Voice cast: Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, Andre Braugher
Running time: 75 minutes

This animated feature by Warner Brothers and DC Comics is actually a sequel to Superman/ Batman: Public Enemies in that the story arc continues from the first film. Both in essence are adaptations from the comic miniseries written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated marvellously by Michael Turner.

Shards from the Kryptonite meteorite that crashed into Earth in Public Enemies still rain down on Earth, with an exceptionally large piece falling into Gotham bay. This piques the interest of Batman, voiced by Kevin Conroy, who goes to investigate and discovers a Kryptonian spaceship containing a mysterious young girl with powers equal to, or greater than Superman’s.

Superman (Tim Daly) believes the girl is his cousin, Kara Zor-El (Summer Glau), and while he is initially pleased to have a family member with his own bloodline here on Earth, Batman is sceptical of the timing of her appearance.

To make matters worse, the young Kryptonian has a hard time controlling her newfound powers and decimates parts of Batman’s beloved Gotham City in the process. At Batman’s and Wonder Woman’s insistence, Superman sends his cousin to Amazon Island to be trained by Wonder Woman and her Amazonian warriors.

The girl’s presence has not gone unnoticed though. Darkseid (Andre Braugher), the evil despot king of the war planet Apokolips decides he wants the young Kryptonian to be the captain of his all-female royal guards, The Furies. Darkseid achieves his abduction plans and proceeds to brainwash Kara.

It is up to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Brada (The Furies former captain) to storm Darkseid’s planet fortress and rescue the girl from his evil clutches.

This film’s target audience is comic book fans and so the plot expects the audience to already know some things about the key characters. Being somewhat of a comic fan before, I realised it wasn’t that much of a stretch for me to follow the plot and understand the psyches involved in the depiction of the main superheroes, which ultimately allowed me to enjoy other aspects of the film.

The animation style, good voice actors and explosive fight sequences (especially the grand finale at the end) all added to the fun of the film but those who are not comic book fans might find it a little difficult to digest, more so because this film adaptation had to condense the story into a relatively short 75 minutes. - Review by S.N.