Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two Review

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This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

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a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing the latest direct-to-video DC animated film, part two of a three-part trilogy, Justice League, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Of course, it's based on a comic of the same name. Was it as good as part one?

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We'll let you know later on in the review. Before that we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which it's all Marvel news. We got the Deadpool and Wolverine official trailer, and we also learned that Kraven the Hunter has been pushed back to December. As always we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Guys our artificially intelligent duel simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up.

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Why hello there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic duel community on Patreon where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2-0 tier lets you listen to this podcast without ads and gives you access to its Discord chat group where you can chat with Johnny DC and Marvelous Joe. The fantastic 4 tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month including bloopers and top 10 shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favourite Marvel and DC subjects.

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them on social media. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamic duel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ 9k. And thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure guys to tune into the shows and the DynaMic podcast network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This week, I believe hosts Ken and Scotty will pit Mad Max against Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China.

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Also make sure to check out the Sinjo World podcast, where host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. There's actually no episode coming out this Thursday, but if you like anime and manga, definitely check out his show. On the Console Combat podcast, hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they found out who would win between Detective Nick Valentine from Fallout 4 and Detective Cole Phelps from L.A. Noire.

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Visit dynamic podcasts dot com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the dynamic podcast network. And if you guys have ever been a fan of dynamic duel, you owe it to yourselves to check out the rankers podcast where you can listen to Jonathan and I take a more holistic approach in their latest episode to the Marvel versus DC debate. It was a whole lot of fun. I felt like it was a Marvel and DC debate that Jonathan and I had been prepping our entire lives for. So definitely check out the rankers podcast.

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In fact, you know, Marvel fans, if you have no interest in hearing a review about Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths, I'd go check out the Rankers podcast right now. Honestly, even if you're a DC fan, like that episode is better than Crisis on Infinite Earths, part two. I'm just going to say it's a five star episode. Crisis on Infinite Earths, part two is not five stars. Definitely check out the Rankers podcast. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize.

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A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week, we asked, what casting announcement for a Marvel or DC film were you the most hyped about when you first heard about it and why? And this is coming off of the lackluster news of...

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the Jonathan and Martha Kent casting in the Superman movie. But we thought it was a fun question. We got a lot of great answers. So let's go ahead and run down our honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon, who said, What's up, Dynamic Dudes? Travis here. Shout out to my twins. So my pick would have to be Christian Bale. I mean, when I heard that Christian Bale was going to be gore to God butcher, I was excited. I was high. Granted, Christian Bale didn't look exactly like gore.

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go into comics and Love and Thunder was underwhelming to say the least. But come on, we have to admit we were all hyped when we heard Christian Bale as Gore the God Butcher. Yeah, I remember being thrilled because Christian Bale is such a fantastic actor and Gore the God Butcher is an equally fantastic villain for Thor. I thought the next Thor movie was going to be the next Batman Begins or something like that. And that did not happen. We'll say that. Nope, nope, nope, nope.

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No, honestly, I cannot admit that I was excited for Kushra Bell's casting. I felt horribly betrayed and heartbroken when I learned that he was in a Marvel movie. I was like, what are you doing? Well, DC had moved on from his Batman at that point, so it was only fitting that he comes over to Marvel's side. I just wish that the character of Gore would have been done more justice. Not that his portrayal of Gore was bad. It was just that the movie was so.

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off. If anything, Christian Bale was actually the best part of Thor 11th Thunder, but you know, being the best part of a turd sandwich is still not great. Yeah, he absolutely was the best part. But I do have to ask you, how would you feel if like, Toby Maguire came over to DC and played like Ted Kord or something? Toby Maguire is probably my least favorite Spider-Man actor, so I would not care. Okay, what if Hugh Jackman came over to DC and played, I don't know, Brainiac? Oh, that would be weird.

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I mean, he'd be so covered in prosthetics, I'd imagine that he'd be almost unrecognizable. I would be interested in seeing that, for sure. You only say that because you don't know what it's like to be heartbroken, like I do. Great answer, Travis. Our next honorable mention goes to Gilly Macho, who said, What up guys, Gilly Macho here. And the announcement I was most excited for was Jon Berthold as the Punisher. We've all seen Walking Dead, and I was a big fan of the Shane character.

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And when I heard he was coming to be the Punisher, you knew that Blood and Gore was coming with him. So yep, John Berthold as the Punisher. Yeah, I was thrilled by this news. I had watched the first season of Walking Dead and that was my first exposure to the actor, John Bernthold. And when they announced his casting, I immediately was super hyped because even though I liked Ray Stevenson as the Punisher, who played the character most recently prior to this casting, John Bernthold.

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just felt more like Frank Castle to me. You know, he had that rage that he portrayed so well in The Walking Dead. And also he seemed more Italian, which The Punisher is. And it just felt perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Like everything you've said, same, except I think I saw two seasons of The Walking Dead. John Bernthal was a fantastic actor. And yeah, I think in all of the fan castings for an upcoming Punisher film or television series, everyone was pushing him for the role, including me.

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Yeah, I'm really glad that he's coming back for the Daredevil born again series, or, you know, he's heavily rumored to appear again. I think he just captures the character on a deeper level than any previous Punisher actor has. For sure. Yeah, absolutely. Great answer, Gilly. Our next honorable mention goes to Judson Batty, who said, Hi guys, Judson Batty here. I would say that the casting decision I was most excited about was Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate in Black Adam, because I wasn't too hyped in the movie beforehand.

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But when they cast a James Bond actor who was really good, I knew that at the very least, no matter how shit the rest of the film turned out to be, Dr. Fate would be done well. And just really made me excited for it. Leave it to the Brits to say that a James Bond actor was the one they were the most excited for. But you know what? I am right there with you, man. I am a huge fan of James Bond as people who have listened to this podcast for a long time know. And I was just seething with jealous rage.

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when Pierce Brosnan was cast as Dr. Fate because DC also got Timothy Dalton to play the chief in the Doom Patrol television series and like I'm wondering when a Bond actor is going to join Marvel. Freaking never. I know that's that's so heartbreaking. At one point I believe Daniel Craig was going to play Baldur the Brave and he had to back out but hopefully they find a good role for Daniel Craig in a Marvel movie. He's still my fan cast choice for Despero if they ever do Despero in a DC movie.

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I'll take George Lazenby at this point too. I mean, Sean Connery is still alive and he's done LXG, so you think he'd be up for a Marvel movie? Oh, LXG, another DC imprint film. Damn it! Ha ha! Ugh, James Bond actors are breaking my heart over here. But in regards to Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate, yeah, I was super stoked when I heard this news as well. Pierce Brosnan is absolutely the kind of quality actor you'd want in a role that's sort of somewhat generic as Kent Nelson.

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He could really bring that character to life in a way that hasn't been done in the comics. Also, I knew his voice was going to be fantastic for the character of Dr. Fate, and I was not wrong. He was awesome. Yeah, Pierce Brosnan delivered on the hype for him in the role. I think the movie gets undeserved flak because I thought it was pretty entertaining overall. And I was definitely pleased with Pierce as Dr. Fate. It's actually a shame that he won't be playing the character anymore, I think. Yeah, well, I mean...

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For two reasons, one because the character died in the movie and also because the DCEU is over. But Gilly's brother Scotty also gave Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate for his answer. So shout out to Scotty. I thought that was kind of coincidental too. Yeah, out of all the casting people just really love Pierce Brosnan. Yeah, who doesn't? But the winner of this week's No Prize is Colby Hentges who said, Hey boys, Colby Hentges.

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The Marvel DC casting I was most hyped for was Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson. He had done the van Wilder and the waiting movie. So I knew he could do the sophomore humor stuff. He did the blade Trinity. So I knew he could do the comic book action stuff. You guys, I went into Wolverine origins. So hype.

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Only to be let down so much, at least in that film. Yeah, so hyped and then so disappointed. X-Men Origins Wolverine was horrible and they really fucked up the character of Deadpool. So it was really nice when seven years later, Ryan Weld's got the chance to do the character justice in his own movie. He's pretty much the perfect casting and he's a fan of the character. He exemplifies Deadpool to a T. It's actually hard to imagine.

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Deadpool now without Ryan Reynolds voice. I think when I read Deadpool comics nowadays He just so embodies the character in a way that few actors are able to do You know Robert Downey Jr. Did it Hugh Jackman did it and I think you could add Ryan Reynolds to that list And now that the MCU has lost some of their a-list talents like Robert Downey Jr I really think that Ryan Reynolds is the biggest name that the MCU currently has in their acting roster So I'm glad that he's able to pick up some of the slack

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with this year's Deadpool and Wolverine movie. That's true, actually. Yeah, I wonder if one of the reasons that Marvel isn't drawing as big of audiences as they used to is just the lack of star power. It's possible. An actor like Robert Downey Jr. can draw a crowd on his own. And nowadays that kind of pool just doesn't exist quite like it used to. Which is interesting because some people accuse Marvel of killing off the movie star.

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People were caring more about the characters as opposed to the actors playing them. But yeah, maybe now actors matter more than people realize. So great answer Colby, you win this week's No Prize. Congrats on that. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, onto the news!

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All right, this past week we got the trailer for Deadpool and Wolverine. And while the first teaser focused more on Deadpool and the TVA and kind of set up the situation that he would be going through, they only really teased that shot of Wolverine in the shadows as he stabbed Deadpool at the end of the teaser. We didn't get a whole lot of Wolverine action in that first preview. But in this trailer, they really build upon the Deadpool and Wolverine relationship.

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Oh, yeah, this trailer is almost entirely all Wolverine, which is fitting considering, you know, Wolverine shares the title with Deadpool. So I'm not surprised that they dedicated a trailer mostly to him. Like, there's very few Deadpool jokes in this trailer. Right. Yeah. So it wasn't as funny, but I think it's just so hype inducing to see Hugh Jackman back in the role, especially in that comics. Accurate costume. Yeah, I was actually pretty happy to see him.

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with no sleeves, because I didn't love the yellow sleeves when we first got like the set photos. But yeah, I'm glad to see that. I'm just wondering if we're going to get to see the mask before the movie comes out or if they're going to make us pay to see it. Oh, they're probably going to make us pay to see the mask for sure. The trailer starts off with.

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Wolverine in a bar similar to when we very first saw the character in the first X-Men movie that came out in the year 2000, which I thought was pretty fitting. And it was just so jarring to all of a sudden see Deadpool's stupid face pop in the shot. And he's like, hey, Peanut, that was pretty good. And Wolverine's like, lady, I don't have time for this. Started out with a bang. But then the trailer kind of goes into dark territory because we see that this particular variant of Wolverine, I'm not sure if it's the same Wolverine that was in the Logan movie or if it's a different multiversal version of the character, but

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Basically, it seems like he let his entire universe down somehow by letting the X-Men die. Now, we see a shot of this version of Wolverine standing, I think, next to a bunch of tall monuments, maybe tombstones. They kind of look like some of the Sentinel ships from the Days of Future Past movie. So it could be like a Sentinel situation that killed all of his friends in the X-Men or

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If it's the same version of Wolverine from the Logan movie, then it was actually Professor X who had like a seizure and killed the rest of the X-Men. It's hard to say. I'm inclined to believe that this is not the Logan version just because it wasn't Wolverine's fault that the X-Men died in that movie. Well, they can make it Wolverine's reason that Professor X perhaps had the seizure. Like he failed to get his medication on time or, you know, something like that. Something like that, yeah. I am inclined to think it's the Logan version only because

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He suffered from the same like claw ejection problem that Rogan had in that movie. Yeah, he had ejectile dysfunction. Right. Yeah. He doesn't later on in the trailer, though. And it is glorious to actually see those claws pop out of his blue gloved hand with those like little metallic slits, mirrors, knuckles. It's glorious. Yeah. Just think him take swipes to Deadpool, which actually, I guess, is an Easter egg call out to the first Spider-Man movie. There's quite a few.

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Easter eggs in this trailer, like there was dog pool and Ant-Man's or Giant Man's helmet. It took me a few viewings to to catch quite a few of them because everything happens so fast. Oh yeah, there's a huge cast of characters in this from, you know, Lady Deathstrike, Zazel, we see Callisto from X-Men 3. There's a ton of characters here, both from the Fox X-Men franchise and, you know, with Ant-Man from the MCU.

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We even see the guys jump from Ant-Man's skull into a Dr. Strange portal. So it's possible that Dr. Strange is even in this movie, which would be wild to see. That moment when they're jumping out of the eye into the portal with Madonna's like a prayer playing, like I got chills. Like I just, I cannot wait to see this in the theater. I'm so pumped. I hope it's not Dr. Strange that makes a cameo. I hope it's Wong's friend Madison, who like got his sling ring. I hope it's Wong, now that you said that.

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I think that'd be hilarious. It probably will be the guys everywhere in this phase. He's made a lot of cameos like She Hulk, Shang Chi for sure. The movie comes out in theaters July 26th, and all I have to say is, let's fucking go, let's fucking go. Did this trailer sell you on the movie? Like, do you want to see another trailer after this? Yes, I would love another trailer, actually. Although I don't need one. I just kind of want some more context into what the movie is about, because I feel like we haven't really gotten that too much yet. Yeah.

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I didn't like this trailer as much as the first one, so yeah, I'm still hoping to get one that really merges the humor of Deadpool with the action of Wolverine. More so than either of these two trailers did. I'm sure we will get another trailer after this, and I'm sure it'll be more of a story trailer. Yeah, that'd be cool. Maybe something more with Cassandra Nova. She was cool to see in this trailer as well. Yeah, she looks like she's gonna be pretty formidable. You know, being Professor X's sister.

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But speaking of all these different characters that appeared in the Deadpool and Wolverine trailer that brings us to our question of the week.

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Other than Wolverine and the characters that you saw in the trailer, what Fox X-Men character do you most hope appears in Deadpool and Wolverine and why? There's a lot to choose from, both from the Patrick Stewart Ian McKellen era, the James McAvoy Michael Fassbender era, the previous Deadpool movies, the Wolverine movies, the new Mutants movie, there's a lot going on here, so who do you guys want to see most?

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Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before May 4th. In other news, we learned this past week that Craven the Hunter, the movie being produced by Sony in the Sony Spider-Man universe,

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has been pushed back from August 30th, 2024 to December 13th, 2024. So it's no longer a summer release. It's now a Christmas time release. And I think if they just keep pushing this movie back, that would be the best thing for everyone. I mean, this is its fourth release date, right? I think so. Yeah, it's been pushed back quite a bit. I know initially it was supposed to come out for October of 2023. But then I think the studio wanted to have Aaron Taylor Johnson promote it.

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and he couldn't due to the strike at the time. So yeah, they pushed it back to this year and it just keeps getting pushed back. Honestly, I wasn't surprised by this pushback. This fall seems kind of crowded for comic book films and there really isn't anything comic book related being released in December, which tends to be a good money making month. I just don't know about this film making money during the holiday season because it looks like it's gonna be kind of violent. Yeah, but that might be the best thing about it, honestly.

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because as Sony has shown us with recent releases like Madame Web and Morbius and Let There Be Carnage, the studio is just not really great at making the Spider-Man spinoff movies and it doesn't seem like they're really going anywhere. At first, Sony was really pushing the idea of all these movies being interconnected and they kind of backpedaled on that, especially since the release of Madame Web and stated like oh, this is kind of like in its own separate standalone universe thing because really nobody's liking these movies.

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And if they say that they're all connected, people are even less inclined to go see them. Wait, so you're telling me that we're not going to see Morbius and Vulture and Craven and everyone team up? It's looking like that's likely not going to be the case. That's embarrassing. I feel bad for Sony. Holy cow. I feel bad for Sony, too. Not really, though. They kind of shut the bed and they should be forced to sleep in it now. Yeah. And then eventually just give the Spider-Man rights back to Marvel. That's what we want to see, right?

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Very true. I have very little hope for this movie, which is a shame because I am a big fan of the character of Craven the Hunter. If you want to learn more about him, if you haven't read about him in the comics, go ahead and check out our Vixen vs Craven the Hunter duel episode. But speaking of James Bond earlier, the rumor is that Aaron Taylor Johnson is going to be the next James Bond. So part of me kind of hopes that Craven the Hunter does really well at the box office so that he doesn't lose that chance because I do think that Aaron Taylor Johnson would make a good Bond.

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but if this movie bombs, he might be seen as box office poison. I don't know. I don't know if I buy him his Bond. I think he's too short. You know who should be Bond? Theo James. I was talking about this with a guy at work. Theo James should be Bond. Fuck no! That James Franco lookalike guy? What? I don't like it. Plus, he's like already 40 years old. It wouldn't work. Isn't Aaron Taylor Johnson like close to 40? No, he's 33. Fuck! Why do I feel so old?

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Anyway, off the topic of James Bond, I guess ultimately I'm pushing for Craven the Hunter to do well and be good. It's not, don't worry about it.

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But I guess that does it for all the news for this week. So let's move on to the main event of this episode where we review the animated film Justice League, Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2.

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Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2 is the second of a 3-part animated film saga that itself is the conclusion of a 10-part animated film universe known as the Tomorrowverse. Though the Crisis trilogy actually has ties going back to the previous DC animated movie universe that began with Justice League The Flashpoint Paradox in 2013. Now the DC AMU had a phenomenal and heartbreaking ending.

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in the animated film Justice League Dark Apocalypse War, which we gave a 5 star review, despite the fact that its ending was somewhat ambiguous. Considering that it could be argued the Crisis on Infinite Earth trilogy is 11 years in the making and there are some rumors it will lead straight into James Gunn's new DC universe that includes animated films, I feel like I should be a whole hell of a lot more excited about Crisis.

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But it's really hard to be considering the way the producers have structured the stories. And make no mistake, there is a structure, as you can now see easter eggs across the Tomorrowverse films and even some DC animated shorts. But so far, the whole is the sum of its parts, and if you've been following our reviews of the Tomorrowverse films, despite a few exceptions, the parts aren't that great.

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and are only marginally made better by the story reveals that come perhaps too little too late. Now, I don't want to spoil those reveals for anyone, so if you haven't seen Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2, well, I'm guessing you haven't seen Part 1 either, and maybe you're just waiting until Part 3 comes out later this year to hear whether the whole thing is worth investing your time. I can't really say Part 2 is worth your time because it feels very much

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like a mere stepping stone to get to part three. It's just something you kind of have to get through. And honestly, I really wish that wasn't the case. Yeah, my first impression after seeing Crisis on Infinite Earths part two was that the story seemed to kind of be treading water as we went into the third part. The first movie I thought was really interesting from a narrative perspective with the Flash kind of skipping through time. The second movie also did a lot of

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time skipping. So it seems to be kind of like a theme within this trilogy of films to not tell the story linearly. It just kind of makes everything a little bit disjointed and hard to follow and not as enjoyable as it necessarily could be. Well, yeah, the time skipping in this film happened only in the first half of it. After that, everything was pretty much happening in real time or not real time, but in the present, I should say. I really wanted to like this movie because like you, I

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really liked part one, again despite its unconventional story structure. The second film in a lot of trilogies is arguably the best. You know, the Dark Knight, Empire Strikes Back, The Two Towers is perfection. This film, not so much. You forgot Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2. Hey, you know, that's also valid. But this film is not better than the first one, though due to the hit or miss nature of the Tomorrowverse, I shouldn't be surprised.

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It is very much the second act of a three-part story, though the second act is supposed to be the most exciting act as it ramps up to the climax. Narratively, you set up the conflict in Act 1, in Act 2 the conflict escalates until it reaches its maximum potential, and Act 3 is a come down from that high where order is restored. Now obviously in the trilogy, conflict and action will continue into the third film.

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but I feel like this film didn't pack enough of a punch to get me excited for the third one. And I honestly have a hard time reconciling why that is. I mean, the main characters in this film were legitimately interesting, I felt. Supergirl, Monitor, Psycho Pirate were my favorite parts of the film. Like, I found Supergirl way more interesting in this film than I did in Legion of Superheroes. And the central theme of how emotions develop in us and affect us

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was fairly strong throughout the movie. It was just everything with the other heroes and around the towers that I felt dragged the film down. Like I hated what they did with Batman here. He didn't learn any kind of lesson about teamwork or camaraderie or family, and he should have by the end. Like the cameos they had, like Batman Beyond, Commandy, John Constantine, were all so small and didn't amount to much, if anything at all.

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The film just didn't know how to juggle its characters in a way that was as satisfying as the strong single narrative focus that they had with The Flash in Part 1, or the character ensemble that was, say, Avengers Infinity War. Or Justice League Dark Apocalypse War. That movie, I think, had a huge cast, just as large as this one, but it just juggled everything better. Yeah, absolutely. Another problem with the film, I feel, were the stakes. Like in the first film, you really felt the threat of the end of the world.

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a lot more than he did here, I feel. Like, any time there was an antimatter wave that passed over, the threat was pretty much non-existent for the most part. Yeah, I was never really nervous for any of the worlds and, you know, I knew that there were just so many Earths that the characters could regroup at. No one single Earth mattered compared to the whole of the multiverse, you know? So, the movie's premise kind of works against itself in that regard.

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But really, this movie seems to be more of a character study than anything else, really focusing on, you know, Supergirl, Psycho Pirate, and the Monitor. Yeah, and I feel like that's not a great approach for a massive epic event film. I mean, it's not like in the comic book Crisis on Infinite Earths, we got backstories for like Psycho Pirate or anything like that. I don't know if it was the right approach here. It's interesting, for sure, but it doesn't really lend itself to epic storytelling, I guess. Yeah.

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If anything, the character studies take away from the overarching narrative that you would expect in a big, multiversal crossover event. Absolutely, absolutely. Now, I liked this film. I'm ragging on it, but it wasn't terrible. It doesn't get me excited for part three, but it is, as I mentioned earlier, a stepping stone to get there. So it's something. Outside of that, I don't have much to say about the film that I haven't said about part one and other Tomorrowverse films. You know.

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The first act premises are strong, but the story does always stick the landing. The voice acting is great. The character designs are great. The animation can be a little bit sticky. Right. But yeah, if you've listened to our reviews of DC animated films recently, you've heard it all before. Let's go ahead and talk about the main characters in the movie in our character breakdown, starting with Supergirl slash Kara Zor-El. Now, Meg Donnelly does a fantastic job voicing Supergirl.

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I was really rooting for her to play Supergirl in James Gunn's DCU, but she lost out to Milly Alcock and I'm not gonna lie, I was disappointed. Yeah, the actress was great in the Legion of Superheroes movie, which is really more of a Supergirl movie, and she was great here. I think she brings a lot of emotional weight to the character, just like she did in the Legion of Superheroes animated movie, which was not a great film, but she was definitely the best part of that, I think. Yeah, I agree.

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We learn that immediately after Krypton's destruction, Supergirl was begrudgingly rescued by the Monitor, who had observed the death of the planet. Supergirl, suffering from amnesia, was raised by the Monitor for timeless decades before she realized that he knew about what happened to her homeworld, at which point she left him due to his apathy. Despite him later imparting some of his power to her in order for her to gather an army to protect the multiverse,

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Her distrust and anger toward the monitor continued to grow, allowing Psycho Pyre to manipulate her to where she ultimately kills the monitor. Her arc revolves around loss, you could say. The loss of her mom, loss of her world, loss of time with her cousin, loss of the Legion, and ultimately a loss of control over everything that's happening in her life and the universe.

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and all of that feeling of loss results in her ultimately losing a father figure at her own hands. It's pretty tragic. For sure, yeah. Everything that Supergirl has gone through has been quite heartbreaking. I guess I am a little bit confused though what happened when the monitor imparted some of his power onto her. I thought that was going to transform her into Harbinger. It did transform her into Harbinger. She could just go in and out of her Harbinger mode when she's traversing the multiverse. Actually, that's one of the more interesting changes they d-

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made to the crisis story because in the comic harbinger is Lila Michaels a separate character from Supergirl and Lila does end up being manipulated by the anti-monitor into killing the monitor in the comics but here the way they sort of wrote around that and having Supergirl angry at monitor and blaming him for things like the destruction of Krypton it was really well written I thought.

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Yeah, the movie is able to kind of retcon and streamline the crisis on Infinite Earth's movie in a really interesting way. For sure. That's probably the best thing about it. Even though the execution isn't always successful, you have to admire the approach. With almost every film in the Tomorrowverse, you could say that. Yeah, yeah. It's like everything sounds good on paper, and then somewhere it just gets botched along the way, which is unfortunate, because it's like the Tomorrowverse should be so much better than it is. It really should be. It really should be.

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Moving on to Monitor aka MaruNoVu, he was voiced by Jonathan Adams, who delivers a very understated performance, appropriately so. I thought he was perfect in this role. And the guy apparently has a lot of experience playing god-like characters. Like he's voiced Darkseid, Galactus, Dormammu, King the Conqueror. He's just a fantastic voice actor. What a badass. Totally, right? What a resume.

32:48
Now the Monitor's arc revolves around Supergirl and the feelings he develops not just for her, but life in the multiverse as a whole, because of her, enter inspirations and criticisms that spur him to reject his calling and take action to protect everything. He assumes the antimatter waves bombarding the multiverse are a natural phenomena, but by the end he learns that not only are they coming from a specific individuel, the Anti-Monitor,

33:17
but that everything that has transpired is perhaps his fault. I imagine the next film will get a flashback as to why the anti-monitor hates the monitor, and I'm really curious to see how much influence recent comics like The Dark Side War or Dark Knight's Metal will have on the story. Why does DC feel the need to rip off Marvel and characters like The Watcher with like this enigmatic race of beings who are sworn only to observe and not interfere with the

33:47
cosmic level events. The fuck's that about? That's straight from the Crisis comic. And? All right, let's find out who came first. Obviously, the Watcher came first. He came out in the 60s. Crisis was an 80s book. Be more original is what I guess. Yeah, I guess he came out in 1982. Damn it. But I mean, he just looks cooler, you know? Like, what's with the giant bald head of the Watcher? Weird. Looks like a big baby.

34:15
What do you think it is that Monitor ended up developing empathy? I think it was because he was never as close to anyone as he was to Supergirl. He always tried to keep his distance. But because of satellite's actions, his sentient spaceship as it were, he was forced into a position where he either cared for this young woman that was rescued or he just callously eject her back out into space.

34:40
I don't think he liked the idea of her death because he was more aware of her individuel existence compared to the nameless victims of Krypton. And I think he just developed what is it called, propinquity. You know, where you develop feelings for the people you are closest in proximity to. I think it's as simple as that. Moving on to Psycho Pirate, aka Charles Halsted. He was voiced by Jeffrey Arren. And I know this guy. He was in 500 Days of Summer.

35:09
He was in the Ringer, in Garden State, in a bunch of TV shows. I did not know he did voice acting and he did a fantastic job with Psycho Pirate, though, you know, based on his history, he probably should have had an English accent. But that aside, yeah, Jeffrey Arendt, great voice. His voice, I have to say, is pretty damn haunting. Like, I think out of all the main characters in this movie, he was the most interesting every time he was talking about his backstory or just speaking in general.

35:38
I was pretty much hooked. Oh yeah, yeah, it was really interesting. What I found most interesting early on was that they didn't go with the Roger Hayden version of the character, like the one I talked about in our last episode. They went with Charles Halstead, who they not only made a metahuman empath, you know, removing any reference to the Medusa mask, but they also made him a multiversal entity who's gone by names such as Dr. Spectro or Rainbow Raider in different universes.

36:07
Which was hilarious because we saw Dr. Spectro in the Blue Beetle animated short that ties into this film and he's playing with people's emotions. Yeah, that was interesting. It also serves to solve one of the questions that you and I had regarding the Justice Society World War II movie. Because I remember we were bitching in that movie about why Psycho Pirate didn't have his Medusa mask and how like the Medusa mask would have made a great artifact MacGuffin for that film and everything like that. But yeah, this version of the character never used the Medusa mask.

36:37
all his empathic abilities were due to his metahuman nature. Dude, so I was listening to our review of Justice Society World War Two in lead up to writing this review, and we were so wrong about so many things. Like, not only were we bitching about a psycho pirate, we were bitching about Wonder Woman and how she'll probably never be seen in another movie again. It was just so many things. Well, like, how are we supposed to know? We weren't we weren't.

37:05
But because Justice Society World War Two took place in another timeline and we weren't sure how that would fold into like the main tomorrow versus timeline. But as it turns out, there really isn't a main tomorrow versus timeline. You could say it's Earth one. But no, you're right. We had no way of knowing that this was going to happen. It does make my review like pretty obsolete, though, I would say. There are so many things I got wrong in it. It's embarrassing. This movie doesn't make me like that movie anymore.

37:34
I don't want to say it redeems the movie, but it does address some of the criticisms we had about the film. Now the original backstory they created for Charles Halstead in this film was wild. His actions in the movie stem from the fact that he simply hates people because he's constantly feeling their emotions and feels that the world would be better if everyone just felt what he was feeling all the time. He's an interesting character at times being somewhat sympathetic.

38:03
Well, also at times shockingly evil. And I'd say it's probably an upgrade to what we got in the Crisis on Infinite Earth's comic. Yeah. Well, I mean, this origin story just seemed better than the comics version of his origin that we learned last week, where basically the guy just hated his boss and so became like an expert on emotions or some stupid shit. It's so dumb. Yeah. That scene where the dude killed all his classmates and.

38:28
the German officers came into the school and they saw all these students hanging from the ceiling. That shit was nightmare fuel. Like, I remember watching that and thinking, like, when the fuck did this become a horror film? Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, it was straight out of the horror genre. That was wild. I do kind of miss the Medusa mask, though. Like, I generally like a lot of the character designs, really like the character designs of the Tomorrowverse characters, but not Psycho Pirate. I don't like being able to see his.

38:57
face as much as I do. I'm used to not seeing his face in the comics. Well, the Medusa mask is just such a cool concept, you know, where it like portrays an emotion that is projected onto its victims. Yeah, it's just a great visual that you think would do really well in a medium like movies, you know, for sure, for sure. I can't wait to see that adapted into live action. That'll be so cool. Just like this liquid gold mask. Hell, yeah. If they choose to do that, they they should.

39:25
Psycho pirate is a really great villain that just needs to be adapted. Heck, based off of this origin, I could see like a psycho pirate live action movie, a la The Joker, where it's just like focused around him. I guess. I don't know. It could be a horror film. Why not? Hmm. I'd watch it. I wouldn't because I don't like horror movies.

39:50
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40:38
But I think that does it for the character breakdown, now let's move on to the story highlights. The film begins with Joker and several other Batman rogues attacking the tower that allows the planet to become intangible and avoid the waves of antimatter that are destroying entire universes. With help from Bat family members from across the multiverse, Earth-1 Batman stops the Joker, though Batman disapproves of the other's help. Now, this was a pointless opening to the film.

41:07
Like, I understand that Batman is a draw commercially, but when you have him just being a dick to everyone else, it's not fun to watch. Right. Yeah, you want to see the Bat family kicking gas, you know, united and working together. It's kind of a downer when you see Batman just being an asshole. Really, the whole Batman storyline was inessential to the entire narrative.

41:31
And I don't know why they kept revisiting it because he seemed no more important than any other single other universe that was protecting their own tower. Right, right, exactly. And in that regard, you know, cameos like Batman Beyond, which were really used to help sell this movie in the trailers and stuff like that, we got really excited. That all felt kind of hollow and empty when it just seemed kind of gratuitous. Oh yeah, man, I was really excited, honestly, for Batman Beyond, especially because Will Friedle was returning to voice the role.

42:00
he only got like literally two lines. He also voiced Commandy and he had way more lines as that character than he did as Batman Beyond, which was unfortunate. I guess you could rationalize Batman's behavior in this film though as a sort of coping method with witnessing the death of James Gordon. He didn't want to lose anyone else close to him. Although maybe that's not true because he wasn't close to that version of James Gordon.

42:27
and he definitely wasn't close to all of his adoptive children from other multiverses. He freaking admitted to taking Dick Grayson back to the orphanage in his universe. That's messed up. Yeah, it kind of makes it feel like not my Batman, right? Because like, right, my Batman would take on a ward in Dick Grayson. Who the fuck is this guy? For sure, for sure. Now in a flashback to World War Two on Earth Two, Psycho Pirate converses with an imprisoned Dr. Fate.

42:57
recounting his childhood as an empathic metahuman who absorbed, amplified, and reflected the emotions of those around him. Another flashback follows that goes all the way back to the destruction of Krypton, observed from a distance by the monitor in his satellite ship, which notices and rescues Supergirl amidst Krypton's ruin. Why do you think Dr. Fate gave Psycho Pirate the ability to traverse among the multiverse? We don't know that yet. I'm hoping we'll learn that in the third film.

43:25
But I'm guessing it has something to do with either a change of heart that comes from the Psycho Pirate or some kind of... I don't know. He's needed for some reason. Like, it's his fate to be able to traverse the multiverse. So, of course, Dr. Fate got involved and gave him that ability. You think Psycho Pirate will be redeemed in the third film? He certainly was not in the comic. So, I don't know. I could see them going either way. Did this scene with Dr. Fate redeem...

43:52
the character at all for you from the Justice Society World War II movie. A bit. He was much much cooler in this film, partly because we actually got to see him as Dr. Fate in all of his glory. Now going back to Psycho Pirates' past, his parents shipped him off to a boarding school in Bavaria, where he suffered under the amplified aggression of the school boys. Over time he managed to control his power and used it to kill, humiliate, and control everyone in his school. Meanwhile,

44:21
Monitor, initially annoyed by Supergirl's presence, helped her recuperate and began teaching her about the multiverse and his ancient race who observe events in the multiverse. As timeless decades pass, Supergirl eventually finds her Kryptonian ship on the satellite and is devastated when she remembers Krypton's destruction. When Supergirl confronts Monitor, he reveals that her younger cousin is still alive as Superman and Supergirl leaves Monitor, angry, to go to her cousin.

44:50
Now I like the rationale they had for why Superman is older than Supergirl in this universe. It's because she was aboard the monitor ship where time does not pass. I thought that was a great reasoning. Yeah, considering that she was older when Krypton exploded and K'Hellel was just a baby. Exactly. The character of Satellite was pretty interesting. He was like a more humanized version of Hell 9000 from 2001 of Space Odyssey. Yeah, yeah, he looked pretty menacing with that like single eyeball.

45:19
But it turns out he was just a big old softy who cared for Kara. He was like, whoops, I accidentally saved her life. He had more empathy than the monitor did. And it was almost like he was trying to teach the character of the monitor how to care about things. Yeah, I thought the same thing. You almost have to wonder if he was being manipulated by the presence at all, because the specter at the end explicitly said that the presence wanted the monitor to feel empathy. Interesting, interesting.

45:46
Now the Psycho Pirate recounts his time as a Nazi pirate captain whose ship sank and while adrift at sea, discovered Atlantis, using his power to manipulate Aquaman and his kingdom into being Nazi allies, as we saw in the film Justice Society World War II. As Psycho Pirate concludes his story, he learns that his powers have no effect on Dr. Fate before Dr. Fate teaches Psycho Pirate a magic spell that would allow him to travel to other universes. Meanwhile,

46:13
As Monitor observes the first waves of universe destroying antimatter, he also observes Supergirl's heroic actions at the conclusion of the Legion of Superheroes film and is inspired to take action, summoning her to a satellite once again where he imbues her with a portion of his power to allow her to also traverse the multiverse as his harbinger and collect heroes in order to save it. Does Dr. Fate usually recite his spells in Latin? Seems like more of a Constantine thing, right?

46:42
Yeah, I don't usually see Dr. Fate, you know, reciting incantations in the same way that John Constantine does. That's more of an occult thing, whereas Dr. Fate is more like artifact based, I would say. And Dr. Strange just says a bunch of nonsense, like the hoary hosts of Hoggeth, like stuff Stan Lee invented. Yeah, those hosts of Hoggeth are hoary.

47:05
As the Justice Society emerges victorious back in World War II, Psycho Pirate escapes to a new universe where he's encountered by Harbinger and asked to aid in the protection of the multiverse. In the present, Superman witnesses a new wave of antimatter approaching and heroes from across the multiverse activate their towers to protect their universes, including the post-apocalyptic world of the Atomic Knights, saved by Superman and Supergirl.

47:32
the latter of whom is still concerned with the monitor's initial apathy toward Krypton's destruction and the erasure of the future timeline that included her friends in the Legion of Superheroes, which we saw at the end of Crisis Part 1. Yeah, I think we hypothesized at the end of Crisis Part 1 that anyone who was from a future timeline got erased, but it turns out that just their specific universes got erased. Right, exactly, because we still see characters like Baman beyond. Right.

47:59
While Commandi is returned to his own post-apocalyptic Earth alongside the intelligent ape Solovar to protect its tower, Psycho Pirate manipulates Monitor into giving him a portion of his power in order to more effectively maintain the heroes' emotions as they continually work to protect their worlds. As the heroes monitoring things from the satellite speculate someone may be behind the waves of antimatter,

48:24
They also deduced that they could potentially move all the worlds to nether space with enough energy. When Blue Beetle confronts Psycho Pirate, the villain is transported away by the Anti-Monitor. I have a question, why does DC have so many intelligent ape characters? You know, there's Gorilla Grodd, there's the Ultra Humanite, and now we have Solovar. Solovar is like Gorilla Grodd's rival from Gorilla City. That does not answer my question.

48:52
Because in DC Comics, you know, there is Gorilla City and it's entirely full of intelligent apes that have evolved. Solovar being one of them. I knew as soon as he showed up that Command D was not going to have it. Well, yeah, considering that Command D is based on Planet of the Apes or was inspired by it, I should say, it was kind of funny to have Solovar there. But that's straight from the Crisis comic as well. Wait, Command D played a role in the Crisis comic? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

49:20
The Tomorrowverse was laying all these clues with the shorts they decided to create and stuff like that as to the direction that the franchise was going to go. We just never saw the crisis story coming. No. As the heroes of the multiverse prepare for a new wave, this time it leaves behind hordes of shadow demons on each world that attack the heroes and the towers. Meanwhile, the Anti-Monitor promises Psycho-Pirate an entire universe to control in exchange for helping put a stop to the Monitor and his heroes.

49:50
As Batman gets overwhelmed by shadow demons, members from the Bat Family from other worlds come to his aid once again, and together they determine Bright Light destroys the demons. And once again, Batman's completely a dick to these guys. As Wonder Woman, Commandee, and others protect their towers, Psycho Pirate begins broadcasting feelings of hate and distrust across the multiverse, causing heroes such as the Bat Family, Green Lantern and Dr. Light, and the Amazons to turn against each other.

50:20
When Supergirl attacks a shadow demon, her physical contact with it allows PsychoPirate to project an illusion in her mind of her being with her loved ones and coming to the conclusion that the monitor caused the destruction of Krypton and everything bad that has happened since. Now I'm not going to lie, this whole Supergirl illusion thing was super confusing because she was talking to PsychoPirate in one moment.

50:45
then she was helping her cousin fight shadow demons in another, then all of a sudden she's back on Krypton with the Legion and her mom, then Krypton is kind of destroyed behind her, and then she's with Psycho Pirate again. It's weird. As heroes across the multiverse continue to fight, a homeless man is revealed to be John Constantine, with help from the Green Lantern John Stewart. When Monitor confronts Psycho Pirate about what he's doing, he escapes to another universe, just as another wave emerges on the horizon.

51:14
Many worlds are destroyed, including the world of the Amazons and Atomic Knights, though some heroes manage to overcome their wrath to activate their towers in time. So Wonder Woman is dead now, right? It's ambiguous. Her Tiara lived, and she mentioned earlier that she was immortal, so I don't know if that means that allowed her to survive. I will give you a spoiler. In the extras for this film, they show a preview for part 3 in which she is still alive.

51:43
that could take place timeline wise before she dies here? I have no idea. But I think that Tiara is a clue that she's still alive. As the monitor observes everything that's happening, he is approached by the spectre who implies that he will suffer for his millions of years of apathy. When the shadow demons across the multiverse leave for Earth 1, there they combine to form a colossal sized anti-monitor.

52:09
The emergence of the Anti-Monitor reveals to the Monitor and the Spectre that everything that has happened is the Monitor's fault and as punishment, he allows Supergirl to kill him. When the heroes attacks on the Anti-Monitor fail, Supergirl realizes what she has done and holds the Monitor's dead body. The film ends with the Anti-Monitor charging up a massive energy attack, which is hella anti-climactic. For real. My wife is like, that was the end? Really?

52:39
I'm like, any other, you know, they're setting up a part three, but you're right. It just kind of ended in a way that didn't feel like an ending. No, no. I mean, they should have just ended it with Supergirl holding monitor. Like they didn't need the whole charge up attack because if you're not going to finish that, why then? Why do it? Especially considering we still don't have a release date for part three. Like we know it's coming out this year, but who knows how many months he'll have to charge that damn thing.

53:09
It's gonna be one massive attack. Although the anti-monitor himself seems less threatening than an anti-matter wave that's tearing through the universe. Right, especially considering the fact that the heroes were actually able to physically, not necessarily harm him, but affect him. You know, cause like his mouth is screaming, he's like, ah. Right. But you know, they couldn't do that to an anti-matter wave. We'll see how it plays out. I have high hopes for the next film, the third in the trilogy. I hope it ends with a bang.

53:38
But I realize I have to temper my expectations considering the past quality of the Tomorrowverse film universe. Yeah, considering the inconsistent quality of this series of films, these crisis movies almost require audience members to have seen every single movie in the Tomorrowverse to get a lot of the context behind what's going on here. Like, even in this film, little things like the scene of Supergirl trying to find Superman when she comes back to Earth.

54:05
You know, we, having seen Justice League Warworld, we know that that's where he is, up in space, but someone coming new to this film wouldn't know that, and so it would just add to the confusion. Things like Commandy, you know, if people hadn't seen that DC showcase short, they'd be like, who the hell is this guy showing up randomly in this film? Lots of little things like that. The investment required of the audience, I think, is too much. And this trilogy so far has done absolutely zero handholding.

54:32
Yeah, and it doesn't help that a lot of the references, even in part one, are to some of my least favorite Tomorrowverse films. Like, there's a lot of references to Justice Society World War Two. Hated that movie. Legion of Superheroes. That movie sucked. It's like, where's the long Halloween references, you know? Where's the... I guess they did have Green Lantern beware my power references, because I liked that movie. But yeah.

55:00
I mean, at least you could say the crisis films are better than most of the other tomorrow verse films. I don't know how much that's saying, but it's saying something. They're like midway there. They're kind of mid overall. I like the first one again. Yeah. Hopefully part three is going to be the best in the whole tomorrow verse universe in the same way that Justice League Dark was really, really damn good and among the best of the DC animated movie universe. But in regards to this film,

55:29
Despite intriguing backstories for several characters, the film fails to capture the stakes or interest of part one as it slowly ramps up for the finale. We gave part one three and a half stars. I'm giving this one a notch below that three stars, right on the borderline of rotten and fresh. This time I'm leaning rotten for rotten tomatoes. Right because you know the tomato meter is a measure of recommendation. A lot of people view the tomato meter as a measure of quality. It's actually a measure of recommendation.

55:58
And at the end of the day, I think I would also not recommend this movie, whereas I would recommend the first one. But that does it for this review. If you guys saw the movie, I'd love to hear what you thought about it. You can reach out to us via email at dyna or by visiting us on Instagram, which you can find a link to in our show notes or by going to our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site, you could also find a link to our Patreon page where you could join our dynamic two out here and chat with us and fellow listeners.

56:28
our Fantastic Four tier, which gets you bonus content each month, our X-Force tier that makes you an executive producer of this podcast, or our newest tier that lets you join our DynaMic Podcast Network. Please don't forget to rate our show on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. In our next episode, in lead up to our review of the Netflix series, Dead Boy Detectives, we are doing a Sandman tie-in duel because Dead Boy Detectives takes place in the Sandman universe.

56:56
we will be pitting Sandman Wesley Dodds against Madame Webb. Right, the Julia Carpenter version of Madame Webb, not the Cassandra Webb version, because she would be, I think, pretty useless in a fight. She'd be able to tell how the fight went by predicting her own defeat, but she wouldn't be able to do much more than that, you know? Yeah. But no, I think it'll be a good matchup. You know, both Wesley Dodds and Julia Carpenter can subdue their opponents and have premonitions and stuff like that. I think it'll be pretty good.

57:25
But that does it for this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Swarovski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy Mathengian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yaiten, Austin Wazilovski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Schunk, Dean Molesky, and Devin Davis for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. There's a crisis happening right now. In my pants.