Comic book geeks like yours truly are at a definite cross roads. Marvel continues to churn out animated series and live action movies like it’s going out of style yet their animated movie gallery has been severely hit or miss, while DC has only released big films from Batman and Superman and yet their animated movie gallery has promised quality almost all the time. I’m just curious when we can get a movie from them that’s longer than eighties minutes. That aside “Crisis on Two Earths” is another graphic novel that I haven’t read and thankfully I went in blind. I consider that an advantage because in the end it allows me to judge the material more objectively.
Straying more and more from Bruce Timm’s trademark style, “Crisis” takes an interesting look at an alternate universe where the Justice League are super powered thugs dominating the world while the two biggest heroes are in fact Lex Luthor and the Joker (known as Jester). Failing to stop them they decide to try to contact the alternate Justice League obviously filled with the heroes we know and love. Chaos ensues. Good chaos, but still–chaos. From point A to point B, “Crisis” is a very superb production with almost every aspect considerably high in quality. Dwayne McDuffie a truly great writer for DC manages to squeeze in a truly epic story in under eighty minutes with a relatively simple story. We meet the villains, the heroes, they’re enlisted, they battle and the conflict begins with the Justice League attempting to set things right in the alternate world.
But within that time frame there’s some actual excitement to be had with some incredible animation that sucks us in to the catastrophic battles that set the chain of events for the Crime Syndicate’s downfall. Thanks to Superman we’re able to see a plot that’s eerily similar to a mob movie where they decide to take down the Syndicate strategically rather than all at once and we get to see some radical alternate versions of DC superheroes adding to the insanity that is this world. The animation is absolutely fantastic with the figures deriving from the anime style with just the right touch of Timm’s trademark niche. The Justice League hasn’t looked this incredible in years and every hero manages to get their own sleek design that helps them individuate from the others.
Legendary voice director Andrea Romano manages to get some remarkable voice work from the entire cast, and while none of the original folks from Timm’s series appears, you can take consolation in the fact that the line up here is quite memorable. Mark Harmon is memorable as Superman while folks like William Baldwin and Josh Keaton take to their roles as Batman and The Flash with pure ease. I can never be sure but Keaton seems to be channeling Flash regular Michael Rosenbaum here. And you just have to appreciate the vulnerable performance by Bruce Davison as President Slade Wilson. The real money though is with the villains, all of whom are played with great zeal by a stellar cast. Brian Bloom brings great charisma to the role of Ultraman, a thug-like version of Superman, while Gina Torres is absolutely devilish as the sadistic Super Woman who is basically Wonder Woman a la a Dominatrix.
The stand out though is James Woods who gives an especially evil performance as the utterly insane genius Owlman who not only manages to outwit but outmatch Batman in every way possible. Woods seems to be having a blast here and he plays very well off of Baldwin who takes the mantle of Batman with gusto. It’s no surprise Romano manages to get the most out of these fine actors, and matched with the animation, the movie is just a pure thrill to sit through. I’m sure the original mini-series is excellent, but I don’t think this deserves to be written off either. You can either read the mini-series or watch the movie, but accept both as separate entities and you’ll have a surefire blast watching these superheroes battle their evil doubles. The stellar voice work plus the incredible animation all compound to form a twisted little action movie that DC scores with yet again.