Ezra Miller stars as Ezra Miller and Ezra Miller, and Michael Keaton is also there, in Andy Mushietti's take on DC's speediest superhero.
It’s the job of a critic, in my humble opinion, to meet every film on its own terms, and evaluate it accordingly. While some dedicated keyboard warriors may claim critics are predisposed to negativity – particularly regarding comic book movies – I’m always hopeful, when I settle down in my cinema seat, that the film I watch will be good. Life is short, frequently difficult, and I don’t like to waste my time. For this reason, I’m frequently disheartened that studios seem perfectly happy to waste it for me. Anyway, The Flash.
To say he’s the fastest man alive, Barry Allen’s big screen outing has taken a curiously long time to come together. First floated in 2014 and then plagued by delays, drop-outs, studio turmoil and star Ezra Miller’s various criminal exploits, the film seemed to be suffering from the same curse that has haunted DC’s cinematic slate since The Suicide Squad. Though, unlike some of its siblings, at least The Flash has made it out of the DC vault – eventually directed by Andy Muschietti (of IT Chapters One and Two fame) from a script by Christina Hodson (whose snappy work on Birds of Prey garnered positive reviews).
The Flash picks up where Justice League (or Zack Snyder’s Justice League if you prefer) left off, with Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) living in Central City and working in forensic evidence analysis, while moonlighting to assist his superhero pals with all manner of scrapes. The film’s opening sees him utilise his slow-mo powers to quite literally save a load of babies (and a dog) from a collapsing hospital, in a tongue-in-cheek sequence which would work better if the wee infants in peril didn’t strongly resemble the uncanny CGI tots from The Sims 2. When you are required to spend a fair amount of time staring at an image, particularly one rendered in HD on an IMAX screen, its flaws become more apparent – a recurring issue with the fairly ropey VFX work in The Flash, as his super speed powers mean it’s necessary to slow down everything around him (much in the same way we’ve seen in other superhero films).
In his personal life, Barry is still very much an awkward twenty-something, teased at work by colleagues for poor timekeeping and friendlessness. He reconnects with schoolfriend Iris West (Kiersey Clemons), now a reporter, who takes an interest in Barry’s efforts to clear his father (Ron Livingston, replacing Billy Crudup) Henry’s name for the murder of his mother Nora (Maribel Verdú). When Barry realises his efforts to do this via legal means are likely to fail, he uses his powers to go back in time and prevent Nora from dying in the first place, in the process creating branching timelines and opening up the DC cinematic iteration of the multiverse – a process Marvel began in Doctor Strange that has paid dividends for their film strategy).
After landing in a timeline where his mother never died, Barry crosses paths with an alternative version of himself, who is younger, sillier, and a total newbie to the superhero gig. Realising he’s managed to turn up on the day that General Zod (Michael Shannon) invaded earth looking for Superman back in Man of Steel, Barry sets out to find the rest of the Justice League, in hopes they can stop the destruction he knows is coming. Unfortunately, in this alternate dimension, things are a little different, and when he goes looking for Batman, he finds a retired Bruce (Michael Keaton) with a long greying beard, holed up in Wayne Manor cooking spaghetti in his bathrobe.
What follows is a variation on the old ‘getting the band back together’ trope, as Barry attempts to train his unruly protégé, coax Bats out of retirement, and seek the aid of an alternative universe Superman (or Supergirl, as he discovers Kara Zor-El is Krypton’s last hope in this reality, played by Sasha Calle). Comic aficionados will know that the film takes some of its cues from the 2011 Flashpoint run which has become well-known in the DC universe, though the resemblance is fairly minimal. While the comics saw Allen tasked with repairing damage done to the timeline by, er, Reverse Flash, here the primary antagonist is, depending how you look at it, either General Zod (again) or Barry himself, who creates the fracture by going back in time to save his mother, despite clearly knowing this is a bad idea.
It’s unfortunate for DC that the idea of changing the past, or seeking an alternative reality where things have turned out differently, are ideas we’ve seen explored fairly extensively in recent superhero media, first in X-Men: Days of Future Past but notably Spider-Man: No Way Home, spin-off television series Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but also Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once and upcoming Indiana Jones sequel Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Perhaps this obsession with riffing on existing reality is a symptom of craving familiarity in an uncertain world, or – more cynically – a result of studios more interested in IP than original storytelling. If the multiverse and these diverging timelines presents infinite possibilities, why does it feel like all of them are ultimately the same?
Anyway – Miller pulls double duty as Barry and Barry II, who are distinguishable by the length of their hair and contrasting super suits. Barry I is initially presented as an awkward, possibly neurodivergent twenty-something who feels deeply alone in the world owing to his father’s incarceration and mother’s death, but his characteristics seem to melt away when Barry II appears, a zanier, more immature version of him. There’s little suggestion that his mother living and father never going to prison has resulted in him being that different, but the film doesn’t do much to unpack exactly how Barry II’s life has diverged, apart from remarking on the fact he has a date with Iris West in this reality. Your mileage with The Flash as a character may vary depending how much you enjoy the Whedonesque ‘Uhh, that just happened’ brand of hero which has become de rigueur, but don’t get too attached either way – there’s every chance Miller won’t be reprising their role.
Keaton brings a little gravitas to proceedings as he dons the Burton cowl and cape again (though the allegedly ‘iconic’ ‘Let’s get nuts’ line remains baffling) as an ageing Batman. If anything it’s a shame we don’t get a little more insight into his trajectory, as he remarks that he retired because Gotham’s crime rate had plummeted, but there are a lot of cameos to fit in, so them’s the breaks. There’s not much in the way of personality for newcomer Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, who briefly faces off against Zod in place of her cousin Kal-El. She’s presented as stoic and slightly vengeful after being treated with hostility after landing on earth, but arguably comes around on humanity much faster than most people would if they had been locked in a Russian bunker for years. There are a few other notable cameos from the history of the DC cinematic universe, ranging from the distasteful to the begrudgingly fun, but at this point these appearances feel less like a nice surprise and more like a cynical box checking exercise in the superhero content machine.
At any rate, new DC head honcho James Gunn has made clear his plans to reset the DC film universe going forward, so The Flash can be treated as a standalone time travel caper. It’s unfortunately not an especially interesting one – the heavy reliance on CGI is noticeable, particularly because the work is quite ugly (the area from which Barry is able to access the past is a jagged kaleidoscopic eyesore) and while the film benefits from not having a sludgy abundance of fight scenes, the ones it does feature are still largely indistinguishable from any other film.
If you’re a die-hard DC fan willing to overlook the rote storyline and public menace that is Miller, the quippy performances and the nostalgia bait of Keaton et al might raise a smile. But it’s diminishing returns here, as studios struggle to make a convincing argument for why audiences should care about any of these characters when they only seem to exist as mechanisms for a cynical business strategy. No stakes, no Gods, no masters. Just infinite universes of IP stretched into infinite content, as far as the eye can see.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
Published 14 Jun 2023
Oh good, another one.
Remember Birdman? I liked Birdman.
See you in December for Aquaman I guess.
The latest film off the DC production line sees Batman and co team up to fight an ancient evil force, with underwhelming results.
This fan service-heavy redux of the 2017 superhero pile-up just about justifies its existence.
DC’s freak show rodeo is an undercooked, cartoonish romp that reveals a great deal about modern moviemaking.
Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.
