trouble right from the start

If you pay much attention to the behind the scenes Hollywood reports, you’ve heard about the shite-ton of issues with The Flash and specifically Ezra Miller. Tons of rewrites to the script and director changes have delayed it. The off-camera skulduggery and legal battles for Miller stemming from multiple assault charges and various lesser incidents cast a pall over the project. Add to the mix that James Gunn (who is awesome) is going pretty much scorched earth on the DCEU, to remake it in his own style, which effectively makes this movie a one-off. None of these are a recipe for a summer movie blockbuster.
Having said that, I found myself wanting to believe the smattering of Hollywood hype being scattered about that this movie was going to be fantastic, one of the best tights movies ever. Okay, no one believed that but the optimist in me wanted to believe it might be decent.

I was half-right.

The story begins with the continuation of the Barry Allen story started in Justice League. Barry is trying to help his dad beat a bad rap for the murder of him mom. Why/how his father was convicted of that crime and who the actual killer…all unanswered questions (and seemingly will be forever). The last appeal fails and in his grief journey, Barry runs home to the scene of the crime. From there he suddenly remembers that he has the ability to travel back in time, and formulates a plan to save his mom, negating the whole tragedy and restructuring his life the way he always wanted it to be. Some nearly-dormant part of his psyche realizes that it might be dangerous to do so, Barry enlists the advice of his brunch-pal Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). Wisely, Batman cautions Barry about the dangers of tampering with the timeline. But Barry’s mind is made up. Full speed ahead.

Fast-forward: The Flash saves his mom and gets to enjoy a whole again nuclear family for a quick minute. But, when a younger Barry Allen comes home from college, the moment is snatched away. Older Barry meets a younger Barry and OB gets a little taste of how annoying he must have been to the rest of the League and humanity in general.

Along the way, OG Barry discovers that his changes have somehow negated the rise of superheroes. No Cyborg. No Wonder Woman. No Aquaman. No Superman. Not having a Superman to lean on becomes a notable disadvantage when a Kryptonian world-engine appears above Metropolis and begins teraforming the earth.

With no Justice League to turn to, Barry tries to recreate the accident that gave him his powers on his younger self thinking two Flashes are better than one. However, older Barry only succeeds in transfering his speed to his younger self. Desperate, he runs back to Batman for help. Only it’s not the Batman he knows at all. It’s the OG Batman that we all have a nostalgic soft spot for…Michael Keaton.

The Flash tries to find its footing

It’s about here that The Flash falls off the rails for me. Up to this point, we’ve been jazzed up to 11 to see Keaton reprise a role that is akin to the book of Exodus in superhero movies (Genesis being Christopher Reeves’ Superman, of course). Sadly, after their initial meeting, Batman more or less becomes a bit player. A MacGuffin. His part in this movie does absolutely nothing to further his legacy and that is tragic. Keaton and Burton deserve so much better.

As much as I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, I had a bit of trouble following the second half of this movie. Batman, reborn Flash and his younger Flashself set out to save the altered universe from Zod and friends. From there, this movie was long on ‘splosions and short on…everything else. Flash continues to mess with the timeline and creates more alternate timelines until it just becomes a muddled mess. There are lots of gratuitous cameos (and more than a few that were conspicuously missing). We were treated to a criminally under-written Superwoman and a shoehorned resolution that was in no way satisfying. And can we all agree that there is a responsible way to handle ‘the multiverse’ as a plot device and then there is using it as the most lazy writing ever? Using it in the latter degrades the ability to use it in the former.

I’ve heard a lot of nattering about sub-standard CGI, and there’s definitely truth to that. In the opening action sequence they had what has been dubbed a ‘baby shower’ that was pretty bad by any standard. I didn’t have too much problem with the rest of the CGI, though there were a couple of deep fakes that lacked punch. And I am genuinely scratching my head over the choice of the ending and post-credit scenes. I would welcome anyone in the comments shedding some light on just wtf happened. Discuss.

Whether you expected a lot or not much from The Flash, I think everyone came away disappointed. So maybe it’s a good thing that its likely the end of the road for this version of the franchise. I am giving The Flash a 2.5/5. It’s not as if there was nothing to love about it. The first have was hilarious and I genuinely like Ezra Miller’s take on the character. His portrayal of interplay between old and young Barry Allen was excellent. I guess that half a movie is better than none.

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