The Flash (12A)

Dir: Andy Muschietti

Controversial star Ezra Miller returns as The Flash in yet another misfire in the DC Extended Universe.

The latest instalment in the DCEU was always going to be fighting an uphill battle upon release, with there being issues behind the scenes with both the film’s lead and the franchise in general. The DC Extended Universe has always struggled to match the levels set by their comic rivals at Marvel, both critically and commercially. These underwhelming returns, have seen Warner Bros. lose faith in the franchise and completely cut ties with Zack Snyder who was almost single-handedly trying to run the extended universe. Warner Bros. took the decision to install James Gunn as CEO of DC Studios, hoping he can reimagine the DCEU and get it to new heights, similar to that of Marvel. However, in the meantime there was still some films in production that were scheduled to be released before any changes can be made. Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods greatly suffered from effectively being thrown under the bus and both flopped commercially as a result.

DC Studios last hoorah before the reimagining of their superhero IP, is a solo film for the superhero speedster – The Flash. A film in itself, riddled with controversy, as it’s star, Ezra Miller, has faced many accusations and scandals in recent years. Miller has wisely been kept away from any media marketing for the film, in an attempt to keep the film distant from any real life controversies, but this ultimately does not bode well for the film financially. In terms of reviewing The Flash, or any film for that matter, I aim to try and blank out any controversies that may be going on around it, and judge it as I would any other film, out of respect for those in the industry.

The film opens up with Barry Allen “The Flash” (Ezra Miller) in a coffee shop, ironically running late for work, which is a regular occurrence. Whilst waiting for his order, Barry gets a call from Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons) regarding a collapsing hospital in Gotham, which is the result of collateral damage from Batman (Ben Affleck) pursuing the villainous Falcone family. Tired of being undervalued by the Justice League and being used as the “janitor” in cleaning up their own mess, Barry goes home alone to his small, messy apartment and laments about the death of his mother years prior. Barry’s mother was murdered in the family house when Barry was a child, and Barry’s father was arrested on suspicion despite being at the grocery store at the time. Barry feeling overlooked and isolated runs off into the night, he runs so fast in fact he accidentally travels back in time. Barry meets up with what he sees as his only true friend, Batman, and asks him if it would be possible to travel back to the time of his mother’s murder and prevent it from ever happening. Batman states it is a terrible idea, as time travel may lead to catastrophic consequences, but Barry ,being desperate and naïve, does so anyway.

Predictably, Barry’s time travelling shenanigans go awry, leaving him in an alternate timeline where he meets a younger version of himself (also Ezra Miller), who is still at college, and still has two living parents. This timeline Barry finds himself in also sees the arrival of General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his army of evil Kryptonions, on their Galaxy-spanning search to find Superman. Knowing that Zod will destroy the Earth he is currently occupying, Barry decides to get the Justice League together. Unfortunately for the two Barry’s, the reality they are in is void of any metahumans such as Wonder Woman or Aquaman, so they seek out the only Justice League member who exists in this timeline – Batman.

In this reality however, Batman is played by the much older and much more charismatic Michael Keaton, reprising his role from both the 1989 and 1992 Tim Burton iterations of the masked vigilante. Now with a Justice League consisting of: The Flash, The Flash again, Batman and a swiftly recruited Supergirl (Sasha Calle), the mission is on to save the world from General Zod.

We have seen Miller’s portrayal of Barry Allen several times by this point, and in the right doses, he is a fairly likeable character. He is a bit, childish and goofy but also brings some levity and heart to the otherwise surly Justice League. Here however, with all the focus being on not just one, but two Barry Allen’s it can get a little annoying. I actually think Ezra Miller does a good job here, controversy aside. Ezra Miller plays both characters differently and effectively but the character itself is just not likeable enough. This is more of a writing issue than a performance issue as Miller does a solid enough job. The constant back and forth between the two Barry’s is repetitive and grinding at times and Barry is also nowhere near as funny as he thinks he is. There are a couple of moments that got a slight chuckle out of me but the majority of the jokes in here fell flat.

Michael Keaton as Batman is always a joy to see and despite not playing the character for 30 years, he was a standout here. Felt like the only character with any real emotion and depth to them, just a shame there is not enough time with his character to get bellow the surface. Every other supporting character however, gets absolutely nothing to do. Sasha Calle as Supergirl is massively underutilised despite looking the part in the famous blue and red costume. Michael Shannon returns as General Zod and and is clearly just seeing the role as a cash grab as he is putting in little to no effort, what so ever.

Another problem I found with the film is it’s approach to the currently popular, Multiverse trope. The film utilises the multiverse in a way where it solely acts as a platform to shoehorn in characters from past iterations of DC movies. There are countless cameos throughout the film, in one of many poorly CGI rendered scenes, we see several famous faces at once, but they do not interact with the story or it’s characters at all. To make matters worse is that ‘The Flash’ has been released a couple of weeks after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a film that utilises the multiverse trope in an interesting and emotional way, none of that is on show here.

I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by ‘The Flash’ after early reactions were heaping it with praise. This wave of acclaim has started to wind down a bit now as more and more people have started to see the film. I did not have a good time with this one and it will be interesting to see where the franchise goes from here. James Gunn will have to have something pretty special up his sleeve if he is going to save the DCEU. The next release in the franchise is Blue Beetle which is to be released in August. Hopefully a new character to the franchise can breathe some life into it.

The Flash is now showing in Cinemas