| Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths | |
|---|---|
 Trilogy release poster | |
| Directed by | Jeff Wamester |
| Screenplay by | Jim Krieg |
| Based on | |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Edited by | Bruce A. King |
| Music by | Kevin Riepl |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment |
Release dates |
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Running time |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 2024 American animatedsuperhero filmtrilogy featuring theDC Comics superhero team theJustice League and based on the DC Comics storylineCrisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) written byMarv Wolfman and pencilled byGeorge Pérez. The films were directed by Jeff Wamester from a script by Jim Krieg. They are the 54th, 55th, and 56th films of theDC Universe Animated Original Movies. They are the eighth, ninth, and tenth (and final) installments in the second phase of theDC Animated Movie Universe, as well as the 23rd, 24th, and 25th (and final) films overall.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One was released on January 9, 2024.Part Two was released on April 23, andPart Three was released on July 16.
The films were dedicated to comic artistGeorge Pérez who died on May 6, 2022, and longtimeBatman actorKevin Conroy who died later that same year on November 10.
Barry Allen experiences "time trips" from key moments in his life.[a] One of these moments is a fight with the androidAmazo, during whichSuperman gets injured and is brought toBruce Wayne for medical help.[b] In response, Barry suggests forming a team with Bruce, Clark,Green Arrow, fashion modelMari McCabe, andJohn Jones, who now lives on Earth as a private detective.[c] Amazo appears at the unveiling of theJustice League headquarters, as its primary function to improve human life has been altered byLex Luthor to kill anyone that is not human. The League cannot defeat Amazo due to its ability to absorb and copy their abilities. The Flash visits scientistDr. Anthony Ivo, who has contracted adisease that ages him rapidly. While researching quantum energy absorption with Luthor, Ivo created Amazo in hopes of siphoning metahuman abilities and finding a way to extend human life. Ivo sacrifices himself to depower Amazo. Batman deduces that Luthor gave Ivo the disease to prompt his experiments. Hearing this, Amazo turns against Luthor. With Luthor arrested by the police, Amazo returns the stolen powers to their respective heroes before shutting down.
Meanwhile, Barry is sent by a mysterious man toEarth-3, a parallel Earth. There, Barry is captured by theCrime Syndicate – tyrannical doppelgängers of the Justice League – and is taken to their Hall of Crime. Using her Lasso of Submission,Superwoman interrogates Barry, who confirms the existence of theMultiverse. This inspires the Syndicate to plot a multiversal takeover, having grown bored with ruling their Earth. However, an anti-matter wave then threatens Earth-3. The Syndicate attempt to halt it, but are each consumed by the wave, which eventually destroys the world. Barry's doppelgängerJohnny Quick sacrifices himself to allow Barry to tap fully into the Speed Force and escape Earth-3 before its destruction. The mysterious man witnesses the parallel Earths being destroyed as his punishment and says that Barry shares the same guilt.[d]
On the day of Barry andIris West's wedding,Harbinger appears. She recruits Barry, Oliver, Mari, andJohn Stewart / Green Lantern to a space station called the Satellite. Various heroes and super-powered people from Earth-1 and several other Earths have been gathered by Harbinger on behalf of theMonitor, an ancient Multiversal being. Flash reunites with theJustice Society of Earth-2, who are old except forWonder Woman, her loverSuperman, and a reincarnatedHawkman. Batman meets Earth-2'sRobin andHuntress, the daughter of that world's Bruce Wayne andCatwoman. WhenDawnstar is brought aboard, Harbinger reveals herself to beSupergirl.
The Monitor explains that an anti-matter wave, which can destroy entire universes, threatens the multiverse. Barry's time-tripping inspires the Monitor and his council of "thinkers" (consisting of Wonder Woman, Earth-1'sDoctor Light,Hawkgirl, andMister Terrific, Earth-4'sBlue Beetle andQuestion, and Earth-146'sAquaman) to create vibrational towers on the remaining Earths that will allow them to phase through the wave and survive. However, the wave spreads before the towers are completed.
Barry uses his powers to slow time for him and Iris, and they grow old together while completing Earth-1's tower with the help of Amazo. Upon completing the tower, the elderly Iris dies. The elderly Barry reverts to normal speed and activates the tower network by using a cosmic treadmill. The vibrational energy destroys his tower and Amazo but causes the wave to pass through the various Earths and dissipate. TheSpectre then appears and claims that Barry bears responsibility for the Crisis, but that it is up to the Speed Force to determine his fate. Barry is then sent back to the moment he gains his powers and has an epiphany. He appears as a vision to Batman when he was trapped in theWarlord illusion ofWarworld, telling him to go back to before "the beginning".[e] Barry then vanishes as he dies. On the space station, Supergirl realizes that the heroes have changed history when she sees her friends from theLegion of Super-Heroes, including her boyfriendBrainiac 5, fade from existence, as the 31st century no longer exists.
WhenKrypton was destroyed,[f] Kara Zor-El's escape pod hit the Monitor's Satellite. Reluctantly at first, the Monitor rescued and took her in, feeding and educating her. When it became clear that Kara had lost her memory, he decided not to tell her of her home world's fate. Eventually, Kara discovered her escape pod in the Satellite's hangar and learned of her planet's demise. Enraged at the Monitor for refusing to prevent Krypton's destruction and withholding the truth, she goaded him to reveal that her cousin Kal-El was alive on Earth, prompting her to find him. The Monitor continued to observe her, including her training with the Legion of Super-Heroes. When Kara, now Supergirl, returned to Earth in search of Superman and Batman, the Monitor approached her to help him prevent the anti-matter wave from destroying reality. He then gifted her some of his power, transforming her into Harbinger and sending her to gather the heroes.
Years before on Earth-2,Psycho-Pirate interrogated a codebreaker, his Earth'sDoctor Fate. To get Fate to talk, he explained his background. Believing that Psycho-Pirate had a role to play in the Crisis, Doctor Fate gave him the ability to travel between universes. After his plan to use the Atlanteans to attack the United States under the alias of Advisor failed,[g] he used his new ability to leave Earth-2 and escape capture by Earth-1's Flash. He traveled the multiverse, trying and failing to take over various Earths, before being recruited by Harbinger and brought to the Satellite with the heroes.
Time has passed since the anti-matter wave hit Earth-1 and what was thought to be a single wave has turned out to be a series of anti-matter waves. Many heroes are placed across the multiverse to operate, maintain, and protect the vibrational towers, while the Monitor's council tries to find a long-term solution. To keep the Earths' populations calm, they use the Satellite's technology to broadcast Psycho-Pirate's empathic control across the planets. Struggling with the mental strain of the task, Psycho-Pirate persuades the Monitor to give him some of his power to make it easier. Shortly afterward, Psycho-Pirate is abducted by an entity calling itself theAnti-Monitor, the source of the anti-matter waves. It offers him a new smaller world to control in exchange for his service.
After a weaker anti-matter wave passes over the Earths, shadow demons appear and attack all the towers simultaneously. Superman leads the Justice League to defend Earth-1, Batman defends Earth-2 with the help of a MultiversalBat-Family, and Wonder Woman fights on Earth-46, an Earth ruled byAmazons. Though they discover that the shadow demons are vulnerable to strong light, their attempts to fight them are undermined by Psycho-Pirate, who uses his enhanced abilities to increase the heroes' hatreds and rivalries, causing them to fight each other before teleporting away to another Earth. Due to the shadow demons and Psycho-Pirate's interference, not all of the towers are online when the next anti-matter wave hits and many Earths are erased, including Earth-46. Amid the chaos, a furious Supergirl murders the Monitor when her resentment toward him is exacerbated by Psycho-Pirate's powers.
While defending Earth-1, John Stewart encounters the mysterious man who sent Barry Allen to Earth-3 and fights him. During their fight, the man remembers his identity as the sorcererJohn Constantine. As more shadow demons arrive, Stewart overloads his Green Lantern's battery, using it as a light bomb to destroy the shadow demons attacking Earth-1's tower. In response, the shadow demons coalesce into a single giant figure, revealing that the shadow demons were the Anti-Monitor's minions and are of one mind, which proves resistant to the heroes' light attacks. Powerless, they watch in horror as the Anti-Monitor prepares to destroy Earth-1.
When the Monitor died, he released the cosmic energy within him into the Satellite. This gave the heroes enough power to transport the surviving Earths and their Suns into a dimension between the universes called "the Bleed", preventing Earth-1's annihilation. Eight months later, Hawkgirl and Earth-2's Superman recover Wonder Woman's body in space, having survived Earth-46's destruction due to her immortality. While they are safe from the Anti-Monitor, the Bleed has different laws of physics, natural disasters occur daily, and beings from the Earths' pasts, presents, and futures have started appearing all at once, straining their collective resources.
After being exposed toScarecrow's fear gas while fightingNazi soldiers, Batman remembers an old man telling him to go back to before "the beginning", who he now realizes was a dying Flash. Doctor Fate confirms Batman's theory that the solution to the Crisis lies before the multiverse was created. Stewart tells the others about Constantine, who claimed to be from then. Batman, Fate, Stewart, and Wonder Woman leave the Satellite to find Constantine. Using Fate's magic to restore Constantine's memories, they discover that Constantine's Earth was ravaged byDarkseid.[h] To restore his Earth, Constantine instructed his Earth's Flash to travel back in time and kill Darkseid when he was vulnerable as an infant.
Earth-10's Lex Luthor arrives on the Satellite, revealing that the Anti-Monitor has found the Bleed and forced its way inside. After it destroys Earth-146 and Earth-2, Question and Earth-1'sLois Lane deduce that Luthor revealed the Bleed's location to the Anti-Monitor in exchange for Earth-10's survival. Luthor and his Earths' team of villains have correctly concluded that life in the Bleed is unsustainable, so they captured Psycho-Pirate and tortured him into contacting the Anti-Monitor. Luthor's true goal, however, was to bring the Anti-Monitor to the Bleed so that they could study its weaknesses, kill it, and return to the regular universe safely. After sacrificing Earth-AD to the Anti-Monitor to see its abilities in action, Luthor suggests that Earth-1's Superman could absorb the power of all the Earth's Suns and channel it into a blast strong enough to destroy the Anti-Monitor. Despite knowing that this act would kill him, Superman agrees only for Supergirl to take his place while guilt-ridden over killing the Monitor. Returning to the universe, they are aided by a newGreen Lantern Corps and Martian Manhunter[i] commanding the Warworld, who uses Psycho-Pirate to unite all the universes through hope. This energy blast weakens the Anti-Monitor long enough for Supergirl's sacrifice to obliterate it.
As the heroes and villains gather in the Warworld, Batman explains Constantine's hand in the Crisis and that Darkseid was a fixed point in the universe, but his death shattered the universe into two halves instead of fixing his Earth, creating a reality with Darkseid and one without him. The multiverse has been dividing infinitely on similar decision points ever since, and because reality cannot cope with many universes, the Anti-Monitor was created as itsimmune response, killing off universes to prevent its total collapse. An army of Anti-Monitors approaches the Satellite and begins killing Earths that are similar toEarth-508,Earth-12,Earth-2003, and Earth-10.
Constantine suggests fusing the multiverse into a single "Monoverse" that reality could cope with andBatgirl suggests using the Miracle Machine, which Supergirl had hidden in a pocket dimension before she died. AfterNightshade teleports the Miracle Machine to Warworld, Wonder Woman sacrifices herself to provide enough energy to recharge the machine and create the Monoverse. Watched on by the Spectre, the assembled heroes and villains walk into their new universe except for Question, who rejects the "false reality" on principle, and Psycho-Pirate, whose mind was fried to power Warworld. Though Constantine braces himself for the Spectre's punishment for ending the multiverse, the latter offers him "hope" instead of "justice". As the Spectre leaves, Constantine considers going into the Monoverse, only to instead decline and follow the Spectre to an unknown fate as the multiverse is ultimately destroyed.
In the Monoverse, a young Diana ofThemyscira plays on a clifftop. Her motherHippolyta urges her to step away as even princesses are not immortal.
Appearing in all three parts without dialogue are:
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An animated film trilogy based on the storylineCrisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) byMarv Wolfman andGeorge Pérez was revealed to be in development since July 2023. The film concludes theDC Animated Movie Universe, which began in 2013.[2] The voice cast and the trailer were revealed that December.[1]
Part Three posthumously featuresKevin Conroy as theDC Animated Universe version of Batman who debuted inBatman: The Animated Series, having completed his voice work before he died in 2022.[3]Will Friedle reprised the role asTerry McGinnis fromBatman Beyond inPart Two.[4]Mark Hamill reprised his role as the Joker fromBatman: The Animated Series after previously announcing his retirement from voicing the character following Conroy's death.[5]
Jason Spisak also reprised his role as Razer fromGreen Lantern: The Animated Series andYoung Justice, whileJennifer Hale voices Aya, replacingGrey DeLisle.[5]
Released in three parts in 2024,Part One was released on digital in the U.S. and Canada on January 9, and onUltra HD Blu-ray andBlu-ray on January 23.[1]Part Two andPart Three were made available for online streaming on April 23 and July 16, respectively. All 3 films on Ultra HD Blu-ray had native4K resolution. Both were dedicated toKevin Conroy andGeorge Perez.
| Film | Reviews | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One | 78% | [6] |
| Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two | 14% | [7] |
| Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three | 20% | [8] |
Rafael Motamayor, writing forInverse, praised the film, saying that "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One finally gets the DC crossover event right", and called it "a worthy adaptation focusing on heart and character".[9] Mae Abdulbaki, in a review forScreen Rant, also gave the film a positive review, praising its faithfulness to the source material.[10]
Hayden Mears ofIGN rated the film a 7 out of 10, with the verdict: "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One knows what it is and strives to do right by its source material. There's no depth, no moral murk, no optional profundity for the insight-hungry. Just good, clean, marginally sensical fun. The action and performances are nothing to shake a Batarang at, but it never loses sight of its stakes and (mostly) prioritizes character over plot".[11] Jennifer Borget ofCommon Sense Media gave it three out of five stars, praising its story but criticized the scenes of constant jumping between alternate Earths in the film, and felt that the action scenes were borrowed from other superhero tales.[12]
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