Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The idea of Bats and Supes have super children was originally unveiled back in 1973 for the “Super Sons” team up events, with both children being named Bruce and Clark Jr. (lol, a bit on the nose), and then only sporadically brought out in print over the next 30 years. They got some play here and there, but it wasn’t a very popular run and the general public didn’t really take to the dynamic duo. Especially due to the fact that they were adults in those runs, and were basically just clones of their fathers. That is until about 2016-2017 when the boys got a complete do over in print form, lowering their ages to that of teenagers and giving them brand new names and re-introducing them to the public as Damian and Jonathan. The series was actually quite a hit, with Jonathan having to deal with bullies and other various things that Clark never had to, and Damian of course being the near psychopathic child of Batman and Talia. Thus we finally get a crack at them in the DCAU and the results are surprisingly good.

The film starts with a quick introduction to Jonathan Kent (Jack Dylan Grazer) whose birthday it is and having to deal with the fact that his father Clark (Travis Willingham) keeps missing important events due to “work”. Realizing that it’s time for his boy to know the truth, Clark attempts to initiate a conversation with the hurt boy, but ends up driving him away and accidentally unlocking the latent Kryptonian powers. Now Jonathan has to come to grips with his father not being who he said he was, but also the fact that he has powers that eclipse any human on Earth.

Taking him to Batman (Troy Baker) to check up on something (and in hopes of getting a hand on Jon’s powers), Superman unwittingly introduces his son to someone in a much darker place. Damian Wayne (Jack Griffo) who is serving as the new Robin. Damian is bitter, angry, and still struggling with the violent creed that his Grandfather Ras taught him back in the league of Shadows. While there, Supes and Bats are called away when a signal from the Justice League’s floating fortress triggers a warning. Unfortunately for them, they run into the space entity Starro, who corrupts their minds and turns them against humanity. Now, it’s up to Damian and Jonathan to team up and figure out how to not only save their parents from the parasitic space alien, but also keep all of humanity from being enslaved by the monster as well.

Battle of the Super Sons is actually quite a lot of fun. It balances a nice tight rope between dark brutal DCAU super hero action, and the light hearted tone needed for a teenage coming of age story. We get an introduction to the new Jonathan Kent, complete with his struggling to fit in as the “nerd” of Smallville. But unlike his father he hasn’t had to hid his super powers until now. He actually IS the defenseless nerd that people think he is. However, his new found powers allow the boy to stretch and grow, adding a different dimension to his life as he figures what he can and can not do with them. Damian is just how we’ve come to know and love him over the years. He’s nasty, vicious, and almost cruel at times, but he’s the more pragmatic of the duo. Instead of focusing on the true DARK side that Damian has always had (and Bruce worries about), we see his struggle with fitting in with the Teen Titans, and the desire that he has to actually BE something better than he once was. As such, it’s a nice juxtaposition to see him and Jonathan play off each other throughout the film.

Starro was an interesting villain, and a stark contrast between the absolutely bizarre and insane introduction to the oddball space monster that we saw back in The Suicide Squad with James Gunn. We get the same general idea of Starro wanting to take over the world, but it’s done in a more down to earth way (if that can be possible with a sea star looking monster who takes over peoples minds with face hugging mini variations of himself, but I digress).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence and language




4K Video: Video:

Warner’s 4K discs have been a bit shaky now and again, but this time it was actually quite a solid improvement over the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray is what I would call a “standard” Warner DCAU film. It was good, suffered from banding, but overall a very pleasant experience. The 4K UHD is a rather large improvement though, offering tangible detail benefits as well as the complete lack of banding and crush that plagues the Blu-ray. Now, the detail levels aren’t going to show MASSIVE improvements due to the basic level animation styles, but you can see nuances in the dark of Batman’s cave, as well as the sky having different layers of blue to it that I couldn’t detect on the 1080p disc. However, the HDR application makes for some brighter colors, especially with the Supes red and blue colors, and the black levels get a BIG boost. Most of the banding in the Blu-ray happens in the dark, and this is pretty much completely negated in 4K. Great looking disc.





Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track (found on both the Blu-ray and the 4K UHD disc) is a nice and powerful mix. Filled with the swooshing of superman/superboy, and the roar and slam of bodies hitting the decks, this is a tour de force mix. The surrounds are more than active with the sounds of battle (including the buzz and whir of heat vision, or the slam of a body hitting into a crate), but the rousing horn based score really fills out the entire sound stage. The LFE can be crushing at times, and the mix doesn’t exactly shy away from flexing it’s low end muscles either. Batplanes, massive battles, and of course the crushing weight of Starro and his voice to really add some power to the track.











Extras:

• Rival Sons: Jonathan and Damian
• From the DC Vault: The Demon's Quest: Part One and Two

Final Score:
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All in all, I really enjoyed the flick. It had a nice in between tone between the hard R rated Batman DCAU films of recent times, and the softer teenage tones of a teen teamup between the children of Earth’s most famous super heroes. The 4K UHD looks and sounds quite fantastic, and I have to say that this was one of the more refreshing DCAU experiences of the last few years. Kind of like baby bear’s porridge, it wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too cold, but juuuuuuuuuuuuust right. Definitely a fun watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jack Dylan Grazer, Jack Griffo, Laura Bailey, Toy Baker, Darin De Paul, Travis Willingham
Directed by: Matt Peters
Written by: Jeremy Adams
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 80 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 18th, 2022

Recommendation: Fun Watch