Crisis on Infinite Earths 1 & 2
Mar. 28th, 2020 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsCrisis on Infinite Earths, pre-thoughts
At this point I'm pretty well spoiled for most of the big things that will happen in this arc, but if I had cared about that I would have watched it as it aired instead of two weeks after it ended. What I've come to realize is that not only do I not rally care for this, I don't want to watch it that much. But I do want to be able to watch the series finale of Arrow (later but more reasonably so), so I sort of feel like I need to watch Crisis before I walk away from this verse, possibly for good.
This is kind of the way I felt about Jane the Virgin, and (going back much further) Buffy; both shows I still haven't watched the ending of. I came through part of the final seasons on inertia more than anything, and then the shows took a break and the inertia ran out. When I don't see how a story can end in a satisfying way anymore and I'm being asked to restart my interest after a break point to come back for that bad ending, it's a hard sell. But I have just enough affection for Arrow left to see if I can do it one more time;
But I'm damn certain I'm going to hate a lot of this.
Crisis on Infinite Earths ep 1 (Supergirl)
There's a part of me that wants to pull this apart moment by moment and point out every place it does something badly; but I'd have to watch it more than once to do that kind of review, so I won't.
I wouldn't even call this a terrible episode, but it's empty and I know enough to know that even the weightier moments don't fully pay off to carry the weight they could have. I will however say that it feels like every page of the script was written by someone different so it has no solid through-line. In some ways that might even seem like a good idea, as it's sort of like the writers for each show were around so that the individual stories were maintained (to enough extent to pass); but because each set of writers only seems to care about their own set of characters there wasn't much cross-over.
Like, wouldn't it have made sense for Oliver to talk to Clark? The man who left his family behind to save the multi-verse able to sympathize with what Clark is going through? What about Barry talking to Lena since he knows more about crossing dimensions that Alex? What about Oliver giving Kate some tips on being a street level hero with a secret identity? They try to have a talk between Oliver and Barry but Oliver talks to demigods now so we just have another argument with the Monitor.
Also, the side-quest to Earth-16 was badly done. That is not the world the Legends went to back in s1, clearly not the Oliver they met since he knew Sara was alive and with the Legends, I can't even tell that it's set in the future since it seems so much like the present. The only reason to say it's that world is to explain why Sarah goes with Lois but I think there has to be a better reason for it. And the scene between Oliver-16 and Sara I have mixed feelings about, as I do see some of the reason for it, in that since this story is killing off Oliver we see that while he may not live as long as this Oliver (again assuming it was 2046 and not 2019, couldn't tell from his look) he lived a lot more life. But they spend a little too much time on the scene for it not to come back through the rest of this plotline. As in, maybe this wasn't the death the Monitor saw for Oliver because they were going to replace our Oliver with Oliver-16 to carry out the final sacrifice or something.
So far, no one seems to have an actual story in this plot, it's just a collection of things that happen but there's very little character or connective tissue. And sure, Oliver's death got me a little choked up,but it didn't exactly feel earned; maybe if I was watching it with the events of s8 fresher in mind it would, but I don't even think that.
And the less said about how three billion refugees are going to manage on Earth 1, the better. I bet none of the series actually deal with that (I don't quite understand how things fall at the end so maybe it's less of an issue by then). Also the fact they had the ships to transport that many people, even packed in I don't see how that would work.
Crisis on Infinite Earths ep 2 (Batwoman)
So this was basically sub-plots the episode and I'm pretty sure there was little to no point to any of them. I think they're all pretty bad actually, and the story as a whole still feels empty, There is a little more attempt at character work, but it's the wrong time for it as they've now established the threat. Maybe I would like it a bit more if any of the fanservice elements worked for me; or maybe not because even the ones I might feel a reaction to, I don't. The most fanservice fun I got was guessing why they picked the earth numbers they did.
This episode starts off writing Lyla as Lyla when it's been set up that she's not Lyla anymore. Also I don't see the point in bringing AU-Mick into this since I doubt they'll actually do anything with him (it seems possible that the original Legends contracts had them obligated to appear in crossovers, but the cast added since s1 no longer has those contracts...or the original cast has extra contracts involved since they started on other shows but the later additions didn't), and they kind of can't since it's not really our Mick. I have no idea why Iris is here as she serves no point in the story; they basically needed Lois or Iris, not both. And why not keep Brainy around? I didn't even like him that much, but he would seem useful; probably J'onn too.
On the quest for Superman plot, nothing makes sense. Right from the start they probably should have given a reason why the Kryptonian who's lost more than anyone should endure doesn't apply to the Clark who just had his universe destroyed. Not that that Clark seems to have any any emotions besides occasional moping (I thought he was better in the past, but that's faded enough that I'm largely going on what's here), but it probably should have been raised. The stopover in Smallville would have been more interesting if it brought anything new to the table. A Superman who'd give up on being Superman for the sake of his family is basically the kind of man we already had in the story; plus still mopey. And it's not as if encountering this Clark, one who had known him for years, had an effect on Lex. And the Superman fight was just pathetic. And not just the effects were pretty bad; since it meant nothing it accomplished nothing. It didn't establish why this Clark was the one to be the Paragon, they just sort of decided he was, then there was an unneeded fight, then they got on with things. And Iris served truly no point; I don't even dislike Iris, but why is she here?
On the Bat of the future plot, it's just badly written. I need to do a big point about how terribly this story is handling the idea of destiny playing a role in this, but that might be too big for right now. Last season I seem to remember Kate and Kara having chemistry, and that I almost liked the introduction of Kate even if I hated the way it was handled so much; but I hate these people right now. Also I'm pretty sure this makes the timelines ridiculous, if they worked with Kate 'last year' but she's only been Batwoman a few months. It does remind me why I got so frustrated with Kara back when I watched Supergirl; the story always conforms to her beliefs, never challenges them, and makes it seem like having her belief in something is some kind of divine blessing. I think Kate/the writing with her has some of the same problems, but I have more history noticing it with Kara. And the end is annoying for the Monitor to decide now that the words apply to Kate; the Monitor is dumb.
On the resurrection plot, it feels like they're just killing time, but not giving it time. I always find it funny how little the crossovers actually care about Barry; I mean, I hate Barry so I don't mind that we don't get much of him, but it's kind of comical here. I feel like either, Barry and Kara should have been upset by Oliver sacrificing himself for them, even if they tried to fix it in different ways, or we needed a bit more insight into why Barry's so consumed by it. I get Mia, she's young and it's her dad who she never really knew because he dies on this mission and she wants to change that. I get Sara, always warning them that there are dangers in what they're doing, but Oliver never stopped fighting for her so she'll keep trying for him (I don't quite understand why they put a fair amount of emphasis on reminding us of Quentin's death but didn't do anything with it); plus it doesn't seem like she has anything more important to do at the moment. But this action feels like it should be either (or both) more emotionally driven than we spend time seeing, or more plot driven since we're told it seems Oliver was supposed to play a different role in this Crisis.
Also, it probably would gave been better if they didn't have the Waverider for some reason right now, if they have time travel and apparently easy inter-dimensional travel, there is a lot more they could be doing than they are. And if the only reason they needed the Waverider in the plot was for Ray's lab, send him to Star Labs and call it good enough. And since the only other reason it had to do this was was for Mick to babysit while Lois went with Clark, it would have been easy enough to say the baby was with Joe if they were hanging around Central City; and that could have at least a bit explained how Iris got involved.
To cycle back to the beginning of the episode; the toasting Oliver scene doesn't work for me because Kara barely knew Oliver and Kate basically didn't. Yeah we needed some scene of acknowledging Oliver's death, but there should have been more thought put into how and where to do it. That's kind of the problem with this whole story, maybe this whole universe a lot of the time.
And you know what, the more I think about it, I want Rip in this story. I know Darville and the DCCW are never ever getting back together, but it would have been a lot more moving if they went to pick up a version of the Waverrider where Rip was the only one left. A Rip who had lost the Legends (even in terms of one died and he kicked the others out because he couldn't do it anymore) would be as drunk and broken as Mick (there could have been cake...in fact this could have been Doomworld Rip), and it would have had more weight to his appearance. Of course I probably would have had the dead Legend be Sara so we'd have a reunion between a Sara who lost Rip and a Rip who lost Sara (might have worked with Ray having died and would have been a bit less the same as Bruce's issues, but also wouldn't have had the same appeal to my shipping).
But really, destiny is dumb; and this story is dumb for using it; and even dumber for not using it well.
At this point I'm pretty well spoiled for most of the big things that will happen in this arc, but if I had cared about that I would have watched it as it aired instead of two weeks after it ended. What I've come to realize is that not only do I not rally care for this, I don't want to watch it that much. But I do want to be able to watch the series finale of Arrow (later but more reasonably so), so I sort of feel like I need to watch Crisis before I walk away from this verse, possibly for good.
This is kind of the way I felt about Jane the Virgin, and (going back much further) Buffy; both shows I still haven't watched the ending of. I came through part of the final seasons on inertia more than anything, and then the shows took a break and the inertia ran out. When I don't see how a story can end in a satisfying way anymore and I'm being asked to restart my interest after a break point to come back for that bad ending, it's a hard sell. But I have just enough affection for Arrow left to see if I can do it one more time;
But I'm damn certain I'm going to hate a lot of this.
Crisis on Infinite Earths ep 1 (Supergirl)
There's a part of me that wants to pull this apart moment by moment and point out every place it does something badly; but I'd have to watch it more than once to do that kind of review, so I won't.
I wouldn't even call this a terrible episode, but it's empty and I know enough to know that even the weightier moments don't fully pay off to carry the weight they could have. I will however say that it feels like every page of the script was written by someone different so it has no solid through-line. In some ways that might even seem like a good idea, as it's sort of like the writers for each show were around so that the individual stories were maintained (to enough extent to pass); but because each set of writers only seems to care about their own set of characters there wasn't much cross-over.
Like, wouldn't it have made sense for Oliver to talk to Clark? The man who left his family behind to save the multi-verse able to sympathize with what Clark is going through? What about Barry talking to Lena since he knows more about crossing dimensions that Alex? What about Oliver giving Kate some tips on being a street level hero with a secret identity? They try to have a talk between Oliver and Barry but Oliver talks to demigods now so we just have another argument with the Monitor.
Also, the side-quest to Earth-16 was badly done. That is not the world the Legends went to back in s1, clearly not the Oliver they met since he knew Sara was alive and with the Legends, I can't even tell that it's set in the future since it seems so much like the present. The only reason to say it's that world is to explain why Sarah goes with Lois but I think there has to be a better reason for it. And the scene between Oliver-16 and Sara I have mixed feelings about, as I do see some of the reason for it, in that since this story is killing off Oliver we see that while he may not live as long as this Oliver (again assuming it was 2046 and not 2019, couldn't tell from his look) he lived a lot more life. But they spend a little too much time on the scene for it not to come back through the rest of this plotline. As in, maybe this wasn't the death the Monitor saw for Oliver because they were going to replace our Oliver with Oliver-16 to carry out the final sacrifice or something.
So far, no one seems to have an actual story in this plot, it's just a collection of things that happen but there's very little character or connective tissue. And sure, Oliver's death got me a little choked up,but it didn't exactly feel earned; maybe if I was watching it with the events of s8 fresher in mind it would, but I don't even think that.
And the less said about how three billion refugees are going to manage on Earth 1, the better. I bet none of the series actually deal with that (I don't quite understand how things fall at the end so maybe it's less of an issue by then). Also the fact they had the ships to transport that many people, even packed in I don't see how that would work.
Crisis on Infinite Earths ep 2 (Batwoman)
So this was basically sub-plots the episode and I'm pretty sure there was little to no point to any of them. I think they're all pretty bad actually, and the story as a whole still feels empty, There is a little more attempt at character work, but it's the wrong time for it as they've now established the threat. Maybe I would like it a bit more if any of the fanservice elements worked for me; or maybe not because even the ones I might feel a reaction to, I don't. The most fanservice fun I got was guessing why they picked the earth numbers they did.
This episode starts off writing Lyla as Lyla when it's been set up that she's not Lyla anymore. Also I don't see the point in bringing AU-Mick into this since I doubt they'll actually do anything with him (it seems possible that the original Legends contracts had them obligated to appear in crossovers, but the cast added since s1 no longer has those contracts...or the original cast has extra contracts involved since they started on other shows but the later additions didn't), and they kind of can't since it's not really our Mick. I have no idea why Iris is here as she serves no point in the story; they basically needed Lois or Iris, not both. And why not keep Brainy around? I didn't even like him that much, but he would seem useful; probably J'onn too.
On the quest for Superman plot, nothing makes sense. Right from the start they probably should have given a reason why the Kryptonian who's lost more than anyone should endure doesn't apply to the Clark who just had his universe destroyed. Not that that Clark seems to have any any emotions besides occasional moping (I thought he was better in the past, but that's faded enough that I'm largely going on what's here), but it probably should have been raised. The stopover in Smallville would have been more interesting if it brought anything new to the table. A Superman who'd give up on being Superman for the sake of his family is basically the kind of man we already had in the story; plus still mopey. And it's not as if encountering this Clark, one who had known him for years, had an effect on Lex. And the Superman fight was just pathetic. And not just the effects were pretty bad; since it meant nothing it accomplished nothing. It didn't establish why this Clark was the one to be the Paragon, they just sort of decided he was, then there was an unneeded fight, then they got on with things. And Iris served truly no point; I don't even dislike Iris, but why is she here?
On the Bat of the future plot, it's just badly written. I need to do a big point about how terribly this story is handling the idea of destiny playing a role in this, but that might be too big for right now. Last season I seem to remember Kate and Kara having chemistry, and that I almost liked the introduction of Kate even if I hated the way it was handled so much; but I hate these people right now. Also I'm pretty sure this makes the timelines ridiculous, if they worked with Kate 'last year' but she's only been Batwoman a few months. It does remind me why I got so frustrated with Kara back when I watched Supergirl; the story always conforms to her beliefs, never challenges them, and makes it seem like having her belief in something is some kind of divine blessing. I think Kate/the writing with her has some of the same problems, but I have more history noticing it with Kara. And the end is annoying for the Monitor to decide now that the words apply to Kate; the Monitor is dumb.
On the resurrection plot, it feels like they're just killing time, but not giving it time. I always find it funny how little the crossovers actually care about Barry; I mean, I hate Barry so I don't mind that we don't get much of him, but it's kind of comical here. I feel like either, Barry and Kara should have been upset by Oliver sacrificing himself for them, even if they tried to fix it in different ways, or we needed a bit more insight into why Barry's so consumed by it. I get Mia, she's young and it's her dad who she never really knew because he dies on this mission and she wants to change that. I get Sara, always warning them that there are dangers in what they're doing, but Oliver never stopped fighting for her so she'll keep trying for him (I don't quite understand why they put a fair amount of emphasis on reminding us of Quentin's death but didn't do anything with it); plus it doesn't seem like she has anything more important to do at the moment. But this action feels like it should be either (or both) more emotionally driven than we spend time seeing, or more plot driven since we're told it seems Oliver was supposed to play a different role in this Crisis.
Also, it probably would gave been better if they didn't have the Waverider for some reason right now, if they have time travel and apparently easy inter-dimensional travel, there is a lot more they could be doing than they are. And if the only reason they needed the Waverider in the plot was for Ray's lab, send him to Star Labs and call it good enough. And since the only other reason it had to do this was was for Mick to babysit while Lois went with Clark, it would have been easy enough to say the baby was with Joe if they were hanging around Central City; and that could have at least a bit explained how Iris got involved.
To cycle back to the beginning of the episode; the toasting Oliver scene doesn't work for me because Kara barely knew Oliver and Kate basically didn't. Yeah we needed some scene of acknowledging Oliver's death, but there should have been more thought put into how and where to do it. That's kind of the problem with this whole story, maybe this whole universe a lot of the time.
And you know what, the more I think about it, I want Rip in this story. I know Darville and the DCCW are never ever getting back together, but it would have been a lot more moving if they went to pick up a version of the Waverrider where Rip was the only one left. A Rip who had lost the Legends (even in terms of one died and he kicked the others out because he couldn't do it anymore) would be as drunk and broken as Mick (there could have been cake...in fact this could have been Doomworld Rip), and it would have had more weight to his appearance. Of course I probably would have had the dead Legend be Sara so we'd have a reunion between a Sara who lost Rip and a Rip who lost Sara (might have worked with Ray having died and would have been a bit less the same as Bruce's issues, but also wouldn't have had the same appeal to my shipping).
But really, destiny is dumb; and this story is dumb for using it; and even dumber for not using it well.
