ANI-MOVIES, *Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths-Part Two

Where the first installment of the Crisis trilogy that is supposed to wrap up the Tomorrowverse was a rousing time-tripping event, Part Two is more of a character study of two of its main characters instead of an actual story. The second chapter leaps from different points of the prior Tomorrowverse titles while showing how the still remaining characters attempt to hold their realities together. The movie strays somewhat from the original Crisis On Infinite Earths comic book series of the 80s, even though it's trying to establish a new take on old characters who were first introduced in that same event. If there was a reason for buying this movie on its own as opposed to waiting for the compilation movie that Warner Bros. will do is if you're a profoundly compulsive DC fan who has to get everything related to comics as they are first released.

The state of things is that there are five remaining Earths being held together with a tower on each one keeping the anti-matter waves at bay. Joker tries to destroy one with Solomon Grundy and Killer Crock while Tomorrowverse Batman teams up with different members of the Bat-Family from various realities to stop this attack. The remaining heroes gathered by The Monitor are coordinating in an attempt to prevent being wiped from existence. The majority of the first half goes over the lives of Supergirl and Psycho-Pirate who was the main villain from Justice Society: World War II. We learn about Supergirl's life after Krypton exploded at the beginning of Legion Of Super-Heroes at how she ended up spending some years under the care of The Monitor and then eventually heading to Earth to reunite with her cousin. Psycho-Pirate's entire backstory is covered in his prior life on Earth-2 as Charles Halstead who can control emotions, how he gained the ability to travel to other worlds from Dr. Fate, and how he went from one reality to another when he would wear out his welcome just restarting his plan in a different universe. It turns out that Psycho-Pirate was also Doctor Spectro from the DC Showcase: Blue Beetle short, meaning that he has assumed different identities on other worlds, and finally gets a visit by Supergirl who is now Harbinger thanks to a power transfer by The Monitor. Pycho-Pirate gets The Monitor to also give him a portion of his cosmic power to enhance his own empathic abilities as the villain begins to make contact with The Monitor's opposite, the equally powerful Anti-Monitor. This mysterious new enemy sends hordes of shadow demons against the heroes who are defending the towers. Wonder Woman disappears along with the Amazons on their world, the Bat-Family fall prey to Psycho-Pirate's control, and John Stewart manages to finally awaken John Constantine from his centuries long haze of being Pariah but at the cost of the last remaining Green Lantern ring. Psycho-Pirate manipulates Supergirl into taking out her aggression on The Monitor, brutally attacking him. The Anti-Monitor coalesces all his shadow demons into a single huge giant about to destroy the final tower, ending on a cliffhanger.

Part Two carries on the story from Part One, but it all seems like the entire project could've just been split up into a longer double feature instead of a trilogy. Despite the Bat-Family showing up on a lot of the promotional material, there is little done with the characters, and Will Friedle as Batman Beyond only gets about two lines in the whole movie. The final chapter is supposed to feature the return of many former DCAU actors, including the final performance of Batman by Kevin Conroy, although it seems like it will be more of a sound bite. You would be better off waiting until the final chapter is released before bothering with this forgettable filler episode, or at least when they do the mandatory collected edition of all three movies.