President Luthor learns that a meteor made of Kryptonite is headed for earth. When the plan to nuke it out of existence doesn't work, he declares Superman an enemy of earth. Batman stands by him, but while the rest of the heroes are hunting them, they need help to stop the meteor, help only a young genius from Japan can make happen. Fun!

Of the Superman/Batman animated movies, I did find Superman/Batman: Apocalypse much more consistent. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is still a good movie, but at the same time was left wanting. The film is too short, the story is on the formulaic side and could have done with more conflict, and while it was fun to spot some of the more secondary characters they are not that well developed and are not on screen long enough. However, the animation is wonderful, fluid and full of atmosphere and I liked the haunting undercurrent of the scoring. The writing is smart and Superman, Batman and Luthor are compelling characters. The opening credits are brilliant, and the action sequences have enough excitement to impress the fussiest superhero fan. The voice work of Clancy Brown, Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy I can't fault, the rest are great as well, but these three are unbeatable in these roles and they voice the three most interesting characters of the film. All in all, a good movie that could have been even better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies - Lex Luthor becomes president because the DC world inevitably tips the scales in favor of Lex Luthor for some reason. Superheroes become outlaws, and a meteor of kryptonite is going hit Earth. This is based on a comic series written by Jeph Loeb.One aspect of this story did not need to happen, and it's the meteor. By now, everyone must be rolling their eyes at the lack of rarity of kryptonite. Approximitely all of Krypton must have exploded onto Earth at this point. And there are other types of krytonite. Surely one of those could have brought a fresher element to the story, like say, Red Kryptonite? Batman and, more importantly, Superman being public outcasts (Batman has always been on the in and out with public opinion) is a far more interesting story. It the story this movie claimed to have been about, but decided it couldn't follow through on. Instead we get 5 minutes of plot and 55 of action. Intermittently there are spots of overly friendly dialogue between Batman and Superman (when the hell did that happen?) and fairly stark wooden dialogue from anybody else. Luthor's super-enforcers and Luthor's scene with Power Girl stand out best in my mind.The animation is decent, but why oh why is everyone so overly muscled? Did necks go out of style? Genitalia must have too for Captain Atom because that looks like a skin tight suit. Power Girl is kind of a joke too, albeit decent eye candy.Just to be clear, where did the rest of the Justice League go? And since when did Supes and Batman become an item (Batman doesn't like to be held? Awww. Intimacy issues)? Because the two men should be completely different and less trustworthy of each other to my knowledge, like when Batman kept a log on how to defeat every other member of the Justice League in case they turned rogue. It's a relationship the audience is to accept with no explanation, or lead into. There is a niceness to the differences in their combat styles. Batman's inventiveness, gadgetry and martial arts expertise are nicely demonstrated as he puts down superpowered foes. I also like Superman's ability to whip up tornadoes and flying of foes into levels of the atmosphere where they can't breath.Frankly though, a little goes a long way. While action is expected over story in a 65 minute cartoon, it's too much muscle and no meat and bones. There is almost no drama, tension or story. It's a slugfest, worthy of a generic video game. While other films like Justice League: The New Frontier, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and Batman: Under the Red Hood had drama, themes and issues to explore, this film does not. Superman never loses faith in humanity or doubts whether or not he is in the right. Lex Luthor is simply evil and cannot be trusted, which WE KNEW. It would have been better if some other politician had come around to demand a ban of the superheroes. Marvel's Civil War this isn't. The less I say about the end the better. It involves a giant robot/rocket, an irritating Japanese boy out of left field, and Lex Luthor losing whatever menace he ever possessed.It's a shame and a lost potential. Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly should not be whored out like this for subpar animated films like this. And what the hell was with bringing John C. McGinley into the mix as Metallo and only giving him two lines?

PLOT: When America falls into a series of unfortunate events, it finds salvation in the most unlikely man of all, Lex Luthor. Now President of the United States, Luthor appears to have reformed and the USA has benefited from his administration turning the country's problems around. Only Superman, Luthor's life long arch enemy, doubts the sincerity of the 'new and improved' Lex. When Luthor calls on Superman to discuss collaborating on stopping an approaching asteroid that is basically one big ball of Kryptonite, it turns out to be a trap to frame Superman for a crime he didn't commit and pass it off as the Kryptonite asteroid affecting his psychology and then putting a reward on Superman's head - wanted dead or alive. Determined not to give up, Superman joins forces with Batman to thwart Luthor and save the Earth, a task made all the more difficult thanks to the heroes Luthor has dispatched to get in the way of the two men long hailed as The World's Finest.The biggest criticism one can attribute to this animated feature, which is based on the Loeb/McGuinesss miniseries of the same name (the first in a stretch of stories they collaborated on) is that it removes what actually made their original graphic novel so special: the internal monologues in which Superman and Batman compare, contrast, and critique one another. That is where much of the heart and soul of the original book stemmed from. Superman and Batman are without argument the two most famous heroes of the DC Universe, and their alliance is among the best known 'odd couple' pairings in comics. Theirs is a very difficult dynamic to do properly, two sides of the same coin, the light and dark sides of justice, and has been mishandled more than once over the years as Batman's popularity grew while Superman's popularity sporadically waned, resulting in more than a few unpleasant instances of Superman being forced to step aside so that Batman can look cool, regardless of whether or not it made sense from a storytelling stand point. The Public Enemies monologues, by far, is among the very best examinations of these two iconic heroes and the unlikely friendship between them. As the "history of" documentary that examines their history together itself explains, the key to writing good Superman/Batman stories lies in rooting out why these two very different heroes need each other, and not fixating on the things that would drive them apart. While the basic bulk of the plot is the same, the loss of the internal monologues was truly unfortunate.As for the feature itself, despite the loss of those monologues among a few other bits and scenes, it is still an entertaining diversion which can be best described as "Lethal Weapon With Capes". With animation that looks like it was ripped straight from the book, Superman and Batman go on their adventure, they kick ass, they take names, and exchange witty banter with one another in between action scenes. Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly and Clancy Brown reprise their roles from the DCAU, along with CCH Pounder returning as Amanda Waller (from JLU), and they all deliver strong performances, as usual, as do the other actors. After the embarrassment that was "Brainiac Attacks" it is especially nice to hear Daly reprise the Superman role with stronger material (no disrespect intended towards George Newbern, who replaced Daly for Justice League/JLU, as Newbern himself turned out to be a solid Superman once he found his footing). "Public Enemies" also features some of the best animated fight scenes for Superman ever drawn, from battling Metallo, to fighting off an army of bad guys, to dealing blows with fellow heroes such as Captains Atom and Marvel, to the final clash with the Kryptonite suit powered Lex Luthor. Batman himself doesn't slouch on the battle field either.Overall rating: 7 out of 10