Directed by Andy Muschietti, The Flash follows Barry Allen who uses his superpowers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past. But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod (Michael Shannon) has returned and threatens annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman (Michael Keaton) out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian (Sasha Calle) albeit not the one he’s looking for. Ultimately, to save this world and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?
This film has been in the works ever since it was first announced back in 2014 and a lot has happened on its nine-year road to get to the big screen. Multiple directors and writers were attached to the film over the following years including Seth Grahame-Smith, Rick Famuyiwa, and the duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, all of whom departed the project over creative differences with Warner Bros in what has become a notable reputation for the studio. Eventually, the film found its way to the hands of director Andy Muschietti and writer Christina Hodson who joined the film in July 2019. But even after getting a director and writer the film would still face numerous problems from delays caused by the pandemic to multiple controversies surrounding the lead star to studio-mandated rewrites and cut content leading to the film being set up as a supposedly forced reset film for the entirety of the DC cinematic universe, rather than the simple standalone origin film it was meant to be. All these things to me signaled a recipe for disaster and I was extremely skeptical about what the end result would be, nor was I eager to even see it in a theater. But there was this small shred of hope I had for the film as well as a need to support the cast (minus Ezra) and crew who clearly dedicated their time to making this film happen despite all the baggage and restrictions it obviously had.
Despite my willingness to give it a chance, I was met with great disappointment, extreme frustration, and very mixed-to-negative feelings that I haven’t felt for a comic book film in a really long time. The many concerns I had for this film, along with numerous other issues, were all presented front and center from the very start of the film and continued all the way through, resulting in what I can best describe as another botched adaptation of a major comic book character and one of their most famous stories.
This felt like a major repeat of Batman vs Superman in many ways, especially when there is clearly a great film with plenty of opportunities to explore but all of it has been completely squandered, not by the cast or crew but by a studio that cares little for making good stories and just cares about getting the big bucks. But somehow I felt this was actually worse than Batman vs Superman and I feel this film was probably impacted the most by the studio interference during its nine-year journey to get to the big screen.
I seriously do not understand any of the positive hype this film had received in its early screenings as there are so major problems that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t feel the overall enjoyment from it that others seem to have had and I felt like I was cheated. However, before I get into them I do want to discuss the good things I was able to get from this film.
For starters, I can confirm that Michael Keaton’s return as Batman is the best part of this film. Every time he was on screen I had the biggest smile on my face due to the way he is handled as a legendary figure and of course, Keaton’s extremely dedicated performance showed he had been waiting to return to this role for years and was having a blast doing so. He kicks ass in all of his action scenes, which I thought were extremely well-executed and visually pleasing, giving him a serious combat upgrade from his own films. He also had small moments of compelling dialogue that really get you emotionally, especially if you happen to be a big fan of this portrayal of the character. If you don’t happen to be a fan of this portrayal of the character then I can’t say for certain that this film will change your mind.
Another bright spot in the film was Sasha Calle as Supergirl who despite feeling very underutilized really stood out to me performance-wise, writing-wise, and action-wise. You can see that she is a jaded character with a dark history and emotional trauma that felt very compelling, and Calle’s intense performance honestly makes me consider her a perfect choice for the character, one I’d love to see as a part of the new DCU in the upcoming Supergirl film. She is Supergirl in my eyes and she deserves to shine in her own film.
When it comes to the rest of the characters and their respective cast members this is where things get mixed for me as some deliver good performances, some deliver over-the-top performances, and some deliver performances that felt embarrassingly phoned in or cringey.
Starting with the leading titular character played by Ezra Miller, I was very mixed about the performance and overall handling of the character. To be absolutely clear my views about the performance and writing of Barry are not being swayed by the actor’s legal issues. Ezra does a solid job delivering the emotional scenes for Barry throughout the film but a lot of it gets massively undercut by the humor of his counterpart, who is given an extremely hyperactive performance by Ezra that delivered some laughs at first but then started running itself into the ground after several minutes and got exhaustingly annoying throughout the rest of the film.
It honestly felt like the Snyder Cut versions of Flash interacting with the Whedon Cut version of Flash showing a stark difference in performance and writing quality that could have maybe worked in another film but definitely not in this one. This was not the Flash I was hoping to get and there’s one major story-related problem that happens with the character that really impacts my thoughts on the film as a whole that I’ll get into later.
In regards to Ben Affleck’s final performance as DCEU’s Batman, I was extremely underwhelmed by what we were given. He has some solid action scenes in the opening and then a really great interaction with Barry just before he leaves, but then the rest of his dialogue felt extremely out of character, reminding me a lot of the jokey Batman we got in the Whedon Cut, especially with this one particular segment. Ben Affleck did what he could performance wise but ultimately his exit from DC felt like it went out on a whimper rather than a bang. Jeremy Irons’ exit as Alfred honestly had a lot more dignity in it compared to Ben Affleck’s Batman.
And then there was Zod, reprised by Michael Shannon. In contrast to Michael Keaton who was having a blast in his returning role, Michael Shannon looked bored as fuck. Say what you want about Man of Steel but in that film Michael Shannon felt committed to his role, felt fleshed out as a villain, and brought a menacing presence. In this film he felt like a two-dimensional bad guy, a shadow of the character he used to be, and Shannon seemed to be unhappy even being there. This is further proven by some recent interviews he had about his return to the film, highlighting how he felt his return as Zod was being treated as an action figure being thrown in a massive pile of multiverse chaos rather than being treated as an actual character, and I couldn’t agree with him more.
As for the important people in Barry’s life, including his father (Ron Livingston), his mother (Maribel Verdu), and Iris West (Kiersey Clemons), they are all given great performances by their respective cast members but they felt extremely sidelined in this film. With the lack of a proper origin film to establish these characters, I found myself barely connected with them or the relationships Barry shares with each of them except with his mother. It didn’t feel developed enough, and aside from the occasional reference in the film these characters are treated largely as an afterthought, which is shocking given their importance to the character of Barry Allen and their significance in the storyline this film attempted to adapt.
And speaking of said storyline this adaptation of the Flashpoint storyline was awful. While it manages to retain some elements of it, from the emotional stakes to the cataclysmic stakes, it all felt like it was extremely held back due to the number of things that were cut from the film, as well as the extreme tonal imbalance the film has going for it.
The film doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a goofy and fun multiversal adventure or a high-stakes and emotionally impactful story that results in a complete reset of the universe while having the titular character at the center of all of it? There didn’t feel like a proper balance and I think this clashing of tones largely comes down to the multiple directors/writers this film had gone through as well as the constant interference by the studio.
With the Flashpoint comic and even its DCAU adaptation, it had years of material and development building up to such a massive event that reshaped the course of all things DC that impacted people emotionally, especially with the significant characters involved. This film, on the other hand, asks us to care about everything that is happening on screen with no prior development from the broken DCEU, and missing a lot of the key players and elements of the original story, therefore, making this major film event feel half-assed and make a lot of the fan service and cameos that occur in this feel largely unearned.
And yes there are plenty of cameos that appear in this film but the way most of them are handled are honestly incredibly appalling for a variety of reasons that I can’t discuss due to spoilers. I will say though there was a particular cameo in this that was spoiled for me, one I was actually looking forward to, but when I saw it I was honestly disgusted by what they chose to do with it.
Also, this film was supposedly meant to reset the cinematic universe, but by the time it concludes it doesn’t feel like there was any of the massive change that was promised, nor a clear direction of where things go. It just ends in a way that a standalone adventure film would end, which would be fine if that was what the film was trying to be but it wasn’t.
But the biggest sin this film commits for me personally is the way Barry’s central arc is handled and concluded by the end of the film: Barry never truly learns his lesson by the end of this film as he does in the Flashpoint story. After everything he goes through on this multiversal journey, witnessing the damage he has caused as a result of a change that he considers extremely minor, he ends up making a similar mistake by the very end of the film that completely throws Barry’s entire arc straight out the fucking window in order to end the film on one final cameo in an attempt to please the masses. Some of the masses were pleased alright, with some applauding but not me. Instead, I sat there fuming with frustration witnessing them completely butcher the central character’s arc in order to deliver one final cameo. This is a fucking Warner Bros move if I ever saw one. This definitely did not feel like an idea that director Andy Muschietti and writer Christina Hodson made, this was a studio-mandated decision in a film littered with studio-mandated decisions. The parts that were good are where I felt Andy and Christina were at their strongest and most unrestricted, while the rest felt like they were being held back from doing so much more.
Most of the action and cinematography that goes on in this film would have been creative, fun, intense, and visually pleasing had it not been for the absolutely atrocious VFX that plagued the entirety of this film. Look I know there’s this whole trend of hating on the VFX of select Marvel projects in the past two years but honestly none of them come remotely close to how terrible and unfinished the effects are in this film. This is an unpolished film that feels rushed, as if I was watching an early cut of the film, yet this is apparently the final cut. This film had nearly a decade to perfect itself while recent films like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse had 5 to 6 years, and somehow both of them are visually superior compared to The Flash.
This film establishes how terribly unfinished and uncanny the effects are from the very first rescue scene involving Flash rescuing babies that were all rendered in horrendous CGI in a slow-motion plane. It was so visually embarrassing and eye-gouging for me that I have to question why barely anyone has even commented on it. I find it extremely hypocritical that people would get upset over a few bad effects in select Marvel films and yet completely give this unpolished mess a big fat pass. I prefer MODOK from Ant-Man: Quantumania over the entirety of the effects of this film and that’s a hill I’m willing to stand firmly on come at me.
I will say that the musical score by Benjamin Wallfisch is solid all the way through, including his renditions of the 1989 Batman theme that gave me chills and enhanced all the Batman scenes. Aside from that though the music feels largely wasted on this film when it could have been a tremendous benefit.
I really did want to give this film a fair shot, especially after some of the early reactions and the people involved convinced me to go despite my previous reluctance. But it just did not work at all for me. It may work for others but it did not work for me and if I end up being the only one who thinks that this film was awfully crafted then that’s fine. But I prefer to be honest with how I feel about any film I review and for me, this film is one of the biggest disappointments of the year by far. I’m going to give The Flash a D- = 62.
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