DC League of Super-Pets (2022)

As the young son of the last remaining Kryptonians is put into his fleeing spaceship, his faithful puppy leaps from his father's arms and joins him in the capsule. In the nick of time too, as the planet is soon toast! Spin on and a few years later the boy is now doing his best Henry Cavill impersonations as "Superman" aided and abetted by his equally super-strong pooch "Krypto". It turns out that these are just two of a plethora of heroes from the "Justice League" who try to keep the evil "Lex Luthor" from achieving world domination. What nobody expects here though, is that a meteor that "Luthor" had hoped would give him the power to finally defeat his nemesis ends up in the hands of a loved-up guinea pig ("Lulu") - and a clever and scheming guinea pig at that. She rather adeptly uses her new-found powers to embolden an army of other, now ninja, guinea pigs to capture and imprison the "Justice League" so she can get prove her worth to the love of her life - the ruthless "Luthor". There is a glimmer of hope! The meteorite that enhanced the rodents has also fallen the way of a few others, and together with "Krypto" they band together, learn to harness their powers and the scene is set for a final showdown. The animation is perfectly adequate, but the story is weak and far too thinly strung out. The turtle has a few quite witty lines of dialogue but the rest of it mixes cheese and sentiment in an almost cringe-making fashion. There are far too many characters and by the end it has a sort of chaotic "Avengers Endgame" (2019) scenario that was as devoid of jeopardy as it was dull and repetitive to watch. At times, indeed, it was almost as if DC wanted to make a film to remind us that not all super-heroes were developed by Marvel. Maybe I am just too old - but I struggled to stay the course with this.

This movie had no business being this funny... I have not laughed this consistently in a long time. Good watch filled with great visuals and fun action set pieces, and a surprising amount of heart. One scene brought tears to my eyes, which I was not expecting coming into the film. I do have a few complaints, the movie felt a little long even at an hour and forty-five minutes, pacing was a bit off towards the end of the second and beginning of the third act. Also, some performances could have used some work, they felt... uninspired.

Score: 72%
Verdict: Good