The Flash

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Slowing down with superhero fatigue

Score: 7/10

Ezra Miller Adjusted Score: 4/10

 

          I always pride myself in separating outside factors and judging a film on its merits; however, there is simply so much noise that led up to The Flash that it was impossible not for it to factor into my viewing experience. This includes the current state of DC and how James Gunn is pressing restart on the universe, and there’s the incredible controversy of star Ezra Miller’s problematic arrests and misbehavior leading up to release. If you want to research more into this yourself, you have the internet at your fingertips. So with all that being said, how was The Flash? Honestly, it’s an entertaining experience. Cameos galore of current and former superheroes fill up yet another multiverse movie. The shine that films like Spider-Man: No Way Home brought with the possibilities of bringing past actors back from dormant franchises has diminishing returns a few years later. Even still, The Flash fully warrants a 7/10 with a great supporting cast of characters, some fun action, and—and this is where I think people refused to give the film its props—an honestly pretty great and funny duo performance by star Ezra Miller.

          We start off quick with Ezra’s Barry Allen trying to keep his protein intake to par with the amount of running his superhero duties require, and that gets interrupted by a hospital on the verge of collapse. Batman’s Alfred calls him into action while explaining how the rest of the Justice League heroes are off elsewhere—and, well, at this rate, won’t ever be back… Ben Affleck’s Batman is chasing down some baddies, leaving some literal cleanup duty to Flash. I saw some articles about the director having to defend the visuals while Flash is in his superspeed mode and how if the audience thought it looked off that it was intentional. Well, that’s for sure some bs. Many aspects of the superspeed look fine, but when we get to a maternity ward with a dozen babies falling stories to their death, boy oh boy are those some ugly babies. Uglier than the unseen Seinfeld baby. Worse than the American Sniper fake baby. These are some creepy extraterrestrial little poopers. But there’s also some really funny ideas implemented on how Flash can save them—like transporting one baby in a microwave only to hear that “Ding!” when Flash saves them and signifies it’s safe to take the baby out the microwave.

I won’t say too much about the different characters that appear, but Affleck is only here for the opening, and he honestly has some super solid fatherly advice to give Barry. They bond over tragic parental stories, and while Bruce Wayne has come to terms on how that grief formed for better and worse who he is today, Barry remains fixated on the idea that his dad doesn’t have to be in jail for falsely being accused of murdering his mom if Barry could simply change one aspect of the past of that formative day. Very similar to say Peter Parker, the nerdy Barry struggles with human interaction, is funny in a very dorky way, and closes himself off to the issues that faces Barry because the issues Flash deals with feel more important. So it doesn’t take much self-convincing for Flash to speed up fast enough to travel into the past. He goes back to the day his mom died, catalyzing the self-referenced butterfly effect, and then when he tries to return to present day, something happens and Barry finds himself back in time by about 12 years.

Needless to say, in this time period, there’s another Barry Allen that grew up significantly differently. And it’s not just Barry that is different, this of course, is a whole new multiverse where characters like Batman exist but are different from what present-day Barry knows. So a couple things to discuss. One, the way Ezra Miller plays both present and younger Barry is so much fun to watch, and he truly encapsulates who the character of The Flash is supposed to be. Younger Barry brings plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to this much lighter DC franchise. What we also take for granted is simply how they filmed this. This is not the first time an actor has played multiple characters that appear on-screen at the same time, but this is seamless. Yes, they do themselves favors by having plenty of shots where the two Barry’s are on opposite sides of the frame and don’t cross to make it easy to simply shoot things twice, or they have the backside of one so Ezra can play Barry while looking at a stunt double or a stand-in. And this big budget film also uses plenty of full CGI replacements for the action scenes. But there’s also a lot of quick dialogue and interactions that the two Barry’s have with each other that is executed flawlessly. There is lots of issues with the visuals including the multiverse realm that Flash uses to travel through time that weirdly decides to use CGI for all of the characters and truly looks plastic/claylike. There’s plenty of other rubber-looking movements in small chunks noticeable throughout, but the way they have two Flash characters is a highlight. A couple years back there was a middling Seth Rogen film called An American Pickle that took the two characters-one actor concept to a new level, and this rivals what they achieved there.

Also highlighted heavily in the trailer is Michael Keaton reprising his role as Batman to fulfill the funky multiversal element of this film. There’s easy callouts to his iconic lines, costumes, and gadgets, but there’s also clever Easter eggs too. For example, they convince this older, retired Bruce Wayne to help them find who they think will be Clark Kent/Superman to take care of Zod (the villain from Man of Steel once again played my Michael Shannon). And as Batman glides down through the night, his outline takes the classic bat shape against a full moon background as Danny Elfman’s iconic score plays; even though I’m tiring from multiverse movies and bringing back older actors, I’m not cold-hearted enough not to feel the joy this brings, like thinking back to wearing light-up Velcro sneakers.

Sasha Calle plays Supergirl here, and I would definitely be interested in seeing her in future DC projects. This film is filled with lots of action, some good, some that feels more of the same, CGI action that has dulled the genre over roughly the last 5 years. And part of me is happy to see the integration of so many other superheroes making this like a Justice League Lite kind of film because it allows Flash to shine but doesn’t force his character to carry the film. But it’s impossible to see the other heroes and the cameos of other characters without feeling a little annoyed inside knowing that this could very well be the last time we see some actors portray these characters. There’s even the thought of what could’ve been if Cyborg could’ve been in the film if not for the behind-the-scenes drama between DC executives and the Cyborg star. By the time we reach the end, we haven’t broken ground on new ideas or themes. And unlike how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 put bows on its characters so well knowing that this was their last adventure as a crew, you get nothing of the sort here. It’s like taking a shot of ranch after eating a decent dinner. The bad ick of too much stays with you, and there’s no dessert to look forward to, leaving ranch dripping down the side of your lips. I really believe this film received the mixed reception that it did because people didn’t separate art and artist and were determined to hate on this film no matter what. The state of DC, the visuals, and not finishing the story are all valid issues of The Flash. But if you want some fun callbacks to DC of days ago and a light superhero film bolstered by the very funny Ezra Miller pulling double duty, this is still an entertaining film and actually one of the better DC installments. Flash was one of my favorite heroes growing up, and coming from that somewhat biased perspective, I left happy that this movie entertained me.