Movie Review – The Flash

The Flash

US (2023) Dir. Andy Muschietti

Multiverses are fast becoming a lazy concept with both Marvel and DC employing it ad infinitum for their franchise players in recent outings. Obviously, the possibilities are endless given the nature of the premise but do we need this for every superhero?

After working with Batman (Ben Affleck) to prevent crime in Gotham City and save some babies from near certain death, The Flash aka Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) has to deal with the impending court appeal of his father Henry (Ron Livingston) who is accused of killing Barry’s mother Nora (Maribel Verdú). Whilst running to clear his mind, Barry accidentally goes back in time by a few hours from running so fast.

Despite being warned against it by Bruce Wayne, Barry decides to go back in time to the day of his mother’s murder to prevent it from happening, hoping this tiny bit of meddling won’t cause too much damage to the future. However, when Barry tries to return to his time, he discovers things have changed significantly, and having met his teen self in this timeline, Barry wonders if he will be able to get back home again.

From reading the harshly negative reviews, coupled with the well-publicised off-screen antics of it star and the fact this was another Multiverse story, I didn’t have much hope for The Flash. Put it down to film snobbery or superhero movie fatigue, the paltry scores and scathing comments aimed at The Flash make me wonder more about the reviewers than the film itself, as this is actually a pretty good film.

Not that the superhero genre isn’t over saturated, and suffers from diminishing returns, but let’s judge each film in its own merits. With the tried and tested formulae put into action, one already knows what they are getting and in all fairness it is done well for the so most part, with the multiverse gimmick employed for cogent reasons – Barry wants to prevent his mother’s murder.

Barry in his present timeline is a milquetoast Clark Kent in being feckless and friendless, whilst a victim of his double life when saving the city encroaches on his work hours. The opening sequence in which The Flash helps people at the mercy of collapsing foundations due to a bomb implosion, is rare example of a hero torn in many ways – as a ward of new born babies tumble to their death, The Flash has to catch them all.

Since his power is ultra fast speed, Barry achieves this but the threat of failure and its consequences are very real, foreshadowing the gravity of later. Ending up in a timeline with an alternate version of his teen self is only half the issue for Barry. For anyone unfamiliar with The Flash’s history, this serves as a quick and neat way to recap his origin story, culminating in the Future Barry losing his powers and Past Barry gaining them.

However, to add further reason as to why messing with history is a bad idea, the Barry’s go in search of Batman for help, but don’t find the Bruce Wayne original Barry knows, this Batman is Michael Keaton instead! Meanwhile, fulfilling the antagonist role is General Zod (Micheel Shannon), on a quest to find his Kryptonian nemesis, who our heroes hope to track down first. They can’t find Kal-El but do find Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle) aka Supergirl!

One thing the script, which boast four writers, does to differentiate itself from previous DC films featuring The Flash is lean into the humour more, with a chunk of it provided by the altering of history. When Future Barry uses Back To The Future as a way to explain his predicament to Past Barry – who is portrayed as a total dope – he is aghast to learn Eric Stoltz became famous as Marty McFly, whilst Michael J. Fox starred in Footloose, and Kevin Bacon was Maverick in Top Gun!

Crucially, the changes also mean Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the other members of the Justice League don’t exist whilst Batman is out of action as Gotham City is now the safest place in America. This explains why Bruce Wayne is a scruffy Keaton and not urbane Affleck, and also why Kara survived the trip from Krypton and Kal-El didn’t. This last reveal is played nicely, as Future Barry is only aware of Superman and they go in search of a male, unaware the woman they rescue is who they are after.

The story overall may not be original but the emotional heft behind Barry’s mission is unique to it and gives the film something other DC entries miss in trying to be either too fun, too dark or too bombastic. This conceit hits home when the two Barry’s fight over how it is imperative to keep on changing time until things are put right across the board, yet each run around the block just makes things worse – a pertinent message for many of life’s problems really.

Whilst this, the self-referential gags and horde of DC Easter eggs make for a fun time, the visual bombast offers nothing new and the climax could be from any DC or Marvel film. Contentiously, a sequence of the converging Multiverses featuring various iterations of the DC heroes is hurt by unconvincing CGI renditions of the characters, including the late Christopher Reeves and Adam West, that just feels… wrong.

It is also a little hard to watch this knowing what a complete tool Ezra Miler has been in real life, when he is actually quite good in the roles of both Barrys. At least Michael Keaton enjoying himself is great compensation, as is another fabulous cameo in the final scene.

Expecting to dislike The Flash, I’ll admit it caught me by surprise as an enjoyable and thought provoking watch, issues aside, the run time one of them. I guess the lesson is don’t always take critics’ negative reviews as gospel. If only there was a way to unread them…