Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1 finds good ol’ Flash having the zoomies through the multiverse again. Just like in the latest Flash live action and a few previous DC animated films (and probably infinite comics). It’s part one of a three part series that I guess will end this run of the DC animated films (whatever that really means).

The flick launches with Barry Allan already charging through the Speed Force, revisiting past moments in his life with Iris, meeting the other super heroes, forming the Justice League, and contending with a super-power-sucking android. But that’s just part 1 of part 1… because after the flick hits a natural conclusion at the forty-five minute mark, it speeds into another tangentially related story about an anti-matter wave that’s wiping out every Earth across the multiverse.

Yeah, I’m concerned about parts 2 and 3 of this film series if it can’t even figure out how to fill one movie with one plot. It already feels like it’s completes part 2 before it even gets to the next movie. Maybe this is the same structure as the comic book series but if feels disjointed, like it should have been a tv series instead.

There’s a lot of stuff for comic book fan that went over my head. Various heroes and versions of heroes from the comics and from previous versions of these Justice League animated films show up. It’s a big mashup that didn’t quite satisfy me since I’m not very familiar with them. On the other hand… Hey, it’s Blue Beetle! Has he been here this whole time?

The biggest problem though is the pacing. The first forty-five minutes are paced pretty well and tell a seemingly complete story. But when it gets into the multiverse stuff in the second half, the pacing crashes hard as it navel gazes at its multiverse heroes as they hang out and chat. It recovers a little bit in the final heroic scenes though.

As a movie-only fan, it’s interesting to be chucked back into the Flash multiverse stuff since we just saw it in live action. It has a hint of familiarity before it gets deeper into the weeds and that’s a nice touch.

This is an uneven film that may or may not impress comic book fans. It’s a pretty good one of these DC animated films even if it can’t seem to unite its disparate two halves. But I am looking forward to the next film.

Score: 81