2013 is a huge year for the big blue boy scout in a number of ways. There’s a little movie called Man of Steel that seems to be rocketing Superman back into the public’s consciousness as well as their good favor. The mega-team of Scott Snyder and Jim Lee will be launching a much buzzed about all new comic series in June entitled Superman Unchained, all of which falls under the year long celebration of The Last Son of Krypton’s 75th anniversary.
But really it all kicks off today with the release of DC Universe Animated film Superman: Unbound and it’s no surprise that Warner Bros wanted to focus on a solo Superman adventure for their latest release to whet the appetites of fans anxiously awaiting his upcoming major blockbuster.
The subject matter DC tackled this time out is one I’m quite fond of: Geoff Johns & Gary Franks Superman: Brainanic storyline from their 2008 Action Comics run. The Brainiac/Krypton origin story has been told even in the animated form quite a bit in both Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League, so some of it feels like a retread with the biggest difference this time out being the incorporation of Supergirl and Kandor (or The Bottled City of…).
[pullquote_left]The story goes some interesting places with Supergirl/Kara Zor-El.[/pullquote_left]The story goes some interesting places with Supergirl/Kara Zor-El played by Castle’s Molly Quinn while broaching some interesting topics about how different she is from her cousin Superman/Kal-El. She grew up powerless on Krypton and developed within that culture then lived to see it massacred by Brainiac and then her whole planet destroyed (a clever little writer’s trick had Brainiac leave Krypton, rather than destroy it after bottling Kandor due to sensing its impending self-doom). So suddenly having to live among humans on Earth and hold back on her powers because her “younger” cousin said so is a tough one to stomach for Kara, especially when a Brainiac scout shows up on Earth. She has no desire to feel so powerless as she did during his invasion ever again.
The story plays it pretty close to the source material and the animation by DC is again top-notch and beautiful – there’s really no way to perfectly capture the creepiness and mood of Gary Frank’s original art from Action Comics, but its still a valiant effort. Additionally, I’m not sure what Warner Bros. Animation’s long-term plans are but a few things including a post-credits Easter egg definitely leave the door open to sequels to this film by doing the New Krypton Saga which I’ve longed to see in animated form.
[pullquote_right]Matt Bomer doesn’t physically get to don the cape but still puts his stamp on the role.[/pullquote_right]Andrea Romano does another inspired job with the voice casting and finds an excellent fit in Matt Bomer (White Collar) as Clark Kent/Superman. Interesting super-fact: It was down to Bomer and Brandon Routh to star in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns – the latter obviously won out, but Bomer brings a more feisty and modern take to Superman but without losing the good-natured voice you’d expect, so while Bomer doesn’t physically get to don the cape he still puts his stamp on role.
My biggest complaints are the bad one-liners the script makes Bomer throw out as Superman that don’t even try to be clever, but he almost makes them work which is a testament to his portrayal.
Quite possibly the standout role though goes to John Noble (Fringe, Lord of the Rings) as Brainiac. It’s tough for me to hear anyone other than Corey Burton (Superman: TAS, Justice League: Unlimited) play the role but Noble is excellent, bringing a little bit more of his pompous nature that he used for Denethor in LOTR to this version that certainly thinks very highly of himself (as Superman points out in one scene) while keeping the aspect of the focused mechanical collector of worlds the fans recognize.
Another Castle alum, Stana Katic, takes the role of Lois Lane and hits most of the right notes of snarky and confident. She’s a natural as Lois and the only detriment to the performance is a script that makes her a bit selfish and reckless when it comes to her relationship with Clark. Lois does justify her concerns with valid enough reasoning, but cut the guy some slack… he’s got a few things on his plate. But she does have the single funniest moment when she flips Brainiac the double-bird out of nowhere near the end of the film earning that PG-13 rating folks! Also, Diedrich Bader steals quite a few scenes playing the lovable jerk Steve Lombard who made the transition from comic-to-screen much to my delight.
[pullquote_left]The extra features on the Blu-Ray are pretty standard for DC Universe Animated films but that doesn’t mean they’re not robust.[/pullquote_left]The extra features on Superman: Unbound Blu-Ray are pretty standard for DC Universe Animated films but that doesn’t mean they’re not robust. You get four episodes of Superman: The Animated Series including the Brainiac one that tells a similar origin story and three featuring Supergirl. In addition you get some well put together and interesting features on both Kandor and Brainiac that are great for the uninformed but less interesting for the hardcore fans but still worth a watch.
But most exciting as always is the preview of the next DC animated film, and this time we finally get a Flash-centric film with the adaptation of The New 52 launching event Flashpoint re-titled for the film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. Not really any animation shown but the storyboards look neat and the interviews with top DC brass Dan Didio, Geoff Johns and others really breakdown the story and how they’re tackling it as well.
Fans can’t go wrong with DC Universe Animated films and Superman: Unbound is no exception. It’s gorgeous to watch on Blu-Ray and has superb voice acting and some nifty designs and action scenes. The PG-13 rating allows for some mild Brainiac induced blood-letting and violence, gearing it slightly to an older audience, with the biggest downfalls being the distinct feel of a retread and some of the clunky dialogue the voice actors struggle to make work that would seem better suited in a non-PG-13 family version. But if you’re looking for a Supes fix before Man of Steel this summer, Superman: Unbound is a fun place to start the countdown.