‘The Flash Review: Ezra Miller Brings Kinetic Energy To A Movie Caught Up In Nostalgic DC Fan Service
The breathless excitement that followed The Flash's debut at Warner's CinemaCon in April suggests that director Andy Muschietti and screenwriter Christina Hodson have successfully mastered the return of the DC Extended Universe. That may be an exaggeration, but this permanent exhibition of the fastest man is fun entertainment, even if it takes more time than reinventing the wheel. Much of the initial hype centered on Ezra Miller's controversies and legal woes, but the troubled star seems to be the film's greatest strength, bringing with him humor, heart, and vulnerability not often seen in superheroes on the big screen.
Miller's ability to be funny and three-dimensional as Barry Allen, better known as The Flash, is no small feat given the film's slavish devotion to nostalgic fan service. Although the actor's demand for the role began with Superman Vs. Batman Arkham City. With Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, the filmmakers took it a step further, paying tribute to Tim Burton's original Batman film and even Richard Donner's Superman climax. box office success.
Flash
The bottom line is that it delivers, even if it's unrelated to advertising.
The biggest news on the retro front is the return of Michael Keaton, more than 30 years after he walked around in the Batsuit. The thrill that thrills audiences as he first appears as the reclusive and long-retired Bruce Wayne, and shortly thereafter as the reborn Batman, continues in waves as each of his iconic Bat-Autos revs its engines. And The Flash is inspired by Spider-Man. From No Way Home , which pays tribute to many of the actors who played the Caped Crusader.
It's important to keep track of the many cameos to avoid spoilers, but they were carried over from both modern and older DC entries, including a planned project that never came to fruition.
The screenplay, written by Birds of Prey writer Hodgson, is at its best in the opening scenes, depicting Barry as a virginal nerd who goes to college with little confidence after mastering his superpowers. Part of that uncertainty stems from his concerns over the tragic loss of his mother (Maribel Verdue) and the lengthy appeals process for his father (Ron Livingston), who was falsely accused of her murder. Barry's obsessive desire to go back in time and fix things to save his family drives the plot.
But before it all begins, Muschietti makes the wise decision to get us going with a hilarious superhero riff about Barry, a James Bond-style action movie prequel.
Barry is usually late for his forensic analysis work at the Central City Research Center, but later he goes to a breakfast bar for his usual morning fuel. A 911 call from Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred (Jeremy Irons) alerts him to a situation that requires his immediate presence. Batman follows Jews who stole a potentially deadly virus from a Gotham hospital now collapsing into a hole in the ground due to their access to explosives.
The sequence introduces us to Flash's red outfit and flashy moves; A perfect combination of Tom Cruise's high-speed sprints and the grace of ice skating, with lightning-bright ribbon streaks as he sparkles and spins on land and water. It also has self-deprecating humor that adds to the charm of Miller's Barry character. . He describes himself as "the janitor of the Justice League", always on Alfred's emergency call list and constantly cleaning up the Bats' messes.
The resulting setting includes the destruction of a neonatal intensive care unit on the top floor of a skyscraper in what Barry literally calls a "baby shower" and shows us the film's infectious sense of fun. While eating every snack he can get his hands on to replenish his depleted energy reserves, Barry quickly figures out how to save a group of shaking babies, a hysterical pediatric nurse and a therapy dog.
Back in Central City, Barry meets his college friend Iris West (Kiersey Clemons), who is now a reporter on her father's case. But the character's presence here is a placeholder for future developments that fans of the Flash comics will experience.
Wounded by the raw emotions the process has evoked, Barry attempts to use his superpowers to travel through time, ignoring Bruce's warning that manipulating the past would create a runaway butterfly effect. The relationship between veteran and new superheroes whose lives are marked by a brutal moment with tragic texture. Barry's experiment works somewhat, but before he can complete his journey, he is thrown off the space-time continuum and ends up in the same timeline as his 18-year-old self on the day he gained his powers.
This dysfunction allows the Millers to demonstrate their ultimate comedic timing as the mature Barry and his emotional teenage companion struggle to find viable common ground. Their differences become even clearer when a remedy experiment goes awry, leaving hard-nosed Barry helpless and giving his ruthless youth a gift he's determined to take advantage of.
Hodgson's screenplay hits a funny note right off the bat by revealing how the story twists in unexpected ways. He travels to a favorite movie location and surprises the grown-up Barry with the news that Eric Stoltz has been cast as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future series , a story that cleverly ties into the Flash story arc. (Instead, Michael J. Fox starred in Footloose .) But things get even more serious when it turns out that Superman's Kryptonian nemesis, General Zod (Michael Shannon), has returned and threatens to destroy humanity once more.
This development leads the rest of the Justice League in a desperate attempt to stop Zod, beginning with Batman, a very angry Batman who makes a difficult transition into battle. In a scene like everyone's lost on superhero time travel, a broken Bruce uses spaghetti to explain the multiverse theory, with a bowl of cooked pasta representing the mess created by the crack-up continuum.
But the combination of old Barry's logic and young Barry's thrill will inevitably inspire Batman's belief in justice and give them access to the dusty wonders of Duckcave.
Like many superhero films, The Flash slowly descends into a horrific mess as the heroes engage in a chaotic battle against their powerful enemy, with overly busy CG overwhelming any human or human involvement. Shannon is wasted in generic satirical supervillain mode while her evil sidekick (Antje Troyan) looks menacing but mainly serves as a callback to Sarah Douglas' delightfully evil Ursa, second only to Terence Stamp's Zod in Superman and Superman II position.
A key twist in the formula for the ultimate battle is young Barry's determination to redeem defeat and fight to save his life and those he loves. It becomes a repetitive loop of a psychedelic journey into the CG world, weaving through the encyclopedic history of DC slide shows with tributes sure to delight fans. For many listeners, that nostalgia alone will be reward enough, reinforced by the unmistakable references to Batman in Danny Elfman's "Batman" and Benjamin Wallfisch's Superman theme tune in Benjamin Wallfisch's score .
Though nostalgia often threatens to marginalize the central plot, scenes add pathos when the older Barry explains to his teenager the futility of all these efforts, forcing them both to make the most painful sacrifices to make the world a better place.
The other differentiator of the sequel is the introduction of another major character in DC history who, like the multiverse Batman element, doesn't really count as a spoiler since he's scattered throughout the trailer.
Though Superman's quest for a Siberian prison is unsuccessful, his cousin Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl (Sasha Kale), proves an invaluable ally and formidable opponent in a family revenge war against Zod. In an impressive feature film debut, newcomer Cullen is a quiet scene stealer who channels Kristen Stewart's brooding energy and sturdy physique, boding well for her eventual rise to stardom in her own film.
While The Flash is ultimately inconsistent, its fragile climax is far less compelling than its character-driven build-up, the core story of a young man struggling to come to terms with the loss of his mother. Miller effectively buries this vein of melancholy beneath the shrewd bravado of 18-year-old Barry and the wistful introspection of his older self.
Director Mussetti directs the action with impunity, a significant leap from his work on Mama and It , not to mention a genre shift from supernatural horror. But like Berry's superhero exploits and his ongoing efforts to mend the broken heart trapped in his arrested youth, the film is often torn in two opposite directions. It's strongest when the focus is on the personal, an aspect that's showcased in Miller's skillfully layered performance and reflected in Keaton's appropriate Bruce Wayne/Batman sadness.
The first word about The Flash when he called it one of the greatest superhero movies of all time was pure hyperbole. But in the dark recent history of the DC Extended Universe, this is definitely an above average entry.
