Movie Review: Superman vs The Elite

I have a confession. I don't really like Superman. I don't really like his surrounding characters. I cheer for Lex Luthor. Lex is somehow the only character I find likeable. But, I heard about this movie called Superman vs The Elite. Now I was aware of Manchester Black beforehand but not The Elite. I knew him as a middle aged heavy smoker. So I sat down and watched the film.

The film starts out with Superman defeating The Atomic Skull who was killing lawyers because "They're scum, nobody will miss them." Superman defeats him after he destroys 2 or three city blocks and a lake in the process. Later Superman sits in on a United Nations meeting where some people exclaim he should just kill the villains. He tries to explain it away. But a war breaks out and he flies off to fight.

Once there he meets the elite who take out the biological weapons and let Superman know they aren't even alive. They introduce themselves. Superman can't help but do a Batman impression and flies off to The UK to investigate the team. But he gets caught and Manchester Black shares his back story with Superman. He tells of an abusive father, stealing to survive and saving his sister from a train accident. Later they work to stop a terrorist attack. Manchester Black tries to interrogate the terrorists by choking them to death Superman stops him.

The Elite make a public announcement about how they kill villains to make sure they never come back unlike Superman. They become popular for ending a war between two countries by just killing the combatants instead of breaking their weapons like Superman. Meanwhile Superman is trying to tell people this is the wrong way, but he just gets ridiculed and he feels bad.

The boiling point comes when Atomic Skull breaks out of prison because he finds it inhumane that he's forced to power Metropolis to keep him depowered but he killed like 20 people at the start of the film. Anyway, he breaks out and starts an attack to draw in Superman. Somehow he's gotten another power increase. The Elite and Superman are forced to work together to bring Atomic Skull to his knees. The crowd chants to kill him and Superman gives a speech about why it's wrong to kill.

DC is good at hitting you in the feelings. The camera pans to a kid holding his father who had been turned to stone and killed by Atomic Skull. This is the son of the congressman who was trying tell people that Superman was right earlier for not killing Atomic Skull. He asks Superman does he still fell like it's right to protect a villains life at the cost of others. Superman is speechless and tries to conjure up a speech to ease the crying kid. Manchester Black puts his fingers to Atomic Skulls head to mimic a gun and tells the kid to just say the word. Superman begs the kid and scolds Manchester. The kid just says "Do it" and Manchester uses his psychic ability to blow up Atomic Skulls head. Superman tried to stop him but was to late. The crowd cheers.

Later Superman is talking to Lois. She asks a brilliant question "Why don't you just call The Justice League for help?" and Superman's answer is another reason I don't like him. In his arrogance he says "They didn't choose The Justice League they chose me." What? He acts like Batman has never called in help when he couldn't handle something. Superman always thinks he's above help. He's so arrogant. That's why I cheer for Lex.

The next day Superman flies to the war torn countries and takes out a ton of tanks, jets, soldiers and lays them right on the field for the people to see. Effectively creating a cease fire because he's  destroyed everyone's weapons. He gives one of those Superman speeches and tells everyone he's organized a meeting between the two countries. That's when Manchester pops up and mentions there's no meeting because the politicians are all dead. The war is now over.

Later Lois and Clark are sitting there when breaking news comes on. Manchester is just grinding dirt in Superman's wounds at this point. Clark asks Lois if she thinks he can beat The Elite. She walks off and just says "Come to bed Clark." That was the last draw. The next time he has a chance to he flies into battle and decimates the opponent. Then he challenges The Elite to a fight on the moon. Then you have to watch to find out how the fight ends. Trust me, it's good.

My biggest gripe with the film is it was more Superman vs Manchester Black featuring sidekicks. Let me tell you why this is an issue. In the Comics, Coldcast has an entire back story that's never mentioned. He also goes on to join the Justice League. He was supposed to be the moral counter in The Elite and he only got a few lines. I could understand in the case of The Hat and Menagerie because The Hat retires in seclusion shortly after and Menagerie dies. I also don't get why Lois was now Jennifer Lopez.

What I did enjoy is the younger twist of Manchester Black. I think the charismatic guy with purple hair is cooler than a shirtless old guy that looks like Tony Soprano in a bowler hat. They also managed to get through this film without doing what DC usually does and try to get at least some shot of almost every Justice League or Villain in. It was strictly characters that mattered for the story.

I don't really like Superman as I said earlier but I enjoyed this film. It's obvious that he wins in the end because he always does. But, I enjoyed it because despite the fact that he wasn't dominating everyone like Superman. He frequently got put in the dirt multiple times by multiple opponents. It was just refreshing to see Superman doubt himself for once. There's two ways to make me like Superman. Make him use his powers to the max and be overconfident, or give him a reason to doubt himself and overcome something. Too many times Superman just gives speeches to inspire people then dominates the enemy and never gets a dent in flawless mentality he has. He's just too perfect.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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