REVIEW: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 3
When DC Comics unleashed the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, it had two missions: celebrating 50 years of the publisher and cleaning the continuity, making the comic books more accessible to entice new readers. Throughout 2024, a year shy of the maxiseries’ 40th anniversary, the three-part direct-to-disc project was cleaning up or clearing out the revised continuity of Warner Animation’s DC Comics universe.
Part three arrived in late July and is welcome after the deeply disjointed and disappointing Part Two. Screenwriter Jim Krieg couldn’t seem to figure out how to pace this middle section but recovered for a stronger, but still flawed, finale. What should have been a fast-paced story that slows down to give key characters their moment continues to focus too much on one set of characters, too much talking, and not enough fun scenes chock full of heroes we’re not likely to see otherwise.
We left off with the Anti-Monitor (Ato Essandoh) revealed while his counterpart endlessly chatted with the Spectre, the Wrath of God, who just stood around. As a result, as each parallel universe collapsed, there was no real sense of impending doom. And once again, we split up our heroes to go off and do things that are disjointed, and why are the Bat-Family and John Constantine the ones to explore the origins of the Universe when it should have been the Green Lanterns or Hawkman?
This time around, we get some nice visual touches, starting with a glimpse of the Super Friends and a welcome last bit of business between Batman (Kevin Conroy) and the Joker (Mark Hamill).
As promised by the original comics and the cover to the DVD, out now from Warner Home Entertainment. Supergirl (Meg Donnelly) dies, but it lacks the emotional oomph, given her weak introduction and use in the previous installment.
There are a lot of questions left unanswered, and ultimately, given a few hundred minutes total to play with, this should have been wonderful, and certainly should have been better. It’s a whimper of an end and a squandered opportunity.
The movie is available digitally and in various packages, from Steelbook to combo packs. Or you could wait for the inevitable three-film package. The 2160p Ultra High Definition version looks pretty spiffy, with strong special effects and color, although it also highlights the limited animation. The accompanying DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio is up to the task.
There are just two Special Features starting with A Multiverse of Inspiration (9:23) where Executive producer Butch Lukic, director Jeff Wamester, producer/writer Jim Krieg, DC Group editor Katie Kubert, and DC archivist Benjamin LeClear chat away. John and John: Stewart and Constantine (8:21) feature much the same crew talking about two characters who get outsized roles in the animated fare.
