Plenty of very good scenes, but I hate disjointed and non-linear plots.
The animation is subpar for this lineup.
Most of the emotional scenes are very good.
As a DC superfan, it was fun trying to catch all the cameos like Sky Tyrant’s mace.
Hard to judge before the next two, but I am glad I saw it.
My first ever review of a film in the DC Animated Original Movies line, and I am surprised it took this long. They are direct-to-video movies adapting various DC comics into movies, and there are currently 36 of them with three more being made as of right now. Crisis on Two Earths is a loose adaptation of a few comics where the multiverse is explored mainly Earth-3.
Earth-1 is the main canon world. Earth-2 is basically Super-friends, Earth-30 is where Superman’s ship landed in The Ukraine and became dictator of the Soviet Union 9 (more on this in around a year I think when the movie comes out), Earth-31 (my favorite) is about the aged up superheroes having to come to terms with their own mortality, upcoming deaths, and their increasing injuries (more on this around March), and Earth-3 is one of the most interesting. In Earth-3 The heroes of Earth-1 are now the villains. They have taken over the world. Sometimes they have the same names and other times they have new names and costumes. Sometimes the villains are the new heroes, and other times they are still evil and hiding in prison to avoid being heat visioned in the head. Either way this is a great concept. The heroes now battle evil versions of themselves giving natural internal and external conflict. At the same time they try to find the good in their counterparts and help them redeem themselves.
It begins in Earth-3 where The Jester and Lex Luther (Chris Noth) steal “The Quantum Trigger” from the rulers of the world, The Justice Lords The Crime Syndicate. As they are This world’s Joker and Lex Luther (why is he the only one with the same name) they have a ridiculous amount of brain power between them. They then realize The Crime Syndicate is coming and immediately they are filled with very casual fear. They run off, but their obstacles are not slowing down two villains resulting in Jester acting more like Frank Miler’s Batman than Joker. He stays behind ready to die against evil Hawkgirl and J’onn J’onzz. He is immediately stabbed in the heart by them, but he then uses a fire bomb to kill them both. Part of the importance is the need to remove evil J’onn since otherwise a good victory would not be believable, as he can turn his enemies into vegetables with a single thought. Lex sees the explosion and very casually mentions his friend’s death making it clear to the audience this is nothing new to him.
Then he is seen face to face with the rest of The Crime Syndicate, from left to right- Power Ring (Green Lantern), Johnny Quick (The Flash), Ultraman (Superman), Superwoman (Wonder Woman), and Owlman (Batman). A nice touch is that they are in a homage to the theme song of Justice League with a dark version of the theme song playing. Lex Luther quickly uses a gun powered by… whatever he just took (I could never keep track of all the names when watching this movie, as there are too many). The gun scares The Crime Syndicate into holding back allowing Lex to transport himself to another dimension seeking help.
A nice nod is that Brainiac’s emblem is on the device implying Brainiac made it for The Justice League and perished. This means The Crime Syndicate has killed Brainiac and Joker, the two super villains best known for cheating death and being unkillable.
This opening scene is great. The MVP is the mood, as it clearly establishes that Jester and Lex are fighting for their lives against enemies with far more power, and their casual lines like “run” establish that they have always been the underdogs who live in a world run by evil. Sure their is the problem that evil J’onn should have avoided death (he is psychic), but it took me multiple viewing to notice, as the opening is immersing.
The next leads to another interesting and problematic part of the movie. It was originally written to be a bridge movie between Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. This means many parts work well with the knowledge that they are building of established lore, but are confusing and forced in the viewpoint of this as a standalone movie. It also means the animation style and voices are different from the DCAU and inferior in both.
The opening scene of the Justice League is about rebuilding the watchtower for Justice League Unlimited after it was destroyed in “Starcrossed.” It includes other continuity nods like making the teleporters. Most of the actors for the Justice League sound off with William Baldwin as Batman being the worst, as he normally just sounds bored. Flash has the best in Spider-man himself, Josh Keaton. The League then doubts how much Batman really cares for the rest of them as he steals Flash’s pretzel in spite of all the times he has saved them.
Meanwhile Lex arrives and surrenders to the Police so they will bring The Justice League. They come to see…
This movie is really hit or miss. He stripped naked for some bad humor. Thanks to Superman’s x-ray vision they know he is from a parallel universe due to his reversed internal organs, which robs us of him having to convince them, and he explains that the entire Justice League of his world is dead, and he needs their help to save his world. Also the only think keeping The Crime Syndicate from taking over completely is the president’s nuclear arsenal. Seems like a jab at Superman IV. Superman is against helping as “…never met a Luther I liked.” I guess he was never friends with Young Lex Luther in this world. Wonder Woman, Flash, and J’onn support flipping Superman, but Batman refuses to come on the grounds that their top duty is to protect their world.
Why did Batman not come? I think he knew then infinite Earths existed, and this would question how much good they did. Leaving his Earth behind and vulnerable would mean another Earth is created in need of saving, and they should just focus on protecting it.
This movie is really fast paced, as I am only 13 minutes in.
On Earth-3 Owlman and Superwoman with their minions stormed the Hall of Justice and are looking at Lex’s computer to figure out inter dimensional travel. It is quickly clear that they are a couple in another nod to Justice League where Batman and Wonder Woman had romantic interest in each other. Superwoman wants to conqueror the other worlds to have more power, but Owlman is more interested in the philosophical aspects.
The Justice League arrives not knowing The Crime Syndicate will be there resulting in something DC animated movies always do great, battles. The Crime Syndicate has villains who I think are evil versions of Elongated Man, Vixen (turns into Scar), a white Static, Cheshire, Black Lightning, and somebody I do not recognize who is beating Green Lantern. He is beaten and punched so much I think the writer might have disliked using Hal Jordan isntead of John Stewart. It is a great quick fight showing the villains going for lethal force, as The Justice League focuses on protecting each other. More villains arrive, and The Justice League retreat when the three “main men” show up. I think they are all Captain Marvel. Lex says they are nearly as powerful as Wonder Woman and would flip the tide. The battle in the sky has good yet generic atmosphere, but the battle itself is poor. It is inferior to the battle they just had, and it makes the large fight too long. The League escapes when Wonder Woman steals Owlman’s invisible jet. There is too much fan-service with the jet and not enough substance. Green Lantern is being beaten to much, but J’onn has been an MVP constantly saving other members. After this great and bad fight scene we go back to good scene.
The next scene is a terrific example of using exposition well. The Crime Syndicate is debating what to do now that they are five instead of six with evil J’onn’s death. Owlman gets his way at dividing the territory he had, and he shows everyone what they will do about the nuclear problem. Owlman has made a a planet destroying bomb called the QED, which they need the power source Lex stole. He shows a hologram demonstration of what it can do resulting in Johnny and Power Ring looking scared, Ultraman accepting it as necessary, Superwoman smiling, and Owlman just staring like it does not matter. The plan is they will use this to blackmail the governments into fully capitulating and making The Crime Syndicate the government. The debates also establish that they have plenty of issues with teamwork.
Then the films gives us… Another bad scene. The president’s daughter, Rose Wilson is protesting The Crime Syndicate in spite of her father’s orders and policies, and every scene with her is terrible. Her speeches are insanely generic right makes might, her only flaw is recklessness, and is presented as a master speaker in spite of her dully delivered generic speeches. J’onn develops a romance with her meaning he is constantly gone protecting her instead of directly battling the Crime Syndicate. This means for most of the movie he is gone evening out the numbers and removing the great actions he has been in. He and rose bond over losing family members, odd since almost every superhero J’onn has meant also lost family members. I always toned out for all the scenes with Rose, as they are all bad.
Before J’onn leaves they divide into groups of two to battle the entire Crime Syndicate, and this lets the movie do what it does so well…
These are great, fast paced, sense of real danger to the heroes, and some great gags like Flash running evil Black Canary into the water and casually dropping her into it. As a big DC fan I am also loving the challenge of trying to name all these characters who are barely even on the screen. The most important one is where Lex Luther and Superman team up to battle evil Jimmy Olson and Ultraman. They capture Jimmy to lure in Ultraman who clearly cares about his underling. Lex takes on Ultraman one on one since this will be necessary once Superman goes back to his world.
Lex pulls out Ultraman’s weakness, Blue Kryptonite, and punches him across the town leading to his arrest. Then of course back to a bad scene.
They are taken to see the President. In the comics the president of Earth-3 is Fidel Castro, and here it is deathstroke. This was my introduction to Deathstroke, and it is a terrible place to learn about him. He is just a wimpy idiot leader who has the redeeming quality of loving his daughter. He has already had Ultraman freed. He can at least not talk like Superman is a baby when he points out that is stupid. He hardly even seems like a hero with how he wants The Justice League to slaughter The Crime Syndicate instead of arresting them or leave back to Earth-1. The only redeeming part is Superman pointing out that he stands up to more powerful villains all the time, which is very true. This horrible scene is followed by probably the greatest Supervillain scene in the history of film.
Superwoman confronts Owlman about his real plan, using the QED to kill everyone on multiple universes, and that part of her charm is “I’m a murderous Psycopath.” Owlman responds “Because it’s the only action one could take that can have any purpose.” It is not the words that sell it but Woods’s spectacular delivery. Thanks to the “Me Too” movement I am probably not supposed to praise him, but his acting is amazing. It is the opposit eof his great performance as Hades. He delivers it so monotone and casual despite it being about killing everyone who ever lived in the multiverse.
Every choice creates a parallel universe where the opposite choice was made. In this world they are conquerors but in another they are poor, in another slaves, in another never born, in another humanity never came. This is the only choice that matters, destroying the multiverse. To his surprise Superwoman immediately kisses him and declares she is in.
After a surprisingly fine Deathstroke family scene Owlman locates the trigger lex left in The Watchtower and sends Superwoman to retrieve it. Why did Lex not destroy it? It is later explained it cannot be destroyed, as it is made of pure energy…
…but that is explained much later.
She and the main men beat Batman resulting in him teleporting in help like Black Vulcan, Black Canary, Firestorm, Aquaman, and Red Tornado. It is an awesome fight that ends with Superwoman and one of the main men fleeing back with the macguffin, but Batman jumps into the rays and goes with them. Unfortunately this results in the main man bringing the device to Owlman, as Superwoman has captured Batman. Batman has basically beaten every major superhero except Wonder Woman, so this is a terrible matchup for him, as Wonder Woman lacks weaknesses to exploit.
She is going to send Batman to an ice world, until Batman shots a soke bomb at her. She inhales all the smoke only to see Batman had a gas mask on, and it was actually poison fainting Superwoman. They find out Owlman has the trigger to his bomb, and Superwoman slips that he can destroy way more than the Earth.
I think this is the only time he smiles. The bomb is finished, and The Justice League arrives at the moon base of The crime Syndicate with a captured Superwoman (big mistake) and arrive to battle. J’onn is guarding Rose so it is set to be 6 vs 4 giving them a Wonder Woman Lex Luther- One of Batman’s ribs advantage.
Scratch that, as Johnny Quick immediately frees Superwoman whom knocks out Lex. Why not knock out Green Lantern, as he is more powerful and vulnerable? Anyway it is now even except Batman has a bad rib.
We then get a battle so awesome you will forget about the Blue Kryptonite they should have brought. It starts with them battling someone besides their counterparts, but they quickly switch to their counterparts, which is way better than it should be. It is clear that the Syndicate is relying on lethal force, while the Justice League counters with superior teamwork.
While this photo shows both, Johnny Quick is not using his lethal force effectively. He could just place his fingers on Batman’s head and vibrate them scrambling his brains. As the battle goes on Wonder Woman knocks out Superwoman, Superman is winning, Flash is easily winning (easily the MVP), and Batman is losing. I think Green Lantern is barely losing.
Owlman telpeorts himself and the bomb to Earth Prime damaged the Quantum Trigger. They can only send one person after and someone has to vibrate at a super high speed to keep him there. Flash volunteers, but Batman declares he is not fast enough. Johnny Quick immediately volunteers, as he wants to save his universe. There has been plenty of foreshadowing of his good side, his scare at the QED demonstration, his care for his fellow villains, and him using nowhere near the lethal force he could have earlier. He clearly has the least bad moral compass of the group. He vibrates super fast sending Batman to face Owlman. Wonder Woman/Flash would have been better picks. I presume Batman knew Owlman had some sort of plan for either and wanted to put the fate of the multiverse in his on hands, but again, another hero without a broken rib would have been better.
After this we get to the best and most remembered part of the movie, Batman vs Owlman on Earth Prime. Being a philosophy nerd I probably enjoy more than most viewers, but this is a subjective review. The world is full of ruins and is out of orbit, and Owlman says the problem is where it has always been, man. Destroying it is the only choice that matters. Would destroying it just create another multiverse then making this action not matter? Possibly, possibly not. I think no, as it destroys all universes at the same time including any made from it, and if it does recreate them then infinite people still die. Again Woods is terrific with his monotone discussion of multiverseicide, but I really wish Kevin Conroy was voicing Batman. He wonders what created Batman, but nothing matters so he decides to beat him to death. He out muscles him and uses his own gas mask to counter Batman’s gas attack. As I have written many times I normally want the villains to have some humanity and be sympathetic to let the viewers see an evil side of themselves. Owlman counters that he was “…not good, never good, after all. I am only human.”
Batman gains the upper hand with a small bomb and starts sending the QED and Owlman to the same world Superwoman earlier planned to send Batman, and he refutes Owlman with what many fans have called the best Batman line ever. “There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back at us, you blinked.” Unfortunately he says it too quietly.
Owlman is sent to the snow world with the bomb. He goes to turn it of but then stops. He looks down and sadly says with more emotion than ever, “It doesn’t matter.” He blows up illustrating the self destruction and moral weakening of Nihilism. Then it cuts to the controversial scene where all the speeding caused Johnny Quick to age rapidly and is near death. Batman knew it would probably kill him, but he used him to save Flash. I have heard a few viewers say this completely ruins the movie for them as Batman, a hardcore believer in duty over consequences, has killed a man. I think it is saved by batman immediately yelling at him to stop knowing there was a chance it could save him, Johnny Quick being happy he saved the multiverse, Flash being distraught at his death, and this case of redemption. Afterwards Power Ring, Ultraman, and Superwoman still want to battle (down 6-3 idiots), and then J’onn and Deathstroke’s forces arrive resulting in their surrender. We then get some scenes meant to foreshadow Justice League Unlimited to end the movie.
If I judged purely by first viewing this would be the best movie I have ever reviewed, as it blew me away in high school. Unfortunately every time I watch it I see more of its flaws since the quality is as inconsistent as the Carolina Panthers, it is consistently inconsistent. Great scene, poor scene, Great scene, poor scene, Great scene, poor scene, Great scene, poor scene, Great scene, poor scene, Great scene, poor scene, Great scene, poor scene, Great scene. till the good is much better than the bad, and I will always remember the great Owlman scenes over Batman’s poor voice or all those Rose scenes. I love this movie, and it may not be one of the best DTV films, but it is solidly in the second tier. I recommend watching it immediately.
There is plenty I had to say, as this is the longest typical review I have ever written by word count. Only my analysis of The Land Before Time‘s script and my history of the movie in western animation posts were longer. Admittedly I divided my review of the Land Before Time into two parts and combined they are longer.
Thanks for staying ’til the end.
Next time on 11-21. I got Scooby-Doo Return to Zombie Island at the library. If it is not scratched it will be next.
The Animation Historian 