Liga da Justiça: Crise nas Infinitas Terras - Parte Dois

What a disaster.... DC animation used to be the gold standard for superhero content but now it's a mere shadow of its former self. The storytelling is a convoluted mess that fails to respect its characters or the audience's time; it's unbelievable this concept got a 3 movie deal. Most of the Bat Family gets key jangled in front of you but they all come across as emotionally inept, constantly bickering during the most crucial moments of a multiversal crisis. Jensen Ackles himself delivers yet another lackluster performance. I honestly have no idea how he could sound so bored voicing Batman. Doesn't matter if it's a voice actor like Keven Conroy or a film actor like Christian Bale, they had different tones for different scenes. Ackles never diverts his pitch from sounding mildly annoyed. Unfortunately the animation itself also took a significant downgrade since their previous iteration with Jason O'Mara. It's difficult to see the characters and world you grew up loving look so bland and uninspired. Moreover when theoretically they could do absolutely anything with these characters within the multiverse concept. With everyone upping their animation game (Into the Spiderverse, TMNT, Arcane, X-Men97, Cyberpunk, etc), it's very concerning to see DC diving head first in the wrong direction.

I gave "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two" a go after not really enjoying the first. To be honest, I was hoping for a rebound because I want to like the concept. About ten minutes in, I started wishing that I hadn't turned it on. Stubbornly, I persisted but I'm done now. Won't bother with the third one. A great cast of voices (including Jensen Ackles and Darren Criss) are not given all that much to work with, unfortunately. Like with the first instalment, the plot is disjointed and convoluted, and although it features a lot of great DC characters, they really don't have all that much to do. A huge missed opportunity.

Now the first part of the movie is great. Kara, Psycho Pirate, Harbinger, Monitor were essential to the Crisis Saga. It is great to see them fleshed out in this reimagination. The new harbinger twist is great and connects the story better than the original version.

Then as the movie progresses it gets mired in the shadow demon arc in a bad way. Instead of focusing on telling a good story and trusting in it, you notice how DC falls back to it's safe space, pandering to its base by fanservicing popular characters like the Batfamily and Wonder Woman despite their irrelevance at the point in the story. An endless boring fightscene is only rarely interrupted for plot progression. Now strategically, DC probably know what they are doing. They know their fanbase well and if Batman is here they will come. But from a storytelling perspective and for the quality of the movie, it is a terrible decision.

Also, the animation quality needs to step into this millenia.

Where to start.... the continuity and flow of movie/episode was all over the place. The first movie left no real impression and this followed on from. It places focus on characters individually and not as a collective. I don't know what to call this, it doesn't feel like a movie as such more so stints and pieces of different characters trying to achieve the same goal and fighting the same enemy. Hard to believe Flash is so fast he missed Charles. Really use to look forward to DC movies, they had so much good stock but it's just slowly got worse and worse as they've aged. I know DC has always had a serious tone to it, which is what I've enjoy from DC but this seemed more flat above anything else.

The premise of Crisis Part 1 was intriguing enough to wait for this sequel, but I was mislead. Part 2 is dry, convoluted, disjointed and just plain subpar for DC. Disposal characters come and go. Storylines are hinted at and then left unfinished. Overstuffed and bloated theatrics that leaves the viewer starving for real substance. Such a disappointment as there was so much material to work with and work from. I stopped caring about plot points and character development within the first 30 minutes. I suffered through the entirety to make sure it didn't uptick in the final waning moments. Trust me. It just didn't stick the landing.