Does the animated adaptation compare to the original Geoff Johns Action Comics run?
I'm going to say: not quite, but it isn't terrible either. There are some qualities about this movie I like, and some that just kind of ruin the movie.
So basically a Brainiac probe droid has landed and Supergirl, who was alive on Krypton until she was a teenager, remembers how terrible Brainiac was and that he shrunk and stole the entire town of Kandor and tells Superman he is bad news. Superman flies to Brainiac and when he fails to stop him from destroying an entire planet, breaks into his spaceship. He then punches him in the face and takes Kandor back. Brainiac wakes up and comes for earth, shrinks Metropolis and Superman and Supergirl stop him and restore the city.
So the positives?
I liked the animation, Superman has a weird jaw line, but otherwise everyone looks good, I really like the Lois design and Kara works. I was also content with the voice acting, nobody sounds distractingly out of place.
I must say I also enjoy when they don't over-acknowledge some comic history. They know that we know who Lois is and that Lois and Clark are together. They give the broad strokes of Kara's origin, but they don't really get into how she got to earth, just enough so we know that she knows who Brainiac is, which is really all we need to know.
The overall story is pretty typical but not awful, the Brainiac probe comes, Kara knows Brainiac, Superman beats Brainiac. Brainiac gets up. Brainiac is stopped again. They could have spiced this up a bit, but for some reason these movies are only about 70 minutes so it doesn't really stray from an A to B plot with the exception of Superman getting shrunk into Kandor for about 4 minutes and escaping with ease.
My beefs with this movie are many:
First, the opening scene where Lois is kidnapped until Kara and Clark save her, it doesn't even explain what the kidnappers want or their purpose or anything. It seems as though they just wanted a random Daily Planet worker for no reason?
Second, when Superman goes after Brainiac and Brainiac destroys an entire planet, it pisses Superman off, but it doesn't even mention it after it happens. I would think witnessing the death of billions would have a slightly bigger impact on someone and they would want to talk about it in some capacity, and not just forget that it happened.
And in the same scene, probably the worst part of the movie, when Superman does get mad and goes into Brainiac's ship, what does he do? After a bit of a fight, he just punches him really hard in the face and leaves. He doesn't destroy him, or even check to see if he is shut down or anything, he doesn't save any of the other hundres of cities Brainiac has captured (only Kandor), he just punches him in the face really hard and when Brainiac flops over, he leaves as quick as he can. This part is really really really stupid. So obviously Brainiac gets back up almost immediately.
When Brainiac comes to earth Superman tries to stop him only to be shrunk into Kandor, which after a bizarrely casual lunch with Kara's father, he easily escapes.
Then the end fight, where Superman defeats Brainiac by simply taking him out of his ship and throwing him in a muddy swamp. The overload of "chaotic life everywhere" just makes Brainiac explode. A really dumb victory over a planet conqueror. It is a good idea, in a way, to overload him with life (he never left his ship before) but it should have been executed better, and maybe finished off with some punches. He shouldn't have just exploded because he got mud on himself.
Then in a weird ending, Superman knows of a habitable planet with a red sun (even though it looks just like a desert) and he takes Kandor there and releases it where it grows and Kara has a super happy ending when her parents emerge.
And in a weirdly cheesy and unnecessary after-credits scene the Brainiac parts that Superman has stored away in the fortress of solitude reactivate.
4.5/10
It sounds harsh, but I compare these movies to live action ones as well and it is hard to deliver a great story in 70 minutes.
To put this in perspective here are a few others I have rated:
Captain America 1990 1.0/10
Nick Fury - Agent of SHIELD 1.5/10
The Punisher (Dolph) 2.5/10
Batman & Fr. Freeze - Sub-Zero 3.0/10
Brave 3.5/10
Spiderman 3 4.0/10
Dr. Strange 4.5/10
Spiderman 5.0/10
Hulk (Eric Bana) 5.5/10
Planet Hulk 5.5/10
Punisher - War Zone 5.5/10
Spiderman 2 5.5/10
The Punisher (Tom Jane) 7.5/10
To me Planet Hulk is one of the better animated CBMs. Justice League - Doom is probably a 6ish and both Dark Knight Returns a 5. This movie is probably on par with or just a little better than Superman - Elite.
Thanks!