Now this is more like it! This was geek heaven. As I knew it would be, it was the perfect way to cleanse the palette after the disappointment of Justice League. More so than any other crossover The CW has done, this just felt like one big 4 hour movie (well, a 3 hour movie with commercials by the time we see all 4 parts). Tonight’ part one was 2 hours of pure superhero fun. The individual shows don’t even get their typical openings, the title card was only Crisis on Earth-X, which made the whole thing feel a little more special. During last years crossover, there was definitely more of a focus on the characters and the story of each particular show throughout the crossover, like Arrow for example. That’s not the case here at all. This is clearly a movie spread out over 2 nights and the event is far better for it. Personally, I absolutely loved the first night of the annual CW DC Crossover Event. Warner Bros. executives take a look, THIS is how you do an Epic Superhero Team Up Crossover.

Especially if you’ve been watching all of these shows from the beginning like me, the fun little character beats and interactions makes this more than just wall to wall action. Just like the scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron where the team is having a party, just relaxing and they all take turns trying to lift Thor’s hammer. It’s fun just to watch all of these characters play off each other. Even with all of the characters involved, it never felt over crowded. It’s redundant at this point to keep saying this, but every scene with Mick was gold. I love how a man whose literally tried to kill the groom multiple times, was invited to this event (or he just tagged along for the food and free booze). I loved how chill Sarah was about her one night stand with Alex after the rehearsal dinner. Yet another reminder that Sarah is kind of the Han Solo of Legends. I want to keep this review relatively brief, so I wont go into too much more detail, but it was so much fun seeing these heroes work together and fight the bad guys. And who doesn’t enjoy seeing Nazis’ getting their assess kicked?

When it comes to the villains, a big highlight for me is that we got Tom Cavanagh playing Eobard Thawne again. This wasn’t an alternate Earth Thanwne, this is the same man Barry’ s been fighting for his entire life. I’m not sure how it’s possible (and frankly I don’t care) as good as Matt Letscher was as Reverse-Flash, Tom Cavanagh will always be the true Eobard Thawne to me.

 

I thought making Earth-X Oliver and Kara a couple was fun and unexpected. Even in an alternate Earth you would expect someone like Barry to be with Kara, so that relationship was a nice curveball (I’m not 100% sure, but I think they might actually be married).

Of course, I’m sure there were a million fans out there who loved seeing Tommy Merlyn return (even briefly) as Earth-X’s Prometheus. You could really see the pain in Oliver’s face seeing his long dead friend only to lose him all over again. Sure it wasn’t HIS Tommy, but that doesn’t really matter to Oliver in that moment. There were so many moments and Easter Eggs that any DC fan would love to see. Hell, we got to see Metallo show up, like full blown robot, no skin, Metallo. What a treat.

This wasn’t perfect of course. I have one or two nitpicks. Considering the level of the story they’re telling, with a lot of action set pieces and the use of fully CGI characters like King Shark and Metallo, the budget for this undertaking must have been pushed to the max. As a result, some, but not all, of the VFX looks a little rubbery. Also, considering how many doppelgängers were in play, it was sometimes hard to keep track of who’s who in some of the fight sequences.

I should have mentioned it before, but super villains crashing the wedding of a superhero is a staple of the superhero genre. I’m really interested to see who the “modern day Hitler/ leader” of Earth-X is. My guess is Vandal Savage, which is cool on paper, but he was never well liked as a villain on Legends. The comic book version of Vandal Savage is much more interesting . Ras Al Ghul is another possibility. In the comics at least, he wasn’t afraid to use the Nazi’s as a means to an end. But who know? I’m REALLY looking forward to tomorrow night because, so far this is shaping up to be the best Crossover Event they’ ever done with these shows.

Final Grade: A+

Thanks for reading!

Paul