Movies
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths — Part Two Review
After the events of Part One, how will our heroes manage to survive against this ongoing threat?
This past Tuesday, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths — Part Two finally released on streaming platforms as well as Blu-ray. In the first part of this trilogy series, the foundation was laid with Barry Allen, as we followed his chaotically emotional journey through time. During his time-slips, we witnessed the formation of the Justice League, his relationship with Iris West, and his interactions with Earth-3’s Crime Syndicate. While Part One consisted mostly of exposition, it highlighted the stakes of the coming conflict extremely well.
That said, Part Two takes a bit of a different approach, as indicated in the following 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?
As we saw in Part One, the Monitor gathered a collective of heroes from across the multiverse to defend against a quickly approaching antimatter wave. To do so, each version of Earth was equipped with a vibrational tower, which would help the planets to phase through the oncoming wave. However, at the end of the film, we discovered that even though our heroes had seemingly survived the threat, there was still an unknown danger looming on the horizon.
Unlike the first film, which felt more like a Flash movie featuring the Justice League, we should now be seeing a focus on the collective of heroes gathered by the Monitor. With that in mind, let’s talk a little about what actually happened during the events of Part Two, and how I felt about the movie’s overall direction.
Brief Breakdown
The movie opens up with Batman fighting off the Joker, Killer Croc, and Solomon Grundy, as they try to destroy a vibrational tower. Batman appears to be struggling with his opponents, but is quickly aided by Robin, Huntress, Damian, Batgirl, and — surprisingly — Batman Beyond.
After the struggle concludes, we transition to Psycho Pirate, who we see trying to manipulate someone into giving him something, which isn’t made entirely clear. This particular plot point makes up the bulk of Part Two and is crucial in establishing the true threat of this crisis. In Psycho Pirate’s scenes, we get a look into his childhood, how his powers manifested, and how he came to be chosen as one of the Monitor’s heroes.
In the film’s third subplot, we follow Kara Zor-El, who had just escaped the destruction of her home planet, Krypton. Shortly following the incident, she’s taken aboard the Monitor’s ship, where she has no recollection of who she is or where she came from. For a while, Kara lives aboard the ship, studying the secrets of the multiverse with the Monitor. However, she eventually regains her memory and sets out to be reunited with her last living family member, Kal-El, against the wishes of the Monitor.
As the stories of Batman, Psycho Pirate, and Kara each reached their respective climaxes, Part Two eventually merged back into a singular focus. Our heroes soon learned that not only were there multiple antimatter waves, but that they seemed to be changing in pattern each time they were successfully avoided. It was almost as if something were intentionally making them more difficult to predict.
At the end of Part Two, the heroes found themselves fending off a never-ending horde of mysterious shadow creatures. As the battle raged on, the heroes quickly realized that the creatures could be defeated with sources of intense light. However, almost as if the shadows were adapting, they began to merge into a singular entity. This entity, which would soon make itself known as the “Anti-Monitor,” is the primary antagonist of Crisis on Infinite Earths and the final act of the series.
What Are My Thoughts on the Film?
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths — Part Two focuses mainly on the bonds between certain characters. We get to see a bit of a different take on the dynamic between Batman and his family, and the father-daughter relationship that blooms between Kara and the Monitor. It seems like Part Two wanted to recreate the emotional appeal of Part One. Unfortunately, it falls flat, because these relationships are never really explored in the same way that we saw with Barry and Iris. Due to the constant transitions between plots, there simply wasn’t enough time to flesh them all out.
That said, there’s little sense of urgency, and the scenes that should’ve had a profound impact end up doing very little. For example, there’s a scene where Kara has a nightmare about the people she’s lost reminding her that they’re dead. While this scene obviously had emotional weight for Kara, it does almost nothing for the viewer, because once again, we didn’t witness the growth of these relationships.
Part Two also has a bit of a problem with its pacing. Since Part One establishes the basis for the coming crisis, it’s only natural that it would have the most exposition. However, Part One managed to include a reasonable amount of action without taking away from any of its worldbuilding. Part Two, on the other hand, only picks up towards the last half of the movie, and by that point everything else has already been a slog to get through.
In fact, if not for Psycho Pirate’s plot picking up in the last 50 minutes, I’d probably say that Part Two had no stakes at all. Despite everything else, though, his plot was the most interesting to follow. You get to see his early beginnings, so you want to know how he turns out. You get to see what his powers can do, so you want to know how he uses them. At the very end of it all, we get to see him fall under the corruption of the Anti-Monitor. This not only puts our heroes in a tough spot, but results in the destruction of an Earth and a Wonder Woman variant.
Overall, I don’t think that Part Two was a good follow-up to the greatness of Part One, but the final act of the series still remains. Hopefully, now that the true threat has been revealed, the last film in this trilogy can deliver a satisfying conclusion.
Conclusion
For all its flaws, I still enjoy the fact that Crisis on Infinite Earths is being adapted into an animated series. I’m also excited to see how the story concludes, especially now that the collective of heroes is ready to fight against the Anti-Monitor. As the last official Tomorrowverse film, I would like to see this era of the DCAU get a proper sendoff. So, I look forward to eventually watching and talking about Part Three with you all when we finally get a release date.
Wrapping up, I’m curious to know what everyone thinks about Crisis on Infinite Earths at this point. Do you think Part 2 underperformed? Were you surprised to see an appearance from Batman Beyond? Which of the plots between Supergirl, Batman, and Psycho Pirate were you the most interested in?
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References
DC. (2024). JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS — PART TWO (2024). Retrieved from https://www.dc.com/movies/justice-league-crisis-on-infinite-earths-part-two-2024
