Main cast: Ezra Miller (Barry Allen/The Flash), Sasha Calle (Kara Zor-El/Supergirl), Michael Shannon (General Zod), Ron Livingston (Henry Allen), Maribel Verdú (Nora Allen), Kiersey Clemons (Iris West), Antje Traue (Faora-Ul), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Patty Spivot), Rudy Mancuso (Albert Desmond), Ed Wade (The Court Reporter), and Michael Keaton (Bruce Wayne/Batman)
Director: Andy Muschietti
This is likely an unpopular opinion, heh, but that’s okay, I’m no stranger to it: I can see why the misguided fools in Warner Bros thought The Flash could revive the the DCEU from ignominy.
Sure, the story is a knock-off of sorts of Peter Parker’s origin story, with Barry Allen’s father Henry incarcerated in prison after being found guilty of the murder of Barry’s mom Nora. However, it has plenty of opportunities for pathos.
Our hero knows that his father is innocent, however, and in this movie, having come into his powers, he decides to go back in time to try to change the past, so that his mother would never be murdered and all would be well as a result.
As these things always go, unintended consequences happen. It’s not just the present day Barry losing his powers even as his 2013 version gains his. There’s a different Batman now, no one knows where Wonder Woman or Superman are, and Aquaman doesn’t exist. No one cares about Cyborg because the actor is still waiting for an apology from Warner Bros over some weird reason that he never gets into detail about.
Anyway, the lack of a Justice League is an issue because General Zod is coming to throw a party on Earth…
The singularly unattractive Ezra Miller gets to play Barry Present and Past, so it’s two of him for the price of one admission ticket. You’d think they would at least pad his ass in the costume since he’s going to be showing it a lot here, but no, it’s flat alley all the way. I’d think they would also teach him how to run properly this time around, but again, no.
Barry Allen is the weakest link here, because he has MCU-titis: the character can’t stop quipping even when he should be weeping. Sure, there are a few moments when he goes into a more emotional mode and Mr Miller gets to say some lines in a normal human manner, but then ten seconds are up and it’s back to quip-quip-quip again.
Then there is the CGI. Sure, the people behind the eye-diarrhea atrocities claim that the whole thing is deliberately bad, but unless the ghastliness is meant to represent the emotional state of Ezra Miller when he starts choking his female victims, I can only conclude that these people want to hurt me if they were being honest.
However, the story itself is actually intriguing, even if the potential for pathos and emotional catharsis are mostly lost due to the lead character being a quip generator. It’s well structured and paced to the point that its almost two and a half hour runtime zips past quickly without much downturn of momentum.
The stars of the show are Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle. Sure, Mr Keaton is predictably solid in his role as the OG Batman in a post-Adam West era, but Sasha Calle manages to make Kara Zor-El sympathetic and likable. I initially expected a cringe-generating snotty girlboss or some rehash of the character from the now-cancelled TV series, but this Supergirl is a completely different, tough, and likable strong female character that doesn’t feel like a one-dimensional Mary Sue like so many female characters are these days.
The original intention of this latest script iteration of The Flash is clearly meant to set a new reboot, which sees Batman being Michael Keaton again while Supergirl takes the place of Superman, and it’s very apparent. However, I find myself thinking that I won’t mind such a reboot at all… not that it is ever going to happen, of course, as they decide to retool DCEU into DCU so that James Gunn can cast all his family and friends as DC characters.
Nicolas Cage as Hairy Superman is terrifying to look at, but still, I’d take him over Ezra Miller any day. Mr Cage is one of the many fanservice elements in this movie, but the only one that truly works, if you ask me, is the casting of Mr Keaton. The rest of the fanservice stuff is crammed in like stuffing in a sausage, and doesn’t add much to the overall plot. This is no Spider-man: No Way Home-tier level of fanservice, in other words.
Anyway, it’s a shame that this movie is left for dead even before it is released, as James Gunn announcing that he’s in charge of the DCU now and he will throw everything in the existing DCEU only serves to make it obsolete before it even hits the theaters.
This is because it is actually in many ways a solid superhero film. Sure, Ezra Miller is hard to watch, and the CGI isn’t any better, but the rest of it is a nice throwback to the days when superhero films have an entertaining story to tell.
