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Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Original
Release Date - February 23rd, 2010 (DTV Only) A “good”
Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the
Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate,
a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super
powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle
of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and,
through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance
of all existence in peril.
Voice Direction by Andrea Romano
Editor Margaret Hou
Music by James L. Venable
Additional Music by Christopher Drake
Themes by Christopher Drake
Executive Producer Sam Register
Producer Bruce Timm, Bobbie Page
Co-Producer Alan Burnett
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Directed by Sam Liu, Lauren Montgomery
Main Title Animation by Peter Girardi Wutitis Inc.
Animation by Moi Animation Studio
Reviews by Zach Demeter,
James Harvey, screw on head |
William Baldwin as Batman
Mark Harmon as Superman
Chris Noth as Lex Luthor
Gina Torres as Superwoman
James Woods as Owlman
Jonathan Adams as J'Onn J'Onzz
Briam Bloom as Ultraman
Bruce Davison as President Wilson
Josh Keaton as Flash
Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman
Nolan North as Green Lantern
Freddi Rogers as Rose Wilson
James Patrick Stuart as Johnny Quick
Carlos Alazraqui as Breakdance
Richard Green as Jimmy Olsen
Jim Meskimen as Captain Super
Andrea Romano as Watchtower Computer
Bruce Timm as Uncle Super
Kari Wuhrer as Model Citizen
Cedric Yarbrough as Firestorm |
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Review
(Zach Demeter)
Either
I’m just out of it or it seems that this latest DC Universe
effort hasn’t made very much noise in the online community (I
said the same thing about Green Lantern, of course).
The publicity for it seems greatly diminished when compared to
past films, but that may just be the direction these titles are
headed—they don’t pull jaw dropping numbers in terms of sales,
but they well enough that they will continue coming to us for
awhile now (or, at least, I hope they do). This most recent
entry is a bit of an odd-one-out when it comes to this series so
far; it’s an original story, so it’s not like The New
Frontier, even though this is the Justice League once again.
No, this film was originally written for the animated Justice
League/Unlimited series. Perhaps a lull in ideas kicked up
this old script from Dwayne McDuffie, but whatever the reason
fans who wanted to see this “lost” story will no doubt crack
smiles as they see long rumored elements of this story finally
come to light.
This is genuinely a hard film to describe. I know I say that
about nearly all of them and end up going on for three or four
pages, but while watching this film I was hit with a feeling I
hadn’t felt while watching these films before: indifference. I
enjoyed the action that was going on (which is really almost the
entire film to be honest) and the story itself was
interesting…but I really just wasn’t all that compelled to stick
with it. I did, of course, and the ending was more than enough
of a satisfactory payoff…but this is really quite a bit more
dramatic film than we’ve gotten in the past. It’s also almost
entirely plot driven as opposed to character driven, as we enter
a world where all the main characters are already established.
Sure, the Crime Syndicate has some relationships and character
setup of its own, but it’s pretty minor as they’re basically
just evil versions of characters we already know anyway.
The story itself is pretty straightforward (Good JL fights Bad
JL) and reminiscent of the season two Justice League
Unlimited finale (“Divided We Fall”). Good versions fighting
evil versions is always fun to watch as its essentially complete
equals dueling it out and that’s really what 60% of the
on-screen time is spent on. Which is really fine with me as Moi
Animation is absolutely brilliant here and there are some
genuinely painful looking fight animations. It’s all very slick
and smooth too, so anytime a punch or kick is thrown it’s done
with such fluidity that you can’t help but drop your jaw at the
choreography of some of the scenes. There’s the usual shaky cam
work thrown in there too, but there’s also some just good ol’
fashioned face smashing and there were more than a few times I
cringed as the violence dial got turned up.
Another thing about this film, aside from the violence and
singular act of cursing (which I thought was really well done),
it was really adult feeling. Not in just a “oh there’s violence
and language and innuendo” sense either; it was just a very
psychological story and the basis for Owlman’s ultimate plan
would be enough to send a Spongebob loving child into a fit of
tears if there wasn’t an adult nearby to soothe his fears away.
I mean, yeah, it’s still a cartoon and there are elements here
that lighten the mood (mainly the characters of Flash and Johnny
Quick), but my first impression of this film is that it’s
genuinely a lot darker than the material we’ve received
previously.
Then again it could just be my mind playing tricks on me; some
of the DC Universe subject matter was just as dark, I suppose,
but I think the fact this production reminded me so much of an
extended Justice League Unlimited outing is the cause for
my main feeling of this film being a much more dramatic
production. The core League is the same (sans Hawkgirl and a
changeup of Lantern’s…who is hardly used in the film anyway, so
that didn’t matter much) and even the voices are eerily similar
in some cases. Mark Harmon sounded a lot like George Newbern at
times to me, if a bit younger sounding at times (which is odd).
Other voice actors delivered the job remarkably well too,
although Josh Keaton as Flash seemed to stick out like a sore
thumb to me for some reason; it was just some the earlier
dialogue I think, because later on he seemed fine. And William
Baldwin as Batman…well, has Romano ever cast someone as Batman
that didn’t work out in some fashion? I didn’t even bat an eye
at when he started speaking…it just oddly felt right. The rest
of the voice actors all did remarkable jobs as well, especially
James Woods as Owlman…which, if nothing else, will be the main
performance you take away from this film as he has some of the
most twisted and evil dialogue in the entire film.
Which is really an interesting way to look at the whole “evil
JL” angle. I mean you’d think Superman would be the most evil
because he’s the most powerful and the “boy scout” of the group,
but no…it’s Batman. Owlman proved that if Batman was evil he
would be the most twisted and death inducing villain out there.
It’s a thought that hadn’t occurred to me previously and I guess
I just wasn’t going into this film expecting to get so much out
of it. The previous DC Universe titles have been pretty
straightforward (setup hero, introduce villain, mix in plot and
add finale), but this one already had all of the ingredients
except the finale mixed in within the first ten minutes so it
just had a lot more time to breathe. At the same time it just
used that space to toss in tons of violent battles, but as I
said before that was fine with me. I’m still not sure why I was
so indifferent to this film while watching it at first. I think
the pacing is just a little bit slow as it seems like there is
never a second act, just a long first and a curt finale. The
thing about the finale though is that it will stick with you. To
really drive home the point of what it was about the finale that
does that I have to drop some spoilers, but I’ll do so in a
spoiler block so you can safely avoid it.
Spoilers
(Highlight to read)
While there is death and destruction throughout the film, it’s
mostly caused by the Crime Syndicate. But two of the major Crime
Syndicate deaths were caused by Batman. This Batman is
reminiscent of the Tim Burton Batman, who seemed indifferent to
causing the death of someone if it really mattered. I won’t
detail who he kills exactly as that’s a little too spoiler
specific, but not only did Batman tell a lie that resulted in
the death of a CS member, but he was also directly and
personally responsible for the death of one of the others. It’s
a pretty major twist for the character and I’m not entirely sure
it would’ve worked out in the grand scheme of things for the Justice
League Unlimited show had this film actually come out. It
could have been a revision to the final script, of course, but
that was a pretty major element to me.
The rest of the story really did flow directly into Justice
League Unlimited. The introduction of the Invisible Jet, the
bolstering of the roster, construction of the new Watchtower,
testing of the transporter and a handful of smaller things that
made the JLU fan in me crack a smile. So not all of those
elements were shed in the script transition and as a standalone
film it almost feels kind of out of place…but aside from some
character designs and voice changes (and some really slick
animation upgrades), this film wouldn’t have all that hard of a
time being shoehorned in-between the series. Aside from the
aforementioned added darkness (but then again Return of the
Joker was a pretty dark story too), that is. Of course I
don’t want this to turn into a big “omg jlu is back omg!!!”
debate, but someone’s going to spark it anyway. Let me just say
that while this film can stand by itself quite well without any
problems, it’s a whole lot better if you’re familiar with the
past animated series. And it’s a lot easier to mix this in with
the series than it was trying to do the same with Teen
Titans, which to this day is something that confuses me as
to why someone would try to do such a thing. |
In any case, there’s a lot to take in with Crisis on Two
Earths. It definitely stands out from the rest of the pack
so far, if only because of its nearly flawless animation, music,
and voice casting. There were few moments where I felt something
could have been handled better and even then that really just
came to some of the oddly delivered lines (which I’m sure over
time won’t feel so strange). It’s a shame more of the voice
actors couldn’t branch out, as they all had very few lines.
There was an entire subplot with J’Onn and the U.S. President’s
daughter that I failed to mention, but that is a nice little
distraction from all the violence.
Overall Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is a
Recommended film. I hesitate to rate it higher than that
because I know some will take issue with the portrayal of
Batman. But it really is a great film and it will likely only
get better with repeat viewings. Dwayne McDuffie continues to
prove that he was made a producer on Justice
League/Unlimited for a reason: the man can write a hell of a
compelling story. This film ranks up there as one of his better
works in the animated DC world and even though it’s reminiscent
of stories we’ve seen in animation before, the brilliant work
done by Moi, the directing by Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery, and
story make it more than worth watching again.
Review (James Harvey)
There’s something about this new animated feature from the DC Universe
Animated Original Movie line that feels like slipping on a familiar pair
comfortable shoes. There’s a sense of warmth that comes from it. To see the
Justice League back in action, in a great world-hopping thriller, is
exhilarating. We get the big ones, too. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green
Lantern, and so on. In addition, we get to see their twisted counterparts from
an alternate earth, criminal overlords who use fear to dominate the populace. As
you can probably already guess, the Justice League and their evil counterparts
collide and, well, as exciting as this movie manages to make that tired concept
seem, it gets much better from there.
For many, it will be difficult to view this movie without thinking of what could
have been. Originally planned as a direct-to-video animated feature to bridge
the gap between the classic Justice League and Justice League
Unlimited animated series that aired a few years ago on Cartoon Network, Justice
League: Crisis on Two Earths is a riveting adventure with the Leaguers
facing off against their evil doppelgangers from an alternate reality.
Personally, I’m not going to review this feature as “what could have been” but
instead “what is.” And just “what is” Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths?
Well, likely the most enjoyable direct-to-video animated feature to come out of
the “DC Universe Animation Original Movie” line since Wonder Woman.
Right away, before I go any further, I need to acknowledge the writing for this
feature. Writer Dwayne McDuffie, a familiar name to animation fans thanks to his
work on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, among other
series, brings a touch to the dialogue that adds such a flare to the movie. The
dialogue here has such smoothness to it, such a casual, comfortable feeling to
it. Straight dialogue scenes come off just as engaging as the fisticuffs. Never
feeling stilted or stiff, it all plays out rather natural. Sure, some of the
expository dialogue can feel a bit clunky, but those instances are few and far
in-between. Executive Producer Bruce Timm calls McDuffie one of the best
dialogue writers in the business and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
definitely reminds us of that.
I suppose, to continue with a general overview of the film, I have to say I
found it incredibly satisfying. The story works on many different levels,
there's a more-than-satisfying conclusion, some nice winks toward the audience,
and boatloads of action and satisfying character work. Everything is already
established when the film starts, allowing Justice League: Crisis on Two
Earths to just dive into the story without having to spend time filling
viewers in on characters they likely already know about. And true, it is a
pretty straight-forward story, but giving it room to breathe and naturally
expand does this feature a world of difference.
And, since we have room to breathe, we get plenty of action. And, boy, there’s
some brutal action. The Owlman/Wonder Woman plane fight stands out to me as one
of my favorites. It’s not the biggest, brutal, most complex sequence, but it’s
so wonderfully animated and the voice acting from Woods (“Get off my plane.”) is
golden. There’s a fair amount of face smashing, pummeling, and fisticuffs to
keep action-lovers engaged. It’s amped up above the usual television standards,
resulting more than a few instances of bloodletting from both sides. Again, the
fluidity of the Wonder Woman/Owlman fight just really catches my eye. There’s a
handful of iffy moments here and there, but those are quickly lost in some
genuinely beautiful action choreography. It's no Green Lantern: First
Flight, but it's still looks sharp.
While there’s some heavy, heavy violence, it doesn’t seem gratuitous. Rather, it
feels appropriate for the adult tone the creative team is striving for. The
story itself can be considered pretty heavy, too, especially Owlman’s ultimate
plan. Sure, the film does look pretty colorful, but that helps to deftly balance
what’s actually a real weighty tale. We also get some comedic relief, which
provides the odd break from some of the more stunningly dark moments we see
here. Some moments, especially when Owlman and Superwoman are discussing
Owlman’s real agenda, give off a definite sense of unease and general creepiness
(with major props the voice talents of James Woods as Owlman). Compared to the
previous efforts under this line, Justice League: Crisis Under on Two
Earths is definitely darker than what we’ve seen before.
As I mentioned in the previous email, James Woods does a spectacular job as
Owlman here, bringing a sense of controlled insanity, unhinged but an absolute
ingenuity to his character, and will likely be considered a favorite by many
here, and with good reason. While Woods did an absolutely phenomenal job as
Owlman, I thought the majority of the voice cast turned in strong performances.
To lightly touch upon a few here, I found Gina Torres was suitably twisted as
Superwoman, Vanessa Marshall really impressed me as Wonder Woman, and Mark
Harmon sounded almost identical to George Newbern. And, the biggest surprise to
me, was William Baldwin as Batman. Once again, Andrea Romano really, really
knows how to cast that role. We saw it with Jeremy Sisto in Justice League:
New Frontier and now here with Baldwin as the Dark Knight. Baldwin just
pulls it off without a hitch. Even Chris Noth as a very respectable Lex Luthor
nails it on every turn. Not once did I find any of the voice work distracting,
nor was I ever pulled out of the picture when I recognized the face behind the
voice, another strong sign of great casting on Romano’s part.
The movie brings a sense of likeability to each of the main Justice Leaguers,
even a “love to hate” vibe to the villainous Crime Syndicate. Each has their own
quirks, allowing each of them to stand out in the crowd, despite the relative
small screen time some of them receive. And, believe me, what will come in handy
since viewers are essentially flung into a story that offers little background
fill-in. However, based on who this animated feature is geared towards, I doubt
that will be an issue.
For all the positives found here, there are a couple shortcoming here and there.
While the 75 minute running time really allowed for the story to breathe, I
found there was some material that felt unnecessary and slow, particularly a
subplot with Martian Manhunter. Despite giving him a more human side,
Manhunter's romantic subplot with the President’s daughter felt underdeveloped
and superfluous. The absolutely sublime third act makes up for it, though. Once
the film rolls toward its endgame, it becomes a tightly-paced, perfectly
executed thriller. Additionally, I found there were a handful of moments where
the use of CGI, along with some noticeable glitches or jerky movements in the
animation, were distracting. There are only a few, that’s true, but some are
particularly jarring. There’s one action sequence, where we see the Justice
League duke it out with the villainous Crime Syndicate in the clouds, the
background seems to change between painted backgrounds, line art, and CGI at
random.
I can’t help but take pause for a moment, though. Since the crew behind this
animated DTV dusted off an old treatment to bring this movie about, I wonder if
any other abandoned episode of movie scripts will be resuscitated and given a
second life. I can think of quite a few abandoned stories and ideas that would
find a suitable second life under the “DC Universe Animated Original Movie”
banner.
To get this review back on the topic at hand, Justice League: Crisis on Two
Earths is a grand adventure for sure, one fans of both the beloved animated
series and popular comic series can easily enjoy. Sure, it kind of felt like a
three-part Justice League episode, it was still a rollicking’ ride from
start to finish. The sublime score is worth noting, as is the nifty directing.
The animation was good, though a noticeable step down from the likes of Green
Lantern: First Flight, but the story is compelling and the characters
engaging. McDuffie hits nearly all the right notes here, and what we’re given is
a solid Justice League adventure that fans of the comics or previous
animated adventures can enjoy. As you can likely guess, this film easily
deserves the Recommended stamp. Go out and give Justice League: Crisis
on Two Earths a spin, and I guarantee you will find a wrenching
world-hopping adventure.
Review (screw on head)
I was able to attend a special screening of JUSTICE
LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS at the Paley Center in New York
City. Seeing the film on the big screen with theater quality
surround sound and hearing audience reactions made for a very
enjoyable viewing experience.
Presentation quality aside, I really enjoyed the film itself. I
really want to say definitively it’s my favorite DC Universe DTV
to date but I do have reservations that prevent me from
declaring that. I can say with confidence that this felt like it
had the strongest footing out of all the DTV’s so far. From the
start it just felt well established, introducing us to all the
character effortlessly and you get who all the characters are
very quickly.
I felt very comfortable with all the characters and the way they
were all introduced. That may be because it benefits from all
the characters’ exploration and development from the Justice
League series, which is the “universe” this movie was originally
meant to be set in.
It’s hard to talk about this film without discussing my feelings
about it’s DCAU connection. I must say I didn’t find myself
wishing the story was presented in the “DCAU” while watching the
film. After seeing the film now, I do sort of wonder what could
have been. If this film was released in the interim between
Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, I probably would
have been more wowed by it than I am. It’s a very strong story,
comparable to the best Justice League Season 2 episodes, but
after enjoying all the great stories presented in the 39
episodes of Justice League Unlimited, this film just doesn’t
shine as brightly in comparison. Things like Wonder Woman’s
acquisition of a certain item and seeing good versions of Lex
and Joker would’ve had an extra zip if presented in a DCAU
setting. DCAU fans might catch things like that and can’t help
but get hung up about it, but trust me, the film has so much
going for it that those hang ups aren’t that big a deal.
As
a Justice League story on it’s own, this story is written
wonderfully by Dwayne McDuffie, and beautifully designed and
executed by character designer Phil Bourassa and directors Sam
Liu and Lauren Montgomery.
I think what struck me first about this film is how well the
dialogue is written. It’s effortless and never feels heavy
handed. There is some trademark heavy “sci-fi science” dialogue
that I’ve seen Dwayne McDuffie indulge on in previous works, but
with this film it isn’t distracting and feels true in the
setting of the story.
The story is pretty straightforward but there’s plenty of fun
nods for fans that it never drags or loses momentum. Without
going into specifics, the good version of Lex Luthor is
surprisingly effective in the story. I’ve gotta say I didn’t
trust him through the story and McDuffie plays on that distrust
really well. The most compelling component of the whole film’s
story is Owlman, who obviously plays a vital role in the movie
if you’ve seen the trailers, and is a very effective villain for
the film above all the other villains.
James Woods does an amazing job as Owlman and is easily the best
performance in the whole film to me. There’s plenty of other
great performaces like Billy Baldwin as Batman, but Woods’
delivery is so unusual for animation that it really shines.
Woods plays Owlman in a very understated way. Whenever you hear
him speak you just believe this guy isn’t someone to mess with.
A huge part of that is how well thought out and how well written
Owlman is in the overall story. Owlman is sort of the crutch of
the whole movie, and Woods’ and McDuffie’s portrayal of the
character is a huge draw for why this film works so well.
The rest of the performances in the movie are fantastic. As I
stated earlier, I felt very comfortable with this film from the
start, and that’s due to how well the actors sell the
characters. I really loved hearing Billy Baldwin as Batman.
Batman’s written really well and true to the DCAU Batman we all
know, and Baldwin delivers the dialogue in his own way so well
that I didn’t really miss Conroy in this story. Mark Harmon does
sound pretty similar to George Newburn at times in the film, but
on the whole Harmon portrays a very warm but strong Superman.
Josh Keaton does a fantastic job as Flash and sells the comedy
really well. There are really genuinely funny moments with Flash
in the film, which drew some huge laughs from the audience I saw
this film with. The storyboard artists and animators also do a
great job at selling some sight comedy gags with Flash which
also got big laughs from viewers. I think this story serves
Flash really well and gives him some fun material to work with.
He obviously doesn’t bring the film together in as big a way as
Owlman does, but he does have some pretty significant and
satisfying character moments in the film.
Performances
and writing aside, I can say without a doubt this film sports
the best looking animation we’ve seen yet from any DC Universe
animated film. Moi Animation Studio has probably come closest to
reaching the fan revered “TMS” level of animation. The animation
in this film doesn’t have the bounce and personality that TMS
brought to their work (MOI’s approach feels a bit more
mechanical), but Moi certainly brings a lot to like. The
animation is incredibly consistent, and characters move with
weight and a definite mass and volume. There’s just so much
great draftsmanship to be enjoyed in this film… I don’t remember
once seeing any glaring perspective issues or strange anatomy.
The storyboard artists include a tremendous amount of poses and
fight moves in any given single fight. Characters exchange blows
with a frenetic pace and it’s a joy to watch. The animators
overseas do a great job plussing and selling all the great poses
the storyboard artists built at the ground level.
I’ve gotta say this film has my favorite character design work
of all the films so far. I was surprised this movie sports the
same character designer as Planet Hulk, Phil Baroussa. I thought
Baroussa’s work in Planet Hulk was kind of bland and not very
striking. This film is certainly the opposite. I absolutely love
Baruossa’s take on Superman… it’s a face for Superman we’ve
never really seen before and really stands on its own well.
Owlman is another notable design, and I really liked the layers
in Ultraman’s costume. One little embellishment that Baroussa
does that I think is really unique and neat is the spare couple
lines he draws for abdominal lines… I’m not sure if that’s of
his own creation or if its borrowed from some designers that I’m
unaware of, but it’s certainly a neat approach that I can see
popping up in other designers’ work because it’s really
different and effective.
On the whole, this is the overall strongest film that I’ve seen
from the DC universe line. It doesn’t have the emotional push
that Superman: Doomsday had, and I can’t say it has the personal
touch of New Frontier, but it doesn’t leave you feeling
unsatisfied in any noticeable way that I felt after seeing those
films. This film feels complete and well established, and is a
helluva lot of fun. Owlman is a very unique villain, and the
Crime Syndicate works in a pretty interesting way. The villains
in this film pose an extremely credible threat to the league and
it’s pretty exciting to see how everything gets resolved by the
end.
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