‘The Flash’ Review
Stars: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Ben Affleck, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Antje Traue, Jeremy Irons, Temuera Morrison, Kiersey Clemons | Written by Christina Hodson, Joby Harold | Directed by Andy Muschietti
The multiverse is everywhere. It’s all around us and wherever we go, we seem to be getting stuck in it. From multiple Spider-Man movies, a Doctor Strange Movie, and even an Oscar-winning best picture movie, the multiverse is at its peak. It’s no surprise then, that DC get their turn and in doing so have turned to the world’s fastest superhero, so we can watch him race his way through the DC multiverse.
Ezra Miller returns, despite all they’ve done, all they have been charged with, and all they have been accused of, they find themselves on the big screen as Barry Allen once again. This time Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past. In an attempt to save his family, he creates a world without metahumans, forcing him to team up with a past version of himself and an old version of an iconic hero, so they can save this new reality.
The grounds for the story are all there to have an emotional and personal connection to the film. After all, what could be more relatable than a boy’s relationship with his parents? There are moments that try to get to those points and try to play on the emotional side of the story. Barry first seeing his mum again and another scene involving her in a supermarket tries to get us to those emotional places. For me they never quite hit, they didn’t have that punch you’d want them to have. They meant well and I could see what the film was going for, but by the time I’d made my way through a lot of the mess of the film it had reduced those moments to things I didn’t care for.
The moments that do work are the humour and some of the action set pieces. The movie moves and feels like a comic book in these moments. Heroes appear to help, bad guys rob chemicals that could destroy the world, and the back-and-forth jokes all seem to hit. There is fun to be had in these sequences, but the issue was that they never had any real weight to them. Despite the fun, there was no danger or real threat felt, I always got the sense that everything would be okay in the end and at times that does take you out of the film. The end action set piece is easily the weakest part of the film. There’s so sense of wonder or imagination with the action in the final act, it’s reduced to a messy CGI fight that doesn’t even look good, something that seems to be a major issue with the film.
Two standouts throughout the film were Michael Keaton’s iconic return as the caped crusader. Keaton looked like he was having so much fun and his character’s connection to his parents made for an emotional connection between him and The Flash, one that should have been capitalised on more. The other stand out, despite limited screen time, is Sasha Calle as Supergirl. Her performance brought a weight to it that you could feel in every scene. It’s a shame she didn’t get more screen time, but hopefully, she can keep the role for whatever the future holds for this character.
The film has mess surrounding it and mess in it. At times fun, but never with any substance, the film ends up falling into the category of DC misfires. It’s by no means their worst effort, like I said, there is fun to be had in this, however it’s not something to be screaming off the rooftops about.
** 2/5
The Flash is in cinemas now.
