By Will Barber Taylor

An endless army of SHADOW DEMONS bent on the destruction of all reality swarms over our world and all parallel Earths! The only thing opposing them is the mightiest team of metahumans ever assembled. But not even the combined power of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and all their fellow superheroes can slow down the onslaught of this invincible horde. What mysterious force is driving them? And how do the long-buried secrets of the Monitor and Supergirl threaten to crush our last defence?

I was perhaps somewhat harsh on the first part of the DC Animated Universe’s three part adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths. I was both critical of its structure, its somewhat uneven attempt to interweave what were clearly unfinished storylines from other abandoned Tomorrowverse projects and the main plot of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths series, and its lack of focus flitting between attempting to show us a version of the Flash’s role in this saga, his untimely death and other parts of the Crisis plot.

I did not expect to consider all these rather minor compared to the disaster of a film that is Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two. At least the first part felt as if it progressed the plot in some way – Part Two feels as if it simply filling time until the conclusion of the trilogy. Alongside showing our heroes fighting the forces of the Anti Monitor again and again and again, it also focusses on Supergirl and Psycho Pirate, filling in details of their backstory for the audience. The strange decision to have the Monitor find Kara after the destruction of Krypton and seemingly look after her for an indeterminant amount of time is a retroactive plot point that seems incredibly strange to include (altering Kara’s backstory in a way that hadn’t been mentioned in any of her previous appearances) and diminishes the natural bond that is meant to exist between Supergirl and her cousin.

Similarly, whilst it’s nice to see how Psycho Pirate influenced Aquaman in the lead up to the events of Justice Society World War II, it ultimately feels like an unnecessary addition to the plot. Psycho Pirate’s backstory might have been interesting to explore in a sequel to the Justice Society film however to shove it into this version of the Crisis feels as if it is simply there to give something for the viewer to watch, killing time until we come to the conclusion of the trilogy.

Overall, there’s really not much to say about Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2 except that alongside its unnecessarily long title, the entire endeavour is unnecessary. We gain some insight into two of our main characters but that’s about it – the majority of our heroes spend their time talking or in a continual loop of fighting the forces of the Anti Monitor with no real development to them or the plot. It is a meandering mess that serves only to add to the runtime of the films and does little more than that.