Legion of Super-Heroes – Film Review

Kara, devastated by the loss of Krypton, struggles to adjust to her new life on Earth. Her cousin, Superman, mentors her and suggests she leave their space-time to attend the Legion Academy in the 31st century, where she makes new friends and a new enemy: Brainiac 5. Meanwhile, she must contend with a mysterious group called the Dark Circle as it searches for a powerful weapon held in the Academy’s vault.

There’s a certain charm to these DC Universe animated movies that’s unshakable. Despite the fact that the running time for nearly all of them is not even a full ninety minutes, and despite telling relatively simplistic superhero stories, they’re still highly enjoyable rides that I’m always pleased to go on, and Jeff Wamester‘s Legion of Super-Heroes is no different.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything with Kara / Supergirl in the lead, but that’s exactly who takes center stage here and that makes me happy. She’s always been one of my favorite superheroes and thankfully, she definitely gets a whole lot to do here, even if a lot of the film is about her trying to fit in.

After showing how unexperienced and refined she is on Earth, Kara gets disheartened and yearns to fight crime somewhere where she feels more welcomed, and when that opportunity finally arises, she takes it immediately. But, she quickly finds out that the decision may have been a huge mistake.

And now… we have a movie. The rest of the story that plays out is fairly standard comic book movie stuff. There’s no huge curveballs thrown our way and there’s no plot twist that changes the rest of the movie going forward, but if you’re fine with a superhero film that allows you to sit back and enjoy the ride, this one will surely entertain you as it did me.

One of the best things about this movie is the voice acting from everyone onboard. Meg Donnelly is an absolutely stellar Kara / Supergirl, perfectly embodying the childlike wonder and charm that goes along with her character. She’s a girl with huge dreams who wants to do what’s right and Donnelly portrays that beautifully.

There’s also Jensen Ackles as Bruce Wayne / Batman which is something that I’m so glad we’re getting recently because he works so well as the character. He doesn’t do anything game-changing with it, but honestly, he doesn’t need to. He gets all the right aspects of the character nailed down.

All of the action on display is also quite a blast to watch, even if there isn’t as much of it as one would think. The third act is where things get truly chaotic and all of the plot points come to a close in a satisfying way. I’m really hoping that we get even more Supergirl-centered stories in the near future because this one was certainly a treat. A familiar one, but a treat nonetheless.

Legion of Super-Heroes certainly doesn’t do anything inventive, but it’s nevertheless an enjoyable animated action film with tons of great character moments throughout.