Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is about a world where Lex Luthor is President of the United States and as such, he has put out a $1,000,000,000 reward for the capture of Superman. This of course causes various heroes and villains try to attack and capture Superman, all except Batman, who comes to the aid of Superman. So together, they fight off other heroes, a huge rogues gallery and finally Luthor himself.
The story is pretty solid itself but the biggest problem I had with the film is that because of cramming so many other heroes into the film, it felt kind of bloated for a 65 minute runtime. It would have been much better to feature only a few heroes and villains attacking Superman and Batman instead of a huge amount, who are dealt with hastily due to run time but it also makes them seem ridiculous as, for example, Batman takes out Bane in a matter of seconds, where in his own show, book or film, he would spend a larger amount of time fighting off Bane. This makes the villains seem overly weak and it did detract from the film slightly for me.
Besides that, the characterisation and relationship between Batman and Superman is dealt with superbly.
They have this deep friendship where they seemingly barely tolerate each other, but deep down truly care for the other and it was pulled off in this film perfectly.
Batman and Superman are also given great voice actors. Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in the 90’s animated series and various other incarnations of Batman, returns as Batman in this film and is absolutely superb, giving Batman a dark voice, without going over the top is how Batman should sound. Tim Daly, who has voiced Superman in the animated series and in various other incarnations, also returns as the man of steel and yet again is superb, giving Superman a real heroic feel in his voice. All the other voice actors do a fine job too, no complaints there.
The animation is very similar to the past DC animated films, with some slight differences, which, as I have stated several times now is fine by me, it makes me associate that particular style with DC films and I think the uniformity is where DC trumps Marvel in the animated films department. DC’s films keep the same look, whereas Marvel’s changes drastically from each film.
There isn’t as much mature material in this film as there has been in past DC animated films but that is not necessarily a bad thing for some viewers, but for me it did slightly detract from the film. Besides that, you should definitely check out this film if you have even a passing interest in Superman or Batman.
6.5/10