The Flash

Finally, The Flash. After all the silenced controversy of its protagonist, one of the most promising films of the last stage of DC comes to light. The film was quite promising, and on balance... it falls short. Join me to find out why without stripping a single spoiler.

Let's start from the essential: the script. The story is basic to be a contemporary superhero movie. It contains humor, which feels excessive in the middle of the film. It has a lot of action, from the very beginning of the footage, which is appreciated. But eventually we get to the topic of fashion. On a personal and subjective note, I'm already sick of the multiverse. At least be original and rename the concept! The next movie that dares to close down and make fun of this concept will have my wholehearted support. Anyway, this applies to using time travel of course, and showing a couple of rather impressive cameos.

The direction is quite interesting. It has very daring use of angles and lenses that work very well with the story. The photography is effective and the edition is quite precise. The soundtrack is one of the great elements of the film that knows how to deal with nostalgia, but at times it feels too patchy. The acting is decent, as is the costume design.

The controversial element of this film is undoubtedly the visual effects. Surely the effects are present in almost the whole movie and almost half of them are pretty bad. The human figure has no real references neither in movements nor in logical details. I have seen video games from outdated consoles with a better visuals than The Flash.

Anyway. The Flash is a basic, action-packed movie that tries to be fun and emotional but fails too much in VFX, an element that its target audience is unforgiving in the year 2023.

I end by saying that if Muschietti had come even a little closer to The Flashpoint Paradox, this movie would have been a masterpiece.

The Flash is a junk food movie, but sometimes junk food hits the spot. I think in this case, it kind of did, and I had fun. There are problems here for sure, and maybe it'll all fall apart in my mind the more I think about it. But I had a pretty good time with this, and while it might not have been as filling or satisfying as a proper piece of cínèmá, I feel like as far as unapologetic crowd-pleasers go, this is one of the better ones.

It has fun with a time travel plot, and also dives right into all that multiverse stuff that's all the rage at this point. We may be at a breaking point soon with movies that spiral off into different universes/timelines, in the process bringing back actors to roles they haven't occupied for years or even decades, but I know I still get some enjoyment out of this kind of thing. In a couple of years, who knows - there's a good chance fatigue will set in around this latest trend, but unlike a lot of cinematic trends/sub-genres, this one has at least inspired universally loved movies and even Oscar winners (like Into the Spider-Verse and of course Everything Everywhere All At Once).

The Flash is a movie that's desperate for you to like it, and I can see that turning some people off. But others are probably going to like it a lot, and I imagine it'll do well at the box office. As for the future of DC, that's all up in the air, it feels. Anything can happen now, and we'll see whether that's a good thing in time. I'm also interested to see how fans of previous DC movies react to this, given how divided the fanbase is (and how fractured all the different DC universes are, what with the extra worlds of Robert Pattinson's Batman and Joaquin Phoenix's Joker).

But The Flash? It's fun. It's entertaining. It panders sometimes. It looks a bit like a video game at points (also plays out like one at times). Its humour generally lands, but not always. I'll probably never watch it again, but I had a good time watching it just this once.

As a fan of the Flashpoint:Paradox film, i was looking forward to this. The story is similar, but does change some major parts. The Flash is, for the most part, an enjoyable film with some really good performances, especially Sasha Calle and Michael Keaton. Not a huge fan of Ezra Miller as the flash, but the biggest issue with the film is undoubtedly the CGI. At times the graphics are poor, other times they are horrendous and unnecessary. The film would have been better had they taken a bit more time with the look of the film. Overall, a decent film with some suprising cameos, some really entertaining moments, but looked cheap.

The Flash has finally arrived, a film I've been looking forward to since it came to fruition back in 2019 after many years in development of different directors/writers. Flashpoint would be the inspiration behind the film and that got me excited as I love the graphic novel, this isn't a direct adaption, its inspired and has Barry Allen traveling back in time to save his mother as the plot point but after that, everything is different and honestly it works quite well in how you'll be in for a ride that you'll be unprepared for like The Flash in the film. Ezra Miller has been a topic of controversy for two years and I understand why someone would choose not to watch it for him but his performance is great in this and he's better than ever as The Flash. Then came the marketing, making Michael Keaton the main Batman with him reappearing as his character from Tim Burton's two Batman films, Sasha Calle as Supergirl and the first trailer brought back Michael Shannon as General Zod and Antje Traue as Faora-Ul which was the villains for "Man of Steel" which was the start of the DCEU, it feels fitting that they're back for the ending (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be the true conclusion). It also stars Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú and Kiersey Clemons. With Ben Affleck along with other actors from the DCEU making cameos.

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.

The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, she wrote Birds of Prey prior to this so she has knowledge of the universe. Henry Braham served as a cinematographer for the film and shot The Suicide Squad prior to this aswell for the last two volumes of Guardians of the Galaxy. Benjamin Wallfisch did the musical score for the film and it's a good soundtrack, music fitting each scene both light hearted and darker, also the more suspenseful scenes. I think it was nicely edited. Andy Muschietti's direction was great, I really liked his vision for the project and how he wanted to make the project his own and fitting to the DCEU. I don't have any criticism towards him, great visual storytelling and it felt like he gave great direction to the actors.

The Flash met my expectations, it was a great superhero film which brought plenty of satisfying and joyful moments. I love the characters and DCEU, I think they did a good job at putting an ending to it. With the speed force and time traveling, we got the multiverse in film format (after seeing it in Arrowverse and Titans before), and I don't want to spoil anything but you'll surely find it worth sitting through. The Flash offers a lot of things to like, the visual effects could and should have been better though, the final battle sequence against General Zod deserved ten times better effects and a more detailed location. I also understand why Michael Shannon didn't quite like it in this film just because of how one-dimensional Zod is and how there are almost no deep themes, I wouldn't say there are no themes though as there's one strong theme that's executed perfectly on screen and in writing, the theme of loss. There was emotional depth in the film through the loss of Nora, Barry's mother, it was executed perfectly and performed perfectly by Ezra Miller. The writing offered some great comedy, plenty of laughs from me and the others in the audience on the premiere, Ezra Miller had that comedic timing. Overall, I think the writing was great, much better than her work on Birds of Prey. The dialogue was great and so was the characterization. I really enjoyed the first and second act, they were golden. The third was fine but could have been better. The action sequences were great, all of them! Again, here the visual effects could have been better, but the action sequences were well thought out. It was also nice to see Michael Keaton back as Batman, he was great! I also liked Sasha Calle as Supergirl, good performance. This is a film I'll rewatch, without a doubt. Great superhero film!

Much better than I thought and reviews led me to believe. Superwoman really worked for me. Michael Keaton was good. Ezra Miller wasn't hyper annoying. I could've done without the updated flash effects and the suit but not too bad. It's funny, fairly interesting and the plot isn't super convoluted or especially ridiculous (for a superhero movie).

Saw reviews complaining about inconsistent CGI quality. For most of the movie I couldn't figure out why; clearly an artistic choice. But then Chris Reeve pops up and yeah, that was pretty bad. I think it's the result of applying the stylistic effects they'd been using on the still-alive actors to an already not awesome deepfake but whatever the reason it was jarring and not necessary. There were a lot of nods and Easter eggs they would've been fine skipping.

So not perfect but nothing ruined it for me. Batman in the beginning really didn't sound like Affleck to me. They gave their Batman a healthy dose of Christopher Nolan Batman that I could've done without (what possible reason is there for having vents on your breastplate. Do his pectorals generate too much wind resistance when he flexes?)

Anyway worth seeing. Stands up well with the other DC movies, such as they are. I really don't see what the problem is if you liked all they other stuff. This is easily better than Aquaman and Justice League and Snyder-bloat Justice League. Yeah Ezra Miller is going through an annoying as all hell/total trainwreck phase lately. But hey, who hasn't sorta kidnapped an Indian and hoarded guns and acted like a total b!#h@$$ after they got arrested for something stupid and avoidable.. yet again, then whined about it/their/thouest pronouns to someone that made the mistake of addressing them with respect? That old chestnut. Just a steaming hot mess of human being but considering all that he's gotta be pretty talented since I was still able to enjoy his character in the movie.

I wouldn't be expecting a sequel though. Oh yeah, Michael Shannon was predictably good also, though not utilized all that much.