I cannot remember a time when The Flash was not in pre-production. There was a twitter thread earlier this week that detailed the entire history of what is easily one of the most troubled production histories in Hollywood memory. Since the mid-80’s, producers have been trying to make a film centered on DC Comics’ most famous speedster. But it wasn’t until the last 8 years or so that the project moved beyond the script stage. No less than 5 directors have been attached to this thing at some point or another, and if you look at the writing credits, you can sense a little bit of that creative trail with mostly immediately previous helmers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (directors of the recent hit Dungeons and Dragons film) still getting a “story by” credit. But it’s IT director Andy Muschietti, a new studio golden boy, that finally got this cursed project across the finish line.
And that’s not even mentioning the Ezra Miller of it all, which is an entire can of worms that would hobble any other film that cost far less than The Flash does. Even if it was a horrible film, WB would just be forced to release it due to sunk costs.
As it turns out, The Flash is a solid film. A pretty good one even. It takes one of the more clever storylines of former DC Films head honcho Geoff Johns entitled Flashpoint, where the title hero (Miller) goes back in time to save his mom (whose death and the wrongful imprisonment of his father inspired him to become a forensic scientist, which led to him becoming The Flash). But as the movie helpfully points out, you gotta watch out for that butterfly effect. The prevention of his mother’s death mucks tremendously with the time stream, so instead of a world where he pals around with Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), he ends up in an alternate 2013. In this changed timeline, which wrecked havoc on the past, Superman never arrived and Batman (Michael Keaton) is a much older recluse. More importantly, The Flash crosses paths with his college freshman self (Miller again) and they team up to find this older Batman and eventually the kryptonian that arrived on earth instead of Superman (Sasha Calle). Oh, and remember General Zod (Michael Shannon) from Man of Steel? That invasion is still happening and this new ersatz Justice League is all that stands in his way.
Does that sound like a lot? It felt like a lot to type. The Flash has to carry a ton of weight, not only in acting as a capper for the controversial (to say the least) Zack Snyder curated version of this universe, but also act as a curtain call for beloved Batman actor Keaton, AND try to keep up audience interest in a library of properties that are about to rebooted by James Gunn. Given its myriad of production woes, that it’s not an unholy disaster is good fortune, that it’s actually entertaining is a miracle.
The Flash, despite promo material leading one to think that the central hero would be some kind of Batman sidekick, is purely the Miller show. If you have a great distaste for them, this will be a very difficult movie for you to swallow because for the majority of its running time Miller bounces off of themselves in the above-mentioned dual role. And for something steeped in a fairly shallow genre, it has at least a shred of complexity with the star doing a pretty credible job both as Barry in his adult stage and as a nascent 18 year old – both of which have lived very different experiences. And until the more dominating multiversal aspects take over, The Flash plays more like a Back to the Future style comedy. The Barrys end up in some hijinx, there’s power switcharoos, and even a pretty great Eric Stoltz reference. Where else are you gonna get THAT these days?
Though it’s worth noting the humor doesn’t always land, and some of this is centered on Miller’s line delivery. Their weirdo energy, a little of which goes a long way, ends up swallowing some of the funnier bits. It’s like when the strangest person you know tells a joke that’s really funny, but because their timing is off, it’s not funny. There’s a bit of that…sometimes.
Once they finally cross paths with their changed Batman, the movie gets a little more bog-standard in its superheroics, but it never really drags at any point. Keaton is an always reliably solid performer and to see him in the batsuit again is very welcome. As much as I love Christian Bale, you get a little chill up your spine when Keaton suits up and starts doing his whispery Batman voice. It can’t be helped. And Calle makes for an appealing screen presence. Her Supergirl is more of a plot device than anything, but there’s a lot of promise there. One hopes it’s not the last we see of her in the role given that a Supergirl movie is on the horizon. But throughout, it’s a very solid adventure that’s fun, does a nice job of waving away its own plot discrepancies (why does Affleck turn into Keaton anyway? It’s explained more convincingly than I expected), and there’s just a ton of cleverness even into the final battle; the point at which I’m usually tuning out of these things. That’s mostly credit to writer Christina Hodson, who has stacked up an impressive blockbuster resume over the last few years (the terrific Bumblebee, Birds of Prey). Even with some of the qualms I have about The Flash, I still walked away thinking “that was a good script”.
The qualms? Most immediately, the film struggles with a strange choice that Muschietti made, presumably, regarding CGI. With these movies, we always complain about the “rubber band man” effect. It’s plagued the genre since the earliest Spider-Man movies and often feels like its getting worse, as if there’s increasingly becoming nothing to separate this stuff from purely animated films. The Flash has the most egregious use of it I’ve ever seen, with entire sequences produced within the uncanny valley without any cut away to the real actors. Most directors know to cut away, otherwise you start to break the audience’s suspension of disbelief. But Muschietti just plows through and these rendered action scenes pop up a lot more frequently than a viewer would like. Even quiet moments aren’t immune as in brief instances Miller will be sharing the screen with a fairly obvious CGI double. Was it a time saving measure? Budget? Did the team just think it looked good?
There’s also some third act chicanery that could have stood to be toned down. One of the aspects of this whole multiversal trend that’s now dominating all superhero movies that I’m dubious of is the “adventure through advertising” aspect. Not only are you being exposed to one property but now you can also be reminded to check out the entire catalog! Even the excellent Across the Spider-Verse did it, and The Flash is just as susceptible in a way that will elicit even more eye-rolls. But on the other hand, it leads to some all-timer gags, including an end-capper that’s brilliant.
And so, The Flash closes off this era of DC Comics movies (if you ignore that a sequel to Aquaman is still on the horizon). I’m glad it exists, it provides strong closure for that world, and it’s nice to be reminded that live action superhero movies can be well written too. It’s not as good as Across the Spider-Verse (tough timing on that), but it’s a lot better than Spider-Man: No Way Home and you guys loved that one for some reason.