image credits: Docxdrl via Bitlanders
Reign of Supermen: Animated Movie Review
The Justice League have always protected the earth from threats domestic, foreign and intergalactic. With the sacrifice of the big gun-Superman, the earth was left without its strongest defender. Unfortunately, for the members of the Justice League, another threat is rising from the horizon.
The Reign of Supermen begins six months after the death of Superman. With Superman gone, four new distinct figures appeared all claiming to be Superman and what he stands for. And these four figures that sprung up like anti-bodies all carry the idea and core believes of the big blue scout. Although the carry the emblem of Superman and trying to maintain law and order, one, in particular, falls short of the core believes of the Man of Steel.
It was not long before the four distinct versions of Superman have a throw down to proof who among them has the right of handling the safety of the city and its citizens in the absence of the one and only Man of Steel. The demise of the original farm-raised Clark Kent opens the city to a new enemy.
Fortunately, Lois Lane mourns Clark Kent. But it wasn’t soon before the true intentions of Lex Luther, Eradicator, Superboy and the Cyborg Superman comes to lame light. These new heroes were all unaware that the sudden disappearance of the Justice League and the sudden rise in many heroes was because of the grand plan of the Being pulling the strings behind the curtains.
Follow me as we unveil the mystery of the one whose stand to gain the most with the death of Superman.
The Movie Short Story
Several months after the sacrifice of Superman to defeat Doomsday, Metropolis was left without Superman. This single event however paved way for the introduction of four (4) new versions of Superman.
To each of these Supermen versions, they have different personalities and crime-fighting style compared with the original Man of Steel. This begs the question, who among them is the true and original Superman.
Lex Luther used this as an avenue to introduce to the world Super-Boy who was a clone made from Superman DNA and part of Lex DNA so the boy can be strong and also have high IQ.
image credits: IMDB
Lois Lane honoured Lex Luther Press conference in other to find out more about what the owner of LexCorp has been doing after the death of Superman. She sneaks into LexCorp Lab and meets with the scientist Daneny Donovan. Donovan revealed that Super-Boy was genetically engineered from the DNA of Superman and Lex Luther. While he was still telling Lois Lane the origin of Superboy, Lex Luther walks in.The press conference was interrupted by Superman-Eradicator. He wishes to captured Lex Luther. Super-Boy intervened and was knocked out of commission. Superman Steal tries to stop him also but was soon defeated by Cyborg Superman. The Eradicator and the Cyborg supermen duel, the Cyborg was able to drive off the eradicator.
Lex Luther was furious and almost tries to decommission Super-Boy after the fight but later changed his mind. Lois Lane wrote an expose telling the whole world that Superboy was a clone of Superman and asking the supermen if they are all fakes.
The article got the attention of Cyborg Superman who came and visits her. The cyborg told her, he is not the Superman she knows. He tries to establish the fact that he was merely saved by krypton technology and has lost most of his memories.
Meanwhile, Lex Luther was angry because Super Boy was not declared as the true Superman, thus Superboy had to be enlisted in the security details of the United States of American President. The President was launching the new watchtower station of the Justice League when a boom tube opens and Parademons flew out terrorizing innocent citizens.
In the heat of the battle between the Justice League and the Parademons, the boom tube collapse on the Justice League. Appearing like the league were killed, the Cyborg Superman was declared as the true Superman. Lois Lane and Irons discovered that the Cyborg Superman is fake, but in truth, he is Hank Henshaw.
Moreso, with the Justice League gone, Hank Henshaw declared to the world that he has the technology to turn regular humans into Super-humans. Unknowingly, the technology to be used by the Cyborg Superman is Apokoliptain. it will only transform humans into mindless Darkseid’s personal drones for earth’s conquest.
Luther found a video link between Cyborg Superman and Darkseid while Lois assumes that the Eradicator is a technology that protects Kryptonians and thus the real Superman is still in is ship recuperating from the injuries sustained during his battle against Doomsday.
Cyborg begins his invasion of earth by opening a boom tube large enough to allow Darkseid and his legions of Parademons into the earth. As soon as Cyborg found out that the real Superman is alive and heading towards metropolis to stop him, he betrayed Darkseid, closed the boom tube and blames the yet fully recovered Superman for the death of his wife and crew members onboard the Excalibur space shuttle
The Content of the Movie
In storytelling and animation quality, I applaud the efforts, uniqueness and ingenuity of Dc. They are renowned and I appreciate their efforts. Nevertheless, when it comes to movies, I’m not sure I can applaud their efforts. They are disappointing to my core beliefs. I hope in the near future, they can make a movie that deserves my gratitude and praises.
image credits: IMDB
Soon after the death of Superman rose for distinct Supermen in appearance, fighting style and core beliefs. It is a fine storyline to have moved the crowd to see the movie: Reign of The Supermen. It is like a classical marvel imitation of scenes after every superhero movie
When we saw Eradicator standing over the grave of Superman, Steel hammering the 'S' symbol of his steel armour, Superboy removing wearing clothes after coming out lab capsule, and finally, the cyborg Superman flying in space
After the end of the first sequel, The death of Superman, we were left in an abyss of thoughts. This mysteries and unanswered questions left me eagerly waiting to watch the movie Reign of Supermen. I’d say The Death of Superman was much fun and action-packed than Reign Of Supermen because the animated movie was poorly written to the point you could predict every scene and its outcome.
As a huge fan of DC, I was disappointed as the remaining members of the Justice league were completely isolated into a battle oriented world to keep them occupied while Darkseid concludes his plan of earth dominance.
image credits: IMDB
How unfortunate, Superman arc enemy Darkseid was portrayed weak to the point of ridiculousness. The invasion plan of Darkseid been foiled by Cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw) was no fun at all.
Compared to the first sequel, this movie was not decent, had no good moments and it serves as a horrible disappointment in terms of actions scenes execution with a semblance twist and turns for any fantastic well executed Dc animation in the past.
The movie was literally horrible compared to previous actions packed animation by Dc. There were irrelevant plot scenes to make the movie an hour plus. The writing dialogue was absurd, the characterization of the actors and the villain left me hearted-broken. It turned my anxiety for the Reign of Supermen into contempt.
Imagine Lois lane, a fearless reporter, an embodiment of what a strong woman should be and look like, suddenly peps talked Super-Boy into becoming courageous. This is completely underused of character and the potentials of Miss Lane.
The movie was an absolute slap to fans, a mediocre to the source material which the animation originated from. This an ample evidence, the scriptwriter Jon Bogdanove and Brett Breeding had been out of touch with their ingenuity for animations compared to their past. They, however, made a lazy use of their talents to sentence the Reign of Supermen to its early grave with bad critics.
The movie was just terrible, half baked, infused with much dialogue, unlike its predecessor. I felt no Goosebumps watching the movie, it just below average for Dc standards in any giving way.
For crying out loud, this is an animated movie. You can have the characters do whatever you want them do! Deviate a little from the comic storyline and give the audience the continued action blast they have been expecting at the end of The Death of Superman
The Collective Works of the Actors
In the Death of Superman (So, it may seem but the guy was just too hurt that it took him six months to get back to his feet) the city of Metropolis was left without the big gun, but in the wake of his death, four superheroes sprung out all claiming to be Superman.
Super Boy
This is the cocky teenage clone of Superman & Lex Luther DNA. He was cloned to watch over the city in the absence of Superman so that in time he may be accepted as metropolis new Superman.
image credits: IMDB
Contrary to young Superman as Clark Kent in Smallville, Super Boy is a clone who seeks attention and pep talk to become a hero in Metropolis. The character was voiced by Cameron Monaghan.
Eradicator
The Eradicator is the embodiment of strength, culture and security for Kryptonians.
image credits: IMDB
Under the effects of a yellow sun, the Eradicator possesses the same potential powers as an average Kryptonian. The eradicator/Charles Halford adopt the character well and had a synergy in voice acting to make the character position for replacing Superman seem unique.
Steel
image credits: IMDB
Steel is an engineer who takes the cross of Superman crusade to help maintain law and order in the metropolis. As an engineer, he designed a mechanical suit to help protect himself from physical attacks and for flight. The character seems a good wingman and like an imitation of Iron man. Cress Williams shows promise to voicing animations than he does in acting Black lightning.
Cyborg Superman
This is the half-human-half-machine hybrid. He claimed to have been the actual reincarnation of Superman, but he was Hank Henshaw voiced by Patrick Fabian an astronaut onboard the space shuttle Excalibur in the The Death of Superman did not account for.
image credits: IMDB
With the four above-mentioned supermen, the movie Reign of Supermen was founded as each was trying to fill in the empty void left by the big blue scout Superman.
The voice cast of Reign of Supermen are Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson, Rosario Dawson, Nathan Fillion, and Christopher Gorham. They are good actors and their voice acting has however not met with the expectations of fans around the world to the second sequel from the Death of Superman.
The Hero of the Movie
While the Reign of supermen is one among Dc and Warner Bros failed collaboration under the director Sam Liu. The prowess of characters like Batman, Cyborg, and Flash was rarely exploited in this movie.
Lois Lane involvement in trying to unmask the real Superman helps bring back the joy of the important role played by her in supporting and always becoming a danger magnet around the man of Steel. Although she stood apex among the protagonist in the animated movie, her character becoming an inspirational speaker is not a go-get-it-done character of Lois Lane that deserves applause.
image credits: IMDB
It is without a doubt, Lex Luther, a genius and technology expect in Dc. He is known for creating his own armour to combat Superman was just reduced into an innocent bystander.
Meanwhile, characters like Steel and Eradicator with promising capabilities of more screen time were just under listed into several less than 2 minutes of screen time.
It felt like the animated movie did a great job in making Lois lane the movie hero by showing her emotions at the end of The Death of Superman and also how she stood with Clark Kent old parents Martha and John even when Superman fell in battle with Doomsday.
The Technical side of the Movie
As an animation enthusiast, watching this movie was an eye-opener to such a disappointment from Dc. Beginning with the camera angle, the movie has a bad capture of the action scenes, a tale in story and presentation.
The colour separation was somewhat poo compared with the previous movie. The looks of Superman after he emerges from his ship to battle Cyborg Superman is demoralizing and betrayed everything Dc stands for in animation.
image credits: IMDB
Dc has always been my standard in measuring the quality of any animation in terms of picture quality, presentation, storytelling and scene execution, but with this, the sheer moments of emotions and pictures quality do not seem to cut it. Unfortunately, they have done a bad job in making this movie after all hype and expectation for we had for this animation.
It's no wonders, there were no post-credits scenes to ease the stress of waiting for the third part of the movie. It’s a complete let down to most fans of Dc with the poor story, picture and scene execution.
Is the movie any good and why?
In Dc attempts to get more approval and make their fans happy, they have completely lost it with this animated movie-Reign of Supermen. There are a couple of draws backs from the movie that may have earned the movie negative comments. The mysteries of the four Supermen that appeared in the wake of Superman deaths was just not utilized to their full potentials.
The movie is also suffering from weak character development to satisfy the desires of the comic’s fans of Superman and DC. The movie seems to have lost interest in characters like Steel and Eradicator as they quickly fade away from most of the scenes to only be replaced with Superboy trying to hard to accept and conform to Luther.
video credits: Nerd Clips HD via Youtube
One thing we can count on Dc is strong actions scenes. It seemed absent in this movie compared to The Death of Superman. The movie may have been a continuation from the last one, it only tries to be within the context of the source materials.
In terms of making the best-animated movie, I hold high esteem for Dc. Reign of Supermen is just a cliché of what a family animation show be like and enjoyed with loved ones. No wonder, the movie was rated PG13 for bloody images, actions scenes and runtime.
On a final note
Although we have been told the Man of Steel is death, we had seen four scenes that suggested otherwise. For these reasons, we had avail ourselves to witness once again a creative work of sublime art in Dc, only to be confronted with disappointments.
The movie has done well with the following up with Doomsday, the first sequel, but it does please Fan of comics sentiments.
From the point of good animation, I can name a couple from Dc’s universe that has stood the test of time for picture quality, presentation and scene execution. However, from the hype we had expected more from this movie, it is a complete let-down.
