Is 'The Flash' One of the Best Superhero Films Ever?
No, but it's probably good enough.
This post will contain plot details from The Flash that have been revealed in the trailer.
The Flash feels like a weird artifact from a former era. It’s a follow-up to 2017’s Justice League, a movie that was supposed to herald the arrival of an interconnected DC Extended Universe but failed miserably at doing so before the DCEU was reborn again before it kind of died again. Its main star Ezra Miller was on a reign of terror around the world before recently seeking treatment and has almost no role in the promotion of the film. In short: I highly doubt this movie would be made today under the same circumstances.
That said, the movie was made, it was given a release date (this Friday), and James Gunn has stated that The Flash is “one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen.” That holds a lot of credibility coming from someone who himself has made some pretty good superhero films (albeit one with a financial stake in this movie), so The Flash demands evaluation.
The Flash tells the story of how its protagonist, Barry Allen (Miller), tries to undo one of the defining events of his life: the murder of his mother, Nora (played by the wonderful Maribel Verdú). When Allen was a child, his mother was stabbed to death and his father was wrongfully convicted of the crime — a single act that impacted the course of three lives. One day, while Allen is out doing normal Flash superhero stuff, he realizes he can run fast enough to create a “chronobowl,” which allows him to witness past events, travel back in time, and alter the course of history. So he goes back and prevents his mother from being killed, but before he can return to the present, he is knocked out of the chronobowl and ends up at an intermediate point in the past, where he encounters and is forced to work with a past version of himself. Only Allen discovers that he’s changed a lot more about his timeline than he bargained for, possibly putting Earth itself in jeopardy.
I watched The Flash in a packed theater and it’s undeniable that the movie is a crowd-pleaser. There were gales of laughter and many cheers at some of the bigger action beats. Director Andy Muschietti does a good job of balancing the tones in the film; it’s mostly light but makes time and space for some of the darker, more serious elements. Miller is convincing in a dual role as Allen and a younger version of Allen, and the two have an amusing rapport with each other. And ultimately, the movie is thematically satisfying. Allen learns a valuable lesson about the importance of accepting his past and the danger of tangling with forces he can’t understand. If you’re hoping for a solid, fun, down-the-middle superhero film then I think The Flash will deliver for you.
But the movie has a few big issues. The first is obvious from the trailer: it is stuffed to the gills with plot and characters, and as a result, it relies a little bit too much on the audience’s knowledge of some of the “new” characters that are introduced. If you aren’t intimately familiar with Michael Keaton’s version of Batman or if you don’t know who Kara Zor-El is, then their appearance in this movie probably won’t do much for you. The film doesn’t spend time building up these characters’ backstories or making us invest in their journey, instead relying mostly on iconography and the audience’s meta-textual knowledge to deliver on the emotional payoffs.
And yet. I’m someone who grew up with Michael Keaton’s Batman. For a time, his version of the character dominated pop culture. I watched Tim Burton’s Batman countless times. I played the Batman videogame when it was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I even learned how to play Danny Elfman’s classic Batman theme on the piano. In other words: This rendition of the character occupies a very special and treasured space in my brain! And I have to confess that when Michael Keaton shows up in this movie, it activated a core part of my lizard brain that made me more inclined to like this movie.
Does it do honor to Keaton’s version of Batman? Eh. The Flash lovingly invokes the visuals of that version of Batman, including the classic design of the old Batmobile and the iconic Batplane. And Batman himself does kick a lot of ass in this movie, with a couple of great set pieces where he gets to do cool Batman-like stuff. But at the end of the day, I’m not really sure why Keaton is even in this movie, dramaturgically speaking. There’s nothing in the movie’s plot that really resonates with that version of the character that couldn’t have also been fulfilled by, say, Affleck’s version of Batman (who also shows up in the film for a few minutes). It all feels like it’s just made for us to point at the screen and say, “Hey, I remember when that guy did the thing!” If that floats your boat, you will legitimately have a great time in this film, as there are several other surprises along those lines that I won’t spoil here.
The other thing worth mentioning is the look of the film. The Flash has some of the best CG I’ve seen in a modern day superhero film and also some of the worst. To start with, the way the Flash’s powers are conveyed is wonderful. Whenever Allen starts moving quickly, time slows down, the screen gets a bluish tint, and lightning bolts start shooting out of random objects. It’s a cool way of showing that this character experiences the world differently than the rest of us. And when the Flash is running from city to city or entering the speed force, it is occasionally breathtaking. The action scenes with the Flash are generally interesting and inventive, and they share the same vibes as that awesome Quicksilver scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past.
But there are other elements of this movie that just look plain terrible. One of the initial action scenes has a big CG set piece that looks unfinished, and many other characters in the film literally look like they came straight out of a cutscene for a Playstation 3 videogame. I was stunned at how rough some of these visuals were, but at the end of the day, the movie nailed enough of the big moments that most people probably won’t care (the fans in my theater certainly didn’t mind).
So is The Flash one of the greatest superhero films ever made? It’s definitely a lot of fun and features many moments that will keep DC fans buzzing. Whether you think it’s one of the greatest will probably depend on your affection for all the movies and characters it references. But it’s also hard to escape the idea that, with the upheaval at DC and with the accusations that have been leveled against Miller, this will likely be the last time we see this version of the character. Maybe The Flash will make a billion dollars and usher in a whole new era for this character on the big screen. But I doubt it. If there’s one thing this film taught me, it’s that the Flash shouldn’t try to fight fate.
Other Stuff David Chen Has Made
On Instagram, I reacted to the Trump indictment and the latest Flash TV spot.
On The Filmcast this week, we reviewed Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. An adequate time was had by all!
I am so glad you take time to write out reviews like this, it feels natural to how I personally relate and talk about movies myself. I'm actually interested in seeing it now.