THE FLASH (2023). Director: Andy Muschietti.
Justice League member the Flash/Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) wants to go back in time to save his mother's life after she was murdered and her husband, Barry's father (Ron Livingstone), unfairly arrested for the crime. (I believe this development is taken from the long-running
Flash TV series). Although Batman (Ben Affleck) warns Barry not to mess with the timestream, he does it anyway, but finds that he's now in a parallel universe where Batman (Michael Keaton) is a lot older and there are no other super-heroes. Barry also encounters a younger version of himself, but when his younger self gets his powers, Barry
loses them and may not be able to return home. Worse, the entire planet is threatened by an invasion of General Zod (Michael Shannon of
Man of Steel) of Krypton. The two Flashes, plus the Senior Batman, team up to find Kal-El, who has not yet emerged as Superman, but find an imprisoned Kara (Sasha Calle) -- or Supergirl -- instead, Can their combined forces save the world and get Barry back where he belongs?
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| Ezra Miller as the Flash |
Oy vey! The character of the Flash has a rich history that was exploited by the TV show, but this movie pretty much ignores all that and comes up with a plotline simply borrowed from the comic book mini-series (and the resultant animated film)
Flashpoint. There are so many ideas, villains, and plots that could have made for an enthralling movie, but while
The Flash has its entertaining and exciting moments (such as our hero saving a bunch of infants that are thrown out of a maternity ward window high in a skyscraper) and is often visually striking, it is way too long and often too silly -- as well as featuring too many fairly dull battle sequences -- for this to be a contender. I think Ezra Miller [
We Need to Talk About Kevin] is a fine, sensitive actor and he gives a very good performance, and Keaton certainly makes his mark in his first appearance as Batman in decades -- he comes off better than he did in the first
Batman. Calle, Shannon, and others make little impression, however.
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| Michael Keaton as Senior Batman |
In this movie The Flash is an amalgam of Barry Allen and his nephew Wally West, who took over the role of Flash after Barry's (temporary) death. (It is Wally who has to keep eating to keep his energy up, not Barry.) A weird touch has quick CGI images of all of the actors who have played Superman -- George Reeves, Christopher Reeves, and even Nicolas Cage, who
wanted to play Superman but never did -- flying across the time stream (??) -- and a really stupid post-end credit sequence has Barry encountering Aquaman who is on a drunken bender. (Presenting the dignified Aquaman as a drunk, which makes no sense at all, is similar to the way Marvel movies have turned the equally dignified Thor into a Las Vegas lounge act!) Ultimately
The Flash seems pointless because -- SPOILER ALERT -- he not only
doesn't save his mother but the alternate earth he winds up on is obliterated by Zod! (In the final moments of the film the Flash doesn't seem particularly disturbed by the
deaths of billions -- WTF?) Then Batman shows up again only this time he's played by George Clooney! Wonder Woman also gets a brief cameo.
Verdict: Some may think the movie is fun, but it's also a badly-plotted mess. **1/4.
2 comments:
These comic book things just don't send me at all. I have zero interest. Even with great actors, good looking male stars and tight outfits. I used to go to Batman, Spiderman and Superman movies growing up, enjoyed them a lot, but now there is such a glut of this genre and they all look the same to me. Ezra looks cute, though!
-C
Ezra is a nice-looking fellow (uh, I don't know if we can say "fellow" since he identifies as non-binary, but heck I've never been that politically correct) -- what we would call "unconventionally" attractive.
You're not alone in how you feel about the comic book movies. Even I, a big comic book/super-hero fan, am getting a little sick of them. For me the problem is that some of them are not that well-written, poorly directed, and often trash the very things that made the characters, in the comics at least, interesting in the first place. Still, some of them are well-done and quite entertaining. But yes there are way too many of them. Not to mention TV shows, animated films, and live-action shows that feature super-heroes (like The Boys, which I hated) that pretty much just rip off the comic books.
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