Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One has enormous shoes to fill. The George Perez-and-Marv Wolfman-led crossover event that gives this animated film the prepositional core of its lengthy title took a hammer to DC's disjointed comics continuity and established a more cogent, more accessible canon. It was an escalation of everything that defined DC's stories: heroes grappling with impossibly powerful foes, insurmountable odds, and lofty stakes that simultaneously feel exciting and ludicrous. Put simply: It's one of the most DC things DC ever published, making a movie version inevitable. And so far, that version is off to a good start, even if Crisis on Infinite Earth – Part One isn’t especially satisfying as the first third of a larger arc.
That doesn’t negate the film’s quality, though, because it’s not designed to provide any closure. As a showcase for The Flash’s (Matt Bomer) private struggles, it’s mostly effective. And there are so many quiet, sweet character moments that it’ll be tough to skip out on parts two and three.
At first, it’s unclear who is forcing Barry Allen to revisit personal milestones like his first date with Iris West (Ashleigh LaThrop), the formation of the Justice League, and his wedding day, but it’s abundantly clear why: A mysterious entity is killing planets in every reality and Barry's Earth is next. With so many threads scattered across time and space, Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One is basically built for incomprehension. For the most part, though, it's astoundingly coherent. Director Jeff Wamester and screenwriter Jim Krieg augment DC's fun, inside-jokey approach to animated storytelling by clogging the runtime with more fisticuffs, world-killing, and last-minute changes of heart than even Batman could predict. When the unrelenting death wave swallows up a parallel Earth populated by an evil Justice League, the team of ne’er-do-wells each privately betray their own fears and existential crises. The fact that we feel anything when their Flash is mortally wounded by flying debris serves as a testament to Crisis’ ability to subtly humanize even its most one-note characters.
Like its source material, Crisis bursts at the polychromatic seams with (un)scientific just-go-with-its and uncomplicated solutions to massive problems. Gathered at a massive watchtower, heroes from across the multiverse must devise a way to stop the destruction before there's nothing left to save. This chunk of the story is handled quite well, despite feeling a tad rushed. But the action is largely unimaginative. A pivotal, protracted battle pitting Lex Luthor (Zachary Quinto) and Amazo (Nolan North) against a newly formed Justice League plays like a reel of recycled fight choreography, a safe and by-the-book sequence that doesn't pack the intended punch because it’s merely a slightly rejiggered rehash of good vs. evil throwdowns we’ve seen a million times before.
Crisis on Infinite Earths is intended as the conclusion of DC and Warner Bros. Animation’s current Tomorrowverse franchise, and the voice cast delivers performances comparable to those in preceding entries like Justice League: Warworld or Green Lantern: Beware My Power. There are no real standouts here, but most of the emotional resonance falls on Bomer, LaThrop, and North, each of whom lends much-needed enthusiasm and aplomb to their respective roles.
Because of its exhaustive set-up, the first half-hour of Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One feels the most tedious and disjointed, but by the time the credits roll and our heroes are reeling from an “Oh shit” closer, there's enough left unanswered to keep fans invested in this interpretation of a comic-book landmark. That's about the best we can ask of this movie.
