Superman/Batman: public enemies (review)

copyright: batman/superman is copyright of warner brothers and dc comics

brevity and ethics:

im just a fan of this movie and have no affiliation, with slight editing by my girlfriend auroric-haze

Story:

We start our story as we get a montage of how fucked the United States have become. A statewide emergency everywhere, riots, eviction, super chaos. It’s all fucked. And to top it all off, Lex Luthor has announced he’s running for president. And wins. He runs the way most tyrants do. Promising to fix the issues. 

Lex has taken control over the u.s. and the first thing he does is outlaw super heroes that aren't employees of the government. Creating his own super team including: Captain Atom, power girl,black lighting, katana and Major Force. 

This automatically causes a schism in the super heroics world as Superman is stopping a criminal trying to kill themself, breaking the law by trying to save lives. And this is where this movies ethics come into play. As Luthor’s justice team come to take the criminal to custody, and to shill for Luthor. Even power girl tries to; but it thankfully doesn’t work on Clark. Captain Atom tries to compare him to Nixon, which is hilarious in hindsight if you know anything about Nixon and what he actually did to America. 

But there’s a question that’s starting to be asked subtly. It asks; “are Superman (and Batman) criminals for trying to do the right things?” And that’s up to interpretation. Captain Atom and Major Force do, but Powergirl. Superman’s cousin doesn’t seem to when she asks him to join their team. To work under Luthor. And it’s an interesting question to ask and think about. Is a vigilante. Someone who fights for the rights of people a criminal? Is Superman any better than Luthor? It’s an interesting philosophical thought 

We cut to Luthor's war room as we learn a giant kryptonite meteor is crashing into earth. And Lex’s solution? shooting nuclear war heads at it. Amanda Waller tries to get him to use Superman to stop it. Which Lex swallows his ego does so. 

After a quick briefing with Batman, Clark reluctantly meets up with Lex. Who quite obviously betrays Superman after trying to run a deal with supes. Lex plays his ace in the hole. Revealing his bodyguard with him is metal-o, who abuses the kryptonite in his system to attack Superman. Superman retaliates, fighting back against metal-o. But it’s no use. Due to the kryptonite Superman is too weak to actually fight properly. But as metal-o kicks the living shit out of him. The tin from metal-o is enough to shield Clark’s eyes, letting him get enough energy for a heat vision, but the damage has been done. As Superman tries to punch his robotic rival he’s tripped up and falls off the cliff into the local cemetery. A very fitting scene for us to see the death of justice. 

As the mechanical monster tries to find Superman, he’s attacked by the other titular character as Batman saves Clark. Not without a passing goodbye as metal-o shoots a shard of kryptonite at Clark. Then buries the two alive. Thankfully the cemetery is due to convince is connected to the sewer system. The two broken and beaten, navigate the sewer and head to the batcave. The two banter about what exactly is a “good villain” as the they reach the cave, they are met with a gun toting Alfred, who patches the boys back up and fixes Clark’s suit. 

However, the mood is killed as the news is on. And president Luthor is on screen, using doctored footage of the fight with metal-o to create propaganda on Superman. And a trumped-up bounty on Superman. 1 billion dollars to anyone who can head hunt and capture Superman. After the presidential smear campaign Powergirl tries to appeal to Lex. But Lex sadly is charismatic and makes her doubt Clark. As that is happening, Batman and Superman break into star labs facility that’s carrying metal-o’s corpse. Revealing that while he is dead. He died from radiation.  As they leave, they are attacked by several super villains trying to get the billion-dollar bounty. First Is a group of Ice villains who are easily disposed of. 

Then it’s two heavy hitters, Mogul and Solomon Grundy. But there’s something odd about the villains, they’re complete opposites of each other. Some talking as if they were someone else. Even Solomon Grundy, a man who doesn’t speak much if at all was. And Mogul hasn’t said a fucking thing. Both are easy to dispose of two. Lady sheva and nightshade try a sneak attack, but nightshade says something completely out of character.  

That’s when it hits our super sleuths, they’re being mind controlled by someone. But who? Who is the chattiest of Cathy’s in the super mind control world? Why is. Gorilla Grod. Gorilla Grod doesn’t get a chance to fight back as Superman beats him in one punch. But it never ends as more hordes of villains arrive, continually hanging up on our heroes, it all looks bad when the Cavalry arrives. Captain Atom and his justice team. With Starfire mind you, but the reunion isn’t a happy one as Captain Atom reveals he has a warrant for Superman’s arrest. 

There’s an argument amongst heroes, that is what atom doing right, I mean he’s just doing his orders, he’s a super cop. There’s a federal order to arrest him. It doesn’t matter what or who it is. He has to carry that order.  That president it Luthor is the president so this must be a good idea. And to lick the boot so to speak. And I don’t want to get political, but this is how some people actually think, that it doesn’t matter who they are getting that they’d get anyone with a warrant no matter how trumped up it is. 

The heroes have an all-out brawl, a complete slobber knocker of a fight everyone gets their big hits in, Batman blinds Major Force, Starfire and Superman have a beam battle. It’s intense. It looks like Captain Atom and the asshole squad are about to win, that’s when Powergirl falls out to Clark. Telling him to watch out. Getting the lucky upper hand Superman runs in a circle faster than anyone can. Causing a tornado that frees everyone. Letting Batman, Superman and Powergirl to escape freely. In Lex’s underground bunker, The science team are still having doubts that the megaton bombs are going to be enough. But Lexs ego isn’t having it, the conversation is interrupted by Captain Atom here to deliver the bad news to Lex, that his team has lost. 

It cuts to a metropolis rooftop, our three heroes conversing about what happened. Superman asks Powergirl her opinion on Lex, she reveals some pretty deep things, like how he makes her skin crawl. Being the good older cousin he is Superman lye some advice. That sometimes your instincts are correct about someone. It’s a deep philosophical thought for Superman to have. Him being the older hero he has more experience in this field and that he would be the good place to go to for these. 

The conversation is interrupted as captain asshole and his crew arrive to spoil the party. Major Force begins to use atoms patriotism to manipulate him, calling power girl a traitor. This causes a fight to break out. Another absolute slobber knocker, more hard hits are being thrown, everyone throwing their power at their enemy. Batman realizes who killed metal-o. It’s Major Force. Major Force is essentially what if the atom could shoot fire, Batman goads Major Force to attack him. Using this to actually communicate to Captain Atom. That he’s not being a hero, he’s being used by Luthor. 

Power girl flies in to save save Batman. Punching Major Force. But much like Captain Atom, if you break a hole into Major Forces skin, it causes a radioactive explosion. With Major Force about to explode, it seems like there’s nothing the heroes can do. Except for one hero. Captain Atom, absorbs all of Major Forces energy, causing himself to explode. 

Thankfully Major Force died and atom lived. Seriously fuck Major Force. It’s a somber scene as heroes have to lift a seemingly lifeless Captain Atom from the hole left behind of the twos explosion. No one says a word. Just silence, but in silence comes determination. 

Speaking of determination, we cut to Lex firing his megatons at the kryptonite meteor, the explosions are null. The radiation from the falling rock causes the Nukes to explode early. The writing is on the wall for Lex, none of his calculations are working out. And what’s even worse is Powergirl leads our heroes to Lexs hideout and heads out to perform a diversion. But before they can act, they’re taken out by shazam and Hawkman. The two are almost outmatched, but they switch opponents, however even that’s not enough for our caped crusaders to keep Hawkman and shazam down. Both use different tricks, Shazam uses Batmans sensitive side by switching to billy, then when hes distracted back to Shazam. and Hawkman hits superman with a nthmetal sucker punch.

We cut back to the streets of the metropolis, and the place is in full riot mode. People are looting while Lex is giving a speech. Not even paying attention to Lex on the screen. It cuts to Amanda Waller walking into Lex injecting kryptonite into his veins directly, confused on what’s going on. Lex gives a terrifying Speech, saying the meteorite will essentially wipe out enough people for him to start it over.  Then forced himself on her. 

But is thankfully interrupted by the return of hawkman and shazam, when Lex meets him, Batman and Superman in disguise ambush him demanding the information on the meteor. However Lex destroys the files on the meteor. All hope seems lost. No files, no plans, it’s all fucked. Except for one person; Amanda Waller comes in, in her hand a usb flash drive containing the files. With the files in hand our heroes do what heroes do best, save the day. And for good measure Amanda has Lex arrested. An attempt is made, but Lex escapes into a bunker and adorns himself with his iconic super suit.

 Superman and Batman head to Japan, meeting back up with Powergirl and teenaged Toyman in Japan. Toyman brings him to a giant robotic composite Batman/Superman. And it’s kinda cute, seeing this unholy mix of mazinger, Batman and Superman is a behemoth of a mech that really needs to be seen to believe. 

Toyman feeds the numbers to the composite robot but in the meantime Powergirl is attacked by Lex. Superman comes to save his cousin only to be attacked as well. Batman runs defense saving Superman. But is also knocked around for his trouble. Lex goes on a crazy rant, about how Superman is actually evil and that he is the true hero of the planet. 

Lex destroys the computers, and thus the only way to manually fly the composite hero into the rocket. But all hope isn’t lost as Batman hops in, flying off in the sunset. But not without another crazy Lex moment. He stands there above Superman ranting about how Superman immigrated here,

declaring himself the savior of mankind, as the composite flies into space Lex steps away to stop by, but Superman being there and is not very happy. Clark is pissed, he thinks Bruce is going to die. He’s no longer thinking about saving the world, he's thinking about how his best friend might die because of him. And crushes one of his armor's gauntlets, the only time Superman has been this pissed has been fighting the elite. 

Superman and Lex have an all out air brawl. Destroying buildings when they fight. During the fight, Superman destroys the kryptonite from a distance, giving himself the upper hand, as the meteor explodes Superman knocks lest one last time. Just as Captain Atom arrives to arrest Luthor. 

Batman was able to survive in a bat jet but isn’t too conscious. Thankfully the big blue boy scout arrives to land the batjet. And in the distance there’s a crowed of cheering fans. Superman remarks about how he’s thankful that the trial won’t happen as Batman quips they look over at the rising sun. Meeting up with Lois as we end on a sign of hope and bravery in the face of fascism and madness. 

Its a beautiful ending to a movie that battles with the duality of doing whats right for yourself and doing whats right for the greater good. It might be a bit cliche but its a good theme to show that even when the world seems to have gone crazy and all hope seems lost, hope and justice will prevail if youre willing to fight for what is right regardless of if it makes right for you personally.

Good:

The animation is solid 

The voice acting is superb

The story is paced really well, it knows how to balance the action and political drama. 

Bad:

Over all:

It’s definitely a great comic book movie that if you haven’t seen go watch it.