Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (Deluxe 2-Disc DVD Edition with Bonus Episodes)

As is typical for these DC animated films, it's often worth getting the blu-ray because the included documentaries about the history of the various comics and characters is often more enjoyable and far more interesting the film itself--and they serve to give dimension and backstory to the film that would otherwise be lacking. So thank you for including those and keep it up. The supplemental "Green Arrow" short was also more entertaining than the feature film--as were the bonus "Superman: The Animated Series" episodes which provided an alternative take on essentially the same story as the feature film. That's not to say that the feature film, "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse" wasn't any good, it just didn't captivate me. I think what took me out of it most was this film's terrible treatment of Wonder Woman. Besides the fact that Wonder Woman is a more important protagonist in this movie than Batman--and yet she it isn't even mentioned in the title, (besides the fact the film's MAIN protagonist is not Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman; the MAIN protagonist of this story is *Supergirl*, and she isn't mentioned in the title either), what I disliked most about this film was Wonder Woman's unsympathetic portrayal. She is gratuitously cruel and unlikable in this film. True, she mellows a bit towards the latter half and seems a little more like the character we know--but, by that time, the damage is already done by her previous actions (which no one ever calls her on).(Mild spoilers, I'll keep them to a minimum, but in order to make my point, I need to talk about a very specific scene that I found appalling...) Early in the film, Batman and Superman rescue Kara Zor-El (soon-to-become Supergirl) when her Kryptonian ship crash-lands on Earth and they take her in. (Yes, this movie is basically Supergirl's origin story). Batman is also kind of a jerk in this movie, completely unsympathetic towards a teenage girl who is scared to death and not fully comprehending the powers that have suddenly been thrust upon her--and he doesn't trust Superman to know more about how to care for a Kryptonian girl (his own cousin) than Batman would. Why? Because, he's Batman! So, because this movie seems to assume that Superman is a moron, here comes Wonder Woman out nowhere and brutally ATTACKS Superman for no reason (without warning!)--and literally KIDNAPS Kara! Whoa!--What the hell??!! Before dragging Kara off (who is understandably frightened and confused), Diana proceeds to tell Clark what the hell in the meanest, cruelest voice and scowl she can muster--that basically he's too big of a moron and too male to care for and train a female superhero; so she is going to take Kara back to Themyscira by force--because feminism, I guess? (And yet, the movie couldn't bother to put either Wonder Woman or Supergirl's name in the title. Go figure.) Batman then steps out of the shadows to agree with Diana and inform Clark that *he* is being "unreasonable" for not appreciating being physically ATTACKED and his frightened cousin KIDNAPPED by a stranger! A stranger to Kara, not to Superman. To Superman, Wonder Woman is supposed to be a trusted friend. If I were Superman, I would never trust her again.I haven't seen every animated incarnation of Wonder Woman, but this is at least the second time, recently, that a DC animated film has portrayed Wonder Woman in such a bitter and unflattering light--as if the producers seem to equate being "a mean and nasty woman" (in the words of a certain former movie star I used to actually like) with being a feminist icon. I'm sorry, but that in itself is sexist. Mean and nasty is not a positive trait for anyone, male or female. Diana's behavior in this film is appalling. It's not only cruel and condescending to Clark (whom she supposedly cares for), it's extremely cruel to Kara--who, in case the producers are unaware, is a young WOMAN!What are easily the two most iconic screen versions of Wonder Woman? Obviously Lynda Carter in the 1970's TV series and now Gal Gadot as Princess Diana in Patty Jenkins near-masterpiece, "Wonder Woman," the 2017 live action movie which I think may be my favorite superhero film to date. What do both versions of Wonder Woman have in common? They both kick bad buy butt; no male opponent can defeat them, and the damsels in distress that they rescue tend to be men; they represent female empowerment to the nth degree--and yet what's the number 1 characteristic they both share? Diana/Wonder Woman is a genuinely *nice* person!! There is no one on planet Earth with more love, caring, and compassion than Wonder Woman! "Yes, much of Wonder Woman’s particular brand of feminism stems from compassion," noted Noel Kirkpatrick and Kerensa Cadenas in reviewing the 1970's TV series for the website "This was TV"--and they are absolutely right. Wonder Woman in the TV series continuously opined on women's issues, which could have verged on becoming preachy. But it never felt preachy because Diana always said it with a smile and a sense of compassionate morality. She made you *want* to pump a fist and say, "You go, girl!" Gal Gadot followed Lynda Carter's example. Gadot's Wonder Woman is an intense warrior who can literally lift a tank, but it's her smile and dedicated compassion that endears her. Even the 2009 DC animated film, "Wonder Woman," starring the voices of Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion (a film which heavily influenced the 2017 live-action), presented a Wonder Woman whose personality was maybe a little more sarcastic than Lynda Carter or Gal Gadot's version, but she is still very endearing and compassionate. She would never have brutally attacked her friend without warning to kidnap his teenage cousin. Is this film, "Apocalypse" supposed to be set in the same continuity as the 2009 animated film? If so, this Wonder Woman is completely out of character. Indeed, she is completely out of character for Wonder Woman--period.Maybe someone will come along and say that this was how Wonder Woman behaved in some specific comic issue # whatever-the-heck...to which my answer would be: Then the Wonder Woman of that specific comic issue # whatever-the-heck was acting completely out of character with the traditional Wonder Woman of the comics of decades and decades and decades, so that's no justification. This Wonder Woman is more like the failed David E. Kelley pilot starring Adrianne Palicki, which made all our jaws drop as we watched Wonder Woman MURDER some poor, innocent security guard with a lead pipe. The guy was just an employee of a legitimate pharmaceutical company; he was just doing his job, standing by a door in the dead of night (I don't even think he pulled a gun, he didn't even know she was there) and she throws a pipe through his skull! His only crime was being a low level employee of a legitimate company run by a CEO not much more villainous than Diana--who is also an unlikable corporate CEO; Diana is constantly berating her employees in the nastiest way possible--because David E. Kelley thought that best represented feminism? It's no wonder that pilot never aired. Feminism is not well represented when your female "hero" acts as bad or worse than the villain. In fact, in "Apocalypse," Wonder Woman acts EXACTLY like the villain--Darkseid. Wonder Woman forcibly kidnaps Kara in order to mold her in accordance to her vision. Well, later, Darkseid does the EXACT SAME THING!!--kidnaps Kara from Themyscira in order to mold her in accordance to HIS vision! Poor Kara! And yet, we're supposed to believe that Wonder Woman was right to do the exact same thing??!! Am I missing something?? To be fair, maybe the parallel was originally intended to be sort of the point. But if it was, they didn't follow through on it. Like I said, no one ever called Diana on her behavior. Not once did Diana ever express any remorse over it. I think Kara (a young WOMAN, I remind you) grumbled a bit about how it seemed like everyone was deciding everything for her--but then nobody cared and that was dropped. By all appearances, the movie seemed to be implying that Diana was fully justified in brutally attacking Clark and kidnapping a member of his family simply because his name is Super-MAN. But Darkseid doing the exact same thing as Wonder Woman--well, that was BAD, because...he's also a dude? Truth be told, Darkseid may be evil incarnate. But he's also the only character who treated Kara with any modicum of respect. Good job, movie.Look, I have no problem with Diana training Kara--that's actually a storyline from the comics. Indeed, I can't imagine Clark trusting anyone else more than Diana to mentor his cousin. But after this fiasco, there's no reason for him to trust her now. It's perfectly understandable for Diana and Batman to be concerned about Kara. She is young with godlike powers thrust upon her, which she has no idea how to deal with--there's inherent danger in that. It's perfectly appropriate for Diana to approach her *friend* and say, "Clark, I know you love her, but you know me and you trust me. Let me take her and train her." Sure, he might even be a little resistant to it to it at first. They might even argue about it (without punching each other). But in the end, he would give his blessings--because he TRUSTS Diana. They're FRIENDS and he knows Diana to be a tough, but compassionate woman who will care for and teach Kara. There was no need for Diana to behave the way she did--other than for another gratuitous battle between the good guy superheros. That's all that was about. Batman v. Superman, Civil War, good guy versus good guy--that's the in thing right now in superhero movies. The so-called good guys spend most of the movie battling each other for...reasons?...then only have a hand full of minutes in the final act to battle the actual villain who's barely had any screen time to developed him/her (so we're not even sure what the villain is pissed off about; he/she is just there to provide a big CGI battle in the end--who cares, right?) As long as we show how much the "heroes" all hate each other! Because, just because! I'm sorry, the good guys constantly fighting each other (for no apparent reason) gets old. That's the only reason that scene was in there. They wanted a gratuitous fight between Wonder Woman and Superman regardless if it made any sense whatsoever--which it didn't. And WHY? When you have freakin' Darkseid!!! as the big bad with all his numerous minions, do you really need to waste precious screentime having the good guys acting like bad guys and fighting each other? You have a whole army of bad guys right there!!! Maybe let Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman actually fight THEM!! I don't know, I'm just throwing it out there!Sorry for ranting--and mostly over one particular scene. As far as the rest of the film, it's okay, I guess. Wonder Woman (possibly my favorite childhood character) just pissed me off so much, it was hard to enjoy the rest of it--which actually has some nice highlights. The "heroes" finally do get around to being quasi-civil to each other just long enough to take on Darkseid's forces. The film also had some nice callbacks--"Easter eggs" if your will. The main voice-actors of the "Timmverse"/DCAU are featured: Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, and Susan Eisenburg. And the film's visual style is strongly influenced by the DCAU, even though it's clearly set in a separate continuity. The planet Apocalypse is right off the pages of Jack Kirby--and even Krypto (a.k.a. Superdog) makes a surprise cameo--the Kryptonian dog I fondly remember from the 1960's Filmmation cartoon, "The Adventures of Superboy." That made me smile.

Being so far being the only direct sequal to one of the DC Universe movies, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse acts as a follow-up to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. It was based on the second story arc from the Superman/Batman comic book series which regularly teams up the World's Finest, although this one acts more as an origin story for Supergirl in the new DC Universe. Lauren Montgomery takes over from Sam Liu as the director, who also did the Wonder Woman and Green Lantern animated movies. Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy return as the voices of the title characters, along with Susan Eisenberg coming back from Justice League as Wonder Woman, and Ed Asner reprising his role as nasty-ass Granny Goodness. The addition of the sultry Summer Glau as Supergirl is a real bonus for the fans too. Despite the title though, there isn't anything really "apocalyptic" about it, at least not in the Earth-destroying kind of way.Set sometime after Luthor was impeached, a chunk of the Kryptonite crashes into Gotham Harbor, which had a small lifepod in it. Batman goes to investigate, and discovers that there was an occupant in the pod with powers and abilities far beyond those of normal hot blonde chicks. While walking around dazed in Gotham, she realizes she has super-strength, heat vision, and can fly. Batman tries to bring her in, but the mystery girl accidently knocks down one of Gotham's numerous automated police blimps(might wanna rethink about having those be piloted, Gotham PD!). Superman stops the blimp from causing any real damage, and after Batman scans the alien girl at the Batcave, he realizes that she's really his cousin, Kara Zor-El. Superman brings her to the Fortress of Solitude where he brings her up to date on Earth and its culture. He tries passing her off as Clark Kent's cousin, although Wonder Woman steps in to take Kara to Themyscara for special training so she can control her powers better. Cut to a few months later, Kara has had special warrior training under Wonder Woman and Artemis(the "ex-Wonder Woman"), and befriends Harbinger, who here she just goes by the name Lyla. Meanwhile, Darkseid plans to kidnap Kara to add her to his honor guard, so he teleports an army of downgraded Doomsday clones to keep the heroes occupied while he kills Lyla and makes off with Kara. The Big Three enlist Big Barda for a Boom Tube to Apokolips(that's how its spelled!), and all go off on seperate missions. WW and Barda take on Granny Goodness' Female Furies, Batman tracks down a storehouse of explosions, while Superman battles a brainwashed Kara who is intent on destroying her cousin. Batman threatens to use Darkseid's explosives to destroy Apokolips if he doesn't release Kara from his control, and he reluctantly lets her go. Once back on Earth, Clark takes Kara to live on the Kent farm for a while, but Darkseid bursts out of the house(probably was waiting their couch!)and wailes on Superman by Falcon Punching him into the atomosphere. Kara gets pissed, and starts tearing Darkseid a new a-hole, however Darkseid gets the advantage. Superman gets a brief solar recharge which gives him the strength to beat the rocks out of Darkseid, and ship him through a Boom Tube into deep space. Kara then decides she wants to use her powers to protect people, so she adopts the identity of Supergirl to follow in her cousin's bootprints.Unlike a few of the other DC Universe movies, this one followed the comic book pretty much to the letter. There were quite a few but still minor changes in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, but this really stuck to the original source material. The character designs were closely modeled after those of the artist's, the later Michael Turner, with the characters being very lean and muscular. The film also has probably some of the best fight sequences in a DC Universe production since Wonder Woman. The Special Edition DVD and Blu-Ray also features an original DC Showcase of Green Arrow, plus a cool retrospective on the history of Supergirl. You don't have to watch the original Super/Bats movie in order to enjoy this on its own, that and its a great introduction to Power Girl Jr.!

'Superman / Batman Apocalypse' is a great addition to the new DC Animated Universe movies. After 'Doomsday', 'Public Enemies' and 'Under the Hood' we have a tale that is more in keeping with the original Richard Donner Superman movie and a little less Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight'.I'm a bigger fan of Batman than Superman but this movie hit all the right notes. Having Conroy and Daly voice the Legends is always a bonus and there's a great supporting cast including Wonderwoman and if you're going to have a larger than life villian who better than Darkseid. What I really liked about this movie was that it wasn't afraid to have titanic fight sequences that were reminiscent of the Golden Age of DC Comics.The two disc edition has bonus episodes from the the Superman Animated series and also a DC Premiere with the Green Arrow which is a fantastic short with the titular character protecting a young girl from a bunch of assassins in an airport.You can't do wrong with 'Apocalypse' whilst we wait for 'All Star Superman' and the 'Batman - Year One' animated movies in 2011.

As an avid DC fan, I have collected all the direct to DVD movies over the past few years, so, I can say with all confidence that this is THE best movie they have released to date. The graphics are sharper, giving the DC Universe that darker quality, but the voices are the ones we love the most. Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy, and Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman). The only addition is Summer Glau as the girl Kryptonian, and she gives a very convincing performance.The story is compelling. A different perspective to a familiar story, which makes it more modern and edgy, with Superman finally revealing that he is also flawed!And the action does not stop!I don't want to give anything away, but a superb story - I highly recommend to all DC fans.

Loved this movie, next to the Wonder Woman animated film my favourite so far in the DC ANIMATED RELEASES.

I would use this seller again and would recommend them

Perfect very happy