Plot: Kara, devastated by the loss of Krypton, struggles to adjust to her new life on Earth. Superman mentors her. Meanwhile, she must contend with a mysterious group called the Dark Circle who searches for a powerful weapon held in the Academy’s vault.
Review: As my reviews go this will be a short one, partly because this movie itself doesn’t offer up much in the way of a story to dissect, and also because there wasn’t much here that left an impact. That’s not to say Legion of Superheroes is terrible or anything, as I did find the voice cast to be solid with their line deliveries and how well they suited the characters. Jensen Ackles is almost unrecognisable as the voice of the Bats himself and while he doesn’t have much screen time I thought he nailed a lot of the character’s mannerisms.
Darren Criss as Superman also works well but it’s the characters of Supergirl and Brainiac 5 we spend the most screen time with, and so it’s Meg Donnelly and Harry Shum Jr. who I felt most embodied their cartoon counterparts and brought the chemistry between these enemies turned friends to life. Kudos to them as well as to Darin De Paul as the voice of possibly the creepiest and most maniacal version of Brainiac I’ve seen on screen in maybe ever.
The story is basically the origin of Supergirl as we see her journey from a doomed Krypton to her awakening years later than she should, only to discover her baby cousin Kal-El is all grown up and doing the whole “saviour of the universe” thing with his League of Super Friends. Struggling to fit in on our “primitive” world, Supes takes her to the 31st century where she has the opportunity to become a member of the Justice League of the future the Legion of Superheroes. But she still has to overcome her own prejudices when she literally clashes against a fellow classmate in the form of Braniac 5.
The animation, while beautifully coloured, suffers from a style that looks stiff in a lot of places. And while I get they’re going for a “moving comic strip” style in their recent movies, I really hope DCAU moves away from this style as it hinders the more dynamic action sequences that are mandatory in stories such as this.
Speaking of stories, there isn’t much to this one as it’s basically a high school drama with super powered individuals, which means it’s as predictable as a 26-episode run of the Warner Bros. show of the same name. They try to throw in some themes that touch on prejudice, with Brainiac being treated like an outsider due to his “family”, but none of it is meaningful so you can just ignore it and enjoy this for what it is.
So maybe if you’re a die hard DC Animated movie fan such as myself, you’ll want to check out Legion of Superheroes. But if that’s not the case, you really won’t be missing much if you skip this one.
Score: 5 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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