Review: Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One

There was a time in my life where the DC animated movies were must watch for me. Justice League: War, Throne of Atlantis, Son of Batman, Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract were all can’t miss. The best part of these movies were not only great retelling of comic stories from both recent and further past. They were well produced and had fantastic talent to give these well written stories life.

That changed for a long time, where movies like Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Catwoman: Hunted, and Injustice came out, and turned the prior ten plus years into a sham. These movies did everything possible to tear down the years of trust the DCAMU gave us for close to 13 years where stories were treated like props at best.

So where do the last few movies fit after that little history lesson?  Legion of Super-Heroes was a good step in the right direction, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths-Part One takes the best of Legion of Super-Heroes, and builds. Kara’s story from Legion… continues on, mainly with mentioning her Brainiac, and she was hanging out in like year 30,000. Finally, after years of chopped continuity with this “Tomorrowverse,” we’re finally getting continuity back on track.

I will always have a soft spot for giant crossover stories and Crisis on Infinite Earths is one of the best comics to draw from. What gets me is that the Arrowverse was able to get this story done multiple times before the DC animated team finally got around to it. Crisis on Infinite Earths was the blueprint for every single company-wide crossover story ever. Yet it feels like the powers that be avoided it like it was the Kevin Smith penned “The Widening Gyre.” What makes this even better is that the writers decided to give the story time to breathe, and will put this out in two parts.

The first part of Crisis on Infinite Earths felt like it could have been a self-contained story of itself.  While the film was over 90 minutes long, it didn’t feel rushed, even though there were multiple arcs of “beginning, middle, and end.” In fact, I let out an audible “oh shit! There’s more?” And I got back in my seat and continued watching.

The comic-crossover tries to cram as many viewpoints as possible to make the story click, but James Krieg took creative license, and focused this down to one hero: The Flash which is a smart move because you need a way to tie in all of the universes being used and possibly destroyed. There is one thing I want to bring up, though. The voice acting is hit or miss. Matt Bomer nailed his role as The Flash because he was able to take the role and make it his own where he added enough bewilderment from Allen’s constant jumping through time to make it a very unique take.

However, one person who just missed the mark was Jensen Ackles. Normally, his Batman is serviceable. It’s no Kevin Conroy or Jason O’Mara, but it worked. Though,  I’m not sure what the directive was for him in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but he sounded like someone trying to do a really poor Christian Bale impression. I haven’t been impressed with him at all as Batman and it may be about that time to change him out for someone better.  Let Ackles go back to being Jason Todd or go back to Supernatural. 

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths -art One was easily the best of the Tomorrowverse so far.  This is by far the most complete animated movie to come from DC since Batman: Hush and I can’t gush enough over Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One enough. This is the return to form, and I hope this continues through the sequels.