The Flash review

The DCEU is dribbling to a close. With James Gunn set to oversee a total reboot of everything, we are getting a final few movies that were already made, but which also likely have no connection to whatever comes next. 

The Flash is very much still a part of that lame duck Snyderverse. It shares actors, a lot of its visual style, and plot points. 

I've been mostly indifferent to this cinematic universe for a while now, and have barely cared about any of these since the first Wonder Woman. But I had some high hopes for The Flash. I'm more familiar with the character thanks to the just ended TV series, so when this film promised a version of Flashpoint I knew what that meant.

Mostly I was into this because it was bringing back Michael Keaton as Batman, and introducing the ridiculously gorgeous Sasha Calle as Supergirl. Less into the actual star, Ezra Miller, who has been on a rather incredible self-destruction bender.

I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that The Flash is ultimately an incredibly messy mixed bag, given how long it took to finally get made and then everything that happened afterwards. What does surprise though is how the good and the bad are not what I expected.

I was way into this movie early on. We get a very well done opening set piece with Flash (Barry Allen) having to save people (babies!) from a collapsing building. We get Ben Affleck's Batman, and a Gal Gadot cameo (which elicited what can only be described as a wolf howl from someone at my screening).

As the plot proper starts to kick in, Flash's dad (Ron Livingston recast from Billy Crudup) is having a longshot appeal to get him out of prison over the death of his wife. Flash has just recently discovered that he can travel back in time, so he gets the idea to go back in time and save his mom and also his dad.

So, okay, solid enough start. But then the movie starts to fall apart and make some bad choices. Flash does the deed, and saves his mom, but returns to not quite the present day. He encounters an alternate Barry, who is not only not Flash but who is a bleeping idiot. Alternate Barry is a complete moron, which leads to a whole lot of bad comedy that really drags the movie down. 

Also, through circumstances alternate Barry gets Flash powers but then "our" Barry loses his, so there is a tedious section of the film where new Barry has to learn how to be Flash. Some of the comedy here works a little better, but again, we're off track.

Turns out the time Barry came to is the exact point in time that Michael Shannon's General Zod came to earth way back in Man Of Steel. But there is no Wonder Woman, no Aquaman, no Cyborg, and possibly no Superman. Ah but there IS a Batman. 

So here is where the Barrys go to Wayne Manor to find Bruce Wayne. Now, the marketing was all about telling us this was going to be Keaton, so there was no suspense there. I simply awaited the coolness. 

But that coolness was replaced by a truly awful scene in which the Barrys get in a fight with what is basically a hobo version of Bruce. Long hair, long beard. It was like the Mandarin reveal in Iron Man 3. What is this? How is this what you choose to do for his 1st scene in 31 years as this iconic character? 

It gets better. Keaton loses the hair and beard right away, but why intro him in such a stupid way? This was worse than Fat Thor. And in general Keaton doesn't seem all that interested in being there. 

Bruce helps the Barrys locate what they think is the location where Superman is being held. So they head to the arctic to get him. We get some cool Batman gadgetry stuff. They do a pretty decent job of keeping it more grounded than other Batmans. We get a little of the Elfman score. 

But, as we also knew going in, they don't find Superman. Instead they find Supergirl. She helps them all escape. Good start, but then Calle speaks. And she is SO wooden. Like, totally lifeless. Now, she looks incredible, but as an actress she is a zero. Admittedly the writing does her no favors. She briefly wants nothing to do with stopping Zod then 5 minutes later changes her mind. It's such a letdown.

It all leads up to the big confrontation with Zod and his army, and as action climaxes go it isn't bad. Better than Man Of Steel. Supergirl is cool in battle at least, even if the emotional beats flop. Batman stuff is cool. Original Barry has his powers back by this point so we get the 2 Flashes fighting together.

And of course Barry realizes that he has to go and undo his original act, and let his mom die. That emotional beat really does work. The scene with Barry and.his mom is genuinely effective. 

Before everything is tied up though we get a visualization of what Barry's actions are doing to all the other timelines. And we get CGI cameos from the Christopher Reeve Superman, the original TV Flash, and the Nicolas Cage Superman fighting a giant spider, which I'm sure made Jon Peters smile somewhere. (Kevin Smith fans know the story well) And at the very end of the movie we get one of the all time "I never thought this person would play this role again" cameos.

The fan service really is just fan service this time. Little of it impacts the story at all. This film has the immense misfortune of coming out right after Across The Spiderverse, which did almost all of this same stuff but did it way better and with way more creativity.

Surprisingly, the least of the movie's issues is Ezra Miller. They're a good actor, and show way more life than anyone else in the film. I highly doubt given all the real life drama that we will ever see them as Flash again. Why deal with it? But I liked Miller much more here than in either version of Justice League.

The Flash has moments where it rises to the level I hoped it would. But it ends up like so much of the DCEU. Lots of potential, but poor execution. I'm ready for James Gunn to just hit the reset.