Muschietti’s fast-paced and energetic movie is entertaining, aside from its eye-numbing finale. At times, The Flash is a wild and witty comic book joy, but overall, it’s a rather wonky celebration of the Scarlet Speedster. The Flash is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
Some movies are magic; you go into these movies as a world-weary adult and come out of them feeling like a giddy and excited kid. These movies are rare, and Andy Muschietti’s The Flash had all the ingredients to be one of them. Muschietti’s long-awaited film nearly soars as it embraces a fun comic book world that has been sadly missing from many recent DC outings. Yet it’s as if someone took all the right ingredients and still managed to cock up the recipe.
Of course, The Flash didn’t have a smooth ride to the screen, facing multiple challenges that could have resulted in disaster. It battled a changing DC Universe, fan expectations, the Warner Bros and Discovery merger, Ezra Miller’s offscreen behaviour, and reshoots. For most movies, even one of these would have been enough to derail the whole project; therefore, it’s a testament to Muschietti that The Flash made it through! However, Miller’s behaviour also leaves us with a problem as critics: do we base a review purely on the offscreen life of the star or accept that movies are bigger than one individual?
There is no doubt that Miller’s energetic performance is overshadowed by concerns surrounding their behaviour and actions. However, this isn’t purely Miller’s movie; it’s an ensemble piece that sees Keaton return to the Bat Cave, reminding us why he is and will always be Batman. Additionally, we have Sasha Calle and a gritty, emo Supergirl, who will likely divide opinions. Add to that Muschietti’s inspired direction, a score that pays homage to DC movie history, a clever screenplay, and The Flash almost manages to circumnavigate the problems surrounding its journey to the screen. It’s a pity that the homage to DC’s past at the end is so ham-fisted in delivery, and its effects are in places so poor.
Loosely based on “Flashpoint”, Muschietti’s movie is almost lightning in a bottle, down to it never taking itself too seriously as it weaves its way through a bowl of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey spaghetti. Despite warnings from Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), Barry (Miller) travels back in time to prevent his mother from being murdered when he was a child, saving his father from being falsely imprisoned for her murder in the process. But things quickly get weird as Barry finds himself trapped in a very different universe with his other self, a geeky eighteen-year-old with no powers. It is a universe where Eric Stoltz starred in Back to the Future (an ongoing gag), Superman doesn’t exist, and General Zod (Michael Shannon) has just arrived, ready to wipe out humanity.
However, when all seems lost, Barry discovers that this world has a Batman (Michael Keaton) who has long since vanished from public view. So, they set off in search of the Bat. The result is a fast-paced rollercoaster with more than a few surprises as it twists and turns toward its truly hideous CGI finale.
(L-R) EZRA MILLER as The Flash, MICHAEL KEATON as Batman and EZRA MILLER as The Flash in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE FLASH,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
At its core, The Flash is a movie about trauma and what we choose to do with the deep-seated wounds that shape who we are. Do we accept these wounds may never heal, and learn from them, or attempt to change them? Within these discussions, The Flash finds its emotional centre as Miller’s Barry attempts to rewrite the childhood trauma that made him who he is, allowing Keaton’s ageing Batman to offer a simple but striking piece of advice, “The scars we have, make us who we are. We’re not meant to go back and fix them. Don’t let your tragedy define you.” In many ways, Keaton’s Batman offers Barry something that Affleck’s never could: a fatherly figure who trusts and believes in Barry despite the madness around them.
It is hard to believe it is over thirty years since Keaton last donned the famous bat suit, because it’s as if he never left. This may be an older and wiser Batman, but the glint in his eye hasn’t faded, nor has the energy, drive and appeal of his sublime performance. Keaton was born to play Batman, and The Flash proves it.
Muschietti’s fast-paced and energetic movie is entertaining, aside from its eye-numbing finale. At times, The Flash is a wild and witty comic book joy, but overall, it’s a rather wonky celebration of the Scarlet Speedster.
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