Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Partie 2

I'm not the biggest fan of the Tomorrowverse saga, but each film that's come out thus far has been relatively decent. Until Warworld. Just like that film, is this a long episode or an actual movie? Personally, I like long story arcs that continues across separate entries, but this continuation can't be so much of the focus that it hurts the individual film itself. While parts one, two and eventually three are in the actual title, each release needs to be able to stand on its own. They failed at that here.

The entire thing kind of drags. While the parts containing Kara, Psycho Pirate and the Monitor are interesting, the way these events are put together hinders momentum. That, along with the monotonous color palette combines to create a sense of meandering and stagnation. At one point I actually paused the film just to see how much of it was left, something I never do for any film worth watching and the first time I've done so for a DC animated one. By the time the lukewarm cliffhanger hits, you simply feel nothing about it.

There have been a lot of criticism about the art style for Tomorrowverse, and while I can confidently say style is subjective and not indicative of true quality, some of the scenes in this film and the ones prior appear to have been rather hastily or even lazily done. A fight happening in the background put there with the absolute minimum effort because, who's going to stare at that? Or someone wiping their face simply with a hand motion sans any of the facial mannerisms to match. Things like this scream budget, effort, or time issues and it absolutely hurts the final product.

I love DC Comics and the animated films/series that have come from them, but this film and a few before it have been disappointing. Even if part three turns out to be amazing, it won't save this one nor justify the time spent to get there.

Where to start.... the continuity and flow of movie/episode was all over the place. The first movie left no real impression and this followed on from. It places focus on characters individually and not as a collective. I don't know what to call this, it doesn't feel like a movie as such more so stints and pieces of different characters trying to achieve the same goal and fighting the same enemy. Hard to believe Flash is so fast he missed Charles. Really use to look forward to DC movies, they had so much good stock but it's just slowly got worse and worse as they've aged. I know DC has always had a serious tone to it, which is what I've enjoy from DC but this seemed more flat above anything else.

Yeah this wasn't actually good but it was better than part 1 but that's not hard to do. The animation is still an odd choice. With all the amazing animation in DC animations history and this is what they went with to tell their Arguably largest story arc. Or was it simply down to budget.

The worst part is the actress who is voicing Wonder Woman. I can't be sure but I think she was trying to copy Gal Gadot's accent but she comes across far more Russian than Israeli. I mean did she record her part and send it in? I can't imagine that production heard her take on Wonder Woman and thought it was good. Then again they chose the animators so clearly some people shouldn't have creative control.

The only thing this movie is doing is making wish I'd just watched Arrowverse Crisis crossover. It may not be perfect but compared to this it's the Citizen freaking Kane of comic book adaptations.

What a disaster.... DC animation used to be the gold standard for superhero content but now it's a mere shadow of its former self. The storytelling is a convoluted mess that fails to respect its characters or the audience's time; it's unbelievable this concept got a 3 movie deal. Most of the Bat Family gets key jangled in front of you but they all come across as emotionally inept, constantly bickering during the most crucial moments of a multiversal crisis. Jensen Ackles himself delivers yet another lackluster performance. I honestly have no idea how he could sound so bored voicing Batman. Doesn't matter if it's a voice actor like Keven Conroy or a film actor like Christian Bale, they had different tones for different scenes. Ackles never diverts his pitch from sounding mildly annoyed. Unfortunately the animation itself also took a significant downgrade since their previous iteration with Jason O'Mara. It's difficult to see the characters and world you grew up loving look so bland and uninspired. Moreover when theoretically they could do absolutely anything with these characters within the multiverse concept. With everyone upping their animation game (Into the Spiderverse, TMNT, Arcane, X-Men97, Cyberpunk, etc), it's very concerning to see DC diving head first in the wrong direction.

Now the first part of the movie is great. Kara, Psycho Pirate, Harbinger, Monitor were essential to the Crisis Saga. It is great to see them fleshed out in this reimagination. The new harbinger twist is great and connects the story better than the original version.

Then as the movie progresses it gets mired in the shadow demon arc in a bad way. Instead of focusing on telling a good story and trusting in it, you notice how DC falls back to it's safe space, pandering to its base by fanservicing popular characters like the Batfamily and Wonder Woman despite their irrelevance at the point in the story. An endless boring fightscene is only rarely interrupted for plot progression. Now strategically, DC probably know what they are doing. They know their fanbase well and if Batman is here they will come. But from a storytelling perspective and for the quality of the movie, it is a terrible decision.

Also, the animation quality needs to step into this millenia.