After years of development hell (and I mean YEARS); various production delays due to COVID-19; and some very troubling behaviour from lead star, Ezra Miller, Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Flash has finally made its way into cinemas. You thought it was NEVER going to happen (and so did I), but after all the difficulties and hurdles, the movie opens in UK cinemas today and in the US from Friday.
The film – directed by Andy Muschietti – stars the aforementioned Miller, alongside Ben Affleck, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Maribel Verdú, Ron Livingston, and Michael Keaton. Loosely based on the Flashpoint comics, The Flash is a time-twisting action blockbuster, which sees the titular character encounter a world-changing event, after he disrupts the timeline.
In the movie, Barry Allen, aka the Flash, is struggling with his past. When he was a child, his mother was murdered, and his dad was wrongfully arrested and convicted of the crime.
Despite his father’s continued claims that he is innocent, which are backed up by Barry, his dad remains incarcerated. Barry has tried to gather evidence that will exonerate his father, but his latest attempts fall flat.
Frustrated by the situation and upset about his mother’s death, Barry uses his super-speed to travel back through time, to try and change the past. He believes that if he can make one small adjustment to an event which took place prior to her death, he can save her and in turn save his father from a lifetime behind bars.
But shortly after making a quick change in the past, Barry is thrown off course while heading back to the present. This sidestep deposits Barry at another point in time: The exact day he received his super powers AND the exact day General Zod launched a full-scale invasion of Earth.
After meeting up with his parents and an 18-year-old version of himself, Barry comes to realise that while some events remain the same, other things are not quite what they should be. In this reality, there is no Superman, and without Kal-El to protect the planet, General Zod will shortly take over and eradicate all human life.
As Barry is now stuck in a time period prior to the formation of the Justice League, his only hope of stopping Zod is to locate Superman. But before he can do this, he is going to require the help of an alternate version of Batman, who is not quite the Caped Crusader he is familiar with.
As noted above, the release of The Flash has not only been a long time coming, it has also been somewhat of a bumpy ride. In the time since this film was announced, a couple of directors have come and gone; a nine-season Flash TV show starring Grant Gustin has happened; and we’ve all gone through a global pandemic.
In more recent months, The Flash has also become mired in controversy, due to some off-screen behaviour by Ezra Miller. I won’t discuss the issues here – a quick Google search should fill you in – but suffice to say, this has caused additional problems for the picture, especially when it comes to promoting the film around its star.
Oh, and if all of this wasn’t enough, the wheels have pretty much come off the existing DC Extended Universe. The universe is fizzling out and after two more entries (Blue Beetle and an Aquaman sequel), a reboot is imminent.
Following a couple of embarrassing flops (Black Adam, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods); the scrapping of an entire movie for tax reasons (Batgirl); and a messy, high-profile exit (Henry Cavill), the DCEU as we know it is more or less done. It’s all coming to an end later this year, with a bit of a whimper, rather than a bang, which has taken the wind out of The Flash’s sails.
So, the fact The Flash is even in cinemas today seems to be a feat in itself. And it most definitely is in cinemas, because not only have I seen it, I’ve also seen the various spoilers posted on Twitter, by arseholes who caught a preview screening this week and are determined to ruin many of the film’s surprises.
But anyway, Twitter muppets aside, yes, The Flash is here, it has been watched, and the pleasant news is, it’s quite fun at times and is largely a crowd pleaser. General audiences will have a nice time with it, as will fans, and there is a solid script backing up the picture.
But be warned: The Flash is not Earth-shattering, and does suffer a few significant issues. It never crashes and burns, despite all of its backstage problems, but it is a bit wobbly in places.
I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way first. Tonally, The Flash is all over the place; Ezra Miller is quite irritating at times; and the film has some really poor computer-generated special effects.
The movie also could have gone much bigger when it comes to scope and scale. The Flash is not the huge epic it could and should be, considering the DCEU has been in existence for ten years and it’s now nearing an end.
This is pretty evident in its approach to certain references and in-jokes. After watching this film I think it’s pretty clear the writing is on the wall for the DCEU, and everyone is about ready to move on.
In terms of its tone, the film is never quite sure if it wants to be taken seriously, or it just wants to joke around and be goofy. While the gags are funny, they are sometimes at odds with the more weighty material in the picture, and this throws things off balance.
After watching this film, I never want to hear anyone moan about Batman’s Bat-credit card in Batman & Robin ever again. In this film, Bruce Wayne owns a Bat-kite, which is about as daft as it sounds.
With regards to Miller, the actor is also tonally all over the place. There are scenes in The Flash where Miller is giving a note perfect performance, which really helps to convey the emotional heart of the story, and yet at other times, Miller is just plain annoying.
In fairness, the actor does spend the film playing more than one Barry Allen, so Miller flips between performances, but this doesn’t paper over inconsistent characters. And on the subject of inconsistency, boy, this film is visually up and down.
The Flash is CGI heavy, with some of the worst effects seen in a superhero movie for a while. Maybe these effects won’t look so ropey when this film gets a home video release, but on the big screen the CGI just doesn’t stand up.
Bad CGI has become an increasing issue as of late in many films, but in The Flash someone really screwed the pooch. Some of the fun of the third act gets lost in a sea of computer crappery and cringe-inducing imagery and this is a big shame.
The CGI, plus all of the above, are The Flash’s weaknesses. The film does survive these stumbling blocks, and there is plenty of good stuff, but there’s no way of ignoring the issues are there.
OK, onto the good stuff.
Where The Flash gets things right, starts predominately with its story. The Flash has one of the better written scripts in the DCEU, and the story really sells Barry’s internal struggles throughout the film.
While this is a big budget super hero picture, with plenty of action and spectacle, the film’s strength comes from its characters, and its heart. The Flash is essentially a ‘what if?’ story, in which Barry is shown what it is like to live in a world where his one wish comes true, and then he has to live with the consequences.
By adhering to this idea very closely, The Flash never loses sight of what makes Barry tick, why he is a hero, and what makes him human. There are a number of scenes in this picture which really pack an emotive wallop, and none of these get lost amongst all the fight scenes and goofing around.
I mentioned above that Miller is tonally all over the place, but when the actor is doing their best work, it’s when they are focused on the ‘what if’ parts of this movie. The Flash contains some great story beats, which add some depth, and Miller at least gets these parts right.
Sticking with the script, and I am pleased that scriptwriters John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein, and Joby Harold, as well as screenplay writer Christina Hodson, link The Flash to events previously depicted in Man of Steel. By centring The Flash‘s biggest plot point around General Zod’s arrival on Earth, it finally feels like this universe is coming together properly, by building on its own continuity.
I know this is all a little too late, but finally someone at DC/Warner Bros. understands that in order to make a cinematic universe feel real and cohesive, the films need to build off of each other. The Flash does this by making various references to Man of Steel, and once again, this is all good stuff.
OK, so Zod doesn’t do a great deal in the film, and there is a key character missing from the story (i.e. Superman), but by utilising Man of Steel for major plot points The Flash is able to raise its game. Yes, it does feel like this sort of stuff should have been used in a Justice League movie rather than a solo Flash film, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.
Moving beyond the script now, The Flash has two very strong trump cards in Batman and Supergirl. While The Flash boasts multiple characters, some of which audiences will be more than familiar with, it is Batman and Supergirl that steal the show.
And when I say Batman, I am of course referring to Michael Keaton, who puts on the famous cape and cowl for the first time in 31 years. The last time Keaton played the Dark Knight was in 1992’s Batman Returns, but here he reprises the role of Batman for this alternate timeline, and seems to have a great time doing it.
There’s a lot of fun to be had with Keaton back on screen, including a couple of little call-backs to his own Bat-franchise. He also gets to stick around for quite some time too, becoming a big part of this film’s storyline, and it is delightful to see him taking down bad guys and flipping through the air.
It is also a joy to see Sasha Calle in the role of newcomer, Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl. With Superman absent from this timeline, Calle’s Supergirl fills in marvellously as Superman’s cousin, and brings some much needed Kryptonian might to the action.
Whether we get to see Calle again as Supergirl remains to be seen. But her performance in The Flash is excellent, and she is a highlight of the picture.
The Flash also benefits from some multiverse fun, and plenty of comic book shenanigans too. Director Andi Muschietti may not tick every box, but he does his damned hardest to entertain the core fanbase.
Despite some messy parts, The Flash is fun and as summer blockbusters go, there is plenty of enjoyment to be had. It doesn’t quite feel like the A-Grade material it should, and if you’re bringing Keaton back, then A-Grade is what is expected, but it gets more right than it gets wrong.
I don’t believe it is the best adaptation of the Flashpoint comics, that goes to the animated film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, but it is easily one of the strongest films in the DCEU series. I imagine it will bring plenty of smiles (and a few tears) to lots of faces, and this is never a bad thing.
This isn’t ground-breaking stuff, nor is The Flash the movie event of the summer, but it is very likeable. The DCEU might be coming to an end shortly, but at least it offers up something good as we get close to saying farewell.
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