Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three is the last nail in the coffin of the worst, hands down, adaptation of a DC comic book worth its salt. For a group billed as one of America’s finest creative movie teams, we have to say wow. This makes the first attempt at filming the comic book quite entertaining. The biggest wow factor has to be the fact that the writers were allowed the luxury to divide the trademark storyline into three segments and still manage to create such a disgustingly dull and tedious timeline.
Anti-Monitor is erasing worlds across Multiverse. Superman (Darren Criss), Batman (Jensen Ackles), Wonder Woman (Stana Katic), Mister Terrific (Ato Essandoh), John Stewart (Aldis Hodge), Supergirl (Meg Donnelly), and a few more of his ‘strong’ superheroes join together to stop him but to no avail.
DC Animation films have had a very inconsistent reputation ever since they began to make certain popular stories into feature-length films. The ones that are almost committed to the exact details of The Death of Superman, Batman The Long Halloween, Teen Titans The Judas Contract, and Under the Red Hood are usually great. The ones that cannot do it precisely like Justice League War and Batman Hush did not come close to making the mark.
Pacing has been an issue for Crisis since the beginning, even from Vol. 1, where it did not bring forth much of the central struggle. A dull and laid-back second act missed the chance to portray the comic book’s most jaw dropping plot arcs in issues 7 and 8. The former features arguably the most notable cover art from a comic book of DC Comics which has a great influence on the box art of this cover.
Supergirl’s demise is without a doubt one of the best comic book moments in the last 40 years. The film rendition of that moment simply doesn’t live up to it.
Had screenwriter James Krieg ended chapter two of the film in the first comic’s concluding scenes of heart-wrenching drama, then he would have created a film that could be considered DC Animation’s version of Avengers: Infinity War. Complete with a cliffhanger which leaves the audience pondering whether there is in fact any hope.
This would have laid a tremendous foundation for Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three. Instead, Krieg is trying to catch up to a major highlight in the comic series, which kind of makes him rush some of the other important highlights in this adaptation of the work. Not that he’s that interested in making it a page-for-page adaptation as the first 15 minutes has the viewer watching a struggle with dinosaurs.
Considering the scope of the story in Crisis, it is rather unfortunate that so much focus is placed on Lois Lane (Alexandria Daddario) as she works on ‘The Story of the Century’ which lasts just about a minute in this 98-minute feature. The next engaging action is a rather controversial approach to defeating the heroes and villains promised in issue #8 where the Bat Family only fights Nazi versions of the Rogues who have taken their weapons.
The lack of urgency present throughout the story makes it worse as a number of almost key moments in dramatic arcs are glossed over. They do have an impact in no small measure due to the fact that only 10 movies have been made within the DC Animation Tomorrowverse. And out of those three have been episodes from Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Another issue was the design of the Anti-Monitor which was rather dull. At its most basic, he’s just a larger non-descript shadow demon with no evolution to his design aside from his initial downfall. And then making the embodiment of evil that impressively taunts the enemies a mute really does not add to his threat level and does not show his evil levels.
The best part of the film is when Krieg relates Crisis on Infinite Earths Part III with other DC Animation features. Both in the Tomorrowvers and the New 52’s adaptations. While it’s nice to see, it really has little relevance to Crisis to the extent that this film did not have to be referred to as Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Maybe that is the most significant problem. Calling this story something else; anything else small pointer to the 1985-1986 period such as The Tomorrow Crisis would have dispelled any expectations any fans of the source material might have had. Bringing up Crisis on Infinite Earths on the other hand makes the audience feel like the storyteller would at least make an effort to stick to the general story.
The Tomorrowverse’s style of thick lines on all the characters appeared to tone down the overall feel of the animation. Crisis looked way too cartoonish as opposed to the New 52-directed visual style which was slightly more realistic in nature. Will Wamester is not able to establish the action scenes as very impactful as they are very calculated and do not pack much punch.
Some moments will definitely tug at the heart including Kevin Conroy’s last Batman performance where he faces off against Mark Hamill’s Joker for the umpteenth time. It is a touching scene, even in a rather uneven film. The other members of the cast prove that they can act as well; Criss, Ackles, Katic, Essandoh, and Matt Ryan in the costume of Constantine among them.
In the end, this version of Crisis never held promise from the outset. Even with the unparalleled amount of time given to tell a story accurately adapted from a comic book, Krieg had other intended plans and wanted to tell an original story in a barely explored universe. For Crisis fans, this was most probably a huge blow. For Tomorrowverse fans, this was an anticlimactic conclusion to this new take on DC Animated which was shaped all too quickly.
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