REVIEW -- The Flash (2023)

The Flash is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, Double Dream, and the Disco Factory, and set for distribution by Warner Bros. Pictures,[4] it is intended to be the 13th installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson and stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash alongside Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Antje Traue, and Michael Keaton. In the film, Barry travels back in time to prevent his mother's death, which brings unintended consequences.

Development of a film featuring the Flash began in the late 1980s, with multiple writers and directors attached to the project through 2014. The film was then redeveloped as a part of the DCEU, with Miller cast as the title character. Multiple directors were attached to the film over the following years, with Seth Grahame-Smith, Rick Famuyiwa, and the duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein all departing the project over creative differences. Muschietti and Hodson joined the film in July 2019, and pre-production began in January 2020. The film is influenced by the comic book storyline Flashpoint, featuring multiple DC Comics characters, including Ben Affleck and Keaton reprising their respective versions of Batman. Principal photography took place from April to October 2021 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden and on location around the United Kingdom.

The Flash premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on June 12, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 16, following multiple delays caused by director changes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and post-production setbacks. The film received praise for its plot, action sequences, humor, and performances (particularly of Miller and Keaton), but was heavily criticized for the quality of its visual effects.

Cast

• Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash
  Miller also portrays an alternate version of Barry from a different timeline, while Ian Loh portrays a young Barry.

• Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl

• Michael Shannon as General Zod

• Ron Livingston as Henry Allen

• Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen

• Kiersey Clemons as Iris West

• Antje Traue as Faora-Ul

• Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman

Ben Affleck reprises his DCEU role as Bruce Wayne / Batman, the original version of Wayne from Barry's timeline and the leader of the Justice League. Other actors reprising their respective DCEU roles include: Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth; Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, and Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman. Additionally, Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Rudy Mancuso respectively portray Patty Spivot and Albert Desmond, Barry's co-workers, whilst Sanjeev Bhaskar appears as Barry's boss, David Singh. Luke Brandon Field portrays Al Falcone, the leader of a terrorist crew who robs the bank in the beginning of the film. Nicolas Cage makes a cameo appearance as an alternate version of Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman, after he previously voiced the character in the animated film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018); he was originally cast as Superman in Tim Burton's unproduced film Superman Lives. George Clooney appears uncredited as another variation of Bruce Wayne / Batman; Clooney previously portrayed the character in Batman & Robin (1997).

Through the use of artificial intelligence and deepfaking, previous incarnations of Superman, Batman and Supergirl appear during the "Speed Force" sequence, including Christopher Reeve as Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman from the 1978–1987 Superman films, Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl from Supergirl (1984), Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman from the 1966 film and TV series, and George Reeves as his version of Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman from Superman and the Mole Men (1951) and Adventures of Superman (1952–1958), through the use of archive footage. Teddy Sears also appears as a version of Jay Garrick / The Flash; Sears previously portrayed the character Hunter Zolomon / Zoom in the CW television series The Flash, who masqueraded as Garrick in the second season. Note: This cameo has been proved to be false as Sears stated in a recent interview that he had absolutely no idea that he was in this film in any capacity, meaning that his likeness was used for a deepfake possibly without his consent. 

Plot

After helping Bruce Wayne / Batman and Diana Prince / Wonder Woman stop a bank robbery gone wrong, Barry Allen / The Flash revisits his childhood home. There, he remembers his childhood with parents Nora and Henry, before Henry's wrongful imprisonment for Nora's murder. Overcome by his emotions, Barry accidentally travels back in time to earlier in the day and informs Bruce about it. Despite Bruce's warnings that time travel can have unintended consequences, Barry goes back to the day of Nora's death and prevents it from happening.

As Barry returns to the present, he is knocked out of the Speed Force by another Speedster and ends up in an alternate 2013 where his mother is alive. He finds his past self and realizes he has arrived on the day he originally obtained his powers. Barry and his 2013 counterpart go to the Central City Police Department, where Barry forces 2013-Barry to be struck by lightning, giving 2013-Barry powers, but losing his own powers in the process. As Barry struggles to train 2013-Barry to use his powers, the two of them see a broadcast by General Zod, who is preparing to invade Earth.

The Barrys attempt to assemble the Justice League but are unsuccessful as in this timeline, they are unable to locate Wonder Woman, Victor Stone has not been in his accident yet, and Arthur Curry was never born. The two travel to Wayne Manor, hoping to find Batman, but instead find an alternate, older version of Bruce Wayne who has retired from crimefighting. They convince Bruce to help them find Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman, and using a backdoor connection to NASA within the Batcave, are able to locate a Kryptonian pod that was reportedly discovered in Siberia. Upon arrival, they instead find Kara Zor-El, a female Kryptonian who claims to be Kal-El's cousin. After rescuing Kara from the facility, Barry asks Bruce to help him get his powers back by recreating the original accident. The first attempt fails and nearly kills Barry, prompting Kara to fly Barry into the storm and get struck by lightning, which works.

Kara and Bruce join the two Barrys to fight Zod's forces. During the battle with Zod, Kara learns that Zod intercepted an infant Kal-El's escape pod and killed him during a failed attempt to retrieve the Growth Codex needed to remake Earth into Krypton. The two fight, with Zod overpowering and killing Kara, while Batman is also killed. The two Barrys travel back through time to save their companions, but are unable to change their fates. Barry realizes that they will not be able to save them, but 2013-Barry keeps trying, repeatedly travelling back through time, but always failing. As 2013-Barry travels, the multiverse starts to collapse in on itself. Eventually, the dark Speedster who originally knocked Barry out of the Speed Force returns and is revealed to be an older version of 2013-Barry, who still believes he can save his world from Zod, and prevent the deaths of Batman and Kara. He explains the causal loop paradox that led to his own creation, but grows angry when Barry reveals his own intention to reverse his actions by letting Nora die. Angry, the dark Speedster attempts to kill Barry, but impales 2013-Barry, who sacrifices himself to save Barry and wipes the dark Speedster from the timeline.

In the aftermath, Barry undoes the changes he made to the timeline and comes to terms with his mother's death. However, he makes a minor change in the past, which creates new evidence in the present day that proves Henry's innocence. After returning to the present and helping to exonerate Henry, Barry is contacted by Bruce, whose appearance has again been altered as a result of Barry's timeline change.

In a post-credits scene, Barry tells a drunken Arthur Curry about his experiences travelling the multiverse.

The Verdict: 

I'm honestly split about this. This is a hard film to come down to judge as there's parts of this I adored as a fan of the original Flashpoint Paradox storyline that this is based off of and some of the callbacks to other DC properties while there's other parts of this film that makes me glad that this version of the DCEU is dead after this film.

I had hopes for this film that it would serve as what Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past was for the X-Men franchise, where it would fix their continuity issues and declining quality across films and set the stage for a proper reboot/revival. Nope, this film does NONE of that. James Gunn is already off to a rocky start with me after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and his boundless praise and hype for this film for the last few months makes me question what in the world does he have planned as the head of DC Studios going forward.

This film shines the most when it shifts into the "past" alternate timeline/universe and we get to see Barry interact with his past self, Michael Keaton's Batman, and Sasha Calle's Superwoman. I'm sure most other people will feel differently but I wouldn't lose any sleep if I don't see Calle reprise playing Superwoman in a future DC film. Sure, she has some amazing action scenes in this but her acting performance and how this character was written left a lot to be desired.

In all honesty, if I didn't know that Blue Beetle was coming out soon and James Gunn didn't already announce the next slate/plan for DC Comics based films going forward, I would be completely fine without seeing anymore DC Comics films after this (unless it was another The Batman sequel), at least until they figure out what they are doing and get a concrete plan in place.

Characters

VISUALS

For a film that has been on ice for so long since the COVID-19 pandemic and constant delays given the legal troubles with Ezra Miller, there should not have been absolutely NO excuse for the computer-generated imagery and effects to look so bad in this film. It's completely uninexcusable in my eyes. I have seen people make excuses for this across social media since this film made public Thursday evening and some of these are the same goddamn people that roasted everything from Marvel Studios over the coals for anything and everything that even a minor flaw, yet this film is getting a lot of passes from people all because it's not something made by Marvel Studios. Then on the other side of the spectrum, I'm seeing people who know fucking better, especially digital rendering and 3D artists, joining in like we should all cut DC Studios and Warner Brothers a break here, when these are the same people who dissect every one of these fantasy films and media and point out all of the visual flaws, but this gets a pass since it gave them a nostalgia boner. 

I want to see BOTH Marvel and DC succeed on the silver screen, but we have to critique all of this stuff equally. If you're going to roast one for one thing, then you have point it out in the other too. It's all fair game. We have to start calling this stuff for what it is. 

First and foremost, we have to talk about that goofy manner how The Flash runs in this. The film even makes fun of it at one point, but even that isn't enough. If you have enough conscious thought to make a joke about it, then you KNEW how stupid and bad it looked when you put it into this film. That was mind-blowing to me how they allowed that to stay in this film. 

I hate to keep bringing up Marvel Studios in this film, but for everything people hated about The Eternals film, I never see anyone give that film props for giving the superhero genre one of (if not the best) depictions of super-speed. 

To this film's credit, they did TRY to give you some sense of speed, so it's not all for nothing. I'm mostly critiquing the execution of it. It's mostly hidden behind the overuse of the accompanying lightning effects (a callback to the comics of course), so it's a little hard to distinguish what is what in these poor visuals. 

Director Andy Muschietti claims that the "terrible" CGI was actually intentional as to convey that's how Barry sees the world within the Speed Force, but I don't buy this for a second. The Flash is already one of DC's most expensive movies ever on a $220+ million production budget, so you can't tell me that they didn't have the dough to shell out to improve those scenes. 

The deepfake cameos I have a lot of issues with visually. They don't look "natural" at all. On one side, that is totally understandable as most of those included actors aren't even alive anymore and their estates had to sign off on these digital recreations/deepfakes via AI technology to appear in this film in the first place and this whole thing is meant to be a homage of sorts, going as far as showcasing Nicholas Cage's Superman in a minor capacity and allowing fans to see Helen Slater's Supergirl standing alongside Christopher Reeve's Superman - two things that fans thought that they would never see come to fruition in any capacity. On the other side, these deepfakes come across as lifeless and soulless; the exact opposite of what these characters are meant to represent. As a result, these cameos then channel the notion that their inclusions are merely a cashgrab to bank more onto our nostalgia if there wasn't enough smoke being blown up the ass of this film to get people into theaters. That's why I can completely understand the backlash and negative reactions to them in this film. Digital recreation is going to continue being a touchy subject across all mediums. Remember it wasn't not that long ago with the Star Wars franchise where they used deepfakes to digitally recreate and recreate Admiral Tarkin (the late Peter Cushing), a younger Princess Leia (the late Carrie Fisher), and even a younger Mark Hamill to depict Luke Skywalker in both films and streaming television shows via cutting edge CGI to recreate archive footage over stand-in actors. This film didn't do anything remotely even close to that and it shows. 

This film wasn't "rushed" out - it was delayed and pushed back so many times to the point where I thought it wasn't even on the release slate anymore and bound to be cancelled/strapped completely like Batgirl. So they really can't say these issues were a result of rushing out to make some deadline. Yet we had numerous celebrities, various media outlets, and even James Gunn himself touting this film as the best thing that DC Comics has produced to date on film. 

Visually and definitely not narratively, this film failed to hit that mark. 

Closing Thoughts

I'm not going to sugar coat it. This film is a mess both narratively and visually. 

I honestly hate how conflicted this film makes me feel as comics fanboy. I dare say that this has been the hardest superhero film to critique in recent memory. I loved seeing the Snyderverse versions of these characters functioning as a proper Justice League stopping a heist and working together to save the day like in so many comics and cartoons. This film opens with a glimpse of what COULD HAVE been if the Snyderverse had played out differently or if they had their shit together from the start. I loved seeing this new interpretation of a Justice League with both Barry Allen's, Supergirl, and Keaton's Batman work together in the same manner in this film's finale. There's even moments with The Flash here that I really liked, despite how I feel about Ezra Miller as both an actor and as a person. It's frustrating as this film encourages more of these mixed feelings and capitalizes and profits off of our nostalgia (especially from Keaton's Batman), much like so many of these multiverse/time travel projects in the superhero genre as of late and across multiple genres and mediums. There's no denying that digging up our childhood fond memories and profiting off of anyone's nostalgia is going to end anytime soon. It's a formula that has been leading to success across multiple avenues up to this, much like I mentioned in my Across the Spider-Verse review, so I can't fault Warner Bros. and DC Comics for taking the easy road when Sony Pictures Animation and Marvel Comics did the very same thing with their own characters less than two weeks ago in the box office. And for the record, for as much hype this film got going into its release, I still say that it's not going to trump Across the Spider-Verse at the box office in that regard. 

What are the things that I didn't care for in this film? For starters, Barry Allen's motivations for wanting to prevent his mother's death are all well and good, but that sentiment goes out of the window when no one questions who or what kills her when Henry Allen goes to the store for that forgotten can of tomatoes? Wouldn't the bigger mystery would be trying to find out who or what killed her in the first place? It seemed odd from the start that Barry Allen never questions that aspect of her murder with his father slapped with the blame of that incident all of those years. And why didn't Barry Allen go back and see who did it? Even if he went back to prevent Nora Allen from forgetting the tomatoes, who was to say that she wouldn't have been murdered in a different manner? That fact alone made the modern day plot come across as silly to me since this film writes Barry Allen as so narrow-minded, yet everyone is talking about how smart he is and how much he pays attention to details as a forensic scientist. He doesn't seem to apply that amount of ingenuity when it comes to his mother's murder. He is laser-focused on just changing just one detail instead of figuring out who killed her in the first place. For those wondering, it's established in both the comics and the CW TV series that the Reverse Flash is behind the murder of The Flash's mother in those continuities. 

I could cut the 18-year old Barry Allen a break for his mistakes as he never learned from the pain/trauma of losing a loved one that molded him into the hero that he is in the modern day timeline. He grew getting everything that he ever wanted, including landing a date with the girl he's had a crush on. It was easy to see how that version of Barry Allen would become Savitar... err Dark Flash in this continuity due to his obsession with fixing everything. Present day Barry Allen though? Not so much. 

The scenes with the babies being rescued in the Speed Force at the start of the film were all in bad taste, especially given Ezra Miller's recent theatrics with the law in his personal life. Seeing Ezra Miller putting a baby into a microwave felt EXTREMELY tone deaf and I was in utter disbelief that no one didn't screen and cut that out of this film. It was bad enough that the digitally created infants looked creepy as hell to begin with, but that action alone took it to the next level in terms of uneasiness. 

All of the flaws coupled with all of the good that this film does well creates another, much bigger problem with this film and for the DCEU going forward. It's another film in this continuity where you have absolutely no idea when or where it takes place. You're merely confusing your dwindling fan base from whoever is left from Shazam! Fury of the Gods or those who are still hanging onto hope after the release of Snyder Cut of Justice League. This is essentially a standalone film with no real ties to anything going forward. The two remaining DCEU films are Blue Beetle and Aquaman 2 before James Gunn's DC Studios reboot. This is the last time that we're going to see any of these characters before they are recast with different actors, origins, backgrounds, and/or stories reset, or removed off the playing field/chess board completely going forward. It's the same feeling of "Why should I care about this?" after it's all said and done after Shazam! Fury of the Gods was done and over with. 

In a cruel twist/messed up manner, the ending actually proves that Barry Allen didn't learn anything from his time traveling exploits. Sure, he learned to let go of the notion of undoing the murder of his mother, but he still changed something else for his dad's exoneration. That proves that Barry hasn't let go of the idea that he always has to "fix" something. If that's the message that this film is conveying, then they have completely "shit the bed" narratively and wasted everyone's time for two and a half hours of this film's runtime. 

Viewers should be made aware of the fact that this film has three different documented endings that were filmed throughout it's production. Shoutout and credit goes to Screen Rant for this information quoted below:

Watch It or Don't Bother?

The Flash is a film that should be watched as it has a lot of heart and gives viewers a small glimpse of what could have been, given the Snyderverse had continued on its original track. 

At the same time, however, I don't feel that moviegoers should be going out of their way to see this film. It's going to be available on the MAX streaming app in roughly 2-3 months anyway, plus this is another easily forgettable DC film that we're all not going to remember much of as the weeks roll by, much like Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods. It sucks too for James Gunn as they have like two more of these films to put out until he can properly reboot this cinematic universe and it doesn't feel like that it's going to get any prettier by the time this is all said and over with. 

For the record, I don't hate this film, but it's ultimately a hard film to call down the middle one way or another as it's both a visual and narrative mess. There's a lot to like here with just as much bad to back that up.

There were a lot of false narratives going on concerning the quality of the film from those who had advanced screenings of the "unfinished" copy late last year (2022) and that dishonesty going around from a laundry list of celebrities to contribute to the hype and anticipation of this film is actually blowing up in DC and Warner Bros.' faces in terms of credibility. If you want to turn your brain off for about two and a half hours and enjoy the jokes and action, then this is an easy popcorn flick. If you're looking for more substance out of this, then you're going to have to look for a better film than The Flash.