Saturday, June 17, 2023

'The Flash' A Review

The Flash is a superhero movie, the long gestating last gasp of DC's abandoned Synderverse. Barry(Ezra Miller) aka the titular hero, is doing his crime fighting thing when he discovers he has the ability to time travel. He goes back to prevent his mother from being killed and as a result finds himself in an alternate reality. He teams up with his younger self and Batman(Michael Keaton returning to his iconic role) to untie the knot he's made.

Miller brings the same aw-shucks charm he has brought to the character before but he's not as funny as a main character(rather than the designated comedic relief) and its hard to buy-in as much given all of the actors public issues(at least for this viewer). It's great to see Keaton again but by the time he blandly repeats his third iconic line from the Burton films his inclusion goes from cool to clearly desperate. Sasha Calle as Supergirl is a delightful breath of fresh air but has too little screen time and given too little to do. There's easter eggs and cameos galore but while some hit, in total it feels like these additions are substituted for more general coherent screenwriting.

Visually the movie is a bit confused, it is part Synder doom and gloom, part bright and energetic, with the superspeed sequences mostly being pretty cool. And yet, those feel a bit too reminiscent(and not nearly as compelling) as the Quicksilver sequences in both X-Men: Days Of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse with the MCU version of the Flash played by Evan Peters to better effect. The Flash was in development for years and the final product clearly reflects that. It is clear there are too many hands involved, too many rewrites, too many reshoots. It's too complicated and overlong. The result is palatable but not really good.

Mildly diverting.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

No comments:

Post a Comment