WonderCon weekend audiences were treated to an advance screening of the latest DC Animated movie, Superman Unbound. Directed by frequent DC animation producer James Tucker, Unbound is based on the Geoff Johns and Gary Frank story arc simply known as Brainiac. In the story Superman must save the Earth from the menace of Brainiac who has put metropolis in a bottle. Fighting with the aid of his cousin Kara Zor-el A.K.A Supergirl, the duo must not only rescue the captured Metropolis but also Kara's home city of Kandor which we learn was bottled by Brainiac even before Superman was rocketed to Earth as a baby. DC has struggled in the past to adapt great Superman story arcs like Grant Morrisson's All Star Superman and The Death of Superman. While Superman Unbound doesn't damage that legacy, it doesn't do much to strengthen it either.

First let's start by saying it's taken me a few days to write this because I honestly didn't know how I felt after watching this movie. It's easy to be caught up in the moment of seeing something first with a large crowd. The infectious audience applause makes it simple for me to say this was a great movie, while not quite the case, there are some redeeming qualities about the feature. Personally, I'm always disappointed when Tim Daily isn't voicing Superman, however I found Matt Bomer a good fit for the heroic tone of voice the character needs to have in order to be believable. The cast overall was great with Molly Quinn as Supergirl and Fringe actor Jon Noble as Braniac really putting together exceptional performances.

The task of translating comic to movie can be like walking on eggshells for any writer, and to be honest I've had my reservations about DC animated writers after the passing of the great Dwayne Mcduffie, but I found the story here to be satisfying, not great but satisfying. I'm happy to say there are even a few Geoff Johns style classic characterization moments in the movie. Like the Clark Kent gay joke but I'll leave the details for you to watch.

So where does it go wrong?

Well for starters those characterization moments never happen directly for Superman. In fact, the title of the movie itself can be deceiving since the story predominantly focuses on Supergirl. For which, depending on your opinion of the character, isn't necessarily a bad thing. While I enjoyed her portrayal in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, I found myself unable to accept her transition from angst ridden teenager to fear overcoming hero. To me she just doesn't earn her moments in the story.

Speaking of story, I would have liked to see a more direct transition of the original, after all it was co written by Richard Donner who knows a thing or two about making Superman movies. Another shortfall, in my opinion, was the art style of Superman Unbound. The translation here was a total 180 from Action Comics artist Gary Frank's fantastic realistic style. All the characters, except for Supergirl, were drawn with so many anime style ridges that they often times became a distraction from the story. This was especially apparent during one fight scene where we get taken out of Superman's Earth and into a weird Dragonball Z hyper blast line universe. My biggest problem with the movie is the ending. While I won't spoil it for anyone, I will say if you read and loved Johns/Donner's original story then you'll be disturbed at the missing moment that was one of Superman's most character defining moments ever.

Overall, I found Superman Unbound to be an enjoyable once over movie. There was a lot of good parts like the voice acting and the colorful supporting cast, but they get overshadowed by short failings in the translation from the original material. On the ladder of DC animated movies I'd place this one below All Star Superman but well above Gotham Knight. This by no means has made me stop wanting DC to do more translations of their classic stories. I'm even looking forward to the announced Flashpoint, but I'd like to see them take more of a risk with other properties like the Vertigo and Wildstorm line. Who wouldn't want to see Gaiman's Sandman or Vaughn's Ex Machina as an animated movie. I'll even accept your criticism and put my DC animated movie totem poll from best to worst: Under The Red Rood, Doom, Crisis on Two Earths, New Frontier, Wonder Woman, Public Enemies, Dark Knight Returns, Year One, First Flight, Death of Superman, All Star Superman, Unbound, Gotham Knight. 

If you're looking for the next great Superman tale then buy two copies of the Superman Unchained comic in June, but if you want just another addition to the Superman library then settle for Superman Unbound.

Using the IGN scale I'd give this a 6.5 out of 10