The Flash (2023)

July 2, 2023 3:37 AM

Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.

This is a wacky, witty attempt to filmify both "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and "Flashpoint", and it almost works perfectly. Lots of fanservice, some genuinely amusing cameos [George Clooney, Nicolas Cage, Jason Momoa, digital Christopher Reeve] and some creative reutilization too (Michael Keaton as "I'm Batman", Ben Affleck as Batman) and so forth. Ezra Miller [complicated] does well as both Barrys, cool and uncool, Sasha Calle is great as Zara Kor-El, and Kieran Hodgson is lovely as "the sandwich guy." I thought Barry's parents (Maribel Verdú and Ron Livingston) did a good job too.

Question: did the Barrys' Central City cab drive all the way to Wayne Manor in Gotham?!

We may all be tiring of the "multiverse" as a MacGuffin (there has some other angle for superheroes in this day and age), but these off-brand Justice Leaguers make the best of it.

In short, a fine night out.

posted by chavenet (16 comments total)

All those silly cameos and they couldn’t give my boy Grant Gustin even a brief nod? For shame!
posted by adrianhon at 10:46 AM on July 2, 2023 [17 favorites]

I was wondering if anyone was going to post this up, as the controversies around you-know-who are still fresh in everyone's mind and at this point the film has basically flopped. I will probably wait until it hits Max, which may not be that long.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:33 PM on July 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

[From Halloween Jack’s link above]

Fernando mentioned that The Flash's hefty $150 promotional budget may not even be recouped by box office earnings, and WB would've "lost less money releasing it on Max or not releasing it at all."

Not releasing it at all was the approach that DC saw fit to use for Batgirl, so who knows? Of course, I guess if this late in the game Warner Brothers decided that this multiverse route was the way to go, then bringing back OG Batman Michael Keaton for two big movies and shelving them both would maybe make it tricky to ever bring back any old school heroes for any potential future appearances.

And really, who could have ever guessed that leaving Zack Snyder (with his idiosyncratic approach to the genre) could have led to the whole DCEU sputtering out like a sodden firework? Not I.

By the way, I assume Fernando’s mention of a “hefty $150 promotional budget” means $150 million; if not, I think I see the problem.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:27 PM on July 2, 2023 [6 favorites]

Hey, I liked it. I took my mother to see it because she's a fan of the CW Flash show like I am, although she hadn't seen any of the DCEU movies besides Wonder Woman on DVD and Aquaman on HBO Max. I did keep having to lean into her ear and tell her "That's so-and-so from a movie you didn't see" because this is the first movie I've seen since the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has prerequisites.

I was just a bit too young to see Michael Keaton's Batman on the big screen when I was a kid. I came of age just in time for Val Kilmer, and then later George Clooney. What sort of teenage years do you call that?! So I wanted to see The Flash just to see Keaton back in action in the theater. Otherwise I'd have passed. Of all the DCEU, I only saw Wonder Woman in the theater. The rest were all DVD or HBO Max. I didn't even get around to Man Of Steel until the week before I saw The Flash because I knew it called back to it and figured I'd better get up to speed. I'm glad I went because, Keaton aside, I did enjoy the movie very much. Keaton stole the show though, as he does in any movie he's in.

Ezra Miller nailed it though as Barry Allen. Their crimes aside, it was a great pair of performances. I bought that these were two distinct Barrys, and it's got to be a challenge to act against yourself for an entire movie and have it be believable. I'm disappointed we'll never get a follow-up on Barry's mother's murder (of course it was the Reverse Flash, but there's just no time to unpack that in this movie, and I wanted to see Reverse Flash on the big screen too).

The cameos got to be gratuitous, but since this was the end of the DCEU, it worked. Gotta pay respect to those that came before and have them in the movie even if they're long dead. I agree that Grant Gustin should've been in there somewhere.

Apparently they changed the ending late in the game. The original plan was for Keaton to become the new Batman for the DCEU after Barry broke history and put it back together. The Clooney cameo at the end was a late addition (although totally worth it, almost making Batman & Robin the setup for this long game of a punchline). It would've been Keaton's Bruce Wayne that greeted Barry at the end of the movie. Then, in Batgirl, he would've been active in somewhat of a Batman Beyond mentor role to Batgirl. Once they changed that, Keaton's Wayne can't be in Batgirl's story if it's part of the DCEU, so I can understand why it was deemed "unreleasable" if that's how they meant it at the time without wanting to spoil The Flash. Still, they could've just lumped it under Elseworlds or even just not cared and gone ahead with it. I guess the tax write-off was more attractive to them, but that doesn't make it the right choice.

So yes, consider it enjoyed and I'll watch it again on Max. I might even spring for the DVD if there's an audio commentary on it.
posted by Servo5678 at 11:37 PM on July 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm glad this showed up here for discussion. I enjoyed this movie, but I don't think it was particularly good. (I think can be separate things)

I loved some of the visualization of Barry using his powers, the run from Central City to Gotham in the opening act, phasing through the walls, all fun stuff. Agree that Keaton stole the show. I've always liked his take on the Batman. I like that Barry Allen is always late. He's late because he's busy saving the world, but of course no one knows this, so everyone thinks he's a screw up.

Overall the movie felt uneven and I sort of wished they had done a straight up Flash story - have him battle it out with Captain Cold or a few of his famous rogues. I think one of the main failures of the DC films is that they rush into major epochal story events and we don't get any time for the characters to grow on us.

By the time we meet Thanos in the MCU, we've had dozens of movies to get to know the characters. In DC land they want to rush straight to Darkseid and Flashpoint and it's just confusing, even for someone familiar with the source material.

I think the lasso-of-truth gag wasn't particularly funny. The idea that Bruce should just give away his wealth is a pop-culture critique of the Batman story - Batman himself (the character) obviously doesn't believe that, so why would he ever admit to it? Instead of quoting some internet tropes, why not have him admit his feelings for her, how she takes away his pain, and how much that scares him? It could be funny and advance the character. But nah, let's do internet jokes.

There was something strange about the Justice League using the Flash as a support and housecleaning when he vastly out-powers all of them. (We never see the outcome of the race between Superman and Flash in the after-credits scene of Justice League, but if Barry is casually running through time itself on a random Tuesday, I'm pretty sure he can leave Supes in the dust.) Maybe there's a good in-world reason, perhaps Batman is keeping Barry off the front lines, forcing him to learn to control and focus his abilities, knowing that he could easily pack a few protein bars and take over the world. It would have been nice to understand the why in the film.

The Flash is one of my fav super heroes, so I'll probably watch it on Max too - if for no other reason than to see microwave baby.
posted by device55 at 9:15 AM on July 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've been out of the comics game for the most part for about a quarter-century now, but Flash was one of my favorites back in the day (his trial for killing Reverse-Flash was one of the first arcs I remember anticipating each month). I figured I'd give this one a try in the theaters on a day off. I went in expecting to have to grit my teeth against the Ezra Miller of it all.

I ended up having to grit my teeth against the entirety of it all. Barry Allen as loner weirdo? General Zod as the Big Bad? Metal-Flash as the attempted Bigger Bad? High-school-level CGI in the Parade of Supermans? Hated it. Hated every bit of it that wasn't Michael Keaton dancing around everyone else like Michael Jordan at a rec league pickup game. Well, okay, the initial setpiece at the hospital was pretty good. But the whole rest of it? Bah.
posted by Etrigan at 9:49 AM on July 3, 2023

I thought it was fine but was puzzled as to why Barry didn’t wish to find out who actually did kill his mum. He just needed to stick his time-head into the kitchen for a look-see.

The giant spider scene got a laugh from me but I know a few folk who didn’t have a clue what was happening in that part.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 9:57 AM on July 3, 2023

but was puzzled as to why Barry didn’t wish to find out who actually did kill his mum

That does seem like the non-universe destroying approach…
posted by device55 at 10:09 AM on July 3, 2023

Was the source material for this also used in the Grant Gustin TV show? Some of it sounds really familiar, but I've never read the comics
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 5:37 AM on July 4, 2023

I’m enough of a Comics/Movies nerd to understand all of the references in this movie, but the general public would be pretty confused by it.

By the time we meet Thanos in the MCU, we've had dozens of movies to get to know the characters. In DC land they want to rush straight to Darkseid and Flashpoint and it's just confusing, even for someone familiar with the source material.

This has been exactly the issue with the DC movies of recent years. They tried to speed run the Marvel formula with Snyder’s grimdark take and it didn’t work. Now they have a confusing mess that they have to start over again, with James Gunn as their Kevin Feige mastermind.

It’s hard to pin down exactly why this movie flopped. Do that many people really care about Ezra Miller’s real life scandals? Or do people just not care about a backseat character from the mediocre Justice League, in an already blockbuster crowded summer movie season? Across the Spider-Verse is in the same theater, with great reviews. Flash who?
posted by Fleebnork at 6:25 AM on July 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

I like that Barry Allen is always late.

That's an idea DC used in his 1970s comic book series.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:52 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

The "always late" Barry Allen was part of the character even before he became the Flash. Check out the Flash from the mid-60's. Iris was always complaining about this.
posted by SPrintF at 9:15 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

It’s hard to pin down exactly why this movie flopped. Do that many people really care about Ezra Miller’s real life scandals? Or do people just not care about a backseat character from the mediocre Justice League, in an already blockbuster crowded summer movie season? Across the Spider-Verse is in the same theater, with great reviews. Flash who?

For me it's been a combination of Miller's scandals, the overall handling of the DCEU over the past few years, and the recent WB antics. I'll probably give Gunn a chance to win me back over and might watch Flash on Max...but nah, not going to the theater for this.
posted by Atreides at 12:39 PM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

but nah, not going to the theater for this.

There is a nice second-run place not far from me. It usually winds up with what big movies it does get two to three months after their release, and the admission is about 40% of the major chains. Good popcorn, too.

The Flash starts there Friday, three weeks after it opened at the big chains.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:40 PM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

And I had a look today, as I had an unexpected day off. Meh. It was what you get when you order Spider-Man: No Way Home from Wish.

Keaton stole the show though, as he does in any movie he's in.

Between Batman, The Vulture, and Birdman, Keaton is sort of the go-to guy for unpowered heroes who nevertheless fly.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:28 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

So, I did finally see this when it landed on Max (a bit sooner than planned, I believe), and... it's not totally bad, but not as good as it could have been. Keaton does pretty much walk away with the movie; Miller doesn't seem to bring anything in particular to the role that any number of other actors could, with the arguable exception of that astonished-and-somewhat-terrified expression that they can summon when they see someone or something truly astonishing and/or somewhat terrifying (think of the moment in JL when Flash realizes that Superman can track him visually at super-speed). Everyone else is pretty much OK; I think that I would have liked to have seen Sasha Calle do more, hopefully Gunn thinks so too. There were some funny bits, some bits that should have been funnier (the lasso scene), and some bits that would have been great if they hadn't been spoiled by various persons (like all the cameos). None of the super-speed scenes seemed to have the panache of Evan Peters' two brilliant bits in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse (the latter being the only reason to see that movie). I don't regret having taken the time to see this, but also don't imagine ever rewatching it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:11 PM on August 28, 2023