With the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover finally making its grand return, I can finally breath a sigh of relief at the sight of certain previously established nitpicks being improved upon here. However, there are still some major glaring issues continuing in the event's 4th episode giving me the impression that certain expectations going in were simply never meant to be filled. Either way, let's see where Part 4 of Crisis handles itself in this week's quick Pros & Cons breakdown.
Pros
-Ezra Miller Flash Cameo!!
Seeing the DC Cinematic Universe’s version of the Flash show up during the crossover was by far the greatest cameo ever to placed in the Arrowverse due to its massive implications and shock factor. Just the mere thought of having the film version of any of the DC characters show up in an Arrowverse series was pure fan fiction that was constantly shut down as to never being possible due to studio business reasons...until now. For years, I’ve always imagined how incredible it would be as a big fan of comics to specifically put the "DCEU’s" Flash on an episode of the CW Flash series and now my dreams have come true. This, the Brandon Routh Kingdom Come Superman, and Kevin Conroy's Bruce Wayne is all the fan service that I could have ever wanted. Well, with the exception of a John Diggle Green Lantern reveal but I don't wanna seem like a spoiled brat here.
Either way, thank you Crisis for making a fanboy dream come true with Ezra’s appearance. I also loved the fact that both characters have a moment of just geeking out on each other’s suits while questioning the logic of how they’re existing together. Not only does it perfectly fit with both characters' personalities, but it's also a nice meta moment for comic book fan discussions to take place onscreen acted out through the characters.
-The Monitor and Anti-Monitor Origin
Despite not being as lengthy in its runtime as I was hoping for, I do have to give the writers credit for delivering a satisfying enough backstory revolving around Mar Novu’s scientific accident leading to the Anti-Monitor’s birth. It’s actually a pretty great scene getting to see a much more human side to Mar Novu having a sense of personality never really shown before as this ambitious scientist working with his wife. It gives us a little insight (in addition to seeing his home planet) of what type of individual the Monitor was before becoming God-like being almost void of emotions.
When Novu enters the dawn of time, it was interesting seeing the beginnings of the anti-matter corruption taking place due to his presence there transitioning to a quite intimidating and legitimately threatening looking Anti-Monitor. Getting this particular part of the Arrowverse's Crisis story right was one of my biggest fears going into this crossover, and despite wanting to see much more of this corner of the crossover, they gave us just enough to understand the necessities. It's a classic tale of an overly ambitious scientist creating something terrible and they nailed that element serviceably well.
-Oliver’s True Purpose & Death
Funny enough, I’ll start off this positive by emphasizing on a previous Crisis episode review's negative. This negative being just how much I greatly disliked Oliver's death during the first episode of Crisis. It was a cinematically anticlimactic battle that lead to a death scene that felt void of any dramatic impact or a strong enough performance to carry things along. The Oliver death that we're given here on the other hand almost fixes all of those issues that I had. Stephen Amell does a pretty decent job during this scene as someone who has transformed into something larger than life yet retaining his humanity enough to speak to Barry and Sara about being at peace with his necessary sacrifice.
This entire episode gave us a completely different Oliver Queen character-wise, yet it somehow felt like a natural progression with his series arc. What helped cement this was an early great montage scene of Arrow season villain battles leading to him and Jim’s meditation. Just the idea that every villain that we saw being taken down by Oliver during 7-8 seasons of Arrow was leading him to become a completely different DC Comics character, a cosmic entity known as the Spectre, is utterly insane. However, it's insane in all the right geeky ways and I absolutely love it. It puts the entire series into perspective knowing Oliver's destiny as this entire DC Comics live action television series (and some of the movies?) franchise savior. I mean...that's pretty massive for a vigilante who primarily specializes in trick arrows and martial arts. Yet, considering that it was Arrow that kickstarted a highly successful shared television universe of superheroes when the DC films were struggling to do the same, I find it to be a spectacular and justified tip of the hat to the character.
As far as the actual death scene goes, I was super intrigued with the moment where Oliver teases the idea of a new universe being formed in our heroes' victory and his death while Barry and Sara keeps the mantle of heroism going. So many speculations to be had at this giant light in the clouds which is such an interesting artistic choice to present to hardcore fans of the different properties. Cinematically speaking, the visuals during Oliver's death here was far more interesting than what we got before with the cosmic imagery hovering above them and the lighting of the scene itself surrounding our three heroes. The battle between Oliver and the Anti-Monitor may not have been as epic as I'd hope for, but it definitely beats having Oliver fight CGI shadow figures and getting overwhelmed offscreen leading to his death. Here, we get to a stronger feeling of the stakes of Oliver's place in the multiverse as well as his legacy (in a meta way) to the Arrowverse.
Cons:
-Terrible Action Scenes
I had 2 major things on my checklist stepping into this crossover since the first episode aired: an incredible sense of spectacle raising the bar for what the CW is capable of and an engaging cosmic story of which the franchise has never delivered. As I mentioned earlier, the storytelling did indeed get better during this particular episode, but sadly, the action scenes remained highly disappointing altogether. Episode 1 presented a terribly dull rooftop fight showing our heroes kicking, punching, and shooting lasers at non-threatening and easily destructible CGI shadows. So, what are we given in the 4th episode of the biggest crossover ever put to TV? Well, we get heroes kicking, punching, and shooting lasers at non-threatening and easily destructible CGI shadows...again.
But wait, we now have a cinematically worst setting (whoever picked this color palette needs a serious talking to), a new human hero who wields no weapons or powers yet manages to take down said shadow threats, and another new human who gave himself simple hand lasers from an all-powerful book of infinite possibilities. Seriously CW, you really did spend all of the production budget on cameos didn’t you? Granted, they are awesome cameos, but I came here for more than just familiar faces. We have one more episode, but I honestly can’t say that I’m excited in terms of action related entertainment value. They’ve crushed my hype completely in that department which is sad as I was really starting to get excited to see the Anti-Monitor's forces and powers in action. What a waste of an admirably crafted character presentation with what could've been a terrifyingly dangerous army of cosmic wraiths.
Nothing here remotely measures up to what they’ve done in past crossovers action-wise which really doesn’t sit well with me as both a fan and a critic. Shouldn't the quality of a series move at an upward trajectory in all of its elements. We're about 5+ crossover events in and I feel like we've just taken a major step backwards in one area that I had the most faith in and was most excited for. If there are any positives that I can possibly squeeze in here, it would be that the scope of Oliver's Spectre form fighting Anti-Monitor was greatly felt during their confrontation. The "You have failed this universe" line was definitely chills-worthy as a huge Arrow fan and the visuals of the energy waves surrounding them during the final moments of the fight did look decent enough. With that said, maybe there's still hope. Maybe, just maybe, they truly did save the "best for last" with the final episode. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose.
Overall Thoughts:
This is by far my favorite episode of the crossover due to the overall pacing and story direction focusing on Barry and Oliver’s new Spectre role. The idea of utilizing the Speedforce to pick up our heroes through various times in the Arrowverse franchise was unexpected and quite intriguing to watch. I also loved that we finally got to dive into some backstory with the Monitor giving us some much needed lore and dramatic layering for the Crisis conflict. Unfortunately, aside from an absolutely mind blowing cameo by Ezra Miller’s Flash, the entertainment value lacked severely at the end of the day. This primarily surrounding what was supposed to be an epic battle with the Anti-Monitor turning into a visually dull skirmish of knocking away shadows in a terribly colorized setting. Thankfully, the positives outweigh the negatives considering that what they truly needed to get right (the core storytelling), they managed to satisfy at the end of the day. I’m curiously looking forward to see what comes next for our heroes.
Episode Rating: 9/10
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