Reign of the Supermen (2019)

Reign of the Supermen (2019)

Dir: Sam Liu

NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD

A sequel to The Death of Superman (2018), set six months after its predecessor's end. 

Rather than show us what a world without Superman is like, it instead quickly fills up the necessary spaces with four new supermen, each with their own (initially secret) reason for wanting to protect Metropolis from itself.

A lack of faith in either script or viewer means we're told outright that in order to heal emotionally, Lois needs to solve the mystery of the four. The journey that should follow that realisation is a solid basis to build a sequel on, but the story has even more problems than The Death of Suprman and I lost interest.

If that hadn't been the case, however, I'm confident that the absurdity of the resurrected Super-Jesus and his three disciples hurtling toward a fisticuff finale would've been more than enough to ultimately kill it for me.

Constantine: City of Demons (2018)

Constantine: City of Demons (2018)

Dir. Doug Murphy

An animated solo adventure for Liverpool's most famous warlock that has him investigating the reasons why his oldest (living) friend's daughter has fallen into a coma. Originally presented in episodic form (5 parts) it was later merged into one feature-length production.

Matt Ryan is once again on voice duties, as he was in the previous year's Justice League Dark animated movie and the live action Constantine TV Series (2014-15). There are differences with regards continuity between the two formats, so I'm choosing to view them as separate things. But it's perhaps also worth noting that episode ten of the live action TV series (Quid Pro Quo) used the same source text as City of Demons does, namely the Hellblazer: All His Engines (2005) comic book by Mike Carey and Leonardo Manco.

The Death of Superman (2018)

The Death of Superman (2018)

Dirs: Sam Liu + Jake Castorena

TDoS starts badly, with 'millennial' dialogue that made me cringe. Unfortunately, that aspect of it doesn't get much better as it goes on, and the voice casting is mostly weak, meaning even the well-written lines are often delivered without gravitas and with little in the way of real conviction from the speaker.

The strained romantic relationship between Clark/Superman (Jerry O'Connell) and Lois Lane (Rebecca Romijn) is a major concern in the story. Quite often that kind of thing can feel rushed or under-developed in DC movies, but it's given a respectable amount of time to develop. That alone could've been something to celebrate, if not for the aforementioned weak dialogue and lifeless voice of Superman.