Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

[Captain Canuck]

I liked a couple of things about this. Particularly, Owlman and his last line of, "It doesn't matter".

However, while it was better than the other dvd cartoons we've had, it wasn't very good.

First of all, there were too many characters, such as the President and his daughter Rose, who had almost no need to be in the story.

I felt that the parallel Earth was far too 'nice', and should've been a much darker world (more like in the comic).

But what really aggravated me is the "City of Heroes" fight scenes. I hate it when we have these fantastic superheroes with these incredible physical skills and powers, and their big climactic fight takes place in an abandoned warehouse. These sparse, dull, lifeless settings in which all we can see is base-level fisticuffs. For example, when the Justice League first arrive in the parallel Earth and have to fight their way out of Luthor's floating castle... the entire fight takes place inside a big open computer room. That's it. It's not until the fight is over do we discover the base is floating in the air. Then, once outside, the fight continues in the fast open space of the sky. The only interesting altercation is between Owlman and Wonder Woman who fight on his plane.

Consider how much more exciting it would've been if the fight had taken place on top of Luthor's floating castle as the power went out and it went plummeting into the Earth. The heroes would not only have to fight in order to defeat the villains, but somehow prevent the castle from crushing the city beneath. Consider how the evil Marvel family actually had the ability to use the weather as a weapon.

The final fight takes place on the Crime Syndicate's moon base which is just a large hall (again). And when Batman and Owlman have their climactic fight, it's in in a big open space (again).

Why not use the setting to create conflict and heighten the drama? In THE MATRIX RELOADED, an otherwise terrible film, the freeway sequence is uncompromisingly brilliant. At no point do the Wachowski Brothers fail to take full advantage of the fact that the fight is taking place on a freeway and construct an elaborate chain of events that take advantage of the setting: the characters drive against traffic at high speed, the have a duel on a fast-moving truck, they fight the ghost inside a car using seatbelts as weapons, and so on. How about in REVENGE OF THE SITH, which has its final fight between two brothers take place on what is, essentially, an exploding volcano? It didn't take full advantage of the lava, but by setting it in such an elaborate and dramatic backdrop, it heightened the drama.

Compare these to most superhero fight scenes, and the result is a pathetic spectacle where these outrageously physical characters proceed to trade punches in a vast open space as they take it in turns to knock a wall down.

For the final fight, since the Crime Syndicate is a mirror of the Justice League, instead of their base being on the moon or in orbit, it's underwater. They don't protect from above, the rule from below. Not only is it underwater, but the base is a labyrinthine fortress (which is why only nukes would hurt it) of security measures, and during the final fight, each member of the League is involved in a different way. The Flash is running through the facility trying to find the bomb, while Johnny Quick is blocking off his access. Hell, the damn fortress rotates and moves, making it impossible to navigate. So you've got Batman and Lex guiding Flash through the tunnels while Owlman reconfigures it to keep Flash lost. Green Lantern uses his ring to literally tear the base apart or hold it in place, as Power Ring rebuilds the fortress or movies it or creates new parts to it. Superman and Ultraman have a fight that plunges them to the bottom of the barrier reef, and Superman has to stop the resultant tsunami. Wonder Woman and Superwoman have a wet t-shirt competition.

When it boils down to Owlman and Batman duel at Earth-Prime, we can solve a problem, which is, "why was Owlman just waiting for Batman to show up? Why didn't he just detonate it?" Well, because the bomb needs to be placed at the planet's core. Since this was all about duality and the true nature of a person, having the duel take place at a planet's core kinda made sense. So when Batman arrives on Earth-Prime, there's a tunnel being burrowed by the bomb to the centre of the Earth's core and Owlman and Batman have this duel over the scaffolding of a bomb descending into the planet's core. Which would be all the greater contrast when he teleports it all to the frozen Earth.

Finally, my last problem was the Owlman's view of the infinite Earths is logically flawed, and I'm amazed neither Batman nor he pointed this out. While the nihilism of Owlman is pretty cool, the core premise of the tale, Good Earth vs Evil Earth, is kinda lost when there's an infinite number of alien Earths out there. But if, as Owlman says, for every action another universe is made, when he arrives on Earth-Prime, there should be an infinite number of Owlmen on the planet. And each of them should have a bomb. And each of them should be fighting a Batman. For if Owlman chooses to go to Earth-Prime, and talk to Batman, another Owlman goes there and doesn't. For every Owlman who built the bomb but didn't tell the Crime Syndicate, another did. And for every Crime Syndicate that said "no", another said "yes" and so on. So there should be an infinite number of Owlmen on the planet. What's more, Batman has to lose one. This is the law of reality (apparently). So... it doesn't make sense. And I was waiting for Batman to point out that Owlman is wrong on his theory that choice creates universes and that, therefore, there is no such thing as "Earth-Prime" since the parallel dimension don't 'branch off' one another. So he can say, "destroy this dead world - it won't matter". Owlman would appreciate the irony.

As it is, his last words of "It doesn't matter" would even seem to indicate this kind of thinking, but I don't think Dwayne McDuffie noticed this plot hole.

Wasn't bad. Just a bit lazy.

I thought it was cool.

 

[Grocer Man]

I realized something really cool. Mind you, it only makes sense if you take the DCAU roots into account.

Flash is constantly portrayed as the most moral of the League, and the glue that holds them together. Johnny Quick is the only Syndicate member with some good in him, and the Syndicate was beaten immeadietly after Johnny died.

I liked a couple of things about this. Particularly, Owlman and his last line of, "It doesn't matter".

However, while it was better than the other dvd cartoons we've had, it wasn't very good.

First of all, there were too many characters, such as the President and his daughter Rose, who had almost no need to be in the story.

I felt that the parallel Earth was far too 'nice', and should've been a much darker world (more like in the comic).

But what really aggravated me is the "City of Heroes" fight scenes. I hate it when we have these fantastic superheroes with these incredible physical skills and powers, and their big climactic fight takes place in an abandoned warehouse. These sparse, dull, lifeless settings in which all we can see is base-level fisticuffs. For example, when the Justice League first arrive in the parallel Earth and have to fight their way out of Luthor's floating castle... the entire fight takes place inside a big open computer room. That's it. It's not until the fight is over do we discover the base is floating in the air. Then, once outside, the fight continues in the fast open space of the sky. The only interesting altercation is between Owlman and Wonder Woman who fight on his plane.

Consider how much more exciting it would've been if the fight had taken place on top of Luthor's floating castle as the power went out and it went plummeting into the Earth. The heroes would not only have to fight in order to defeat the villains, but somehow prevent the castle from crushing the city beneath. Consider how the evil Marvel family actually had the ability to use the weather as a weapon.

The final fight takes place on the Crime Syndicate's moon base which is just a large hall (again). And when Batman and Owlman have their climactic fight, it's in in a big open space (again).

Why not use the setting to create conflict and heighten the drama? In THE MATRIX RELOADED, an otherwise terrible film, the freeway sequence is uncompromisingly brilliant. At no point do the Wachowski Brothers fail to take full advantage of the fact that the fight is taking place on a freeway and construct an elaborate chain of events that take advantage of the setting: the characters drive against traffic at high speed, the have a duel on a fast-moving truck, they fight the ghost inside a car using seatbelts as weapons, and so on. How about in REVENGE OF THE SITH, which has its final fight between two brothers take place on what is, essentially, an exploding volcano? It didn't take full advantage of the lava, but by setting it in such an elaborate and dramatic backdrop, it heightened the drama.

Compare these to most superhero fight scenes, and the result is a pathetic spectacle where these outrageously physical characters proceed to trade punches in a vast open space as they take it in turns to knock a wall down.

For the final fight, since the Crime Syndicate is a mirror of the Justice League, instead of their base being on the moon or in orbit, it's underwater. They don't protect from above, the rule from below. Not only is it underwater, but the base is a labyrinthine fortress (which is why only nukes would hurt it) of security measures, and during the final fight, each member of the League is involved in a different way. The Flash is running through the facility trying to find the bomb, while Johnny Quick is blocking off his access. Hell, the damn fortress rotates and moves, making it impossible to navigate. So you've got Batman and Lex guiding Flash through the tunnels while Owlman reconfigures it to keep Flash lost. Green Lantern uses his ring to literally tear the base apart or hold it in place, as Power Ring rebuilds the fortress or movies it or creates new parts to it. Superman and Ultraman have a fight that plunges them to the bottom of the barrier reef, and Superman has to stop the resultant tsunami. Wonder Woman and Superwoman have a wet t-shirt competition.

When it boils down to Owlman and Batman duel at Earth-Prime, we can solve a problem, which is, "why was Owlman just waiting for Batman to show up? Why didn't he just detonate it?" Well, because the bomb needs to be placed at the planet's core. Since this was all about duality and the true nature of a person, having the duel take place at a planet's core kinda made sense. So when Batman arrives on Earth-Prime, there's a tunnel being burrowed by the bomb to the centre of the Earth's core and Owlman and Batman have this duel over the scaffolding of a bomb descending into the planet's core. Which would be all the greater contrast when he teleports it all to the frozen Earth.

Finally, my last problem was the Owlman's view of the infinite Earths is logically flawed, and I'm amazed neither Batman nor he pointed this out. While the nihilism of Owlman is pretty cool, the core premise of the tale, Good Earth vs Evil Earth, is kinda lost when there's an infinite number of alien Earths out there. But if, as Owlman says, for every action another universe is made, when he arrives on Earth-Prime, there should be an infinite number of Owlmen on the planet. And each of them should have a bomb. And each of them should be fighting a Batman. For if Owlman chooses to go to Earth-Prime, and talk to Batman, another Owlman goes there and doesn't. For every Owlman who built the bomb but didn't tell the Crime Syndicate, another did. And for every Crime Syndicate that said "no", another said "yes" and so on. So there should be an infinite number of Owlmen on the planet. What's more, Batman has to lose one. This is the law of reality (apparently). So... it doesn't make sense. And I was waiting for Batman to point out that Owlman is wrong on his theory that choice creates universes and that, therefore, there is no such thing as "Earth-Prime" since the parallel dimension don't 'branch off' one another. So he can say, "destroy this dead world - it won't matter". Owlman would appreciate the irony.

As it is, his last words of "It doesn't matter" would even seem to indicate this kind of thinking, but I don't think Dwayne McDuffie noticed this plot hole.

Wasn't bad. Just a bit lazy.

So...you're biggest problem is that it wasn't over the top enough, and that the lack of over-the-topness wasn't pointed out at the climax?

 

[Bass]

I thought it was cool.

It certainly had its moments.

I realized something really cool. Mind you, it only makes sense if you take the DCAU roots into account.

Flash is constantly portrayed as the most moral of the League, and the glue that holds them together. Johnny Quick is the only Syndicate member with some good in him, and the Syndicate was beaten immeadietly after Johnny died.

Good point, although, I think Johnny Quick should've been the most evil of the Syndicate, what with it being mirrors and all. I dunno. It's weird really. Where does Bizarro land on the whole "mirror" version? Why isn't Bizarro Ultra-Man. Head 'splode.

So...you're biggest problem is that it wasn't over the top enough, and that the lack of over-the-topness wasn't pointed out at the climax?

My biggest problem is that it just didn't dig deep enough. It didn't take anything to its fullest. The fights never became global spanning, instead, just trading punches in warehouses. And that its idea of infinite worlds determined by decision wasn't taken to its conclusion. It feels... ill-thought out. Half done. That's what I mean.

 

[Jaggyd]

I'm sorry. I want to sympathize, but I have no idea what you are talking about.

the Zune is Microsoft's competition for the iPod Touch.


and I was wrong, the digital copy won't even work for that. It only works on personal media players that are listed under Microsoft's abandoned "PlaysForSure" system.

 

[Langsta]

I was hoping this was going to be a lot better. Batman and Owlman were both badass, but they were really the only things good about this. I didn't care too much for the animation either.

What if they had made some subtle differences between the animation for the Crime Syndicate and the animation for the Justice League in the movie? That would've been really cool to show that they really are from different universes.

 

[Bass]

That would've been really cool actually. I don't know how feasible it is though...

 

[Langsta]

That would've been really cool actually. I don't know how feasible it is though...

Well I mean, we've been led to believe that most of the DC Animated movies so far are in different universes, and they usually have slightly different animation.

 

[Bass]

I mean from a production sense - how hard it is to have two different animation styles mingle together. I don't know how difficult it would be in order to make it work, or if it would be too time-consuming or something. Got no idea on the practicalities.

 

[Gothamite]

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. The character designs were all great (Superman's was a little boring though) and I really liked most of the voices; Billy Baldwin as Batman was as awesome as I'd hoped he'd be as was Woods as Owlman; the guy playing Superman was dull and boring as is usually the case where DCU animation is concerned; Chris Noth as Lex Luthor was great and I'd love to see him play the traditional Luthor in the future.

The story was a lot of fun, but it was often too obvious that it was lifted from a Justice League script. It felt like a weird bastard child, a "what-could-have-been" rather than an original creation. Why did they have to retain all the stuff about building the new watchtower, mastering the teleporters and the recruitment drive? It felt like they could have put new subplots in there rather than just creating a weird mish-mash. I did like the teleporter scene, though and the way Batman ate Flash's pretzel.

Another thing that bothered me was Hal being in this. After all the fuss about John being in DCAU in his stead, I would have thought they'd make an effort to differentiate between the two when Hal did finally show up, but he's basically the exact same as John. Missed opportunity. Also, seeing as how Wally is clearly the Flash in this, I kind of wish they'd used Kyle Rayner as GL for a change (and to sync up with the original story, not that that matters that much to me).

Did anyone notice how Batman was less competent than usual, as well? The scene where Superwoman knocks a pillar on him is kind of cringe-worthy as Batman is left helpless, desperately trying to push the pillar off, to no avail. Usually they portray him as being completely hyper-competent in these Justice League stories, but a couple of times in this one, he had his ass handed to him. The anaesthetic gas and his final beat-down of Owlman made up for this, I guess.

All in all, very decent and better than the lacklustre reviews I'd heard.