Justice League Crisis on Two Earths

• Title:  Justice League  Crisis on Two Earths
• Directors:  Sam Liu, Lauren Montgomery
• Date:  2010
• Studio:  Warner Brothers Animation
• Genre:  Action, Fantasy, Animation
• Cast:  William Baldwin, Mark Harmon, Chris Noth, Gina Torres, James Woods
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"I can't believe we're having this discussion.  Of course we're going to help."  -- Wonder Woman
"She's right, that's what we do." -- Superman


"Might doesn't make right.  It might seem that way sometimes, but in the long run it's the other way around.  We're always stronger when we're doing the right thing."  -- Rose Wilson (the alt-Earth president's daughter)


The movie opens with Lex Luther in the midst of a robbery and about to get caught.  His partner, a guy in a jester's outfit gives his life, so Lex can escape.  We soon discover this is an alternative Earth, and this Lex is a good guy -- the "Justice League", on this particular Earth, are known as the "Crime Syndicate" and are the bad guys.  Lex dimension jumps to the Justice League Earth to ask for help.

After a short discussion, six of the seven Justice Leaguers go with Lex to his Earth -- Batman stays behind to oversee the construction of  the Watchtower.  On the other Earth, the Justice League discovers things are as Lex said -- the crime syndicate uses bribes and muscle to prevent police, attorneyes general, governments, etc from stopping them and the populace lives in limited terror (their day-to-day lives are "free" but if  they don't toe-the-line in bowing down to the crime syndicate, they are subject to possibly even lethal rebuke),  One person standing up to the crime syndicate is Rose, the president's daughter, much to her father's chagrin, as he made a deal with the crime syndicate years ago.

Unbeknownst to the president, things are about to go from bad to worse -- the crime syndicate now has a device that can destroy the whole planet.  And Owlman (the evil Batman) wants to do even worse than that and destroy all the alternate Earths by unleashing the device that will destroy all realities on Earth Prime.

Meanwhile, Owlman sends Superwoman to the JL's reality to steal the trigger for the device.  She fights Batman and gets the device, but Batman follows her when she escapes, by flinging himself  into her transport beam.  This costs him, as Superwoman beats him up again in another fight.

There is a fantastic fight sequence with each of  the Justice Leaguers fighting their opposite numbers on the crime syndicate's home base on the moon.  However, Owlman is able to locate Earth Prime and take the device there.  Batman theorizes the only way to get to Owlman now is to have someone vibrate quick enough to open a portal.  Convincing the crime syndicate they have to work together or all realities will disappear, Batman gets Johnny Quick to open the portal.  Batman leaps through, he and Owlman have a philosophical discussion, then fight, then Batman sends him to an abandoned Earth.  Owlman could escape, but he's so insane he decides not to, and is destroyed.

The movie is quite, quite good.  The fight scenes are extremely well-realized, especially the climatic fight between the Justice League and their opposite numbers.  James Woods is chilling as Owlman, reminding me a bit of characters from the film, Watchmen, though not his namesake (who was sort of a good guy).  However, he's completely insane, having decided that because every choice results in a new reality -- nothing has any meaning, leading to his idea to destroy all reality (Hum, sound like Davros and his reality b*m b from DW?).  There's a couple of other references to DW as well -- Owlman's plane has a Chameleon circuit, though I think it was Flash who asks 'What does that do?" before nearly getting run over by the invisible plane.  The device itself, abbreviated, Q.E.D., , which was not working, is said to work when the Blinovitch Limitation Effect is eliminated.

Owlman's speech on Earth Prime is chilling -- but his decision to not save himself when Batman sends him to an abandoned world is even more so.  Superwoman is also a complete psychopath, who enjoys hurting, maiming, and playing with people -- she and Owlman have a very twisted relationship.  In one of  her fights with Batman, she says to him, "That's going to cost you a rib," then takes her thumb and presses his side hard enough to break a rib.  Batman is left gasping in pain.

Overall, definitely one of  the better WB Animated DCAU movies, and I recommend it.

Recommendation:  See it!
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
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