Movie Review: Reign of the Supermen

Reign of the Supermen

Director: Sam Liu

Starring: Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson, Cameron Monaghan, Cress Williams, Patrick Fabian

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 87 minutes

It’s not a spoiler to say that in the animated film The Death of Superman the titular character, Superman, dies. It’s right there in the title. The sequel to that movie, Reign of the Supermen, also lives up to its title. In the months following his death, several new heroes have arrived in Metropolis, each one claiming to be the new Superman. During a battle the Justice League disappears, leaving the safety of the world in the hands of the new Supermen, but not all of them are on the side of the heroes.

I’m a big fan of this New 52-based DC animated universe. It’s a superior movie universe to the actual DC Extended Universe, and I’ll recommend it whenever I get the chance. That’s my way of saying I like this movie. It’s not without its problems, but it is a fun movie worth watching. We mainly follow Lois Lane as she investigates the new Supermen, but there’s a lot of characters that get some good screen time. Steel, Superboy, Cyborg Superman, the Eradicator, and Lex Luthor share the main spotlight. And that’s not even the Justice League, who play more of a supporting role in the story. The animation is great, especially during the more fast-paced action scenes. The character designs all look good, and besides some small minor changes are faithful to the source material.

It’s my understanding that Bibbo Bibbowski is a Superman character from the era when this story was originally published. But in this movie he (and a couple of other literal no-name characters) gets some focus and drags the movie down. When Steel and Superboy team up I don’t want to cut to Bibbo rallying a random group of civilians. While this movie is an adaptation of the 1993 comic book storyline of the same name, it deviates heavily from the source material. This isn’t as much of a problem for me, but I know it’s something more hardcore fans don’t appreciate. The animation during action scenes is good, during some of the slower scenes it’s not. There’s one in particular that sticks out to me. Two characters are talking at a computer, and while their mouths move, everything else is static with no movement. It’s only a few seconds, but it was enough to pull me out of the movie for those few seconds.

The voice acting in this movie is great with some good talent behind it. Rebecca Romijn (Lois Lane), Rainn Wilson (Lex Luthor), and Jerry O’Connell (Clark Kent) return from The Death of Superman. As well as Cress Williams (Steel), Patrick Fabian (Cyborg Superman) and Charles Halford (Eradicator) are more central characters rather than cameos. Cameron Monaghan is the only major newcomer as Superboy, and he does a great job. If you like The Death of Superman you should watch this movie. If you like a good superhero story, you should watch this movie. It’s not the best animated movie out there, but it’s fun and definitely worth watching.