Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two review
After squandering the first installment of this adaptation of DC’s biggest crossover, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two assures this take would be better off wiped out in a wave of anti-matter.
Part One had a plethora of issues. DC Animation’s Tomorrowverse was still too new to make this universe-altering story meaningful. There was little attachment to the characters not named Flash or Iris West. Part One had to speed through an origin for the Justice League while setting up the greatest evil the DC Universe has ever known.
That was too much to cram into one movie especially when each installment of Crisis needed every minute to tell this story.
For Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two, screenwriter James Krieg doubles down on making the definitive DC Comics event dull, boring and slow. Again, Krieg doesn’t get a pass of having to craft a 12-issue comic book story into an 80-minute movie. Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two is 94 minutes and is the middle chapter of this trilogy. There was plenty of time to do this story justice.
If Krieg simply added a few tweaks like DCA adaptations of Batman: The Long Halloween and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract this could have been the greatest DC cartoon movie ever. The Marv Wolfman and George Perez story is impeccable and didn’t need a major overhaul to “fix.”
Krieg’s instincts on how to make Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two work is comprehensively wrong. The story is convoluted and confusing. And Krieg attempts to ground this multiverse-spanning story by focusing on two characters. In this case it’s Supergirl (Meg Donnelly) and Psycho Pirate (Geoffrey Arend).
Psycho Pirate is written like a full-on evil menace. This misses the point of the character’s portrayal in the Crisis comic as he was an unhinged pawn for the true villain. His design is also frustrating as Psycho Pirate wears a gold mask that hides his face. He only removes it to unleash a specific emotion in his targets. The film version simply has a gold mask that’s part of his costume.
Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two wastes so much time explaining how Supergirl bonded with The Monitor and Psycho Pirate’s origin. Both characters are key players in Crisis, but this spotlight robs the film of the rising threat to the multiverse. There’s just no momentum with little connection to the Flash-focused Part One.
Pacing remains a problem for director Jeff Wamester. Part Two is an hour into its long slog before there’s any conflict actually dealing with the Crisis. Shadow demons attack the heroes from across the multiverse. This really should have been in the opening act of the first installment to illustrate the threat the heroes are attempting to prevent.
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It’s a long and drawn-out fight that lacks any genuine suspense. It feels like Wamester and Krieg realized Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two needed a big battle to conclude the film and settled on this choice. Had the film leaned closer to the source material this would have marked an ideal gut-punch cliffhanger with Supergirl or The Flash vs. The Anti-Monitor.
For comparison, in the Arrowverse take on Crisis, this battle was a big moment in the first episode of the crossover.
There are some cursory nods to the comic with the heroes being manipulated into fighting each other, the Monitor’s fate and a pair of unlikely allies bonding. Despite these small moments, the film misses the larger moments that would truly make this installment special.
Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two is decidedly not special. It’s stagnant, underwhelming and all-around disappointing leaving little hope that Part Three can salvage it.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Photo Credit: Warner Bros.