World Animated "Superman: Brainiac Attacks" Review Online

[Spider-Jim]

The first review for the animated Superman: Brainiac Attacks direct to video film is online, and it's not looking good . . .

http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/superman/reviews/brainiacattacks/

 

[lujho]

I don't see Dini, Timm or Burnett's names in the credits... that's telling.

And no Clancy!?!?! That's a crime. Powers booth is cool, but Clancy Brown IS Luthor. Same with Lance Henriksen - another cool guy but I can't imagine his Brainiac sounding anything like Corey Burton's.

I didn't read the spoiler stuff but the film itself doesn't sound too crash hot either.

It's a bummer... this could have been a nice capstone to the whole STAS story, and the Animated DCU as a whole.

These properties are so great, the straight to video features deserve to be better - put in the kind of effort and quality you'd put in to a full animated feature, or as close as you can get, budget permitting.

I'd still dearly love to see this universe rendered in full-on feature film quality animation, with phenomenal scrtipys, alas that'll never happen, as theatrical hand-drawn feature animation is all but dead. I don't know... maybe the style could translate into a grittier version of "The Incredibles" style CG?

 

[Saint]

I'd still dearly love to see this universe rendered in full-on feature film quality animation, with phenomenal scrtipys, alas that'll never happen, as theatrical hand-drawn feature animation is all but dead. I don't know... maybe the style could translate into a grittier version of "The Incredibles" style CG?

Yeah, that's a depressing truth. I would love to see animated versions of our favourite comic book properties hit the screen, but it'll never happen. Our only hope is that the studios grow some balls and try some edgy TV series', like the Spawn animated series.

 

[lujho]

Yeah, that's a depressing truth. I would love to see animated versions of our favourite comic book properties hit the screen, but it'll never happen. Our only hope is that the studios grow some balls and try some edgy TV series', like the Spawn animated series.

There are a couple of projects actually - 2 Hellboy STV features and a Conan one, that at least look promising. They won't be visually up to modern feature film standards simply due to budget, but they could be quite good.

The Ultimate Avengers movie (I haven't seen it) was a step in a good direction but apparantly is not anything particularly special - an opportunity somewhat wasted, as it sounds like this latest Superman film may be.

 

[Saint]

There are a couple of projects actually - 2 Hellboy STV features and a Conan one, that at least look promising. They won't be visually up to modern feature film standards simply due to budget, but they could be quite good.

Yeah, Hellboy looks like a step in the right direction.

The Ultimate Avengers movie (I haven't seen it) was a step in a good direction but apparantly is not anything particularly special - an opportunity somewhat wasted, as it sounds like this latest Superman film may be.

Ultimate Avengers was a mixed bag. The animation, while having no particular faults, was above the TV standard but nowhere near the film standard. Voice acting was off and on, plot was acceptable but dumbed-down. If they made a TV series of the same sort it would be fantastic, but as a direct-to-video movie is doesn't really cut it.

It's unfortunate that Warner Bros has the animation rights of Superman, and more specifically Batman, because historically they seem not at all interested in trying to market an animated series to anyone with an age in double digits. BTAS managed to be nearly an all-ages show through the talent of the creators, not through any effort on WB's part, and The Batman is obviously a step backwards in that regard. Hell, I'd watch a show made for kids if the quality was there, but it isn't. Instead we get bad writing and hyper-simplified animation on shows like The Batman. Depressing.

 

[KaptainKrypton]

This sucks. I wonder who's bright idea it was to cast Gorilla Grodd as the voice of Lex-freakin'-Luthor. If this film is as bad as I think it'll be, then I'm going to be extra pissed because we don't even get JLU anymore (which is an awesome show) and that will make "Brainiac Attacks" the final foray into the Diniverse.

 

[KrypJonian]

Well, I'm just excited to hear Tim Daly as Superman again.

That guy from JL sucked asscrack

 

[Kevin Roegele]

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23450

AICN review says it's average, nothing more.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Cut to the hospital where Superman is giving Lois her treatment, Lois wakes up and feels great. Opening her groggy eyes, she sees Superman weakly moans “…Clark?” to which Superman replies “Yes. Yes, Lois.” We get more ushy-gushy crap from the two and then they move outside of the hospital to take Lois home so that she and Clark can start their new life together. Clark sees that Brainiac is attacking Metropolis again and knows he must go stop him, but Lois balks and says that if Brainiac doesn’t know that he is still alive, he can’t hurt them. After recommending letting the “Green Lantern guy” to handle the situation, Clark smells something fishy about this scenario. Oh wait, we’re not out of the Phantom Zone yet! Clark’s been tricked by the phantoms in the Phantom Zone (…seriously?) and after a Constantine rip-off of the phantoms climbing up his body, Superman returns to earth with the real antidote.

SON OF A ***** !!!!! How could The WB do this. They let Lois know Bruce Wayne is BATMAN in "World's Finest" . WHY IN GOD's name didn't they not let Lois know Clark is SUPERMAN.

WTF No Clancy!?!?! That's ****ing crazy . Clancy is LUTHOR DAMNIT.
And How could they not bring back Corey Burton as BRAINIAC .

 

[hammerhedd11]

I'm goin to record this off TV before i buy it now.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Yeah, they're going to give it this Sat and Sun on Cartoon Network.

 

[Catman]

I saw this on Cartoon Network tonight. It was average! It was great to see Tim Daly return as Superman, but the writing was a little dumb and the music sucked. Why didn't make any sense to me was that at the beginning of the movie Superman froze Brainic then punched him and broke him apart. Why couldn't he just do that at the end of the movie?

 

[hawkfu]

I saw this on Cartoon Network tonight. It was average! It was great to see Tim Daly return as Superman, but the writing was a little dumb and the music sucked. Why didn't make any sense to me was that at the beginning of the movie Superman froze Brainic then punched him and broke him apart. Why couldn't he just do that at the end of the movie?

Yeah, I watched this on Cartoon Network too. I have to say that I thought it was quite a bit worse than average. The characterization of Luthor was truly awful. Now the biggest problem with the movie is that they use all of the character designs for the Superman animated series but none of the characterizations. The producer even said that this isn't part of the continuity of the original series and that they based their Luthor on the Donner 1978 film. All of that is fine but I wish that they also came up with their own character designs as well. I was seeing the stuff that I loved from the old series but I was hearing something else entirely. It was jarring. This is a movie for kids - they will probably like it, but if your a fan of the Bruce Timm/Paul Dini series - stay away.

wlg

 

[JTStarkiller]

There are a couple of projects actually - 2 Hellboy STV features and a Conan one, that at least look promising.

Hellboy animated features? Sounds awesome. I'm gonna go read up on that now.

 

[storyteller]

Yeah its wasnt "right" to use these character designs. Say its not in continuity to cover up how much you ****ed up the characters and the movie.

 

[Gamma Ray]

Caught it on CN. It was awful. The writing was horrible and this was clearly just a ploy to hype/cash out on Superman Returns.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Utter crap. It was a horrible movie.

 

[hammerhedd11]

Utter crap. It was a horrible movie.

Was it really that bad? I haven't watched it yet but I'm not sure I want to now...

 

[KalMart]

Was it really that bad? I haven't watched it yet but I'm not sure I want to now...

Don't. It's kindergarten-level entertainment at best with some action here and there. They even try to make up time with laughably long-winded fight sequences that lead to nothing. It offers no development on the established Animated Series storyline whatsoever, so you wouldn't be missing a darn thing.

 

[Compi716]

I didn't think it was so terrible. I thought the whole thing with Clark deciding to tell Lois that he's Superman was pretty good.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

The only good thing about the film is Tim Daly.

It reminds me kinda of Chris Reeve, or even George Reeves as per the latest documentary of Superman, where the entire premise.....everything around him just blows chunks.....but the ONLY golden nugget is Superman.

Daly is just perfect as Superman, I mean....Kevin Conroy type perfect, and it's nice to have him back.

Bad thing is, Clancy Brown is also perfect as Lex Luthor......Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly type perfect, and his absence is like a giant crater in the entire movie that's just gaping.

The bones of it, it's not so bad......I kinda liked how Superman was in an illusion in the Phantom Zone....and I loved the Fortress of Solitude.

Besides Superman, The Phantom Zone, The Fortress of Solitude......and, oh, what the hell.....Jimmy, everything thing else sucks.

 

[Payle Gray]

It wasn't THAT bad but it wasn't that good either. It was obviously put out to get kids (even more) hyped for SR. Sadly, it was an opportunity wasted.

 

[jayg02747]

I can't believe how disappointing this DTV animated Superman film was. It was nice to hear Tim Daly doing Superman since he did it in the animated series. For some reason, he and George Newburn (sp?) both do good Superman voices. It was nice to see Martha and Jonathan Kent (and hear the amazing voice talents behind them, Shelley Fabares and Mike Farrell (sp?) respectively). However, this film had its problems. Lots and lots of problems.

No Clancy Brown doing Luthor, no Corey Burton doing Brainiac. These two characters were written horribly. Luthor seemed like he was on Joker meds and Brainiac evidently got a hold of Data's (from Star Trek: TNG) emotion chip. Horrible! The music was awful! It sounded like something from a looney tunes episode. The writing was horribly weak. And where, in all of creation, does this fit into actual continuity? Nothing fit! Brainiac acted as if he had barely a memory engram (sp?) of Luthor. If anyone had been watching JLU, we know that isn't the case.

The animation could have been better. It felt like it was rushed to get completed before "Superman Returns" came out. The TV series animation looked better than this.

My partner couldn't even stomach to watch all of it. Around 15-20 mins in, he got up and left to play City of Heroes. I, being obsessive-compulsive about seeing things through to the end, sat and watched, hoping for something good to turn it around. Alas, nothing did.

There is a lucrative market for DTV superhero cartoons. Comic fans and children adore them. All we ask is that they are made with correctly with intelligence and care. We are not stupid nor do we wish to spend our money on poorly conceived, written, and made products. We will be loyal to cartoon makers if they, in turn, will be loyal to the source material.

 

[HUMAN]

It had its up and its downs. The animation was okay. Not quite as good as the cartoon, but I felt it had more polish to it. The story is satisfying but the script just fails to deliver. The new Fortress of Solitude design is quite unique but didn't follow the continuity of the show. In fact, hardly any of the film followed the show. With the right team, this movie could have been very good, but it falls flat. Can I have my $16 back?

 

[Fox]

I'm very dissapointed. Could it have hurt them to put in an ounce of effort?
I may watch it one day from rogers, but the fact that niether Bruce Timm or Paul Dini were involved, and the fact that it doesn't fit into continuity means I have exiled this 'film' from the DCAU. It will forever be a disregarded outcast.