Legione di supereroi

Legion of Super-Heroes could've done with more of focus on the super hero team of the title but it remains a really good adventure that's a lot of fun and connects the wider Tomorrow-verse in satisfying ways that aren't too overbearing thankfully.

Meg Donnelly is a great Supergirl with lots of enthusiasm and some really endearing fish out of water antics. She has also solid chemistry with Harry Shum Jr. Who brings a suitably cold and calculating exterior to Brainiac 5 balanced by a warmer side under the surface.

The animation style carried over from Superman: Man of Tomorrow continues to impress, it still looks really nice and is way more colourful, stylised and detailed than what came before.

In the 1960s, DC discovered that you could color outside the lines of the accepted backstories with "imaginary" tales ... and nothing has been the same since. Sometimes this works. Kara was a fun and unpredictable character in the 10-year SMALLVILLE run, for example. (BTW, the same two creators who are doing the breakout Wednesday series today). And sometimes it does not work. Case in point, this movie. You may or may not like the vintage animation. But in a world that is contemplating locking down entire cities just to save the ecosystem (which is happening today), LEGION OF SUPER HEROES seems like a waste of valuable resources. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I'm always up for another DC animated feature, and while some have been better than others, this particular outing doesn't do it for me. We've got Superman's cousin, Kara Zor-el, come to Earth, no build-up to how she lands and adapts...

Oh, wait, she really doesn't, so Superman decides to take her to the 31st century and she enters a hero academy as a trainee. Yes, THAT Legion of Super-Heroes. And, like the spoiled and self-righteous stuck-up princess she is, she gets into trouble but eventually redeems herself.

On the plus side, the music is okay, the voices are decent enough, and the action sequences are pretty good. On the minus side, how the characters are drawn looks cut-rate to this viewer. It resembles The Man of Tomorrow with black outlines, but somewhat cheaper-looking. The story is all too predictable, and there's little sympathy built up for Kara during the proceedings.

On the whole, this isn't something I can recommend purchasing. I watched it because it's DC and DC superheroes/superheroines rock, but this...it's watchable, but no more. For something better featuring Supergirl, I'd suggest Superman Unbound. Kara is portrayed much more sympathetically in that movie.

Oh, and Arms Fall-Off Boy, he's just a little too creepy for me. Ick.

The DCAU has been an extraordinarily legendary force since its beginning with Batman: Gotham Knight. So powerful in fact that it forced Marvel to give up on animated films for 10+ years. The storylines and animation techniques in the DCAU were the pinnacle. But ever since Apokolips War, this new continuity has absolutely horrendous animation that are setting the DCAU back very far now. All of these fans are complaining about the quality but DC is not listening. Please give us back the animated universe we know and love. It may be a new continuity but that doesn't mean it needs to be a lesser quality of work.

Basically Supergirl travels into the future to train with the heroes of the title. There's kind of a Young Adult vibe, multiple romantic interests, Wolverine-like superhero Timberwolf, some interesting stuff about the Brainiac dynasty...and it begins with yet another depiction of the destruction of Krypton, although it's from Kara's POV.

Nice animation, good voice work, more instances of the needless gore that stops these movies being suitable for younger viewers...it's a decent enough entry, but there's not much to it.

It has similarities with the previous animated movie Batman/Superman: Apocalypse, which also featured an unhappy, fish-out-of-water Supergirl leaving Metropolis to train with a bunch of super beings - in that case, Wonder Woman's island of amazons.

The two most notable things are that the plot actually builds on a seemingly disposable moment from Justice Society - World War II; and the post-credit sequence, which nicely sets up a bigger story ahead.