Shenanigans & Tomfoolery

DC’s line of direct-to-DVD animated features have been of varying quality so far. I think the biggest issue these movies have is the 70 minute time limit which leaves little room for character exploration and makes a lot of these seem like quick “get in, get out” ordeals. I think Wonder Woman succeeded because it was tightly focused whereas Justice League: The New Frontier suffered because of having to adapt too much material in too small a time frame.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the newest in this series of almost bi-annual films, shares some of the same strengths and, unfortunately, some of the same weaknesses of its predecessors.

Crisis on Two Earths starts off in a parallel universe where Lex Luthor is the only surviving hero and an alternate version of the Justice League, the Crime Syndicate, is in control of the planet. We meet Luthor as he escapes into our own world with hopes of bringing in the real Justice League to fight the Syndicate. If you’ve seen “A Better World” from the second season of the Justice League, you know what to expect but whereas the Justice Lords were perhaps misguided in their actions, the Crime Syndicate is just plain evil. It makes the group feel a bit too shallow at times, except for Owlman, of course.

Owlman, perfectly voiced by James Woods, is really the highlight of this film story-wise. His goals are massive in scope and his nihilistic motivations so compelling that it’s almost scary. Unfortunately, aside from Superwoman and her subtle sexual undertones, most of the other characters are not treated as thoughtfully and end up being one note. Green Lantern adds virtually nothing to the story, the Flash is there for nothing but comic relief, the Martian Manhunter’s love subplot is cliched to the point of being contrived and so on and so forth. It’s understandable considering the time limit and the number of characters but it’s a problem nonetheless. It’s even more bothersome when you consider that there are a couple of fights around the halfway mark that really serve no purpose in the story and that time could’ve been better used for character development.

The movie is really solid visually even if the character designs are a bit too angular and the characters seem unnatural at times because of this. I don’t know where the animation in these movies are outsourced to but they seem to be getting better with every one they make even if it’s still nowhere near feature film quality. But an eyesore this movie is not and there are a few bits and pieces throughout that are rather impressive.

There are many easter eggs for long time comic book fans too and I appreciate the use of the more modern costumes in some of the cameos. I always thought the Martian Manhunter’s new costume was much better than the original one and it’s just really cool to see Jason Rusch as Firestorm. I was a little upset over Aquaman’s appearance because he fights in the Watchtower and he’s not a character that’s impressive outside of water but that’s my nerd nitpick.

Written by Dwayne McDuffie, Crisis on Two Earths was initially conceived as a bridge between Justice League and Justice League Unlimited and, in many ways, it works better when taken as part of this larger universe than as a standalone movie. The teleporters, the lack of a seventh member, the reason for the expanded roster in JLU, this is all stuff that works perfectly in context of the series and if you ignore certain things (Hal Jordan instead of Jon Stewart) you can almost sandwich this movie between the last episode of Justice League and the first of Justice League Unlimited and not miss a beat.

To me, it basically comes down to this: is “Crisis on Two Earths” superior to “A Better World”? I think the two Justice League episodes had much better character moments and was better paced than CoTE but the latter works with a bigger scale and a much better finale than the deus ex machina ending of “A Better World.” They are similar thematically but those Justice Lords episodes stand on the shoulders of all the continuity from the DC Animated Universe and it gains a lot of extra leg room because of this.

Crisis on Two Earths is ultimately one of the better efforts in DC’s direct-to-DVD line of movies. It’s not perfect and I feel like these movies won’t start to meet their true potential until the 70-minute cap is raised but the voice acting is solid and so is the animation. You can’t go wrong with giving this one a go.