My Review of Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths - Part Three (2024)

 

Written by James Krieg

Directed by Jeff Wamester

Earth-12 The Joker: "I must say, Batsy, I'm flattered. The end of the world, and you want to spend it with me? I didn't know you cared!"

Earth-12 Batman: "I care, Joker, about Gotham. About justice! And if it has to end, at least I go out like this... being Batman!"

I think years ago and had both Arrowverse and the DC Extended Universe not played out the Multiverse concept, something tells me that this trilogu ender might have gone down better with DC fans. Instead, it seemed to be less of an event and more of a whimper for some fans.

It's a shame because after a very sluggish second part, I actually thought this third part was something of an improvement. Following the Anti-Monitor getting even more powerful and universe shattering, there was a bleed in the universe. A version of limbo where two versions of Superman, Lois Lane, Hawkgirl and John Stewart were able to find and rescue Wonder Woman.

Meanwhile Lex Luthor and his assembled villain corner of Joker, Poison Ivy, Solomon Grundy and Two Face had Psycho Pirate captive and used him in order to broker a deal of sorts with the Anti-Monitor.  It wouldn't be Lex if he wasn't trying to manipulate a cataclysmic situation to his advantage. Oh and he trying to figure out a weakness for the Anti-Monitor. See, he's not all bad.

Then there was Supergirl working through her guilt of killing The Monitor, various characters (including the Losers) fighting off invading dinosaurs before there was a more concentrated effort to get some answers. That meant Batman, Wonder Woman, Doctor Fate and John Stewart taking a trip to Earth 18 in order to retrieve John Constantine.

For proof that you really needed to have caught between parts in this saga, once Constantine got sobered up, Batman learned very fast that Constantine manipulated The Flash into killing Darkseid as a baby. Yup, Constantine well and truly fucked up as it turns out that a Multiverse without Darkseid isn't a good one to have.

On the plus side, at least Supergirl (and Psycho Pirate) made a heroic sacrifice to take out the Anti-Monitor while Martian Manhunter and Nightshade got a hold of a machine with the ability to grant wishes. Constantine wasn't quite enough to get it working but Wonder Woman sure as hell was. Remember, it's a Crisis and multiple deaths were always going to be on the menu.

By the end of this movie, The Spectre showed up as the Multiverse ended and the Monoverse began, thus potentially ending all the animated continuity for now. Nearly everyone threw themselves into the Monoverse, except for The Question and Constantine. The latter was expecting punishment for royally fucking up the Multiverse but instead, he was offered hope. My feelings towards this trilogy to one side, I'm really happy the final shot was given to a young Wonder Woman on Themyscira. 

- The movie was dedicated to Kevin Conroy (1955-2022). My quote for this movie is the exchange between Batman (Conroy) and Joker (Mark Hamill) from Batman: The Animated Series.

- We saw the ending of both the Justice League animated worlds, including Super Friends.

- There was flashbacks to both Justice League Dark: Apokolips Wars and Constantine: The House Of Mystery. We saw the Justice Society one last time and some of the Titans.

- Despite being the end of this particular animated continuity, there will be more animated movies not set in the DC Universe to come, starting with Watchmen: Chapter One from August 13th.

- Aww, poor Darkseid being killed when he was only a year old. Next time, John, think your plans through. 

- Chronology: Eight months have passed between the second and third parts of this trilogy.

I know it's been a divisive trilogy and I would argue that the Arrowverse handled it better but I actually liked Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths - Part Three. It provided a solid ending to this particular continuity, gave certain characters their moments to step up and had fan pleasing cameos (minus their outcomes). Moving forward, I'd maybe avoid big universal plots for a long time and focus on smaller scale stories and adaptations. 

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths - Part Two (2024)

 

Written by James Krieg

Directed by Jeff Wamester

The Spectre: "I see. Then this is all your fault."

The Monitor: "Yes, it is. All living things, in all realities, are about to die. And I killed them."

I have to admit that unlike some people, I really enjoyed the first part of this trilogy/ender for the Tomorrowverse but I kind of struggled with this second part. Fan pleasing appearances to one side, there was almost too much exposition and too little with moving things forward.

At the start of this second part, you'd think the story would've pivoted towards Batman (Jensen Ackles) but nope, he's not as front and centre as you'd want him to be. Instead this segment largely resolved around The Monitor (Jonathan Adams), Supergirl/Harbinger (Meg Donnelly) and Psycho Pirate (Geoffrey Arend) as the volatile relationship between the three of them became undone, largely down to the Anti Monitor (Ato Essandoh).

In flashbacks we saw the Psycho Pirate coming from a violent family, going to a private school, being bullied, discovering his powers and then learning how to use them for his own personal gain. He even had Doctor Fate (Keith Ferguson) as a prisoner until the Monitor showed him a different path.

Likewise with Supergirl being plucked from her own time stream to take on the Harbinger role but the Monitor's refusal to directly intervene against various worlds being wiped out of existence really came back to haunt him. The Anti Monitor got into Psycho Pirate's head and he got into Supergirl's and lets just say that things ended badly for him here.

Disaster definitely seemed to be the order of the day as along with worlds being erased from existence, there was also shadow demons attacking heroes when said heroes werent attacking each other. I mean this did end with even Batman, Superman (Darren Criss) and Wonder Woman (Stana Katic) being taken out of the mix, leaving things very gloomy for the final part of this trilogy.

As for the rest of the story, I'm glad interacting with John Stewart (Aldis Hodge) was enough to get John Constantine (Matt Ryan) to remember who he was and drop the Pariah persona. It's too bad we didn't see more of Constantine throughout this second part but hopefully he'll have a bigger role in the last one. He may need to help save the day with the remaining heroes around.

- I did love the opening scene with Batman versus the Joker (Troy Baker), Killer Croc etc as well as Batman Beyond (Will Friedle), Batgirl (Gideon Adlon), Damian Wayne/Robin (Zach Callison), Huntress, Dick Grayson/Robin and Batwing.

- Nice team up with Kamamdi (Will Friedle) and Solovar (Darin De Paul) as well as Wonder Woman and a different Earth Hippolyta.

- Constantine mentioned being punished for over hundreds of years when getting his memories and making himself look younger.

- The Anti Monitor got a somewhat different look from the way he's depicted in the comics.

- A release date for Part Three has yet to be confirmed but a preview did show us Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill's versions of Batman and Joker for the last time. 

- Chronology: From where the first part left off.

I wanted to enjoy Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths - Part Two more than I did but it was largely very muddled in parts and felt like it was treading water at times. The highlights however were the Batman Family related scenes and Constantine getting his memories back, so not all bad then.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths - Part One (2024)

 

Written by James Krieg

Directed by Jeff Wamester

The Flash: "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Central City any more. Except I am in Central City."

With the DC Extended Universe ending a slight whimper with Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, it was up to the Tomorrowverse (a similarly divisive DC movie universe) to go that extra bit harder. Time for a Crisis. 

Yes, four years ago, the CW tackled Crisis On Infinite Earths over the span of five television shows and in my opinion, they did a damn good job with it as well. This first part of a three part event also has gotten off to a good start with one character well and truly driving the narrative here.

I'm talking about The Flash (Matt Bomer) himself. In a different continuity, both him and a certain someone else were responsible for this new universe and while that person's punishment finally got revealed here, the focus was largely on Barry Allen himself having his past catch up with him.

Jumping in and out at different points in time, we got one of the best depictions of Barry and Iris's (Ashleigh LaThrop) relationship. We got to see them meet for the first time, fall in love, getting married, grow old together all while the threat of total annihilation dominated proceedings. I think this movie might have given one of the best depictions of their relationship in media.

Of course there was also the formation of the Justice League. Previous movies hinted at them being a team but this one showed the origins of The Flash, Green Arrow (Jimmi Simpson), Superman (Darren Criss), Batman (Jensen Ackles), Vixen (Keesha Sharp), John Stewart (Aldis Hodge) and Martian Manhunter (Ike Amadi) banding together. A good portion also being focused on defeating Lex Luthor (Zachary Quinto) and freeing Amazo (Nolan North) from the latter's grip.

However, that was the least of The Flash's problems. He ended up on a world where the Crime Syndicate, comprising of Johnny Quick (Liam McIntyre), Superwoman (Stana Katic), Power Ring (Aldis Hodge), Owlman (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Ultraman (Matt Lanter) reigned supreme before also becoming casualties as the Crisis spread over towards different Earths. We didn't get to see enough of them as villains to make impact but I liked their screen time regardless.

With the Crisis getting worse and worse, we had both Harbinger/Supergirl (Meg Donnelly) and The Monitor (Jonathan Adams) bring virtually every hero they could onto the station in order to formulate a plan. It meant finally having Wonder Woman (Stana Katic) again with contemporaries but gave the chance to see Blue Beetle (Matt Lanter), Hawkman/Psycho Pirate (Geoffrey Arend), Doctor Light/Huntress of Earth 2 (Erika Ishii) and Earth 2 Robin (Zach Collison) to name the many appearances we got here.

Then there was the Homeless Man (Nolan North) who kept stalking both The Flash and Crime Syndicate throughout the movie. When he wasn't warning them that world were ending, it was also practically confirmed that it was none other than John Constantine taking on the Pariah role as punishment by the Spectre (Lou Diamond Phillips). I was delighted with this particular reveal and the link up to Constantine's DCAU appearances was much appreciated.

As for the rest of the movie. It took a lot of people but mostly Barry to stop the Crisis and it almost worked, excepr it didn't. History got changed yet again and that alone set up a big cliffhanger for the second part that I cannot wait. Poor Barry, he can't do right for wrong in these situations.

- There's a dedication to George Perez (1954-2022) at the end of this movie.

- Other characters who appeared included Aquaman, Hal Jordan, Alfred Pennyworth, Lois Lane, Hawkgirl, Dawnstar, Creeper, Nightshade, Captain Atom, Wally West, Brainiac 5, The Question, Batgirl, Zatanna, The Ray, Mister Terrific, Swamp Thing, most of them in silent cameos though on the ship.

- There's a nice reference to Death from The Sandman, courtesy of Spectre. 

- While it's made clear the Homeless Man is John Constantine, he doesn't seem to remember himself, just that he's being punished and walks all doomed Earths as a warning.

- The second part of this trilogy will be released on April 23rd.

- Chronology: Present Day Central City, Gotham, Metropolis and outer space as well as scenes from previous movies.

I've been a mixed on the Tomorrowverse as a whole but I personally thought this was a terrific start to their take on Crisis On Infinite Earths and having The Flash anchor the first part of this story was a smart move. Easily the best movie from this verse after it's debut one of course. Looking forward to the concluding parts of this saga.

Rating: 9 out of 10