My Review of The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest · 9:00pm January 6th
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with my first movie review of 2024! This afternoon, I will be reviewing “The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest” from 1997. Now this was a TV movie at the time, but it also served as a three-episode parter for Superman: the Animated Series which would explain the animation style. Regardless, this film is heavily underrated and deserves more attention for its story and bringing two of DC’s most beloved heroes together for the first time in animation.
This story is about Joker coming to Lex Luther with a deal: paying him $1 billion so he can kill the blue Boy Scout. Batman arrives in Metropolis to warn Supes of Joker’s plans; despite their initial distrust of each other, they work together to put an end to the chaotic schemes of The Joker.
From my perspective, this is probably the first DC animated crossover movie they have ever done. Although they didn’t technically meet until 1952–more than a decade after the first issue of World’s Finest comics—this is the first time they meet face-to-face in an animated movie. Bruce and Clark make such a cool dynamic duo together, considering how similar and different they are.
Bruce faces his enemies in a nightly basis whereas Clark faces his own day by day. While they both share the same goals of keeping everyone they love safe, they each have different ways of doing so. So it’s an odd pairing at first, but they eventually warm up to each other and work together pretty easily. They learn to trust each other and understand how they respectively work on the battlefield.
Again, the story is quite well-written and straightforward. It shows us how The Joker isn’t limited to only terrorizing Gotham; he can spread his chaos and destruction to any city he sees fit because he can and because it’s funny. Despite how much I enjoyed Joker in this film, I was a little underwhelmed by the inclusion of Lex Luther.
Now don’t get me wrong, Lex Luther is one of the best villains in all the DC Universe; Clancy Brown IS the voice of Lex, and there’s barely anyone else who can hold a candle to his iconic performance. However, Lex didn’t do much in this story and was only concerned with not being connected to Joker’s schemes for the sake of his reputation. It kinda sucks he gets sidelined a little and barely contributed to the plot overall.
The animation is still top-notch even today. Obviously, they made it this way so it can easily clash with the animation style of Batman and his own friends from “The New Batman Adventures”.
The voice acting is still spectacular to hear. Every time I listen to Kevin Conroy’s voice, I still get a little sad as he passed away in late 2022. His voice fortunately lives on in Batman and in so many DC animated projects. May he rest in peace.
Mark Hamill still rocked the house as The Clown Prince of Crime! He easily had a lot of fun voicing Joker again for this crossover with Superman. In my opinion, having Joker as a guest appearance in an animated DC series is a “mark” of respect and approval for the show itself. It means that it is worthy of appreciation by Joker himself. Never forget that.
Dana Delany still provided her best performance as Lois Lane and so did Tim Daly as Superman. I will expound more on their voice work when I’ll review Superman: the Animated Series tomorrow.
The action scenes are still fascinating and entertaining to watch as they normally are in the show itself. They are well-animated and directed.
Props to writers Paul Dini, Rich Fogel, and Alan Burnett for the screenplay in part 1 of “World’s Finest”, Steve Gerber for part 2, and Stan Berkowitz for part 3. They all collaborated perfectly together to make such an interesting three-parter that would also be home released as a television movie at the same time.
Overall, it is an action-packed adventure filled with iconic quotes and great dialogue. As it is a part of the DC Animated Universe, it became such an unforgettable journey for both Batman and Superman that they would later on join forces again when facing other enemies such as Brainiac and Ra’s al Ghul. Plus, we learn that good and evil can come in different shapes and sizes and can be full of surprises. I only wish it was a little longer and that Lex would have done more for the story. With that said, I’ll give this a solid 9/10!
Peace out, folks!
