Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths DVD Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 03.17.2010

The latest DC animated movie features the Justice League facing off against the Crime Syndicate in an awesome animated brawl for it all.



Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths is the latest DC animated movie from Warner Bros. and producer Bruce Timm. Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern) once again steps up to direct (along with co-director, Ed Liu) a fun, action-packed DC animated adventure. Writer, Troy Duffy, drew from many classic DC stories in framing this story, the designs and main backbone of the story most notably taken from the JLA: Earth 2 story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. This review is for the 2-disc DVD set from Warner Premiere.

The Movie

In Crisis a strangely and more heroic Lex Luthor (Chris Noth) travels from another dimension to request aid from the Justice League. The League in Luthor's world has all but been wiped out by a band of super-powered baddies called the Syndicate. The Syndicate is an evil and all-powerful counterparts of the regular Justice League. While some of the members are reluctant at first, the League ultimately agrees to help free Luthor's world of the Syndicate's tyranny which is easier said than done. The equivalent of Batman in good-Luthor's world, Owlman (James Woods), is onto Luthor and sees an opportunity to do something far more sinister and horrible that the Syndicate cannot even imagine.

Crisis was originally conceived by writer Troy Duffy as an animated movie that would serve as a bridge between the Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited animated shows. With all that in mind, you can clearly see through many parts of this story how this was meant to be as a lead-in to the JLU series. The movie begins with the League repairing the Watchtower. Lex Luthor is in jail. There are numerous other beats that are clearly indicative of this movie being reworked from the classic DCAU. You'll only really notice these things if you are already familiar with the DCAU. It doesn't take away from the story overall, but it is a bit distracting at times seeing how close this was to the story of the JL and JLU shows. It was in my head constantly while watching the movie at the premiere event at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, "Oh so that's how the League expands," "Oh, so that's how Wonder Woman gets the invisible plane," and so on.

The story unfortunately is also hindranced by the pitfalls of the JL and JLU series. Specifically, Superman quite often being a pushover and Batman being his very own deus ex machina. Yes, we get it, Batman is super awesome even though he's a human. The problem with this is yes we know Batman is a loner and likes to act on his own sometimes, but Batman is also intelligent enough to know when to leave certain jobs to certain guys. Storywise, Batman also commits two very questionable and shocking acts. One act is so shocking and underhanded, I can't believe even Timm, Montgomery, and Duffy let Batman get away with it. This moment is not necessarily bad, but very surprising and I'm still somewhat ambivalent over it.

The movie's strengths lie in the action sequences and the fights which are very well done. Montgomery and the production crew frequently do creative things with the camera like putting in the impression of hand-held style shots. The action is very kinetic and flows wonderfully. Just about all the fights between the JL and Syndicate members are very well done.

The movie also does a lot of good in showcasing and cameo-ing all sorts of DC comic mainstays and obscure characters like Uncle Marvel. Superwoman's (Gina Torres) character in the movie is downright nasty and deliciously evil. She's easily the most entertaining character in the movie. There's also PRESIDENT DEATHSTROKE or rather President Slade Wilson (Bruce Davison).

The Rating: 8.0 out of 10.0

The Video

The movie is presented in enhanced widescreen. Judging from the packaging, I'm not sure if this was originally filmed in fullscreen and just cropped at the top of bottom to appear to be widescreen or if it's an actually animorphic widescreen animated project. That being said, the video is crisp and crystal clear for the movie. The colors are smooth and bright. Virtually no problems here, but I'm still a little iffy on understanding the widescreen format.

The Rating: 9.0 out of 10.0

The Audio

Not to say it's bad, but some of the casting moves made toward certain characters in the movie are a bit of a mixed bag. Most notably is William Baldwin as Batman. Baldwin does a good job in making Batman not sound like Baldwin, but on the other hand, Baldwin is not a very good Batman. Animation veterans such as Vanessa Marshall and Josh Keaton are well served as Wonder Woman and Flash respectively, playing the characters very similar to their JL/JLU counterparts. Marshall was in fact one of the candidates to play Wonder Woman in the JL animated series, and casting/voice over director Andrea Romano brought her back in to play Wonder Woman for this movie. Nolan North is pitch-perfect casting as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, unfortunately his role is fairly small and understated for this story, so we don't really get to see North cut loose as Hal. James Woods also does a very good job in playing a more subtle, low-key villain in Owlman. It's James Woods yes, but it was neat to hear him showing a lot more restraint as he rarely does. Owlman is quite monotone and he says everything with a certain finality, but it really worked. Other voice-casting and the score by James Venable are all solid.

The Rating: 8.5 out of 10.0

The Extras And Packaging

This is a 2-disc DVD set packed in a plastic clamshell style case. There's a slip cover which has a slightly raised and metallic colored image version of the regular insert jacket cover. Special features include:

• First Look: Batman Under The Red Hood
  
• DC Showcase Presents: The Spectre
  
• DCU: The New World
  
• Justice League: A Better World Parts 1 and 2
  
• Digital Copy

There a good little batch of extras on the two discs, but not very much pertaining to the actual production and development of the Crisis animated movie which is a little disappointing. The First Look is for the next DC animated movie, Batman Under The Red hood, a story taken from the 1980's story Batman: A Death In The Family. That was the story where fans could call a number and vote whether the second Robin, Jason Todd, would live or die. This new story revolves around a mysterious new vigilante called the Red Hood (To be played by Jansen Ackles). This featurette also has new interviews with Timm and writer Judd Winick about the development and pitch process of the movie which is cool. There are also several other mini-featurettes like this on the DVD for Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Batman/Superman: Public Enemies.

Rounding out the extras on disc 1 is The Spectre animated short from director, Joaquim Dos Santos. This is a delightful little short about the one and only Spirit of Vengeance, the Spectre (voiced by Gary Cole) taking out murder suspects of a hotshot Hollywood producer. What's most cool and creative about this short is that it's been altered to have the look and feel of a cheesy 1970's cop movie complete with the jazzy music, set and character designs, and even artificial scratches on the picture. The only bad thing about this short is that it's only 12 minutes. I wanted to see a whole movie about the Spectre! Book it Bruce.

On disc 2 the main feature is the 33 minute featurette, DCU: The New World. This talks about the history of the DC comics Universe and also the Crisis events and big storylines as a whole for the DCU over the years. Paul Levitz and other comic writers and editors talk about the changing times and how 9/11 changed the way stories were told and written.

Also included on disc 2 are two episodes of the JL animated series. This is the 2-parter, "A Better World," a story where in an alternate universe the Justice League heroes go crazy after the Flash dies and they become fascistic dictators of the world. I liked some of these episodes but the inclusion of Doomsday (an intelligent and rather eloquent Doomsday) was underwhelming and rather pointless. Seeing lobotomized and rather obedient versions of the Joker and Poison Ivy was fun though as well as a return of animated Lois Lane played by Dana Delaney.

The Rating: 7.5 out of 10.0

The 411: Crisis is another fine edition into the DC animated movie series. It's a fun, action-packed ride with some great action sequences and great animated character realizations. Storyline-wise it's quite flawed and shocking at times, but in no way bad. Some of the casting decisions for the bigger characters doesn't totally pay off, but most of the voice actors do a solid job in playing their characters. And hey, there's finally a romantic subplot for Martian Manhunter.

Final Score:  8.3   [ Very Good ]