Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.
​

Movie
I usually don’t review discs this late past street date, but this is a bit of a special situation. Just before release Warner announced that some replication issues meant that the review discs were going to be delayed, and I guess they finally got caught up and this showed up on my doorstep late last week. Well, being that I reviewed Part One (HERE) and Part Two (HERE) already, I definitely wanted to finish off the Tomorrowverse film series that started with 2020’s Superman: Man of Tomorrow. As I’ve mentioned in both previous film reviews, the Tomorrowverse Saga has been a bit troubled starting over anew, but had some decent films in the lineup. The only problem was, DC seemed to not really know where they wanted to take the series thematically, with what seemed like once and done movies that teased something more, only to watch as their ties faded into nothingness. That is, until the 3 part “epic” finale that started earlier this year with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1, in what was going to be a giant sendoff to the Tomorrowverse.

Given that I was a bit “meh” on both the previous two entries into this 3 part finale, I was wondering if the third part would tie everything together and change my mind about the middling nature of the epic finale. The comic nerd in me was really hoping that it would, while the cynic in me was depressed that it wouldn’t. The answer is going to fall heavily on the 2nd choice, with it really just being more of the same “ok that was decent” that was part 1 and part 2, albeit with some cool reveals that showed just how much promise this Tomorrowverse saga COULD have been.

When we left off, the Anti-Monitor had manipulated Super girl into killing the Monitor, and the surviving Earths had all banded together and used the phase towers that Barry Allen helped build in order to shield themselves from the monitor by hiding themselves in a realm outside the multiverse known as “the bleed”. However, there is hope for everyone, found in not only Lex Luthor, Superman, and the rest, but in John Constantine, who we had seen flitting around as an old and senile man after he had been wandering the galaxy for thousands of years of punishment thanks to the events in Constantine: House of Mystery. But like all big build up trilogies like this, there is less new reveals, but more actualization of all the different setups that had been happening ever since Superman: Man of Tomorrow.

It turns out that Spectre had been right all along in saving Constantine, and it’s revealed that Barry Allen wasn’t working alone back when he reset the timeline after the Apokolips War. John had mind controlled Barry to go back to the beginning of Darkseid’s existence, infusing a spell into him that would kill Darkseid before he could ever become the monster he would become. Unfortunately for all of reality, Darkseid is a fixed point in time that can’t be undone, and after undoing the impossible, the galaxy went insane and re-wrote itself. Not only that, it started fracturing allowing for an infinite sum of alternate realities to exist, each one multiplying exponentially with each major choice that happens in the time line. But the universe was not meant to exist with perpetual growth, so now it is trying to right the wrongs of the past by eradicating EVERYTHING in the universe and starting over with the Anti-Monitor. Now it’s up to our heroes to figure out a path that can allow them to save their universe before the galaxy’s white blood cell like monster destroys EVERY world.

On a whole, the trilogy isn’t that bad, and Part 3 is no worse than anything that’s come before it. The voice acting is solid, and all the prep work was laid the last two films. Now it’s a non stop action adventure as the heroes of tomorrow do everything in their power to right the wrongs of the past. On one hand I was rather disappointed with the series, but on the other hand, I sorta like where they went with some of the plot points. Each and every film in the series actually plays a part for the final battle, including the abysmal Warworld film. Mixing in lines that trace between each film and draw them together could really work…..if you have enough time to set up them up. But unfortunately, they did the same thing here that they did with their live action series. Set up the big finale way too soon, with a rushed Tomorrowverse series that barely had enouch cohesion to stick together, and by the time you realize that they were trying to lay the groundwork for a huge encompassing universe, it’s all done. The best way I can describe this final piece of the puzzle is that it is fun enough, but it also is frustrating as you see just how much potential was there under the surface if more time had been spent fleshing out individual story lines. Some neat ideas belayed by rushed execution.
.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some violence and language




Video:

Not going to shock anyone here, but Part 3 (despite me comparing a Blu-ray against the 2 4K UHD discs I reviewed for the previous parts) looks very similar to the previous 2 entries. The Blu-ray looks good, but never great, with a sort of stiff animation that uses a lot of very basic hand drawn “esque” digital animation, with basic lines and color changes, and little nuance. The stiff movement on screen translates to a lower need for massive bitrates, which is why you see the bitrate drop down to as low as 9mbps at times (though it mostly stays in 14-17 mbps range) without sacrificing any major quality. Colors are bright and warm, with strong primaries and the typical low light banding that comes with DCAU films. There’s some very light noise and other minor compression issues (the disc is on a BD-25, but this isn’t uncommon even with their BD-50 dual layer encodes either). Luckily there’s no bleeding or haloing or anything egregious, and as such, the disc looks very solid.









Audio:

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that while the video and the story were about on par with the previous two entries, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mixing actually shows an increase in quality. Usually it’s “good but never great” for these DC animated films, but the 5.1 mix is a good bit more robust and action filled than I expected. There’s a lot more weight with the LFE channel going on, and I noticed the larger scale action sequences with the Anti-Monitor were utilizing the surround channels a lot more dynamically. It’s not going to make the previous mixes look like trash, but this is a bit more exciting and a lot more engaging than I was expecting, pushing it into the “great” category for once.












Extras: :

• A Multiverse of Inspiration
• Jon and John: Stewart and Constantine

Final Score:
​

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three finishes off the rather uninspired and flat trilogy that was supposed to be an epic sendoff to the Tomorrowverse saga at about the same pace as the previous two films. Meaning, it was a decent enough entry for what it was, but was sadly plagued by bloat, pacing issues, and a rather stiff animation style that did the trilogy no favors. That being said, it wasn’t as bad as other reviewers said it was (in my opinion of course), but it wasn’t a great thing either. The Blu-ray looks and sounds solid, but the low extras made me knock off half a star. 3/5 is about what it deserves and is recommended if you’re a Tomorrowverse fan, but I would rent the trilogy if you’re hesitant on it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jensen Ackles, Gideon Adlon, Ike Armadi, Troy Baker, Matt Bomer, Kevin Conroy (RIP), Darren Criss, Will Friedle
Directed by: Jeff Wamester
Written by: James Krieg, George Perez, Marv Wolfman
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 98 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: July 23rd, 2024

Recommendation: Decent Watch