After the events of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, President Lex Luthor has been impeached and our heroes are back on the right side of the law. Its sequel, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, picks up some time later. Superman has returned to Metropolis. Batman continues to stalk the streets of Gotham City. However, something strange, dangerous, and oddly familiar is on a collision course with the Earth, and things about to change for our heroes in ways they couldn’t have imagined. This animated film is heavily based on the comic book tale Superman/Batman: The Supergirl from Krypton by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner.

This is the tale of how Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, first arrived to Earth and became the hero we all know as Supergirl. Rather than jump straight into Kara’s career as a superhero, the movie instead chooses to focus on Kara’s adjustment to life on Earth, the many mentors who want to decide what direction to steer her life toward, and Kara’s own struggle to find her own identity. The movie starts off with Kara’s spacecraft crashing into Gotham City’s harbor, and jumps straight into the action from there.

After Batman and Superman establish Kara’s identity, the movie then slows down to show us how Kara gets along with both men. Her relationship with Batman is antagonistic, as Batman doesn’t believe she is who she says she is. Even Superman’s dog Krypto doesn’t trust her. Superman, however, bonds immediately with his last living relative, and decides to show her a good time in Metropolis.

Wonder Woman plays a major role in this movie as Kara’s trainer in how to fight and properly use her powers. With Batman taking a backseat for most of the movie and Wonder Woman stepping up as a major player, I almost wonder why this movie wasn’t titled Superman/Wonder Woman: Apocalypse.

And then there’s the “Apocalypse” part of our story– or more appropriately, Apokalips. Kara has caught the attention of the villainous Darkseid, who has his own plans for the girl. These plans involve Granny Goodness and her Female Furies, pulling Fourth World heroine Big Barda into the tale for the showdown against Darkseid’s forces.

The action in this movie is hard-hitting, violent, bloody in some parts, and just plain savage. It’s really the biggest plus in the film. However, some of the character relationships just feel false and poorly developed. Kara and Harbinger are apparently supposed to be best friends– at least that’s what the characters said in the one brief scene they actually shared. Wonder Woman is introduced in the film like she’s practically a villain, but the movie quickly cuts to the point where any animosity between certain characters is mostly gone. Batman’s name is in the title, but he doesn’t do anything in the movie beyond finding Kara in Gotham and tricking Darkseid into a stalemate via some plan he enacted off-camera.

Tim Daly (Superman), Kevin Conroy (Batman), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), and Ed Asner (Granny Goodness) all reprise their voice roles from earlier animated series. Summer Glau’s Kara starts off a little odd, but sounds more natural in later parts of the film. Andre Braugher does a decent enough job at replacing Michael Ironside as the voice of Darkseid.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is a fine enough animated movie for its fight scenes (and there are plenty in the final act), but I feel like it fails to make me care about some of the characters. The final fight scene is the very definition of tacked-on, and there’s a red herring death in the movie that feels totally pointless and hollow. It’s an okay movie, but not something I’m at all eager to completely watch a second time.