By the 1980s, the Powers That Be decided to tidy up matters. DC enjoyed a variety of “alternate Earths” with many variations on the same character, a confusing mishmash that appeared to turn off neophyte readers.

This led to a mid-1980s 12-issue comic book series called Crisis On Infinite Earths. It simplified matters.

Nearly 40 years later, we get a DC animated adaptation of this narrative. Given the expansiveness involved, this stretches to three different chapters

Part One came out in January 2024, and April brought us Part Two. July 2024’s Part Three finishes matters.

As various Earths undergo elimination due to waves of anti-matter, surviving heroes from these realms come together. They battle the Anti-Monitor (Ato Essandoh), a massively powerful monster aided by super-villain Psycho Pirate (Geoffrey Arend).

This leads to a mix of crazy anomalies such as worlds and eras combined into the same spots at the same time. All of this pushes toward an ultimate confrontation with the Anti-Monitor, one that comes with inevitable casualties.

Fans of the original comic series will know The Big Fatality. Heck, that demise remains so famous that this Blu-ray’s cover shows it!

Stubborn as it may sound, I still won’t spill those beans. But the victim in question will come as a surprise to few, even those who don’t look at the publicity art.

As became the case with Part Two, one cannot enter Part Three without foreknowledge of the prior episodes and figure out the plot or scenarios. This chapter doesn’t even deliver a basic quick-n-dirty summary at the start to remind us what we saw.

Which seems fine, as I find it tough to imagine anyone would come into Part Three cold. That said, viewers might want to rewatch the first two segments before they take in this one just to refresh memories.

That becomes especially true given the complex nature of the narrative. Crisis tosses out a skajillion characters and threads, and these can be a lot to juggle.

Though the cinematic adaptation vastly simplifies the source. Because I’d not read it since the 80s, I went through the original comic in early 2024 to allow me to compare/contrast.

The three-chapter film eliminates lots of characters and plot threads. This became necessary given the massive ambition of the comic.

And I don’t mind it, as I thought the original tale offered a work that rambled all over the place. That version bit off so much that it leaned toward a mess too much of the time.

Albeit one that came together pretty well at the end, with final chapters that packed a punch. The time it took to get there taxed my attention and patience, however.

Part Three comes with the opposite issue. While I appreciate its tighter focus, it can feel “small” too much of the time, so it doesn’t come with the massive climax one anticipates.

Actually, Part Three launches with a bang, and it does come with a lot of action. Nonetheless, it tends to meander a little too often and it doesn’t really stick the landing.

Perhaps this becomes inevitable given the ambitious nature of the source. It seems difficult to tighten up all that material and pack it into one roughly four-and-a-half hour set.

Nonetheless, Part Three doesn’t quite focus as well as I’d like from the final chapter, and the stabs at action don’t compensate. It meanders and never quite finds its groove.

Which makes it a disappointment. I respect the ambition of this three-chapter project just as I admired the scope of the source, but in both cases, both seem too scattered and disjointed to really succeed.

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths – Part Three appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Because the picture and audio of Part Three seemed virtually identical to those of Part Two, please enjoy these lazily regurgitated quality notes!

Sharpness seemed terrific. Virtually no sharpness materialized, so the movie remained accurate and concise.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies materialized, and I saw no edge haloes or noise reduction. Of course, I found no print flaws here.

With the palette of Crisis, we got a pretty broad, vivid set of hues. The colors seemed fine, as they represented their intended schemes.

Blacks were deep and dark, while shadows looked smooth and clear. This became a pretty great image.

When I examined the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Crisis, it created a fine sense of action. The movie packed a fair amount of battles and involving material, and it used the five channels to impart that information in a lively manner.

Explosions and fights filled the channels to create a full spectrum, and quieter elements fleshed out the room as well.

Across the board, the material sounded good. Speech remained distinctive and concise, without edginess, and music seemed vivid and full.

Effects appeared accurate and tight, with clear highs and some powerful lows. All in all, the mix worked nicely.

Two featurettes appear here. A Multiverse of Inspiration runs nine minutes, 23 seconds and brings notes from executive producer Butch Lukic, director Jeff Wamester, writer Jim Krieg, DC Group editor Katie Kubert, DC archivist Benjamin Le Clear and DC writer Geoff Johns.

“Inspiration” covers the various Earths and how Crisis brought together different roles/worlds, with an emphasis on the manner in which the movies brought in prior animated incarnations of characters. It becomes a decent overview, though it leans a bit fluffy.

John and John goes for eight minutes, 21 seconds. It involves Johns, Le Clear, Krieg, Kubert, Wamester, and Lukic.

This featurette focuses on John “Green Lantern” Stewart and John Constantine as depicted in Crisis and the DC animated universe. It becomes an adequate primer.

As the conclusion to an epic, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three becomes a lackluster entry. It seems surprisingly flat and doesn’t present the expected dramatic finale. The Blu-ray comes with strong picture and audio but only minor bonus materials. Part Three ends the series on a forgettable note.