Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three is a movie that can be remembered as the first real superhero animated trilogy. No doubt the DCAUM had its share of Batman and Justice League films which were seamless urban legends but none ever truly propelled itself into completing a grand trilogy.
Out of the 3 movies that comprise Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths the most gripping fact is that the creators managed to develop an overarching narrative out of a comic series which had 12 different and more gruesome themes within it that spanned across the 1980s.
At the end, as these three stories are contained in this collection, the movie had a running time of 4 hours and 36 minutes, and several key characters were chosen to narrate the story, giving it a sense of smooth flow and pacing. I would say they achieved their desires but it also left me with an impression of wanting more.
In Part One, the structure of the multiverse is explained, concluding with the revelation that an anti-matter wave is attempting to ‘delete’ Earths. The Flash and his partner, Iris, made the ultimate sacrifice and built a tower that could help protect their world through a generator that would allow their Earth to vibrate out of anti-matter’s line of attack.
In Part Two the root of the crisis is established visits Supergirl’s family as well as the relationship between the Psycho Pirate and the Monitor while watching the heroes attempt to solve and stop the crisis. The DCAMU version of John Constantine is revealed to be Pariah, the birth of the anti-monitor was shown, and the monitor was in turn killed by supergirl.
The third movie initiates showing how heroes lose the confrontation with the Anti-Monitor. The death of the Monitor himself releases a large amount of energy the effect of which transports all the heroes into the Bleed, which is a space between worlds. Meanwhile many months pass as heroes take in war refugees, fend off randomly materialized dinosaurs, and devise plans to finally counter threaten the Anti-Monitor.
While the stakes have definitely been raised, the position of the heroes does not appear to be any different to last time. They are still stuck in a same position and are still being driven backwards. It takes the arrival of Lex Luthor to add some luster to the proceedings. Luthor, who was voiced by Zachary Quinto in the first film, had a role in the creation of the Justice League, but he has his own agenda. Portrayed by Corey Stoll, Luthor heads a cadre of villains that includes Joker and Two-Face.
Luthor has Psycho-Pirate at his disposal and used him to gain information regarding the Anti-Monitor. Lex is a man who seizes opportunities and ever since the Anti-Monitor appeared, he has been betraying other Earths to the Anti-Monitor. He teleports himself to the Monitor’s satellite and tells the heroes what his plan is. He also says that he requires time to examine the Anti-Monitor to identify a vulnerability. Unsurprisingly, Lex thinks in terms of Superman doing a suicidal act of gathering solar energy to use as a hyper-weapon.
Lex has a good time, and the plot of the movie does not skip the transformations of the characters Captain Atom, Superman, Supergirl, Lex Luthor, Hawkgirl, and Dr. Light in space-like Supergirl and John Stewart, who have been steadily developing since their first films. The films might not make the Tomorrowverse feel as grand as the DCAMU was, but the franchise of films has made a successful journey. It is felt in a moment that the legacy of the Black Canary still survives. Perhaps it is too late to bring in other characters, but the second Dr. Mid-Nite, Beth Chapel, surfaces although not in costume. No other characters are however introduced.
I was hoping for a little bit more from Dr. Light considering that it is her first time wielding her powers and being in costume. In the universe of the comic series Crisis on Infinite Earths; in the early parts one, the creation of the new Dr. Light was a great launching pad for different stories. In light of the fact that this particular movie focuses more on closure rather than on introducing new characters or history, she does perform a role, however, her character is not lively namar.bcombios .
That is up for a heated discussion and certainly I’d say Wonder Woman’s role is the most substantive in this movie. After Justice Society: World War II, the heroine had trouble accepting her immortality but now she comes to represent the Tomorrowverse. Immortality does not mean eternal existence, rather it means one’s ability to live again; concepts must transform, all things pass away, and all things are able to come back but in something else.
The last film at least introduced a concept of a Multiversal Batfamily, and this time they aren’t made any more intriguing or useful. Huntress has a decent angle because she’s meeting a young version of her father whose love she cannot consistency receive. There are also Damian Wayne, Robin of Earth 2, and Batman Beyond, but no one interact in a significant manner.
Even the best spot for Batgirl is the moment when she speaks to Supergirl, but we all know she’s clearly a spare for Supergirl’s buddy Dawnstar. Hence, batman is more effective when he doesn’t have to work with alternate universe’s sidekicks and instead uses his muscles as a sleuth to track down ex-Constantine and map out the events leading to the Crisis.
The DCAMU version of the FlashBatman learning about the multiverse is quite an interesting take on it. That Batman and Constantine simply stare as the DCAMU Flash does his business is quite a head %$#@ too. There are multiverses, multimals, and even alternative realities in so many movies and TV shows that I’ve lost count, but this offers an explanation and connection through the framework of Constantine existing and what really happened at Apokolips before this at the war of the Justice League Dark. There is a downside to it, however.
The Tomorrowverse was so nice after going through the extremely dark and violent DCAMU, the Tomorrowverse was so refreshing and optimistic. The Tomorrowverse is just a byproduct of the wrongdoing of the superheroes in another continuity in the light of Crisis. Yeah, and watching DC Showcase: Constantine – The House of Mystery is kind of important, but that thing is hard to find when streaming isn’t a thing and was never given much importance anyway.
If you can find House of Mystery and watch all the DC Showcase shorts, then all your effort into the DC universes shall be worth it. Those shorts featured events that happened once, but are later resolved in the events of Crisis. The Losers, Blue Beetle, even Adam Strange get callbacks.
Kamandi does not carry on from that storyline in DC Showcase: Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, but it was a decent introduction to the character regardless. I wish that they were able to do a Zoo Crew animated short so that those guys could appear here, but I am satisfied with what was delivered.
When I say “dedication to all things DC animation” there, I’m talking about these recent direct to video flicks and shorts, and nothing about the previously rerun animated shows. So in this section allow me to ruin the best parts of the movie for you – the cameos that, as I imagine, brought a large part of the audience here.
The heroes in the DC universe have always enjoyed entering the animation world for many Earths existed long before the Tomorrowverse. Given that Will Friedle stepped back into fun shoes of Terry McGinnis while voicing him in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two, it stirred the anticipation of wondering who else will be starting in an obscure character. Only Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill of DCAU cast were cast in portraying their respective roles.
There was no dramatic cooperation of heroes from other familiar Earths that make the Anti-Monitor the biggest target. I was really looking forward to something like that scene in Teen Titans Go! vs Teen Titans where all the Titans unite together but that wasn’t really the point of Crisis.
This film uses its cameos to much better ability as showing how various Earths are being wiped out. The Super Friends were muted in their responses during the Earth-508’s annihilation, and we only see Titans tower from the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon (a.k.a Earth-2003) as that Earth was way too rudely taken out without context.
The character who stood as the definitive voice of Batman to our generation, Kevin Conroy, returns to the screen once more as he faces off with the Joker in a relentless match that seems to span across multiple universes. It’s bittersweet to witness Conroy as he bids farewell to Batman and the crowd cheers him on. The credits roll and you see an appearance of Conroy thanking the veteran for all the love. However, it wasn’t only the animated Batman that was shown on that Earth.
Furthermore, in addition to Batman Beyond (who again, appeared rather unfazed with the shift of time and space), engaged the People of Earth-12 with their Justice League who also addressed the crisis at hand. Although this was short and scriptless, at the very least the epic romance of Green Lantern and Hawkgirl is for lack of a better word, reiterated, although Green Lantern is showing off his pre-JLU design for some obscure reason.
Other DCAMU characters, aside from Constantine, were not present for the Crisis, but there was certainly an explanation given about their non-existence. Unfortunately, there was no Young Justice, no Batman: The Brave and the Bold times.
A cool reference this is to the Razer and Aya arc. These characters came onscreen for the first time in Green Lantern: the Animated Series; still, their tale was terminated rather early so they have been brought jumping after each other in other series like Justice League Action and Young Justice.
Jim Kieg penned their participations in other series, and since he also scripted the Crisis flicks, it was possible that he wanted to integrate them in so to speak. Or at least, their versions because only the Tomorrowverse animation style was used, and nothing from their history was mentioned.
This movie destroys other Earths and many admirable characters which most people would be upset about, for me, I do not really care. DC has included the multiverse concept and the Crisis in both the Arrowverse as well as the DCEU, but those Crises rarely matter outside of the storyline. Are there memos somewhere in Warner Bros. offices that claim we can never show the Super Friends characters again as this movie has ruined them? I do not think so, and because of this, I do see the need to feel sad for the what the characters went through.
Superman nowhere in sight I do may think that the cameos were pointless fillers, but these films were entertaining. I LOVED the fact that the heroes took the Crisis so seriously. Crisis on Infinite Earths is a genocide at its most extreme and thus, it should be dark. Grief, loss and paying for one’s sins are the themes of these films. But even after all that it still pretty messed up to think that the entirety of all existence could be completely erased, but still uplifting to think that there is a tomorrow.
I cannot endorse this film, especially not to fans who hoped as I do, that it was a love letter to animated DC characters in all their varieties. This isn’t the pinnacle of animated DTV movies. However, it does depict and do some justice to the Tomorrowverse characters, and it could be one of the best movies of the Tomorrowverse.
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