'The Flash' Runs Toward Mediocrity
Perfectly entertaining yet mediocre. The Flash is an enjoyable movie that relies on cameos over nuanced emotions. On a surface level, The Flash is a sentimental story about a young man wanting to save his parents. Yet the chemistry between mother and child has something missing. Perhaps that something is a Flash movie where it's devoid of cameos, focussing on the character himself.
There's space to develop the Flash without Batman (or Batmen) getting in the way. That's not to say the cameos aren't satisfying. There are some wonderful multiverse surprises that present some familiar faces. However, those reveals only work as a magic trick. Once the trick is revealed, there's not much left other than an intoxicating effect that quickly wears off after the prestige. The film is fun but forgetful fun. Yet sometimes, that's all one may ask from a movie.
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is the fastest person on the planet. So fast that he can bend through time and space, opening branching threads to different timelines. The movie opens with a DC logo that transitions to a phony-looking CGI clock that rewinds its hands in time. Why couldn't they have filmed a practical clock? The setting is established through the opening shot that this will be a time-bending narrative.
The movie begins at a nifty start, where Barry must save people from a collapsing hospital. Barry is so fast he can run on top of buildings like he's Spider-Man sticking to walls. Gravity is not an obstacle for Barry, who can safely transport falling babies by placing them onto a stretcher in midair to the ground without being scathed from a ten-story fall. How that works even with Barry's speed is impractical, but it's all in the vein of a comic book movie, making the impossible believable.
Despite his superhuman speed, Barry could never save his parents. Barry's mother suffers a fatal stabbing while his father shows up at the right house at the wrong time. Being found unlawfully guilty of his wife's murder, Barry's dad gets incarcerated. To right the wrongs of the criminal justice system, Barry works in criminal forensics while studying criminal law so he can free his dad from imprisonment.
One day while reflecting on his past, Barry has an emotional run similar to Christopher Reeve's time-reversing spiral around the globe in Superman. Barry opens the portal to the multiverse. With multiple time threads open, Barry can choose one where he can go back to and save his parents. But as Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) warns Barry, "These scars we have, make us who we are. We're not meant to go back and fix them." Changing the past risks upsetting the multiverse, which could lead to catastrophic results for each world. The plot of this film is similar to a movie released last week that tackled the same story thread and themes but far better with more finesse in its style.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has a plot similar to The Flash, where it's about a young man who has the opportunity to break a thread in the multiverse so he can save someone he loves. Across The Spider-Verse is loaded with cameos that come as a great surprise, yet the movie isn't dependent on them to keep the audience hooked. The story stays on Miles Morales' path toward being a hero, even if it means shattering the multiverse. Both stories are incredibly similar, with one having far more originality and vibrancy thanks to its animated format. Both will draw big reactions from packed crowds, yet only one will be memorable and won't be only because of its cameos.
The return of Michael Keaton's Batman has been plastered on the front of almost every Flash ad and poster as if he's the movie's star when in reality, he gets about twenty minutes of screen time out of a two-hour and twenty-four-minute film. Of course, given the recent history of Ezra Miller's trouble with the law, it's no wonder why they chose to advertise Batman over the Flash in his own movie.
The guest role of Keaton's Batman doesn't enrich the picture other than providing fan service to Tim Burton Batman fans. As a die-hard 1989 Batman fan, I was satisfied by Keaton's return to action but puzzled at the same time. His lines are ridiculous, reciting "let's get nuts" among other not-so-subtle nods at the camera.
The use of Tim Butron's Batman doesn't have the same effect as Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Men had in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where its cameos were more meaningful than a tip of the hat to the crowd. In No Way Home, the other Spider-Men support its main Spider-Man when he's most vulnerable. No Way Home is a heartfelt message of friendship that resonates through its star casting.
The usage of Keaton's Batman is a shallow role that only serves Barry as a guide rather than a mentor. Keaton's Batman appearance even feels phoned in as Keaton regularly switches between his Bruce Wayne voice and Batman voice which is slightly off-putting. Given the script Keaton's been handed, it makes sense why he'd phone it in, as the film mostly asks for Batman to be around and look cool.
The Flash feels like a marathon at times with its over two-hour length. The opening is fun, but the middle act drags itself through comedic antics between not one but two Ezra Millers. By breaking a multiverse thread, Barry runs into an eighteen-year-old version of himself from another place in time. The majority of the picture is loaded with Ezra Miller quipping to himself. Much of it isn't funny growing on annoying. If you didn't care for the Flash's neurotic persona the first time around, this film won't win you over on Ezra Miller's Barry Allen either.
With a consistently light tone, the film feels tonally confused when mixing things with mass murderer General Zod (Michael Shannon) and Batman. The DC universe aims to be lighter, yet going from dark to light opens a can of worms. After all the Snyderverse drama, The Flash attempts to close the loop on any upcoming Snyderverse projects, yet still can't with the upcoming release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
When the stars behind the multiverse-veiled curtain reveal themselves and the picture concludes, there's not much to be remembered beyond who shows up for a cameo. The film's third act gets messy, where the final outcome of the plot gets tangled up in its own multiverse threads. The film rushes to its conclusion, which is more confusing than amazing.
The Flash is a trailer moment movie where many of the scenes (especially the Michael Keaton Batman ones) are made more for the trailer than the actual film. Case in point, Michael Keaton walks in front of the frame displaying his Bat alter ego, and somehow 18 years old Barry is shocked to see Bruce Wayne as Batman. As the cameras pushes in on Keaton, Barry faints at the site of Batman. This reaction from Barry would be more believable if he didn't find out minutes earlier about Bruce Wayne's secret identity. The movie needed its "I'm Batman" moment for the trailers, and it got it. How it plays in the film is awkward.
Ultimately The Flash is a fun film that's nothing more than that. It's entertaining enough to warrant a watch in the theater. The cameos alone are worth experiencing with friends but don't expect to be blown away by this film, as it does little to enhance its protagonist or the DC Universe. Still, there’s enough competency, wit, and climaxes to make The Flash an enjoyable time at the movie theater.
