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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 9996
Released: September 29, 2009 |
| Our Price: $11.47 |
| Used Price: $4.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A desperate solution for a troubled country: Lex Luthor for President with the Justice League in the service of the government. Only Batman and Superman stand against the new regime – and their disloyalty proves to be exactly what Luthor intended. Using their outcast status to instigate a scandal against Superman, Luthor finally tastes a victory in his vendetta against The Man of Steel. From Executive Producer Bruce Timm and voiced by the cast from both hit Batman and Superman animated TV series including Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly and Clancy Brown, this DC Universe Original Animated Movie of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness’s popular graphic novel seethes with political intrigue and action-packed battles between heroes all believing they’re on the right side of the law.
Description of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Single-Disc Edition):
Based on the six-issue comic-book arc by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness, Superman/Batman Public Enemies finds DC's stalwart heroes on the wrong side of the law. It's not too surprising, considering Lex Luthor has been elected President of the United States, and he sets up an elaborate scheme to frame his archenemy for murdering his henchman, Metallo. That puts a bounty on their heads that a horde of supervillains is determined to collect, and a good part of the movie is dedicated to all-out action against Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, and many, many others. And when it's not supervillains, Superman and Batman have to face off against heroes that Luthor has recruited to his administration, including Captain Atom, Power Girl, Katana, and Starfire. The movie is very faithful to its source material, reusing many of the dialogue lines, though without the internal monologues, and some of the situations toward the end of the book are missing.
At 69 minutes, Public Enemies is fairly short for a DC Universe animated movie and perhaps because the original story is part of an ongoing series, it feels more like a string of episodes from one of executive producer Bruce Timm's TV series rather than an event like Wonder Woman or The New Frontier. But it's entertaining to watch, and highlighted by the return of familiar voices Tim Daly (Superman), Kevin Conroy (Batman), and Clancy Brown (Luthor). Inside joke: Smallville's Allison Mack voices Power Girl. --David Horiuchi
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Single-Disc Edition) Reviews:
A Really Good Story Line and Action, Sharp images too! 
2009-12-05 - I really enjoyed this movie. I wasnt quite sure looking at the cover animation and not seeing the familar cartoon images but I was pleasantly surprised. Same voices and stunningly clear and sharp images. The story is Lex becomes President in a US that is very similar to the US of today. So of course being President is all about him and he concocts some scheme to put Superman and Batman into the position of wanted men, outlaws needing to be arrested. This comradery of Superman and Batman has EVERYTHING thrown at them and the kitchen sink. They are great together for they are really battling for their lives and eventually the life of the planet ( Earth, not the Daily Planet). There is no moral battles between the two only real unity and watching each others back, its Great!!!
It is a very well done fast paced drag down battle royal with some great humor thrown in too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. BTW I watched it in Blu Ray so visually that really impressed me. GOD bless JB
Mediocre movie, possibly not for kids; "bonus materials" not much bonus 
2009-12-04 - The movie is indeed a faithful adaptation of the mediocre comics story that inspired it. Like that story, it's misogynistic, feels the audience doesn't needs to build an investment in the main characters, and plays solely to the most die-hard of fans.
There ARE some very cool ideas here, yes, but as a movie it doesn't work.
While the movie is by no means as gratuitously violent as Superman/Doomsday or the recent Green Lantern: First Flight, I felt there were lines and scenes that may be a bit heady for kids. While I hate a movie that panders to wary parents or talks down to kids, this simply felt a bit too dark and violent for kids. And, although I can't recall the specifics any longer, there were a couple of lines that surprised me in the same regard.
The voice work is beautiful, bringing back the best voice actors who ever brought these heroes, and the evil Lex, to life, but that does nothing to make up for a threadbare story that has some twists which, ultimately, make little sense.
Stick to the Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, and Justice League cartoons (I can also recommend Batman Beyond and the current Batman: Brave and the Bold series if that's come out yet) -- they're much sharper, more kid-friendly, better animated, and ultimately just better cartoons.
The "bonus" materials are more about promoting further products than giving consumers and fans something interesting to see.
World's Finest
2009-12-01 - Power Girl beeeewbs! ("ahem") The superhero version of Lethal Weapon flies off in its own movie. Long time amigos Supes and Bats have partnered up in their own comic before titled World's Finest, but over the last few years they've had a different comic called Superman/Batman. The series started out with a story arc where our caped cohorts team up to stop the newly-elected President Lex Luthor from framing them while an asteroid is threatening to destroy the Earth. That became the basis for this superhero slugfest!
Lex Luthor wins the presidency despite how many people know he's a supervillain, and cons a couple of random heroes to work for him lead by Captain Atom. He then learns that an oncoming asteroid made of pure Kryptonite is gonna crash into the planet via Armageddon. Lex tries to convince Superman to stop it, although he turns it into an attempt to kill him with Metallo. Batman rescues him and escapes to the Batcave. Luthor then reports on live TV that Superman killed Metallo, and puts a billion smackers on his head. While trying to solve the mystery of what really happened to Metallo, B&S run across about half the villains in town trying to get their bounty, only to be rescued by Captain Atom and his Luthor-run hero crew. Captain Atom tries to arrest our heroes, but Batman & Superman make off with Power Girl, when Batman realizes it was the villain/hero Major Force who offed Metallo. They then make their way to Luthor's secret crib where they clash with Captain Marvel and Hawkman, but manage to trick Luthor into revealing his plan to letting the asteroid destroy all the life on Earth. Apparently, LL has been taking Kryptonite enimas to make himself deadly to Superman, but it's been making him crazy-as-hell. The World's Finest then scoot to Japan to get help from the young inventor/billionaire Toyman(not the evil one)who builds a giant Composite-Superman rocket-robot to stop the asteroid. However, Luthor shows up in a tacky armored-suit to fight Superman while Bats flies the rocket and blows up the asteroid with no nasty effects to the Earth's atmosphere. Luthor is then kicked out of office by his former superhero hit squad, and Superman is cleared of murder charges.
This movie took a different turn as far as the character designs than the regular DC Universe animated projects had. Instead of the generic style that we're accustomed to from Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, it stuck more to the look that Edward McGuinness' artwork had in the Superman/Batman comic. There is a huge cast of random villains and heroes showing up in it, most notably: Starfire, Black Lightning, Katana, Mongul, Solomon Grundy, Killer Frost, and Grodd, even though you'll need to keep a score card for the list of villains that appear in rumble during the middle. The animation is no exception to the other great production value that was put into Green Lantern: First Flight. Again, my only real complaint is like all the DC Universe movies is that its too short. In fact, its about ten minutes shorter than most of the previous ones. Anyway, this is by far the best best "buddy cop" in capes movie ever!
Superman review
2009-11-27 - Everything arrived on time and in great condition. The video was great. Excellent story.
Only problem - they set the bar too high for the future
2009-11-23 - Public Enemies was a reasonable close adaptation of the graphic novel. The artwork evoked the feel of the comic book, and the dialouge was straight out of the book in a lot of important places (Best byplay/accuracy: check out the scene where Superman is shot and Batman is trying to get the Kryponite out of him quickly. No spoilers here)
And getting the actors who did Batman, Superman, and Luthor to return to the roles from the TV series added to the fun, experience tells after all.
Now the only issue is that future DCU movies will not likely use actors who have popularized the characters from the TV shows for these DVDs and after Having Conroy, Daly, and Brown it may be a little disapointing. DC - take a cue from your competation.
Hugh Jackman is now Wolverine, Robert Downey is Iron Man, etc. Too late for the Crisis on two Eaths DVD I know(and the preview for that was fun), but future DVDs can use actors that have made these characters familiar to our ears.
