Superman vs. The Elite (2012)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fresh and Exciting

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I'm not a huge Superman fan, I lean more towards Batman but wow this movie was epic. What a lot of people don't realize is that Superman holds back in almost every fight because he knows he could easily accidentally kill someone. This is shown towards the end when Superman pretends to lose it, he was so fast, he was teleporting. Sucking oxygen out of the air but flying super fast, creating a vortex. Zooming bad guys into orbit. Destroying parts of brain with laser vision. There's not doubting it, Superman is practically a god and this movie showed that perfectly. It's refreshing to see how Superman would fight if he gave it his all. It's also refreshing that this movie deals with real life issues and politics, like wars between countries rather than mad scientists, super villains, aliens, etc. It gives you a glimpse at how super heroes might react to world problems in real life, if super heroes existed. The animation quality was good and all the technical details of this movie were good. the dialogue was decent, not too corny. If you like Superman at all, give this a watch.

Superman vs. The Elite is the third standalone Superman movie in the DC animated direct-to-video lineup. In a way, however, it does not feel like a Superman movie at all. I probably like this a bit more than All-Star Superman, but I still found it underwhelming.Superman/Clark and Lois are very likable in this film. Superman especially is made very human in this which is the best thing about the movie. In fact I will say that Superman is made more human and down to earth in this film then in any other movie or series since Superman TAS. In the movie through the Elite (the villains of the film) Superman faces a great moral dilemma of whether his ideals still hold up in today's time or if his morality is outdated and no longer needed. This is easily the best aspect of the film. This is also a very personal story for Lois in whether she still has faith in Superman or not. I also like how smart Superman is in the film, especially at the end. People always say Superman is all brawn, but that is not the case. Watch this movie or Superman TAS and you will see that Superman can be pretty smart when he needs to be.The voice cast does a great job here. George Newborn, who voiced Superman in Justice League, reprises his role here and he is great. Pauley Perrette voices Lois Lane here and she does a good job. She is not my favorite Lois Lane, but she is far from the worst that I have seen. The other voice actors did fine as well. The voices for The Elite work well for the characters.However, I do have issues with the movie. As I said earlier this does not really feel like a Superman film. This film does not even feel like it takes place in the DC universe. The film feels more like it takes place in Vertigo comics and they just chucked Superman in there. The Elite themselves do not feel like villains Superman would fight. They do not even seem like villains of the DC universe. The movie does have Atomic Skull in it. He and Superman himself are the only things that verify that this is a DC story. Personally, I do not like The Elite as villains. I like the moral conflict they present, but other than that I do not care for them. I do not buy them as foes that would pose a huge challenge for Superman either.The art style of the film, like All-Star Superman, takes some getting used to. To be honest I still do not care much for the art. The animation is nice and the fights are fun to watch as usual.Overall out of all the Superman animated movies that have come out so far this one is probably the second best (in my opinion), but there is not much competition. I like how human Superman is made here. I also like the moral dilemma Superman is put in throughout the movie. However, I am not a fan of the look of the film, or the Elite themselves. However, for fans of the character, this is definitely worth at least one viewing.

"Superman vs. The Elite" is an animated adaptation of "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?", a comic which made a contrast between the classic morality of more traditional heroes with the actions done by morally ambiguous antiheroes, which question the consequences caused by the decision of Superman to don't kill anybody, not even the worst villains, considering that sometimes this could do more harm than good.The bad thing is that even with such interesting premise, neither the original comic or this animated movie made a very deep exploration of those themes, and instead of that this movie takes the easy way out of turning The Elite characters into typical villains (instead of the antiheroes that they were supposed to be) in order to make Superman to be automatically right. In other words, what could have been a complex story turns into another predictable battle of good vs. evil and black and white morality. Superman is right, and the Elite is wrong, there is nothing to question here.I appreciate the fact that the animated movie tried to add some little shades of gray making The Elite a bit (just a bit) more likable than their original comic counterparts, also showing the collateral damage caused by the decision of Superman to don't kill any villain. But that's it, at the end this animation follows the same pattern of the comic, without going deeper than that.But at least this had some entertainment value (Though I liked the original comic a bit more: It is true that the story was more simplistic, but at the same more direct, without any of the unnecessary filler material that was added to this animation) Even if at the end this is just a classical "good vs. evil" story disguised as something more complex,, it does still have some virtues that deserve appreciation, such as a good voice acting, some decent action scenes (Though the animation of this isn't so good as it could have been) and the fact, that despite how deeply flawed this was, at least was something funny to watch.I guess that this movie has a good point and a correct message, but if somebody think seriously about it, at the end Superman makes the same mistake of the Elite, seeing the things in black and white: He is completely right and the others are wrong, even if they have some valid points to make. And in my opinion, that's a bit contradictory.

The basic premise is Superman meets, allies and later battles against a new group of superheroes lead by Manchester Black who, as the name suggests, hails from Manchester - despite his confusing accent. A civil war between neighbouring countries Pokolistan and Bialyia serves as the backdrop. As Superman is saving lives of Bialyia forces under attack from the Pokolistani bio weapons, the Elite arrive to steal his thunder. Superman returns the favour and helps the Elite save civilian trains following a terrorist attack in England. Black interrogates the terrorists and is about to kill them when Superman intervenes and lectures Black on not operating above the law, passing judgement or whatever sanctimonious nonsense he said. The film falls down quickly at this point with Superman battling The Elite over their ideological differences. YAWN. The last 40 minutes or so really dragged.The issues highlighted in the film only serve to illustrate, pardon the pun, the sheer stupidity of comic book writing and the shaky moral stance of so called heroes such as Superman, Batman, the Avengers, that pansy Spiderman etc, etc - Superheroes who capture villains and then hand them over to the authorities only they invariably escape and KILL again. As The Punisher once said "Mercy is for the weak". Give me mass murdering lunatics like The Hulk any day. There's a real Superhero.The voice acting is good but the dialogue awful. The characterisation of Lois Lane is completely wrong, she could not be more unlikeable. The animation is also poor unless you're a fan of the tedious, angular Japanese style. The films only saving grace is the fight scenes, they're excellent especially those featuring the Atomic Skull.