"Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two" Animated Release Talkback (Spoilers)

[Yojimbo]

A new threat spreads across the Multiverse in the latest entry for DC Universe Movies.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two
Studio: Warner Bros. Animation
Release Date: Digital, 4K, Blu-ray, DVD - April 23, 2024 ; Max Streaming Service - July 15, 2024

Synopsis: An endless army of shadow demons bent on the destruction of all reality swarms over our world and all parallel Earths! The only thing opposing them is the mightiest team of metahumans ever assembled. But not even the combined power of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and all their fellow superheroes can slow down the onslaught of this invincible horde. What mysterious force is driving them? And how do the long-buried secrets of the Monitor and Supergirl threaten to crush our last defense?

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two Bonus Content
4K, Blu-ray, and Digital
-"Voices in Crisis"
-"The Bat-Family of the Multiverse"
-Part Three Preview.

Discuss the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two animated release here!

Please note this talkback is for both the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two animated feature and all aspects of the assorted home media releases. Spoilers are allowed, so those who have yet to see the movie may want to avoid this thread until they have.

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-Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One Talkback (Spoilers)

Note: Remember, we appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!

 

[James Harvey]

The World’s Finest has published its review of the DC Universe Movie title Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two. To read the complete review, click on the image below.

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[Otaku-sempai]

My copy should be delivered to my door at some point today. Earlier than later, I hope!

 

[Yojimbo]

6:26 clip of the Bat Family vs. some Bat rogues.

 

[Frontier]

6:26 clip of the Bat Family vs. some Bat rogues.

Not every Batman can say they've had a Multiversal Batfamily .

 

[Yojimbo]

Boy, uh, where do I begin. I think it's fair to say if Part 1 was a hard sell to you, Part 2 is an ever harder sell. I thought Part 2 was just okay. It didn't blow my mind or remotely compare to Part 1 but it jumped through the hoops it needed to as a lead into Part 3.

Going into this, I knew it's a trilogy. A lot of part two's in a trilogy tend to not do well with audiences because they often have to do a lot of didactic story acrobatics to set up a cliffhanger act 3 and Part 3. I knew there was going to be a lot to digest. On the other hand, starting off with 40 minutes of back story to tee up how awful Psycho Pirate is, answer some lingering questions-yes, that's the same one from JSA:WW2's Earth-2, answer questions you didn't know you had that the DC Showcase: Blue Beetle's Dr. Spectro was him? Like we hate him surface level because he was a Nazi in JSA:WW2 but the flashbacks here cement he's an altogether awful person before he was a Nazi. And oh yeah, Dr. Fate gave him an extra ability cuz reasons. Then because they combined Supergirl and Harbinger into a single character for this canon, going into Part 2 and if you read the comic, then Jim Krieg was more or less backed into a corner because he had to extend out Supergirl's backstory from what we saw in Legion of Super-Heroes to organically build up tensions to the point where Psycho Pirate uses his powers to manipulate her into killing (or "killing") Monitor. Ok, that part makes sense. But whoo, 40 minutes of this before the movie/main story really begins. That is gutsy.

Then for the next 1 hour and 50, it's just gratuitous fight scenes across the Multiverse. All out battles against a new army of Shadow Demons that in the end doesn't really matter. Solovar died for nothing (well it did service Kamandi's sudden prejudice arc). John sacrificed his ring and lantern for nothing. Wonder Woman Earth-2 died for nothing. Heroes fight against each other for nothing. It was a 1 hour 50 minute stall for time to milk Anti-Monitor's physical manifestation. Why? Because another tough job a Part 2 often has to do is set up the 'all hope is lost, the heroes are about to all die, how can they possibly survive?' scenario but also introduce some slivers of hope - Constantine is back. Psycho Pirate in cliche cocky villain mode gloated and Monitor had a revelation before Supergirl killed him - all before the big bad is defeated in finale.

I tried to not let the mediocre animation quality bother me. I'm not a animation snob. But damn, that was some mediocre animation. For budget reasons no doubt, Maven Image Platform was by themselves for this movie and as we've seen since the 90s with shows like B:TAS or X-Men, an animation studio often farms their work load out to another studio and the quality is often... bad. Here Maven was helped by such a 'support studio' called Studio IAM. And it shows. Here's hoping they had to keep the purse strings tight on Part 2 so they could throw everything into Part 3.

Not a strike against the movie but still a nitpick. Yeah, Part 2 did a bit better job of mapping characters out but my "wait wut?" moment was Robin revealing he's also from Earth-2 and by extension Huntress. So the Bruce they knew was on the same Earth as JSA:WW2. But not Damian and Batman Beyond (who are suddenly in the narrative) or Batgirl or Batwing? And Solovar, RIP, turned to be on Earth-1 like Batman and Superman. Shrug. Dr. Spectro was Psycho Pirate - uh... ok. Joker, Grundy, and Jim on Earth-2 look exactly the same as the ones on Earth-1 in The Long Halloween - no budget to even tweak their character designs just a little so nobody wonders 'how did they get from Earth-1 to Earth-2, oh ok I guess those are the Earth-2 ones. Alright.' Don't get me started on Batman waking up on the wrong side of the stalagmite all movie.

One aside is the marketing for this was awful. Well, more non-existent. Between the trailer and release day, like zip. I can only hope this was a temporary thing because in the aftermath of the strikes or something. But even Merry Little Batman had next to none, too. It's only become more and more apparent with each release at what a crucial role Gary Miereanu played as the PR for this titles.

Part 2 needed to happen and that sentiment feels reflected in the final product. It did what it needed to do. 2.5 to 3 stars. Not great, not terrible, just in the middle like this movie's place in the trilogy.

 

[Frontier]

I feel like this was a step down from Part 1.

It was missing that centerpoint and heart that was there in the first film with Barry's story and Amazo. It felt like stuff just...kind of happened to facilitate getting the plot moving along.

Despite being on the cover art and getting maybe one significant moment Wonder Woman still ends up barely doing anything. And the depiction of the Amazons (adoptive mother Hippolyta? Male slaves?) was kind of problematic. Why do these films always seem to struggle with giving Diana stuff to do?

Psycho-Pirate's origin and plot took up too much screentime.

Jensen Ackles' Batman had probably one of his worst showings in this film. When he's not being a jerk, he's being an idiot. Felt like a waste of having all these characters (including Terry) together to have to center around and deal with this Batman.

Commissioner Gordon gets killed off immediately and no one reacts to it. Like, I get it's an AU version of him with no personal bearing on the multiversal Batfamily but you'd think someone, especially a version of Barbara Gordon, would care.

The massive amount of pauses and static figures were at their worst here. I guess we can really see why the Tomorrowverse is ending with Crisis and possibly the DTV line as a whole because they barely seem to have a budget to work from at this point.

I will say having Matt Ryan officially come back after Constantine regains his identity was an effective scene.

 

[CyberCubed]

This was really, really disappointing. I'd honestly say borderline bad.

I don't know what it is, but the pacing in these movies is terrible. Sometimes it feels like the characters say a line, then the other character stares at them for 2-3 seconds, before saying what they have to say. There's so many awkward "pauses" between character dialogues in these movies...I don't know how to describe it. I'm sure others understand what I mean and might be able to explain it better than I can. It's like every character "freezes" before they say something.

The story was bad. Way too much exposition with Supergirl and Monitor in the beginning. Way too much time wasted on Monitor being dumb. Way too much time wasted with the "Psycho space pirate" reading peoples minds. He has one line where he says, "I must be boring you to point of tears," and yes...I'd agree with that. Break the fourth wall there.

Then the climax of the film has the whole Batman sidekicks turn on each other and start fighting, I honestly laughed out loud when it happened. Granted I know they were being influenced by dark thoughts or whatever that was, but it was still so damn stupid. Then the rest of it is just all the superheroes fighting bland shadow monsters till they form into a giant one.

Seeing Terry as Batman was cool, although he barely had any lines and wasn't on-screen much. Not much more than a easter egg for starving Batman Beyond fans, really.

These DC animated movies as a whole have been mostly bad with a few exceptions for over a decade now. I have no idea why they keep making these, I have no idea who keeps buying them outside hardcore fans. They made like 50+ movies or somewhere around there and maybe less than 20 are good and worth watching more than once. After the third movie comes out this entire line needs to be put out of its misery.

 

[Yojimbo]

I imagine this was purely Jim Krieg but Psycho Pirate trying to explain the meaning of his Roy G. Bivolo alias to Blue Beetle and capitulating does keep cracking me up.

Speaking of Krieg, he did a 40 min. interview with the Hall of Justice podcast.
-They already knew about the backstory in this movie when they were making Legion of Super-Heroes.
-Comments on expanding more on just a Shadow Demon possessing Supergirl like in the comic. She has to be culpable and go through some bad stuff.
-Comments on Monitor. He is a just person, a scientist then this person comes along and affects him. He's like Galactus, beyond knowing, but eons ago he used to be a living person like us. His humanity/his emotions is/are reawakened in a sense.
-Jim wanted to be put more Robins. Butch hates the Nightwing suits and didn't want them in there.
-Comments on Batman's thing is the Bat-Family are people he could care about if he could manage that.
-Comments on Batman Beyond/Terry. Alludes to having to strip a lot out in general. Sometimes they're just cameos.
-Admits there is a lot to cover. A lot of pipe laying.
-Comments on Diana and being immortal.
-On a scale of 1-10, Part 3 is a 5 when it comes to being like the comic. Has the shape and tone of the comic but not scene for scene or action for action. Has to be surprises. Can't tell the same story in 1985 you tell in 2024.
-Why Charles is a psychopath, why his powers affect him, what his mania is and why he can't overcome it was important to explain.
-The turning point learning it was a being, not a natural thing.
-Comments on the structure of Max, it's a time of constriction in the industry so less people around to make sections like Tuckerverse or Tomorrowverse
-There are things from all the past movies and shorts, lot of pieces of connective tissue that seemed like nothing but now have meaning.

 

[-batmat-]

I don't know what it is, but the pacing in these movies is terrible. Sometimes it feels like the characters say a line, then the other character stares at them for 2-3 seconds, before saying what they have to say. There's so many awkward "pauses" between character dialogues in these movies...I don't know how to describe it. I'm sure others understand what I mean and might be able to explain it better than I can. It's like every character "freezes" before they say something.

At this point, it just has to be on purpose, a "creative choice". I've noticed this since the very first Tomorrow-verse movies and it just never stopped being a thing.

 

[Yojimbo]

At this point, it just has to be on purpose, a "creative choice". I've noticed this since the very first Tomorrow-verse movies and it just never stopped being a thing.

Could just be due to the change in editors. From JL: War to Apokolips War, they were had Christopher Lozinski then from Man of Tomorrow and on currently with Crisis, it's Bruce King editing.

 

[CyberCubed]

I also forgot to mention using light to defeat the shadow creatures feels like a Saturday morning cartoon or Scooby Doo thing. I mean yes it's so obvious "bursts of bright light" might defeat shadow creatures, but it's hilarious how all the superheroes acted so surprised it worked and wasted time just fighting them normally before coming to this conclusion. Seriously this is something I'd see in shows aimed at kids on Saturday mornings back in the day.

 

[Frontier]

I also forgot to mention using light to defeat the shadow creatures feels like a Saturday morning cartoon or Scooby Doo thing. I mean yes it's so obvious "bursts of bright light" might defeat shadow creatures, but it's hilarious how all the superheroes acted so surprised it worked and wasted time just fighting them normally before coming to this conclusion. Seriously this is something I'd see in shows aimed at kids on Saturday mornings back in the day.

At least it's not non-powered Ryan Choi just throwing his hands to defeat Shadow Demons.

 

[Fone Bone]

Wow, did I actually like something you guys didn't? Neat! Why you guys always gotta be so negative?

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths: Part Two

I liked it. Probably not as much as the first part, but keep in mind the first part has a different dynamic than this one will, and the next part will have a different dynamic than them both. The first part is the beginning. The next part is the ending. This part is an awkward middle child, starting with a half-hour of back-and-forths between quiet scenes of Kara on Monitor's ship, and Psycho-Pirate relating his life story to Dr. Fate. It is by design less satisfying than the last part and the next. It has no beginning and it has no ending. And it's a little hard to judge it fairly because of that. What I will do is not judge it harshly. Not take out my frustrations with the cliffhanger on the movie itself. Maybe I should. But I won't.

I was kind of hoping for more explicit Multiverse cameos, but Will Friedle as Batman Beyond and Matt Ryan being revealed as John Constantine are still pretty big gets. Still furious over how dirty DC did John on Legends Of Tomorrow. Hopefully the next part will give Matt Ryan a more satisfying final performance to go out on.

Not loving that Amazon world. It struck me as fascist and genocidal fascism at that.

Speaking of which, I love Psycho-Pirate calmly, and in a rational tone of voice saying he loves Nazis. The brainwashing is already done, you see. That guy has a great and creepy voice, and they hired an actor I don't know to do it. I love whenever a project gets an A-grade performance out of a scale actor, She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power was famous for having better and more believably dramatic performances from the lower paid Canadian actors than just about any American animated drama ensemble cast you can think of. I love when that stuff works out. The last Legion Of Super Heroes movie has an amazingly cast Brainiac I had never heard of too.

I love that the tone is not too vulgar or too violent. It doesn't draw attention to itself the way other adult DC projects invariably do. I'm sort of sitting back riveted instead, which is the proper reaction they want to wring out of me.

I very much thought it was a great connector between the first and last parts. The last part has a lot to live up to. ****1/2.

Part Three Sneak Peek:

It's of a scene of the Justice League fighting dinosaurs, because Jim Krieg knows what the people want to see. ****.

Edit:

It's the structure that's throwing you guys. Everything in a middle part of a three part film feels out of balance for not having a beginning or an ending, and it's less exciting for drama and pathos, and more focused on setting up the pieces of the big finale. It's not an easy movie to enjoy or grade on its own. If the last part is as good as I think it will be, your views on it will change.

I gave it a positive review because it was structurally putting the right pieces in place for a satisfying finale. It was doing it's job as the unloved and unheralded middle child / part properly. But nobody will thank Krieg for it until the entire thing is over.

Edit 2

The job of the second part of a three part film is not to narratively satisfy you. By definition it cannot. Make peace with that.

 

[PicardMan]

Okay, I guess those hyped for Terry's return will be very disappointed as it sound like it just a very brief cameo. So, I guess the Conroy Batman/Hammill Joker in part 3 will be just as disappointing?

 

[Yojimbo]

Okay, I guess those hyped for Terry's return will be very disappointed as it sound like it just a very brief cameo. So, I guess the Conroy Batman/Hammill Joker in part 3 will be just as disappointing?

Sometimes a cameo is just a cameo. Note they aren't confirmed for Part 3 yet. If it's true, Conroy and Hamill's may be along the same lines of a talking role cameo. But on the other hand, if they convinced Hamill to come back - it might be something more but it's fair to assume they won't be lead characters in 90% of the movie. I think because Friedle was listed in the cast here, there was that false impression it was a starring role. No. The starring roles will always go to the current canon's leads, the Tomorrverse incarnations. It's miracle at this point they got Batman Beyond in there after decades of 'we talk about doing a Batman Beyond movie' and I hate to say it but it was good enough he had a couple action beats and lines towards the end. His "he wasn't alone" line in particular was well done.

I'm curious to see how well they do their designs/scene in the BTAS style, too. Assuming it is the BTAS style. It's gotta be.

 

[PicardMan]

Considering the budget and direct to Max status, nobody was really expecting this to be the next Spider-Verse. Still, the hopes for a future theatrical DC multiverse animated movie is still there to a degree.

 

[Yojimbo]

Considering the budget and direct to Max status, nobody was really expecting this to be the next Spider-Verse. Still, the hopes for a future theatrical DC multiverse animated movie is still there to a degree.

What do you mean by 'direct to Max status'? Part 1 was on digital and disc on January 9 and 23 then on Max starting this past Monday. Part 2 is only digital and disc right now. Unless you meant "video".

Yeah, these DTVs often serve as R&D for the theater division. That much has been said here and there. It's possible we could see a similar movie in theaters some day. But the near future? I'm good.

 

[PicardMan]

What do you mean by 'direct to Max status'? Part 1 was on digital and disc on January 9 and 23 then on Max starting this past Monday. Part 2 is only digital and disc right now. Unless you meant "video".

Okay, video first and Max four or so months later to be more precise. Google lied about part 2 being available on Max. Not too surprised about that.

 

[Frontier]

I did kind of like the Damian scene, despite Batman's blunder, if only because after all these movies...yes, Damian was fighting non-lethally .