WonderCon 2013: “Superman Unbound” Premiere Review

It’s hard to believe it has been almost seven years since the end of Justice League Unlimited and the start of Warner Brother’s series of straight-to- video animated films; it seems like only yesterday they announced at San Diego Comic Con the imminent  arrival of feature length PG-13 versions of classic comic book stories  Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: The New Frontier and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (I’m sadly still waiting for that last one to appear.) Many cynical geeks out there thought this straight-to- DVD venture would last a couple of years at best, but since then we’ve had sixteen of these films come out, most of which have been pretty damn good. Some have actually even managed to be great.

While Warner Brothers has been downright terrible at getting their non- Batman DC Universe live-action movies off the ground these past several years, in the meantime their animated division has been cranking out great product. Their last release was an excellent two part adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns. After that movie, many fans were left wondering “just how do you top the Dark Knight Returns?” Well, the answer is you don’t even really try, you just keep chugging along and try to make the next movie the best it can be and not try to worry about following up on a classic. The result is Superman: Unbound, which premiered last weekend at Wonder-Con in Anaheim. Once again, Warner Home Video has used Wonder-Con as an opportunity to give fans an early screening of one of their films, which won’t appear on store shelves or on iTunes for another month or so. Judging by the enthusiastic crowd reaction, DC and Warners have another fan favorite on their hands. Superman:Unbound, while not quite a classic, was more than a worthy entry in Warner’s line-up of DC Universe movies…and possibly their best solo Superman entry to date so far.

While Dark Knight Returns was a tough act to follow, Superman: Unbound is still a very entertaining entry into this series of DCU animated movies. Based on writer Geoff Johns’ and artist Gary Frank’s run on Action Comics from issues #866-870  (collected in trade form as Superman: Brainiac) this movie is pretty loosely adapted from that  original story, taking some major story beats and artistic designs from the original comic, but adding several other story points of their own while deleting others.  For example, the movie version has a totally different opening act than the comic, and Pa Kent is nowhere to be found in this movie, just Ma Kent. (SPOILER-in the comic book version, he dies as a result of Brainiac’s attack.) In the original comic story Clark and Lois are already married, while in the movie their dating life leads to much romantic tension and an extra layer the comic story lacked. The end result of all these changes though is that this is maybe the best of the Superman animated movies so far, beating even All Star Superman, which was a fine movie overall, but had to lose way too much of Grant Morrison’s original story to really be totally successful as a seventy minute film. Unbound is also leagues better than the last Superman DTV, Superman Vs. The Elite, which never really came together for me at all, and I kind of view as a pretty big misfire.

The story this time  begins with Lois Lane (played with appropriate dry wit by Stana Katic from the TV series Castle) being kidnapped by dastardly high-jackers yet again, in this instance while usual timely rescuer Superman is out of town (there is some big earthquake somewhere else, conveniently.) This changed opening to the story allows us to be introduced to Supergirl before Superman, who in this version of events is new to Earth and not everyone (especially criminals apparently) are aware that there is another Kryptonian on Earth who can also save kidnapped reporters and deflect bullets. Supergirl helps save Lois, but not before Superman shows up and gives his young cousin Kara a piece of his mind about her always being angry and a bit reckless, and trying to be a super-hero before she was quite ready. She quickly reminds him that unlike with how he grew up, she wasn’t raised on Earth and is still mourning a dead world that, for her, was still alive and kicking some three months back. This version of Supergirl is played by Molly Quinn, also from Castle, and she gives Kara the right dose of teen giddiness (that changes into adolescent angst at the drop of a hat) that makes this version of Kara Zor-El such an good take on Superman’s cute cousin. Unlike other past versions of Supergirl, this one actually evokes the mood swings of a real teenager. Just with heat vision.

We then get some pretty amusing banter between oafish bro-dude (and Daily Planet Sports columnist) Steve Lombard and Lois Lane, where while hitting on her at the office, he begins to wonder just what the real truth behind Clark’s double life might really be (“he’s super fit, but not into sports, dresses well” etc) All suggesting that Clark Kent must of course really be gay (ironically, the actor playing Clark in this is Matt Bomer, who actually IS openly gay, and was also once this close to being cast as Superman in live-action once.) When Clark shows up finally, we find out that Lois and Clark are secretly dating, and he has let her in on the big secret. But while Clark has let Lois in on his true self and and actually started a real relationship with her, their couple-hood must remain a secret from everyone else, lest any bad guy find out the truth about him and use Lois to get to him and blah, blah, blah, -you know the drill.

But this Lois isn’t having any of this “secret relationship” stuff, and lets Clark know it. She’s been getting into (and out of) trouble since before they met, and doesn’t like the new dynamics of their relationship, where Clark clearly has the upper hand and holds all the cards. The dialogue and characterization of Lois and Clark here is very real and pitch perfect, and really, really made me miss their relationship in the comics, before it all got rebooted away by DC, and Lois was replaced with Wonder Woman as Superman’s main squeeze. This seems like an even dumber decision in the wake of the great Lois/Clark chemistry exhibited here by Bomer and Katic. This movie proved once again that Lois and Clark can work as a couple when written the right way.

From here on out the story plays out almost exactly like it did in the original comics, with a robotic probe from alien artificial intelligence Brainiac coming to Earth and fighting Superman, leading Supes to go on an interstellar journey looking for the real thing, as well as the city from Krypton known as Kandor that he miniaturized decades ago  and stole before the planet went bye-bye. The basic designs created by artist Gary Frank for Brainiac from the original comic are used here, as is the look of Brainiac’s ship and all of his drone minions. Frank’s version of Brainiac is maybe the best one yet, combining  elements of all the Brainiacs that came before, with a touch of H.R. Giger and The Matrix, so it was wise of the production team to keep as much of that look as possible. Brainiac is voiced here by Fringe’s John Noble, who is appropriately cold and robotic, but with just the right amount of emotion when the story calls for it. I’m not sure Noble outdoes the voice work of Corey Burton (who voiced the character for Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League) but as with all the voice actors on the Bruce Timm animated series, they are a tough act to follow, as they kind of defined those parts for a whole generation.

More than anything else, it is the brisk pace and non stop action that make this one so fun to watch, and the action in this movie is really top notch and well animated.  Unlike some of the other recent animated versions of Superman, this version of Kal-El does NOT pull his punches (the fact that Brainiac is a robot helps when displaying all the gratuitous destruction and still keeping a PG-13 rating. Luckily for Warners, robots don’t bleed or have internal organs.) In the fight scenes of this movie, you understand why they went with the title Superman: Unbound; without worrying about having to kill anyone, Superman doesn’t waste time and kicks ass and takes names. It’s a blast seeing this version of Superman for a change, the kind that doesn’t hold back and just lets the villains have it every which way possible.

It should be noted that this is producer James Tucker’s first DC Universe Animated film that he has produced and directed; up until now DC animation legend  Bruce Timm has been the executive producer of each of these films, and now his protege Tucker has picked up the mantle to do these. I can say now that the transition has been smooth, as this movie maintains the same quality of all the best of the Timm projects. Still onboard is Andrea Romano, voice director for the ages, and as always she gets great performances out of her cast. It is a shame that each of these movies is a “stand alone,” because I would love to see this group of actors reprise these roles again. Overall, the combination of fun characterization with good voice acting, great fight scenes, and a good villain make this movie worth watching, maybe even a few times over.

Grade: 

Superman: Unbound is released on May 7th, 2013