Michael Keaton, Ezra Miller, and Ezra Miller combine for yet another DC flop.
Warner Bros.’s lack of confidence in the DCEU is hardly a secret. James Gunn was appointed co-CEO of DC Studios and the Zack Snyderverse was cut off in order to rethink the superhero IP. For a tax benefit, they killed Batman.
Shazam! and Black Adam, their most recent releases, Fury of the Gods received mixed reviews and performed poorly at the movie office. The Flash, a stand-alone movie beset by animosity among fans and a slew of charges and controversies involving star Ezra Miller, is suddenly the studio’s top summer pick.
Well, excellent news for those debating whether to support DC’s newest or boycott it: It stinks. Spend less money. The franchise has outlived its prime, as seen by this film.
Yes, the earliest reviews from CinemaCon(opens in a new tab) were raves. However, as more reviewers have watched the movie, its standing has been slowly declining, and Miller has been kept out of the media with the exception of a quick photo opportunity at the movie premiere(opens in a new tab).
For a summer blockbuster, this has resulted in a sombre press tour. And The Flash could suffer as a result at theatres as word of mouth is not likely to be motivating.
The Flash takes you on a multiverse journey. Again!
Doctor Strange and Spider-Man have joined the Marvel universe. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once was named Best Picture for its creative approach to this mind-bending idea. Following in the footsteps of this and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, The Flash arrives late to the game, retreading ground we’ve seen time and time again.
Ezra Miller’s Barry “The Flash” Allen enjoys his own solo adventure after adding some much-needed levity to the Justice League. It’s blatantly foolish and plot-holed. But, hey, the studio uses it to not-so-subtly promote the other DC films that are now streaming on Max. Is this why they pursued this release, despite the continuous backlash over purportedly platforming (or at the very least financially rewarding) Miller?
Barry, the isolated, unnoticed, and underappreciated “janitor of the Justice League,” accidently time travels by jogging extremely fast. This gives Barry a brilliant idea. He asks his pal Batman (a fatigued Ben Affleck) whether he believes Barry could run fast enough to go back to his youth and un-murder his mother, saving him and his unfairly condemned father a lot of suffering. Batman says no, but Barry, with the unintentional assistance of barely-there love interest Iris West (a grossly underutilised Kiersey Clemons), decides to go through anyway.
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I could explain how surprisingly important tomato sauce and spaghetti noodles became in this time travel narrative, but it’s terrible enough that I had to listen to it.
Predictably, Barry’s basic scheme goes horribly wrong, throwing him into an other reality where he meets himself at 18 as a college doofus with two live parents and a penchant for shouting “bro.” Original Not only is Batman older and sexier here (Michael Keaton, eternal smokeshow), but there are no metahumans to save the earth from Man of Steel’s adversary, General Zod (Michael Shannon, looking angry at paying this paycheck). So, can Barry and Barry, Batman, and a hurriedly looped-in Supergirl (Sasha Calle) be able to rescue the day? To be honest, it’s difficult to care when this film tries so hard to do so much while delivering so little that is genuinely engaging.