disturbing. Superman + Batman tends to equal win for me, and their face-off is pretty awesome. My only dislike is that a few parts parts were a little silly( Joker's mind control lipstick, Batman riding in on a his high horse into Gotham and giving a LETZ WORK TOGETHER speech, a little corny there lol) and that Batman/Joker's VA aren't at their best. They do a solid enough job though. But really, I thought this was worth watching more thanDarkKnightRises, and if that film left a sour taste in your mouth, maybe this one can relive it.

Batman Under The Red Hood is probably one of the most popular of the DCAM, and for good reason, it's awesome! Black mask is hilarious, Joker is awesome(though VA not the best), Nightwing is in it, the action scenes rock and the confrontations between Red Hood and Bats are very well done. This was probably the first DC animated movie where I REALLY really enjoyed it, and got me saying, alright, "DC beats Marvel when it comes to this stuff at least." Red hood was such a badass.

Now let's not let Bats get all the credit, old Supes has got some winners as well. I mentioned before how I love seeing these guys together, and while Superman Batman Apocalypse would imply it's about both, it's really focused a bit more on Supes and Supergirl. This film kind of changed my opinion on Supes a little and got me more interested in him and Supergirl. Darkseid is the villain here so you know it's going to be entertaining at the very least, and while the artowk was a little odd looking at first I ended up enjoying the film a lot, and it's definitely one of my favorites from DC. The final battle is pretty awesome, in fact just about all the fights were pretty well done(especially the ladies).The story isn't particularly fantastic or anything but it's at the very least a fun watch.

However, I have to say Superman Vs The Elite is the best superman animated film yet, even if the artstyle is kind of ugly. Superman looks Off-Model majority of the movie which is ew, but the Kingdom Come references, Manchester Black, and much of the writing is pretty great, even if the humor is a bit lowbrow sometimes(though usually still funny). It was really cool seeing Superman's/Manchester's ethics questioned and de-constructed(HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE DECONSTRUCTED!?), and the climax doubles as a Crowning Moment Of Awesome with a little Nightmare Fuel mixed in as well. This one would probably be in my top 3 for sure.

While I think the Justce League movies weren't on the same level as the best Batman/Superman ones, they were still pretty good with Justice League Crisis On Two Earths being my favorite. I remember first laughing at the Psycho Rangers version of the league(the Owl? really?) but they actually ended up being pretty cool characters and overall the concept, while a little cheesy at first glance, worked well for a pretty fun to watch package. Admittedly out of the ones I listed here it was the only one I watched once(instead of more than once) and it's been while, so I don't know if my opinion on it would change but it was certainly better than Doom, which was alright but not as good as it should've been.

As for my least favorite...All Star Superman. Doomsday was decent, but ASS(lol fitting acronym) was pretty boring and I didn't care for the story or villains too much. In fact it was everything I didn't like about Supes wrapped in one package. It felt meh compared to the other ones.

Strangely enough, I can't remember Public Enemies too much and would have to watch it again. I think ASS is the worst of the ones I've seen, though most fans say the Green lantern one was the worst by far. I haven't seen Wonder Woman but I heard it was good. I gotta see Justice League the New Frontier as well, though the artstyle kind of turns me off a little. But so did SVTE.

edited 22nd Feb '13 2:19:10 PM by Vertigo_High

Well, all the 'spoilered' parts you didn't like about DKR came from the original comicbook story, for what it's worth.

Yeah, that can be a problem sometimes. For instance, I didn't care for Superman/Batman: Apokolips, but most of what I didn't like about it can be laid at the feet of whoever wrote the original comic it was based on (his name escapes me — or I could be blocking it out).

Wasn't it Loeb?

Yeah, but that series was good. Before he got into his Creator Breakdown.

edited 9th Feb '13 5:35:42 PM by 3of4

IIRC it was just before his Creator Breakdown. His son died just a few storylines after that, didn't he? Terrible thing to happen...

edited 9th Feb '13 5:37:54 PM by KnownUnknown

Yeah. One issue was actually written bis his son, if I remember correctly.

Loeb's Superman/Batman was good if you like big and bombastic Rule of Cool stupid overblown fun. At worst it was So Bad It's Good, while things like his Wolverine run and Ultimatum just were So Bad It's Horrible.

Just as a for instance, in Superman/Batman: Apokolips, it felt like Batman was only there because his name was in the title; he really isn't given much to do until nearly the end. The scene where Wonder Woman and some Amazon's show up to abduct Supergirl in the interest of training her is so mind-numbingly stupid and out of character (she couldn't just call Clark and ASK to train Kara? How did she THINK he'd react to an abduction?)that I literally had to rewind it and watch it again to make sure I'd seen it right. Conflict for the sake of conflict ala "Let's have all our principles fight, even though it makes absolutely no sense!"

Sorry about the spoilered parts, I didn't realize I did the mark up wrong. Fixed. Blegh how silly of me <_<

The new Brainiac movie looks cool.

Who whoa?

What new Braniac movie?

There's going to be a Flashpoint movie and a Brainiac vs. Superman one adapting the shortly-before-DC-reboot arc where Brainiac ends up killing Pa Kent, apparently.

An adaptaion of the Superman:Brainiac arc by Johns

in my opinion, the dark knight returns movies are, by far, the best batman movies to come out in the past five years.

I still like Under the Red Hood better than the Dark Knight adaptations. Dark Knight is...impressive. And the story is historically important. But it's also still a gigantic mess of a narrative.

Flashpoint would be interesting but they'll have to streamline a lot of it for it to even remotely make sense as a done-in-one story. It relied pretty heavily on tie-ins and spin-off books.

Yeah - Flashpoint seems like a really odd choice. I mean, technically, it's the modern equivalent to Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would have gotten a movie if these things were made in the 80's...but...it's just such a big story.

At least it's a Flash-centric story, instead of yet another "Batman, guest starring the Justice League" movie like Doom and Crisis on Two Earths. (Moreso the former than the latter.)

Flash huh? Well that's certainly interesting then, looking forward to it.

Vertigo high:how does it feel being deconstructed Supes?

Superman: oh, i do not know, probably just like the last 7869586958 times it happened. and they did not even made a good job this time! they totally chickened out halfway through.

Another Animated ‘Wonder Woman’ Movie Is on the Way

http://screencrush.com/animated-wonder-woman-incoming/