The Flash – Review
144 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by Christina Hodson and Joby Harold
Directed by Andy Muschietti
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film along with last week’s other big release: Elemental, from Disney/Pixar. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.
Oh, boy; here we go.
I don’t need to remind anyone of the controversy and uncertainty surrounding this movie, do I? Good, because I really enjoy talking about movies for what’s IN them instead of the surrounding garbage.
So when it comes to The Flash, there’s a lot of things to talk about.
It’s no spoiler to say that this film is yet another iteration of Flashpoint, in which Barry Allen goes back in time to stop his mother from being killed and his father being unjustly sent to prison for the murder.
So in terms of story, that’s it. Barry’s conversation with Bruce Wayne (the Ben Affleck version) reminds us of the Butterfly Effect, in which even the smallest change can have huge, unforeseen, and unpredictable side-effects.
So of course Barry does it anyway, and we get to watch him deal with not just those effects, but an unexpected early setback, as well.
But is the movie any good?
That’s the $200+ Million question, isn’t it?
In a world where Warner Brothers shelved a nearly completed $200 Million film in Batgirl, why does The Flash, a citizen of the same, now-expired DCEU franchise, get to continue forward?
Sure, it’s got (or starts with) the current crop of superheroes (with one glaring omission), but is that enough?
In a nutshell: yes.
This is not, however, the blockbuster you might have heard it was, though. It’s big in places; bombastic, even, but it relies a bit too much on fan-service and other Easter Egg-type things to keep the audience smiling.
They’ve recast Barry’s dad from Justice League (now played by Ron Livingston instead of Billy Crudup), which could be interpreted as this Barry not being our (primary) Barry, if you know what I mean.
Why is that important? Well, The Flash is already a kind of red-headed step child in terms of cinematic importance, as outlined above. If we presume that the James Gunn led DCU will abandon the DCEU moving forward, what then is the point or import of The Flash?
Nothing.
In a more tangible way, then, The Flash occupies the same narrative place as The New Mutants did when it (finally) released, as 20th Century had already been sold to Disney, that X-Men offshoot was dead, and the movie, whatever its flaws or advantages, meant, ultimately, nothing.
Taken in a vacuum, though, The Flash is the kind of big spectacle movie one should expect from such an ambitious idea. Moreso than Marvel’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, we feel like these temporal/dimensional tweaks have real consequences to our characters as opposed to simply being buzzwords used to gin up fan excitement.
The inclusion of Kara Zor-El instead of Kal-El is logically explained canonically, and no one should have problems with that, except perhaps for her familiarity with her powers when she has been imprisoned from what we must assume would be a very young age. But Sasha Calle is fine embodying Kal’s would-be protector, and her sadness and rage is in full display as the film progresses.
Ezra Miller plays two versions of Barry Allen, neither of which is the one we know from Justice League, as even he has matured from that point. Here, young Barry has already diverged from that Barry because his mother didn’t die. That lack of trauma has an impact. Miller provides both Barry’s with unique voices for us to grab onto.
I don’t need to say how much fun Keaton seemed to be having back in the cowl.
I mentioned fan-service earlier, and without spoiling too much, let’s just say that the number of cameos in this one is impressive in size, if not in impact. The soon-to-be widely known (disrespectful) CGI resurrection of a certain character might wind up overshadowing everything else about the film.
But maybe that’s just me.
The complete and glaring omission of another fan-favorite will also cause a bit of a row, I’m sure.
Ending in another fan-service cameo to further illustrate the effects of Barry’s “spaghetti effect” (you’ll understand once you see it), The Flash, while objectively one of the better/best DCEU entries, ultimately accomplishes nothing in a narrative sense, unless Gunn decides to part this out for his DCU moving forward, but after the creative bloodbath of late at WB, I doubt it.
The Flash speeds into theaters tomorrow, June 16, and stars Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, and Jeremy Irons (and countless other cameos).
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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