CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS: Legacy of Oliver Queen

[bionicbob]

From the Fan Editor that brought you:
INVASION! EARTH-X! ELSEWORLDS! COUNTDOWN!
The Final Chapter is here!

The CRISIS has arrived!

The Multiverse is under attack and only the Heroes of the Arrowverse can save the day.
Bionic Bob takes the 5 part CW television event and unites it into a single epic movie experience!

DC Comics 1985's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARHTS is probably the most impactful series I ever read in my teen formative years. It was the first comic to ever make be cry. Twice! It is the Gold Standard of epic comic book crossovers.

The CW Arrowverse adaptation was an ambitious television event that it succeeded more than it failed. My intent with this fan edit is to unite the 5 separate episodes into a single movie, while expanding the narrative scope slightly with some additional cameos and comic book moments. I also cut out many unneeded comedic bits to maintain tone and cut scenes for pacing. Most importantly, I wanted to keep Oliver Queen impact on the Arrowverse as the emotional core.

Worlds Will Live! Worlds Will Die! Let the last Arrowverse Crossover Begin!

17 GB MP4 file. PM me if interested.

 

[bionicbob]

5 episodes (not counting the Black Lightning Episode or Arrow finale) x 42 minutes each = 210 minutes
ADDED 10 Minutes
CUT 24 Minutes
RUNTIME: 196 Minutes

CUT/CHANGE LIST
--this list is in no way complete, it just the more obvious big edits or the ones I can remember ha ha!
--Removed all commercial breaks, cropped/zoomed out title cards
--Divided movie into 5 Chapters
--Created Earth designation title cards (I will not miss making those.. ugh!)
--tons of trims, new music cues, rearranged scenes, etc..

Hour One
--CUT Monitor Prologue
--REARRANGE scenes, open with Oliver and Mia
--ADDED Earths 89. 41 and 78 with rescored music, moved Earth-9 and X to later, again rescored
--CUT out of place humour moments (ie. talking to rabbits)
--CUT Earth-16 continuity error
--CUT Ray and Kate gag
--ADDED Oliver flashback to Earth-2 destruction
--TRIMMED Alex's dialogue with Lena
--CUT Brainy and J'onn scene
--REARRANGE Battle of Quantum Tower with two cut away scenes
--CUT Ray upgrading Kate's batarang
--TRIMMED and RESCORED Oliver's first death scene. No deathbed guilt bomb.

Hour Two
--ADDED Pariah deleted scene
--CUT Kara, Sara and Kate toasting Oliver
--CUT alternate Earth-74 Waverider
--CUT all A.I. Snart
--CUT "crossover" joke
--CUT references to Felicity's mission and Book of Oa
--CUT Kate "who wants to meet Batman"
--ADDED Potential Paragons (thanks Dave Kerin!!!)
--ADDED Earth-88 scene
--REARRANGED many scenes for pacing
--ADDED Harbinger deleted scene
--CUT Kate and Kara's post-mission conversation

Hour Three
--ADDED and RESCORED Earth-203, 52, 12 and 19
--CUT Team Flash arrival on the Waverider
--REARRANGED/TRIMMED many scenes for pacing with new audio and/or establishing shots for transitions
--ADDED Black Lightning recruitment; rescored and audio rebuild
--ADDED Flash-90 flashbacks
--ADDED Spectre teleportation green flash
--ADDED Barry and Iris love theme
--CUT all A.I. Snart

Hour Four
--ALTERED music for Maltus/Anti-Matter Universe scene
--CUT Miller Flash
--CUT Barry's reference to Oliver's death bed guilt bomb
--ADDED Hand of Creation
--RESCORED/AUDIO REBUILD Oliver's second death

Hour Five
--TRIM/RESCORE/AUDIO REBUILD Kara and Lex news conference
--CUT Sara arriving in Star City
--TRIMMED J'onn meeting Sara and Ray
--CUT Sara's first meeting with Team Arrow
--CUT all "crossover" references
--CUT Microverse trademark joke
--CUT second Nash scene
--CUT President's speech
--CUT Oliver's new multiverse scene
--ADDED/RESCORED Oliver's funeral with additional legacy moments
--CUT Gleek reference, replaced it with something else lol
--ADDED custom comic book End Credits
--ADDED Mid-Credit scene
--ADDED Post-Credit scene

 

[bionicbob]

Here are few sample clips:

Dialogue removal of Felicity and the Book of Oa:

Commercial Removal:

Adding Black Lightning:

 

[bionicbob]

A small sampling of my CRISIS Collection.

As I have previously stated, the impact this 1985 maxi-series had on me is immeasurable.
It is Wolfman and Perez at the top of their game.
And it set the Gold Standard for all Epic Crossovers Events to follow.

Though it could be argued that the main comic lines now are too Event driven. Always chasing that sale bump in a declining market place. But that is another story.

It is interesting though, one of the reasons DC originally greenlit COIE was because of declining sales. When Wolfman pitched the series (Wolfman was not a fan of the DC Multiverse concept, feeling DC's almost 50 years of history was too convoluted), DC was struggling at the spinner rack. The concept was simple, do a massive salute to DC's history, but end it on a clean slate to relaunch/recreate/reboot the DCU. And the Powers That Be agreed to the pitch.

But preparation for the project took over two years, during which DC experienced a Renaissance. New blood and new ideas, had made DC a force to be reckoned with once again. Thus, by the time CRISIS premiered in '85, there was a great divide between the editorial powers over how COIE should play out.
The idea of starting the entire DCU over from scratch no longing seamed appealing, especially when DC had many titles now selling in the Top Ten or Twenty.
So the Powers That Be switched gears. The best selling titles (like Batman) were basically left unscathed while other series like Superman and Wonder Woman were completely revamped. While this did lead to some incredible new stories, it defeated the original intent of cleaning of the DCU's continuity. If anything, it just made things even more confusing. And nearly 40 years later, DC is still dealing with the aftermath of those editorial decisions.

But the actual maxi-series remains an incredible read. Full of drama, rich character beats, heart break, heroism, sacrifice and wonder.
It is Magic of another age.

 

[bionicbob]

COIE The Legacy of Oliver Queen runtime is 3 Hours 16 Minutes.

But my original cut was much, much shorter. Over an hour shorter.

Before I embarked on creating the COIE prequel COUNTDOWN, I did a quickie cut of Crisis on Infinite Earths, in order to figure out what plot points I would need to set up in Countdown.

In this original cut, I removed all of the Oliver subplots from Hours Two, Three and Four.
--No resurrection
--No soul quest
--No Jim Corrigan
--No lost in the Speed Force (along with no side trip to Maltus either)
--Oliver dies in Hour One and then returns as the Spectre in Hour Four at Vanishing Point and transports the team to the Dawn of Time.

While this cut technically worked in terms of pacing and narrative, there was something missing that I could not quite put my finger on.

But once I began to work on COUNTDOWN, it all became clear. For while I crafted Countdown, and it grew and grew beyond my original plan (went from 90 minutes to 5 hours over 2 parts lol), I fell in love all over again with the Arrowverse in general, and Oliver's arc in particular. Oliver Queen is the soul of the Arrowverse and his adventure is the heart of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Thus, I knew, for me, that Oliver's story had to be reinstated into my COIE cut.
Once you take away all the cosmic shattering moments and crossover guest stars, what you are left with is Oliver's Story.
His Journey.
His Impact.
His Legacy.

I hope viewers will feel the same way.

 

[ArtisDead]

What you have done here is amazing! Love the trailer!

 

[bionicbob]

I can not believe it has already been a year since we lost the legendary George Perez to cancer. Too young, too soon.

Tomorrow, June 9th, would have been his 69th birthday.

 

[bionicbob]

must. buy. now.

 

[bionicbob]

June 12th -- Happy Superman Day!

 

[bionicbob]

@drvrjon THANK YOU for you review!

...if you love the arrowverse crossovers, you are in for a treat with this one. this is the wrap up to Oliver Queen's story and rebirth of the multiverse. the story flows better without the extra clutter in the way, there are some nice little easter eggs to find as you watch it.

I am so happy to hear that the Easter Eggs worked for you. That was a big challenge for me. As I did not want to throw in an extra dozen cameos or comic book callbacks just because I can and then throw off the pacing of the narrative or making it any longer than necessary. So hopefully my choices will satisfy both the casual viewer and long time DC fan.

 

[bionicbob]

A Who's Who moment brought to you by BionicBob...

 

[DirtyCop1036]

It was a blast from start to finish, absolutely loved it! And I finally had the answer I was looking for...

Reveal message

Kingdom Come Brandon Routh is Christopher Reeve's Superman, I loved the callback to the personality split from Superman 3. Also, that Lucifer cameo was just fun as hell. It would've been so cool to have a proper Constantine follow-up, where we could've learned more about their shared history.

I was blown away lately by one of the best action sequences I've ever saw in any piece of TV media.

If @bionicbob is planning to explore the origins of the Green Arrow one day, I hope he'll find some place for the scene above.

 

[bionicbob]

I absolutely recommend the Saga as a whole, not just COIE. Passionate edits, from a passionate fan.

@DirtyCop1036 THANK YOU SO MUCH for your passionate review!!!

Using footage from old DC media to serve the plot was one of my favorite part of the edit. It was so satisfying to see BionicBob and Wakeupkeo find a useful purpose to that godawful Green Lantern movie.

I am in the minority, but I mostly like the Green Lantern movie. Yes, the CGI costume was a terrible choice, Reynolds plays it too smart alex-y, and Parrallax does not fully work (as with most CGI third act villains).. BUT... the story is exceptionally faithful to the source material ( it is co-written by Geoff Johns) and there is some well intentioned heart underneath all the mess LOL. Guggenheim and Berlanti love the character. So much so, the littered lots of Green Lantern Easter Eggs throughout he Arrowverse, including a sort of Hal Jordan cameo. So it felt very appropriate to me that he finally make an onscreen appearance.

I was blown away lately by one of the best action sequences I've ever saw in any piece of TV media.

While many hail Netflix's DAREDEVIL for it's fight scenes, I have always maintained that ARROW had the best over all action choreography of any show. Daredevil just repeats the same thing over and over, and what was once exciting quickly became boring for me. But Arrow was always pushing the envelope, always trying new things... it was always dynamic. It is amazing considering the limited time and budget that went into the show.

If @bionicbob is planning to explore the origins of the Green Arrow one day, I hope he'll find some place for the scene above.

I will be returning to Green Arrow's origins this Winter, but next up will be a SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN Retron-Redux and a Star Trek fan edit.

 

[DirtyCop1036]

I am in the minority, but I mostly like the Green Lantern movie. Yes, the CGI costume was a terrible choice, Reynolds plays it too smart alex-y, and Parrallax does not fully work (as with most CGI third act villains).. BUT... the story is exceptionally faithful to the source material ( it is co-written by Geoff Johns) and there is some well intentioned heart underneath all the mess LOL. Guggenheim and Berlanti love the character. So much so, the littered lots of Green Lantern Easter Eggs throughout he Arrowverse, including a sort of Hal Jordan cameo. So it felt very appropriate to me that he finally make an onscreen appearance.

I actually love Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, despite him constantly mocking his role. I thought that he was great. My main problem is that the movie is rushed in almost everything; Parallax being the main antagonist rather than Hector Hammond. Sinestro being underused and later showcased as the big next threat without even establishing a strong bond between him ans Hal. Waller's forced backstory condensed into a single 10secs flashback.... lots of stuff that deserved to be fleshed out, but that was dumped in expositions.
Also for a Green Lantern film, I was disappointed by the lack of complex constructs. Some are fun, the race circuit especially, but they aren't showing us something genuinely breathtaking.
Same complaint for ZSJL, they had a Lantern, but the only thing he was capable of was projecting laser beams.

While many hail Netflix's DAREDEVIL for it's fight scenes, I have always maintained that ARROW had the best over all action choreography of any show. Daredevil just repeats the same thing over and over, and what was once exciting quickly became boring for me. But Arrow was always pushing the envelope, always trying new things... it was always dynamic. It is amazing considering the limited time and budget that went into the show.

I really like the Daredevil show, but the fight scenes are kinda boring as you said. I mean, it's Daredevil for crying out loud, where's the acrobatics, the backflips, the billy club that turns into a grappling? The CW with their limited budget managed to show more impressive stunts than a Netflix/MCU series for that matter.
I'm not afraid to say that Ben Affleck was by far a more comics accurate depiction of Daredevil.

But, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, I freaking LOVE the Punisher action scenes, the over-the-top violence of the fatalities drove me nuts.

 

[bionicbob]

I actually love Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, despite him constantly mocking his role. I thought that he was great. My main problem is that the movie is rushed in almost everything; Parallax being the main antagonist rather than Hector Hammond. Sinestro being underused and later showcased as the big next threat without even establishing a strong bond between him ans Hal. Waller's forced backstory condensed into a single 10secs flashback.... lots of stuff that deserved to be fleshed out, but that was dumped in expositions.
Also for a Green Lantern film, I was disappointed by the lack of complex constructs. Some are fun, the race circuit especially, but they aren't showing us something genuinely breathtaking.
Same complaint for ZSJL, they had a Lantern, but the only thing he was capable of was projecting laser beams.

I really like the Daredevil show, but the fight scenes are kinda boring as you said. I mean, it's Daredevil for crying out loud, where's the acrobatics, the backflips, the billy club that turns into a grappling? The CW with their limited budget managed to show more impressive stunts than a Netflix/MCU series for that matter.
I'm not afraid to say that Ben Affleck was by far a more comics accurate depiction of Daredevil.

But, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, I freaking LOVE the Punisher action scenes, the over-the-top violence of the fatalities drove me nuts.

Great points about Green Lantern! Makes me want to revisit it. But I fully agree, the whole movie feels rushed. It needed another 10-20 minutes to flesh the story and characters out.

LOVED Affleck’s Daredevil!!!

 

[DirtyCop1036]

Found this in the wild, here's another Paragon of courage.

 

[bionicbob]

Found this in the wild, here's another Paragon of courage.

WOW! It is amazing what one can do now with the right tech, skill and patience. Great find!

 

[bionicbob]

JUNE 1963... JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA issue #21 "Crisis on Earth-One"
This is the 60th Anniversary of the first team-up of the JLA and JSA and the beginning of what would become an annual blockbuster event for the next 22 years.

This is where the CRISIS all began.

 

[bionicbob]

A big THANK YOU to @Nic for his review!

Let's dive in, for as always, Nic makes some great observations.

I just remain curious as to whether there’s a way to shave of an extra 20 – 30 minutes while still being coherent.

As I discussed earlier in this thread, I actually did make a version that was about an hour shorter. And technically, it was coherent. But for me, it completely missed the point of what makes COIE magical . The original 1985-86 comic was a seminal moment for me. It is a master class in how to do a massive event comic. And part of the magic of a DC CRISIS event (and again, I am speaking for myself) is all the mini-side quests, the cameos, guest stars and supporting players, crossovers and team-ups -- embracing the unlimited potential of the multiverse. But I can completely understand how the mileage of this style of storytelling will vary for some. If one is looking for a tight, condensed, laser focused fan edit, then this is definitely not it. lol

I think Bob made too good of a trailer for the edit to live up to. With how much focus is put on Oliver & the choice of music, I don't find that the fanedit ever captures that level of intensity.

ha ha ha! Funny story.... I had no plan for this trailer. Zero ideas. I was completely stumped. Except than I had this Deleted Scene of Oliver transforming into the Spectre that I really wanted to use but never found a natural place for it in the edit. So the trailer evolved, or is it revolved, around that scene. I had hoped it would convey thematic tone of the story. Was it misleading? I dunno.... ?

... it was nice to see Conroy in live-action, but time has not been kind to this segment of Crisis (Conroy’s passing, Kate leaving the show, etc.)

Interesting view point. I never thought of it that way. To me, it is just momentary slice of time. Life is always changing. Characters come and go. To me, it does not the impact or detract from the original intent or worth of the story.

,,, the battle at the beginning of time is very climactic, & other than just showing off the new status quo of Earth Prime, you could probably jump straight to Oliver’s official funeral & make for a tighter story/ending.

Those are valid suggestions! For me, it was about maintaining or creating as many moments from the original comic as possible.
So fighting a giant Anti-Monitor on the streets of Star City was Must-Keep.

I cannot stress how good the new montages for Supergirl, Legends, Flash & 90s Flash were

Thanks! I am so glad that worked, as it was really fun to make.

Again Nic, Thank You for taking the time to share your thoughts. You always give me much to think about.

 

[Nic]

As I discussed earlier in this thread, I actually did make a version that was over a hour shorter. And technically, it was coherent.

Well dang, now I'm curious as to what that cut looked like. Call it a reverse-Snyder Cut, lol

...Actually, wait a minute...