SUPERMAN V/S THE ELITE Review

SUPERMAN V/S THE ELITE

Directed by Michael Chang
Written by Joe Kelley
Featuring the voice talents of George Newbern, Pauley Perrette and others.

The folks at DC animation seem to be back in form after a lackluster adaptation of All Star Superman and JLA : Doom (which wasn’t as good as it should have been). Superman v/s the Elite is an adaptation of a critically acclaimed story called What’s So Funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way which I have to confess I haven’t read. I’m sure it pales in comparison to the source material, but Superman v/s The Elite is a really good film.
What I love about this film is that the story it tells is immensely personal, yet affecting on a very grand scale. Also, it’s quite relevant. The Elite are a group of Super-powered youngsters with a warped sense of morality and they don’t hesitate when it comes to killing criminals. And know what? The people bloody LOVE it. They want their criminals tortured, butchered, made to suffer. The people want their criminals killed. Superman, who stands by his no-kill ideologies comes under fire for not resorting to Elite-like tactics. But he knows their methods are wrong, and it’s up to him to prove why. 

It’s one of the most well directed and well paced DC animated films in quite some while. And that isn’t surprising at all considering director Michael Chang was behind a lot of Young Justice episodes and the Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo film. I want to see more of this guy. He just has such a lot of energy… and the way he treated the subject is nothing short of amazing.
This film isn’t afraid to go dark and when it does, it’s scary. I wouldn’t show this to a kid of 9 years or younger if I were you. Slightly older kids will enjoy the living hell out of it, and more mature people will love it.

The voice work on this film is really good. Pauley Perrette’s Lois Lane may come across as annoying at first, but her Margot Kidder inspired Lois Lane grows on you. George Newbern is a natural at voicing Superman (as evidenced in his Justice League work) and here, he is just sublime. The Superman you hear in the film is the same Superman you hear in your head when you’re reading the comics. Newbern is touching Tim Daly levels of perfection here, folks. He’s THAT good at voicing Superman. 

The Elite are really well done, too. I don’t have any complaints about their voice acting (although Manchester Black’s Brit accent does sound like a broken violin at times) and I love their designs. Menagerie looks nothing like her comicbook counterpart, but she’s well designed. Members of the Elite don’t outshine each other because each character has specific quirks and behaviour that remind you of their presence even in scenes where they have no dialogues.

The film does have flaws. Although I loved the designs of the Elite, I wasn’t much enamoured by Superman’s character design. He just looked too cartoony. Thank god for Newbern’s voice acting and Ben 10 alumnus Joe Kelley’s script that Superman works as a character in this film. He would have sucked if not for these two guys. It is by no means an amazing film. Under the Red Hood and New Frontier were amazing films, but this isn’t. It’s nearly great, but it’s very enjoyable and very fun nonetheless.
The question this film asks is somewhat similar to the question asked in Under the Red Hood : “Should the scum of humanity be killed? Should criminals and killers be slaughtered?” So does it succeed in answering that question? Well, watch the film and find out.
Superman v/s the Elite gets a solid 7/10 from me. The film is now out on DVD and Blu Ray.