Nerdly » ‘Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths

01st May2024

‘Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two’ Review

by Jim Morazzini

Features the voices of: Jensen Ackles, Troy Baker, Jonathan Adams, David Kaye, Meg Donnelly, Geoffrey Arend, Zach Callison, Gideon Adlon, Will Friedle, Stana Katic, Darren Criss, Ato Essandoh | Written by James Krieg | Directed by Jeff Wamester

Picking up where Part One left off, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two opens with Batman (Jensen Ackles; Supernatural, My Bloody Valentine), the Batman from Earth Three that is, fighting to prevent The Joker (Troy Baker; Avengers Assemble, Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons) from blowing up the tower that keeps Earth from being destroyed by dark matter. Help arrives in the form of heroes from our Earth, though he’s anything but grateful for it.

Elsewhere, we see The Monitor (Jonathan Adams; Elemental, Last Man Standing) and his Satellite (David Kaye; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Teen Titans Go!) rescue Supergirl (Meg Donnelly; American Housewife, The Winchesters) after the destruction of Krypton. Despite his initial unwillingness to break his oath and directly intervene, he not only save her but becomes a foster father to her.

This is intercut with a rather obscure character, The Psycho Pirate (Geoffrey Arend; Justice Society: World War II, The Angry Birds Movie), explaining his backstory which involves psychic powers, a Bavarian boarding school and working for Hitler. Do I have to mention he’s not one of the good guys?

For the second part of the trilogy, director Jeff Wamester (Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League: Warworld) and writer James Krieg (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Thunderbirds Are Go) dial back somewhat on the action in order to give us more character-driven moments and explain what we need to know to understand the events that will set up the final chapter.

If that means that Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two suffers in comparison to the previous instalment, that shouldn’t be a total surprise. Middle films are usually there to fill in gaps from the first story and set up the conclusion, the best you can hope for is that they end on a compelling cliffhanger, which this does.

Unfortunately, in getting to that point, almost all of the other characters are relegated to cameos or ignored entirely. We get some in fighting between Batman from Earth 3 and Robin (Zach Callison; Dragons Rescue Riders: Heroes of the Sky, Batman: The Long Halloween), Batgirl (Gideon Adlon; Sick, Witch Hunt), etc. It’s meant to show the viewer the problems the various versions of the characters have working together, but it’s so superficial it becomes, at best, a well staged but dramatically questionable, action scene.

Most other characters though, be they Kamadi (Will Friedle; ElfQuest: Journey to Sorrow’s End, My Little Pony: A New Generation), Wonder Woman (Stana Katic; Absentia, Castle) or even Superman (Darren Criss; Green Eggs and Ham, Muppets Haunted Mansion), are barely in the film. I understand that the needs of the story dictated it, but It’s still disappointing and dramatically unsatisfying.

While we don’t see enough of them, the shadow demons that The Anti-Monitor (Ato Essandoh; Reptile, Altered Carbon) summons up towards the end of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two do make for menacing foes. Their smoke or ink-like texture and glowing red eyes may be a bit familiar, but it’s better suited to full animation than as a CGI insert in a live-action horror film.

The end result of this is that Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two is to this trilogy what Return of the Jedi was to the original Star Wars, a functional entry in the series but this film is ultimately a disappointing bridge between the other two films. It does have its moments, and it did leave me wondering how our heroes are going to pull out a victory in Part Three. But it also could have done a much better job of getting there.